Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was definitely a problem that Kairi’s first instinct in fights was to run away, but Della, her ever persistent helper, told her she could turn it into a strength with enough practice, how she could do that, she didn’t know. The good thing was that weak heartless were all over the world they were in, and they made great fighting practice.

Taking her rapier, Kairi thrusted forward, creating a small diagonal arc with her blade at a heartless, then, quickly jumped away as a second heartless jumped at her side, spinning around, she managed to sloppily skewer it on her sword. Della started clapping.

“Good girl! See I told you you’d figure out your own way to fight,” the duck said. She jumped down from her position on their ship’s wing.

“Still feels weird though…” Kairi mumbled.

“You’ll get better, fighting’s hard,” Della commented. “You can keep practicing while we look for the boys.” Della waved for Kairi to follow her inside the gummi ship. 

“Alright…” Kairi followed behind her. 

Naminé sat quietly watching the people of twilight town go about their day. She watched them with a little bit of amazement, and envy. She didn’t want to be envious, it was amazing for her to even be sitting here, but she was nonetheless.

Aqua was the reason she was here, sitting in the outside seating of the Twilight Town Sunset Café. She had insisted that Naminé needed to spend more time outside, and had suggested she go someplace to draw. When Naminé found the sequestered seating of the Sunset Café, she knew she found the spot. From her spot, she could see the Clocktower in the distance, but she could also see people. 

Tons of people passed by Naminé’s little spot, kids running around, teens going to the market, adults hurrying off to work, she saw them all pass by her. Sometimes, when she was feeling adventurous, she would wave to them as they passed by, and, sometimes, they waved back. Even without the interaction, she still loved watching them pass by.

She knew it was foolish to wish it would never end, but she did anyway.

“Um, hello Miss!” The voice of one of the servers sounded out. Naminé turned around to see a shortish kid around her age, he was round with kind eyes, fluffy black hair, and a wide smile. He wore the typical server apron, with several pins tied to his lanyard. 

Naminé tried a smile, forcing herself back into the moment. “Um, hello?” She said. 

“I… I’ve noticed you’ve been here like, every day, but… would you like to order something?” The boy blurted out. “It’s just… you never do.”

Naminé’s smile became genuine. “Thank you, but I didn’t bring any money with me,” she said. 

“Oh,” said the boy. “Well enjoy your time!” He waved goodbye as he ran off to serve another customer. Against her better judgement, Naminé waved back. When she started drawing again, she found herself making a little doodle of him in the corner, with the reminder to bring money next time.

When she got back to the Mansion, Aqua was pacing in the foyer, the older woman was thinking hard. 

“Master Aqua?” Naminé started. Aqua’s head jolted up in surprise. 

“Oh Naminé! I didn’t see you come in!” Aqua turned and smiles. 

“What are you doing?” Naminé asked.

“We… it’s… I’m thinking up ways to get back Terra, mine and Ven’s friend, and pacing helps me think!” Aqua responded.

“Oh, well, I better check on Sora…” Naminé mused. She started to walk away.

Aqua called after her. “How was it out in the world?” She asked. 

“Oh, it was good, talked to one of the waiters at the café I usually sit in, he looked about my age. He asked if I was gonna order anything, but I don’t have any money so…” Naminé didn’t know what she was saying. Was she just, going to ask Aqua for money? She didn’t need it.

“Oh, why didn’t you say something!” Aqua said. “Here.” She walked up to Naminé and put some money in her hands. “Go buy yourself lunch, okay?”

“But! It’s yours!” Naminé protested. 

Aqua shrugged. “And I gave it to you, don’t worry about it, all the Heartless fighting left me with a lot.” Aqua looked down and smiled. “Plus, I like taking care of people.”

Naminé smiled back at Aqua as she entered her room in the mansion. It was still pure white, like that of the castle, the only color being her drawings on the wall. She sighed, looking at the money in her hands. 

Of course Naminé brought the money with her when she went out the next day. She was wearing her blue flowered dress with a denim jacket (it was technically Aqua’s), and was planning to actually talk to people. She smiled a little as she walked over to her normal spot and sat down, opening her sketchbook to start drawing.

When she saw the waiter from the previous day walk over she waved to him, and he waved back as he hurried to her spot.

“Oh hi! Thought I’d see you again today!” He said with a grin. “So, anything you’d like?”

“Wel… do you have any recommendations?” Naminé asked. “This is my first time getting anything here.” She also didn’t have a menu, but she didn’t tell him that.

“Oh! Okay, well, hmmm, what kind of food do you like?”

Naminé didn’t know how to answer that question, she hadn’t had many types of food besides Aqua’s baking. “Um… I like… Bread…” she mumbled. 

“Bread? Okay! So, sandwiches, maybe pasta, but I’ll stick with sandwiches.” The boy brought out a menu and pointed to where the sandwiches were. “Look here for something interesting.”

Aqua scanned the menu until something caught her eye. “I would like the egg and cheese sandwich,” she said. 

“Ah, the breakfast sandwich… it is a bit early for lunch… anyway, do you want anything to drink?” 

That was easy. “A lemonade.” Naminé smiled.

The waiter smiled back. “Great! I’ll get to it.” He wrote down her order and started to rush off.

“Um thank you…”

“Russell.” The waiter grinned, pointing to his name tag. “You wanted my name right?”

Naminé nodded. 

“Well, I’m Russel, and you are?” Russell smiled patiently.

“Naminé.”

“Pretty name! Anyway, I’ll be back soon!” Russell rushed off to the kitchen, humming a little as he walked. 

Naminé looked up at the sky and breathed in, taking into the scent of coffee and baking bread, of flowers, and of the plants, and then breathed out. She had done it, she had actually started a conversation.

Fifteen minutes later Russell came back with her food, she smiled and thanked him. The food looked amazing, but he stopped her and told her to wait a moment.

“Okay, okay, just, wait.” Russell took out a bottle cap and carefully drove a clip through it. “There!” He smiled.

“What?” Naminé asked. 

“It’s an Ellie Badge! made out of the lemonade’s bottle cap, you pin it to your jacket,” Russell explained.

“But… why?”

Russell shrugged. “Seems like you needed cheering up, and well, Ellie Badges are a great honor.” He winked. 

Naminé smiled. “Thank you,” she said. 

“No problem, now, you have to pay for your food, and I got to go to work, see you around!” Russell ran off again after she paid, waving goodbye, Naminé waved back. She looked down at the “Ellie Badge” in her hands, and pinned it to her jacket. 

Xion was frustrated. She had only regained use of her Keyblade a few days ago, and she still didn’t feel ready somehow. She had resorted to training in her room in the early and late hours of the day to try and make up for lost time and practice. She had to be good enough, she had to be.

Xion stopped when she heard crashing around inside her wall. She knew immediately that it wasn’t any of the others, no-one except Saïx was awake yet and she doubted it was him. Not only that, but it sounded like it came from the vents

Taking a deep breath, Xion calmed herself. “Who’s there? Are you in the vents?” She asked, despite her best efforts, her voice was still trembling.

No answer, but she heard shuffling from the same location.

“You-know, Axel says that people who spies  are creeps,” she said. 

“I’m not a cre—!” A familiar sounding voice shouted. It stopped mid sentence though.

“Oh so there is someone there…” Xion mused. “Now who are you?”

More shuffling, then, the voice. “I-I promise I’m not creeping on purpose, I just need to get to another place here… I was just passing by…” the voice said. Xion realized that it sounded exactly like Roxas, but she knew it wasn’t him, it was too cheerful, could it be the lookalike?

“Hmmm, you-know you sound like Roxas,” Xion told the voice. 

“Technically he sounds like me, ” the voice answered. “Wait… you’re going to tell them I’m here aren’t you?”

“... no…” Xion answered. “I don’t know what you’re doing, but I don’t think you know either.” Xion dismissed her keyblade.

“Well… you got me there.” There was more shuffling in the vents. “What’s your name anyway?”

“Xion, what’s yours?”  Xion crossed her arms and looked away.

There was no answer for a while, then the voice spoke. “I probably shouldn’t tell you… but… I’m Ventus, call me Ven!” 

“Ven?” Xion asked. 

“It’s a nickname… do you not know what nickname is?” Ven asked. 

“Oh, Umm, no, but you don’t need to tell me, I think I’ve figured it out.” Xion looked at the ground. “I need to get going,” she murmured.

“Don’t let me keep you!” Ven said. 

Xion turned to where his voice was coming from and smiled, with a quick wave that made her feel a little stupid, she ran off, and hoped Ven wouldn’t make himself known again. She could lie to the others once, she didn’t think she could do it again.

Saïx told her her mission with his characteristic sneer, but it seemed to have gotten worse since Axel left last night. Xion hoped Axel would come back soon, he seemed to be able to stop Saïx from being to… mean, even though it never stopped Xion from knowing what he meant. She tried not to let his words get to her. 

The past few weeks were a little repetitive, Xion both hoped and feared for the day where things changed. She knew it would come soon, and she wanted to be ready.

Chapter Text

Missions were boring, Roxas decided, especially when he was doing them alone. Going to the same 5 or so worlds was just, not his thing, especially with everything going on, he knew what he was doing was important, but he just wanted to do something that felt useful for once. 

He heard Axel was tasked with tracking down suspicious characters, and he wished he could as well. Instead, he was stuck with endless heart collection.

At least Xion was also stuck with the same mission, although she didn’t seem very bothered by it, Roxas didn’t know why she wasn’t.

At least he wasn’t in agrabah, so he wasn’t dying from the desert heat. Instead, he was in a place called Neverland, which, for Roxas, was just a rocky coast, but he could see more up on the cliffs, but he wasn’t permitted to go there. He liked the rocky shore he was confined to though, the smell of the sea was calming. 

After what seemed like ages, Roxas had defeated the last of his heartless Quota and decided not to go to the clocktower immediately, instead, he stood there, listening to the waves crash against the rocks. It reminded him of something, and he wished he knew what.

He summoned a Dark Portal, checked in with Saïx, and went to the Clocktower. Axel and Xion were already there, gossiping about the lives of people from the worlds they had gone to. 

“You-know, I think it’s odd how the Candelabra and clock in the Castle of Roses never seem to get along… do you think they have a feud?” Xion asked Axel. 

“Heck if I know! But hey, it’s fun to see them argue,” Axel responded. 

“I don’t know about that…” Xion mumbled.

“Hey guys!” Roxas exclaimed, “gossiping about Beast's castle today, huh?”

Axel rolled his eyes. “Got to do something interesting, otherwise going to the same places all the time gets boring!” He shouted, “get that memorized!”

Xion giggled. “What?” Asked Axel.

“Oh it’s nothing… I hope we get to go to different worlds soon, maybe we’ll be put in a trio for recon, like last time!” Xion said.

“Yeah! Me too! Hey... did anything come from that world? The one we did recon together in,” Roxas asked.

“Nah, I asked Saïx, and he said there were too many ‘complications’ with it or whatever. I didn’t pry.” Axel shrugged. “We did kinda fuck up that mission if you think about it.”

“At least we made it out alive!” Xion pushed him a little. “You didn’t almost die to a floating head!” 

“A… what?”

“It’s not important.”

And they joked the rest of the day. When they returned to the castle, Saïx glared at them as they shouted and laughed all the way to their rooms. Roxas pretend his glare didn’t sting. 

The next day, Roxas was called over by Saïx.

“What is it?” He asked, trying to be polite. The older man towered over him frighteningly.

“You’re exploring a new world today, I hope you learned from last time what not to do,” Saïx explained. “We cannot have you blowing our cover, so remember, do not interact with people in the worlds you go to. Understand? Now go.”

“... alright.” Roxas left quickly, a little scared of Saïx’s temper. Practically running into the dark portal Saïx had opened up for him.

The Dwarven Forest was disgustingly pretty. Everywhere he looked Roxas felt like he was looking at a painting, it made his job strangely difficult, as he so often got distracted by the scenery.

It was easy not to talk to the people in the world, mainly because they didn’t seem very interesting, especially compared to the abandoned castle sitting on the hill. But he watched them anyway, some odd short men, and a couple where all that seemed to be in the area. He wanted to explore more, but he was restricted to the immediate area.

There were almost no heartless about, and the few he did find where just tiny shadows. Roxas was fine with that, although he knew Saïx would cry out about the lack of hearts for Kingdom Hearts. 

When he returned, Roxas checked in with Saïx, before going to the clocktower, like he always did. Axel showed up soon after, but there was no sign of Xion the entire day. Roads was worried, and although he couldn’t see it, he knew Axel was too. 

Xion was in the common room the next day, looking tired and weary, but alive, Roxas started to go over to her before being stopped by Saïx. “Roxas, no distractions, go to your mission,” the older man said. Roxas rolled his eyes as he stepped through the dark portal, giving Xion a small wave. 

After his mission, Roxas found Xion was at the clocktower today. “Xion!” He shouted. “Where were you yesterday?”

“Oh… I took a really long time on my mission, for some reason I was struggling a little, by the time I finished, you two had already left, so I went to my room to rest a bit.” Xion shrugged. “That’s all, sorry for worrying you.”

Roxas shook his head. “You didn’t worry me,” he lied. “What do you think made you have so much trouble?”

“I just told you I don’t know!” Xion laughed. “But… I think I might’ve pushed myself a little too hard… it’s fine though!”

“But… Why were you pushing yourself?” Roxas shook his head. “That makes no sense.”

Xion looked away, and didn’t say anything. They sat in an awkward silence for a bit before Roxas spoke again. “So, next time, we just have to wait longer?” He asked. 

“What no! Don’t get yourselves in trouble for me!” Xion shook Roxas a little. They both laughed.

“Hey you two!” Axel walked out from the stairwell. “Try not to push each other off the clocktower alright? I don’t want to have to scrape you off the ground.”

“Oh whatever!” Roxas shouted. 

After ice cream, Roxas went back to his room, and tried to ignore how he felt like he was being watched. He rolled over on his bed, unable to sleep but desperately wanting to. He didn’t even know if he wanted to sleep, he was starting to have strange dreams every time he tried to, dreams of another boy, this boy looked nothing like him, but, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was important. 

Xion once said she had strange dreams too, and Axel told them it was normal, but Roxas couldn’t shake the feeling it wasn’t normal, that it was, in fact, deeply abnormal.

Days passed mostly the same for Roxas, he completed his daily missions, and then went and has ice cream with Axel and Xion every day. His dreams never stopped being weird.

Riku jumped over the long arc the girl made with her keyblade, carefully positioning himself in front of her. The girl, hood down and expressionless, gracefully dashed toward him again, lunging out with her keyblade.

Even in a fight, Riku couldn’t stop thinking. Who was this girl, why did she have a keyblade, and why was she with the organization? He knew none of the answers, and found that he didn’t care what they were. This girl was clearly after him for some reason, and he needed to know why. 

Eventually, she gave the answer to him. Shouting out, she asked why he was disguised as one of them. He scoffed. He dressed like this to hide, to keep himself safe until Sora was awake, he didn’t know what he’d do after, but it didn’t matter much to him, he would probably be dead before then anyway.

He knocked over the girl with a simple strike to the pressure point on the neck. She pulled her head off the ground to look up at Riku, and her hood fell off. 

She was the spitting image of Kairi, right down to the small scars on her cheeks from when she fell over one day when they were little. Riku stared in disbelief, unable to speak, guilt building up inside him.

“Who-who are you?!” He blurted out. The girl glared at him, he saw Kairi’s eyes glare at him with hatred. 

“I should be asking you that!” The girl pointed her keyblade at him. Almost off-handedly, he noticed it was the Kingdom Key; Sora’s keyblade. 

He scoffed. “I’m nobody.” Riku shook his head. “I don’t know why you have his keyblade, or why you sided with the organization, but trust me, they’ll lead to nothing but trouble.”

The girl stared back at him, she wavered, if only a little. “I doubt you’d be much better,” she said. 

Riku laughed. “You’re right there.” He nodded to her and started to walk away. The girl didn’t move from the ground. When Riku looked at her, his stomach twisted with guilt. 

He tried not to look back.

Xion could hardly bear it when she got back to the castle and had to admit defeat. That the imposter had beaten her in a fight,

that she had failed the organization. She could hardly bear Saïx, and she could hardly bear the words he had said. 

“Honestly, I don’t know why we even try to have you contribute. You never seem to be able to do things right,” Saïx told her matter-a-factly. Xion didn’t argue, why would she, she agreed with him. 

“Go to your room, your next big assignment will be soon try not to mess that one up to,” Saïx ordered. 

Xion obliged, wandering aimlessly back to her room, were she sat in her bed, looking up at the ceiling. She was a failure, they all knew it, how long could she even keep this up? 

Chapter Text

Xion’s dreams had started bothering her ever since she lost to the pretender. She always woke up in a panic, but she never remembered what her dreams were about. She wished she did remember, maybe she could learn something about herself if she did.

Despite her failings, Xion was still expected to do missions, which she was grateful for. What would she do without missions everyday?

For today’s mission, Xion was sent to the world called Neverland, Roxas had mentioned it to her before, although the area she was in was not at all similar to his stories of the area. She was on a cliff overlooking a rocky beach, it was lush and vibrant, and she heard voices drifting up from the rocks.

Xion carefully climbed down, making sure not to be seen by anyone on the beach. She would just look for some heartless and move on, she told herself. She tried her best to ignore the song like voices drifting through the wind.

Xion got a few glimpses of the people at the beach as she snuck around. They were all women, and all of them were gorgeous. Their hair shone in the sun, their voices were like songs, and she could see their jewelry twinkle in the if she tilted her head just right.

“Oh why must he go off with those boys again! He must know that they’ll only get in trouble!” One of the voices sang. The others murmured in agreement.

“Well you’re jealous!” Commented another.

“Well of course!”

Then they all laughed, and Xion got the feeling that whatever they were talking about wasn’t really important to them. The word jealous stuck in her mind, she knew what it meant, but she always felt it was bad.

She filed away her thoughts for later, she had to keep working.

When she was fighting, Xion always found herself deep in her own thoughts. While she thought, she figured out what jealousy meant, she wondered if she was jealous of anyone.

Roxas was the first one she thought of, but she couldn't think of anything she wanted that he had, so she wasn’t jealous.

Then… Why did she feel so sad looking at him sometimes? Why does she find it so hard to connect? Xion shook her head and went back to work. It didn’t matter anyway, Nobodies weren’t supposed to have feelings.

When Xion finished her work she went to Twilight town. Roxas and Axel were already there and cheerily talking to one another. She pretended to be happy, when a growing feeling of dread filled her. Her ice cream didn’t taste as good as it normally did.

Ven was very intrigued by the soap opera levels of drama that occurred in the organization’s base. From petty theft, to bitter exes, this place seemed to have it all. He was worried of course, but he felt a strange distance from most of them.

Except three of them.

Ven knew why he seemed to care more for those three than the others, past experiences and all that. He sometimes wished he didn’t care, because he would often come close to sabotaging his entire mission just to help them.

Ven had started following Axel, Roxas, and Xion out to their spot in Twilight Town, he was just too curious, and a little worried. He never got close enough to listen in on their conversation, instead sitting at one of the benches at the bottom of the tower, making sure nothing happened.

Ven heard about a lot of things while in the vents, and he almost never did anything, except give occasional advice to Xion, he doubted she even took it seriously.

He knew all the inner workings of the organization, where to find who and when, who got sent out on certain types of missions and why, he even knew of some of their activities outside the castle.

He was listening in on Saïx as he organized the organization’s paperwork and set up missions. Ven spyed on Saïx a lot, if the organization was about to do anything Ven knew it went through Saïx first and for good reason, the man was organized and efficient. Out of all of the organization, Saïx was one of the ones who scared him the most.

Saïx was grumbling to himself. “Why are they even allowed to do this? They’re just wasting our valuable time. It’s… idiotic,” he mumbled. “What they see on each other and that town I’ll never know.”

Ven snorted, he didn’t mean to make a sound, it just came out, and he could see that Saïx heard it, the man turning to Ven’s direction.

“Is someone there? You-know spying on coworkers is generally frowned upon,” Saïx said.

Ven took a deep breath, and stupidly decided to speak his mind. “You’re jealous of two children,” he said.

Saïx spun around. “What?!”

“You used to be super close and friendly with Axel right? But now he’s spending more time with these two kids, and you’re jealous,” Ven repeated.

Saïx glared in his direction, then summoned a large, spiked claymore. “Seems there’s an intruder in the building, because, from the sound of it, you’re not a member of this organization.” He twirled the claymore in his hands around effortlessly.

Ven started to move away as fast as he could, and as quietly as he could. He heard Saïx”s deep voice boom through the building, warning the organization about an intruder, and regretted speaking his mind.

Ven watched organization members run by, and, when the coast seemed clear, he dropped down out of the vent near the front of the castle, about to make a run for it. Unfortunately someone was there.

It was impossible to tell his age. He was tanned, with white-blonde hair that was cut short, and a beard, Ven could not remember his name. He seemed just as surprised to see Ven as Ven was to see him.

“Hmmm, I doubt it would be a good play to capture you,” the man mused, he had an accent that Ven didn’t recognize. “I think it would be best for the both of us if you just went on your way.”

Ven nodded in agreement and ran out the door, deciding he would wait a bit before going back to the castle in the world that never was.

Much to her dismay, Xion got sent to the same place in Neverland again. The place just made her feel weird inside, and she didn’t like how she had to sneak around to make sure she wasn’t caught.

She was sent after a particularly strong heartless today, Saïx had told her it had been spotted around the coast and in the water, so she searched those areas.

She spotted it when it was halfway submerged in the water. It’s spines piled up through the surface and at first glance looked like ordinary rocks, but they moved. Xion took a deep breath and cast fire in its direction.

The creature jumped back as the fire made the water around it boil. It was large and dragon-like, covered in scales that looked like rocks.

Xion waited for it to make the next attack, ready to parry it’s every move.

It erupted from the water and tried to bite at her. She launched herself in the air and while she was airborne, casted thunder. The monster cried out as electricity shot through its body. She landed right as the electricity subsided.

Moving in the water was difficult but Xion made do as she and the monster continued to fight. They circled around each other trading blows and trying to evade. Xion managed to sustain a blow to the side from one of the monster's claws. As she moved this new wound made it quite difficult.

The monster tried to swat at her with its tail kicking up huge waves in its wake. She retaliated, tossing her Keyblade straight at the Heartless’ head, and knocking it down. The monster slumped over, in a daze.

Xion scrambled towards the Heartless, desperate to use its downtime to her advantage, but she was too late, as she got closer it started to rise up out of the water, trembling, air suddenly started to whip around violently. She dashed around the giant Heartless, blocking it’s hits with her keyblade, trying to hit it as much as she could.

Seeing an opening, Xion raised her keyblade and shouted “Thunder!” As she cast the spell. The Heartless staggered, and then Xion felt electricity crawl up her body from her legs; the water around her had conducted the electricity of the spell.

“Shit…” she exclaimed. Her whole body burned as tiny ripples of energy coursed through her.

She had defeated the Heartless, that’s what matters, she told herself as she crawled through her dark portal.

She collapsed soon after returning to the castle, body still burning from the electricity, she hoped everyone wouldn’t be too angry with her.

Roxas was surprised when he didn’t see Xion as he left for his mission, usually they talked a bit before they left. When he finished his mission he went to the Clocktower like normal, and hoped she would show up there, but time passed, Axel showed up with the ice cream and idle chatter, and she still didn’t show.

Roxas bit his lip. “Do you know where Xion is?” Roxas asked Axel.

Axel stopped eating and paused, turning towards Roxas. “You don’t know?” He asked.

“No! I don’t! That’s why I’m asking.” Roxas waved his hands in the air.

“Well… she was found passed out on the floor of the castle, Saïx said she probably lost to a Heartless and barely made it back. She’s been asleep ever since.” Axel looked into the sunset.

“She… she just seems so tired all the time! Now she’s actually passed out, I’m worried she’s overworking herself,” Roxas murmured.

“Come-on, Xion’s tough, I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Axel responded.

Roxas nodded, smiled, and got back to eating his ice cream. Watching the kids of Twilight Town play on the streets below.

Chapter Text

Riku was hurting. He was always hurting these days, his fight against the darkness inside himself was getting harder every day. He was afraid too, afraid of what would happen to him if he one day lost the fight, and he was determined to never let it happen.

But what will he do when the others find out? He couldn’t tell them, he couldn’t imagine looking into their eyes and telling them what he could become, what he was becoming. What would they think, Riku didn’t even think he could go back to his life from before, and now he was waiting for this new normal to blow up in his face. 

In his desperation, Riku remembered he was told back when he visited Hollow Bastion with Ven and Aqua, he was pulled aside and given some advice. “The eyes are windows into the heart, cover them, and you block out your heart to outside influence.”

Riku sighed, grabbed a piece of spare cloth, and pulled it over his face.

Xion was dreaming. 

She was on a beach, playing around with people she shouldn’t recognize, in a body that wasn’t hers. She was smiling, the sun was warm on her skin, it almost felt real. The beach was lush, almost overgrown, it’s rocky cliffs hiding caves and other secrets.

There were two kids in her dream, a boy and a girl, she recognized them but she didn’t know how. The boy was tall and pale, with long grey-ish hair. The girl was shorter, her red hair cut short, their smiles were different, but both so radiant. 

They played on the island all day, the girl, the boy, and whoever Xion was in this Dream. They played until day started to give way to a starry night, where they then laid down on the beach and talked about everything and nothing until they fell asleep. 

As she dreamed, Xion felt like she was looking into something intensely private, it felt like she was seeing someone’s memories, not her own.

Ven was getting ready to ask Naminé a question. He wouldn’t get any answers from DIZ, and she was his second best bet. Walking down the halls of the mansion somehow made him feel more nervous, even though Aqua was taking the time to fix it up, it still felt almost haunted, the wood creaked in the slightest breeze, it was drafty, and light didn’t seem to make it through the windows.

Walking into Naminé’s room, Ven thought about how it was so weird that, in the middle of a drafty, old mansion, there was one room that DIZ took the time to paint a stark white, and then he made that room Naminé’s.

Naminé was sitting at the table, in the center of the room, fixating on some drawing of hers. Ven cleared his throat, and she jumped a little.

“Sorry!” He said. “I didn’t mean to startle you, I just have a question, and I thought you could answer.” Ven shuffled around a bit. 

Naminé eyed Ven nervously, her blonde hair covering most of her face. She set her drawing pad down on the table and looked up at Ven expectantly. 

Ven coughed. “Well um, Nobodies are created when someone loses their heart to darkness right?”

“Yes, most of the time,” Naminé answered. 

“So did all… wait did you say ‘most of the time’?” Ven looked at Naminé curiously.

Naminé looked back down at her sketch pad. “Well, take Sora for example, he didn’t succumb to darkness, but he still lost his heart. The difference is that he took it out himself using a keyblade,” Naminé explained.

“Right, and that made Roxas,” Ven thought for a moment. “Why did he remove his own heart?” Ven played with his hands nervously, in a perfect world, he would be asking Sora this, not Naminé.

“Well, it’s complicated, but… a friend of his, named Kairi, I’m not sure if Riku or I have mentioned her before, is one of the princesses of heart. Recently they were all rounded up by a villain for reasons I assume you know. But, Kairi lost her heart when she was kidnapped by this villain, and it rested inside Sora’s, the only way for her to get her heart back, was to remove his own.” Naminé brushed some hair out of her face. “Thankfully he was restored shortly after, by Kairi of course.”

“So… Kairi lost her heart.”

“Yes.”

Ven pursed his lips. “Could’ve she created a Nobody?” Ven asked sheepishly.

Naminé looked away suddenly. “...she did,” Naminé answered. 

“Cool! So like, Kairi and her Nobody exist at the same time. I should tell Aqua!” Ven said. “She said she  was interested in learning about the differences between Nobodies and their Somebodies…”

Naminé was trembling just a little, she was avoiding eye contact too. Ven suddenly felt like he was imposing on something. 

“Umm, uhh, how do I? Ven can you get Aqua for me please? I need to, tell you both something, I better tell you now rather than later,” Naminé murmured. Her voice was even trembling.

Ven shot her a concerned look. “Okay, wait here I guess.” He rushed off to find Aqua. 

It was easy to find Aqua, she was always in 1 of three places, those places being the kitchen, her room, and the library, unless of course she was doing something important. Ven found her in her room, reading a book on Radiant Garden politics of all things.

Aqua spotted Ven as he walked into the doorway and smiled at him. “Hi Ven! What do you need?” She asked. 

“Umm, I was talking to Naminé about Nobodies and she suddenly wanted me to get you… so she could tell us something,” Ven explained. 

Aqua shut her book. “Well then, let’s not keep her waiting.” She briskly walked past Ven and towards Naminé’s room. Ven trailed behind her, not really sure why she suddenly got so serious. 

Naminé had not moved from her spot, although she was looking at a drawing of hers with an expression that almost reminded Ven of nostalgia. Naminé smiled up at Aqua and Ven, but the smile fell from her face.

“I’m sorry, for troubling you, it’s just… Ven was asking me about Nobodies and I… I figured I should finally, to tell you both something.” Naminé sighed. “So, I was telling Ven about Roxas and how he came to be, and he asked if one of Sora’s friends, a girl named Kairi, had also created a nobody when she lost her heart due to her kidnapping—“

Aqua cut Naminé off. “Kairi? I met a Kairi once, is she alright? What happened to her?” Aqua asked. 

Naminé’s eyes widened. “She’s… she’s fine. But, what I want to talk about is Kairi’s nobody, because, well, she does have one.” Naminé looked away. “It’s me. I am Kairi’s Nobody”

There was a pause, a moment of tense silence, then Aqua blurted out. “What?” 

“I am the shadow of Kairi.” Naminé explained. “A being created by the will of a girl who lost her heart.” Naminé looked up at Aqua, who’s expression had become hard and stern. “I-I mean she’s fine now, she’s probably still on destiny islands, and I have hardly any of her memories, but still it’s the truth. It’s just something I’ve never mentioned to you guys because, oh stars, how would I go about mentioning it and-“

“Naminé, calm down,” Aqua said. “We don’t need any more explanation from you. I’m… I’m gonna need some time to think about this though, okay? I don’t hate you, I just need to wrap my head around some things okay?”

Aqua tried to put a hand on Naminé’s shoulder, but the younger girl moved away. “Please don’t,” she mumbled. Aqua nodded confusedly.

Aqua wordlessly stood up and left, her skirt bunched up in her hands. Naminé whimpered a little but didn’t protest her leaving. “I’m sorry.” Naminé mumbled.

“Don’t be,” Ven replied. “You told the truth.”

They sat there in silence a little bit more, neither of them really knew what to say to each other. After a moment, Ven got up. “I’m gonna go check up in Aqua,” he said. Naminé simply nodded in response, her shoulders still hunched as if she was branching for something.

Ven left, and traced his route to Aqua’s room, where she was holding her keyblade, and looking at it with an odd expression. 

Aqua looked up at Ven, seemingly unsurprised that he was there, she clenched her fists around her keyblade for a moment and then dismissed it. 

“I should’ve never gotten her involved in this,” Aqua mumbled. 

“Who?” Asked Ven.

“Kairi.” Aqua looked away, but continued explaining. “Ten years ago I ran into her in Radiant Garden, and I noticed a… powerful light inside of her. So, I cast a spell that would keep her safe in a time of great need.”

“That’s great isn’t it?”

“That’s… not all I did. I’m afraid that I may have given her the ability to wield a keyblade. It’s just, she was so young, but so ready to protect the people she cared about and… I dunno. Maybe I didn’t, but, it’s remarkably easy to give someone the power to wield a keyblade.”

“Aqua… what are you talking about? Don’t you need to be a keyblade master? Which, I mean, you are one, but, there’s like a ceremony and stuff isn’t there?” Ven asked. 

“Those are just traditions, all you need is a keyblade wielder willing to pass down the ability, and for the person to make contact with the keyblade.” Aqua shook her head. “Okay, I’m done wallowing in self pity now. Sorry Ven.”

Ven laughed. “I think you deserve some wallowing after everything that’s happened.” 

Aqua ruffled his hair. “Thank you Ven,” she said. “Do you know of any other keyblade wielders I should be worried about?” 

“Nope! Unless that old wooden toy one does anything,” Ven responded. 

“Um… it might.” Aqua shrugged. “I really don’t know.” Ven rolled his eyes at her. “So just three, Sora, Kairi, and the boy Terra chose,” Aqua said. 

“The boy Terra chose?” Ven asked. 

“Oh yeah he chose to pass on the keyblade to some boy in the Destiny islands. ” Aqua chewed on her thumb thinking for a moment.  “Oh my stars it was Riku,” she blurted.

Ven’s eyes widened. “We… should wait to tell him that,” he murmured. Ven’s couldn’t imagine how big of a blow that news could be to Riku, he already seemed so on edge, telling news like that, even if it was good news, might not end well.

“Yeah…” Aqua agreed, clearly having something else on her mind. 

“Well.” Ven stood up. “I’m gonna go put back and train!” He waved to Aqua as he ran out the door. 

Aqua sighed. She had been laying in bed for a few hours, she wanted to go talk to Naminé about what she told them, but she didn’t know how to put her thoughts into words. How could she explain that she blamed herself for this? And that Naminé's status as a Nobody didn’t change anything. She knew she had to find a way to speak her thoughts, as the one emotionally available adult in the entire mansion, Aqua felt like it was necessary for her to try to communicate. 

She was an adult, she needed to be an adult.

She got up and started towards Naminé’s room, trying not to bite her fingers off from nerves. When she got there she reached up and gently knocked on the door. 

When the young girl opened the door it was obvious she had been crying, she was huddled up in her baggy dark blue sweater, eyes rubbed red. She looked shocked when she saw Aqua. 

“Mi-miss Aqua!” Naminé stammered. She wiped her eyes. 

“May I come in?” Aqua asked. Naminé nodded and led her inside. 

Aqua promptly sat down on a chair next to Naminé and said. “You’re obviously not Kairi,” she said blatantly.

“What does that… oh right. I guess since I don’t have her memories-“ Naminé mumbled. 

“Right. Anyway I’m not mad at you, never was. I’m sorry for making you cry,” Aqua continued. “And, really, nothing has changed.”

“Really?” Naminé asked. 

“Yeah.” Aqua sighed. “I certainLy have better things to do than harass you about… that.” She scratched her head.

Naminé didn’t speak, but the girl was still trembling, even biting at her lip a little. Fear radiated off her, and Aqua didn’t know what to do about it. Finally she sighed, “I should go.” She said. “Let me know if you need anything.” Then she left. 

When she walked by Riku’s door she sensed something. A small pressure just at the edges of her senses, the door to Riku’s room was left open just a tiny bit, like the boy was in a rush. 

Against her better judgement, Aqua peered through the door, and suddenly felt the Darkness radiate from the other side. Riku was in the far corner of the room, shrouded in the purple aura of darkness, he looked like he was in an intense struggle with himself. Aqua clasped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from gasping. 

Ever so slowly, the dark aura around Riku faded, and after a short while, he relaxed, fell onto his bed, and turned away. Aqua could barely see him now, but she could see he was trembling.

Aqua took a few steps back and rushed to her room. She knew Riku was hiding something, but she didn’t expect Darkness, although she realized she should’ve. Her anger and fear was mixed in with a surprising amount of sympathy, she saw how this struggle against darkness ate up Terra after all.

Still, Aqua could not bring herself to trust Riku after that, even though he saved her. She resigned herself to keep an eye on him, just in case. 

Chapter Text

“Why are we at the edge of Hollow Bastion again?” Kairi asked, looking over to her companion.

“Because there’s a lot of heartless there!” Della responded a bit too happily. She waved a wing around. “We’ll need em for training.”

“I don’t have a keyblade to properly fight them,” Kairi deadpanned. 

“Yeah, yeah, but they disappear for a bit and that should be enough.”

Kairi bit back a retort. “Okay, so what are we doing today?” She asked. 

“I’m gonna make you an obstacle course,” Della answered. “Why don’t you wait inside the ship as I build it?”

Kairi obliged, and walked over to their small, black, red and blocky ship. The inside was very obviously lived in, Kairi’s mass of blankets she called a bed was pushed over to one side of the small cabin, while Della had a better setup on the benches in the back. The clutter of living was strewn about the cabin, clothes, small trinkets, hair ties, even Kairi’s hairbrush littered the floor. 

Kairi sat down on her mess of blankets and absentmindedly picked up a nearby mirror. She looked down at her reflection, her hair had gotten longer since she started traveling, and it wasn't cared for very well. Kairi reached up and traced a finger under her eyes, feeling the small bags that were forming under them.

Kairi sighed, and wished she could find her boys sooner, so things could go back to normal. It had been a few months since she started looking, and she had only seen a few glimpses of Riku, and almost none of Sora, besides that odd boy she found creeping around Twilight Town once.

He was wearing a light green vest over a grey shirt, and his blond hair was messy, and for some reason, Kairi recognized him. She walked up to him, and started talking. He reminded her of Sora, and she was about to ask him about him, when he left, saying he needed to do something.

Kairi sighed and put down the mirror, suddenly finding herself wishing she brought something with her to do. She was usually so busy, but in moments like these where she had to wait she wished she brought a book or something when she ran away. But she didn’t, so she found herself listening intently to what her duck companion was doing, there were a lot of worrying crashes but Kairi was unbothered.

Della peaked her head back inside the ship after an hour or so. “I need a half-hour more!” She shouted to Kairi before ducking back outside to whatever she was working on. 

“Okay!” Kairi shouted back, not even picking herself off the floor. 

The half an hour passed, and Della came to get Kairi with a mischievous grin on her face. “Okay, the course is done!” She said. “Do, you remember the shield spell I taught you a few days ago.”

Kairi smiled and nodded. “Yeah!” 

“Great! You’ll need it for some of the course,” Della grinned. “Okay, you can start whenever.” Della motioned her wing towards the start of the obstacle course. 

The course was made up of random the same type of debris as the kind 

 that covered most of the outskirts of Hollow Bastion, old bricks, wood planks, sheets of metal, and bits of wall, all of which probably was once part of a building. This debris was then piled haphazardly into a maze by Della. Kairi took a deep breath, and walked into the entrance.

Immediately she found herself faced by a blank wall with nowhere to go. Kairi paced around for a moment, thinking, until she noticed the little foot groves carved into the wall. Kairi sighed, reminded herself it was an obstacle course, not just a maze, and started to climb.

The foot groves Della carved were almost too shallow, and Kairi couldn’t figure out if she made it that way on purpose or not. When she got to the top, Kairi balanced her way across support beams until she found a safe place to land, and by the end of it, she was gasping for breath. 

There where heartless in front of her was the first thing Kairi registered when she caught her breath. The second thing was that it was like a bajillion heartless. Kairi drew her sword and slashed at a few, knowing it wouldn’t do anything.

The heartless pounced a few at a time, Kairi fended off some with her sword, but others hit her, and she had to throw them off. One managed to land square on her chest, knocking her over, and Kairi had to scramble to make sure she wasn’t overwhelmed. 

Crap Kairi thought then, after a moment, she realized wait I have spells . Throwing a hand up in the air, Kairi shouted “Hol-“ she barely got through the entire spell before a blinding burst of energy spiraled out of her hand, the force of which knocked Kairi to the ground.

Kairi scrambled to her feet. He used the distraction caused by her spell to dash forward towards the next obstacle, which was a low wall meant to be jumped over.

Karin took a deep breath, looked behind her at the heartless, and jumped over the wall. She barely managed not to fall on her face. Thankfully, there seemed to be no heartless in the area, so Kairi could try and regain her breath.

Then she realized what the next obstacle was. Two walls had been placed next to each other, with shallow wedges carved into each of them, and a rope near the top of one. Della apparently expected Kairi to be able to scale these two walls. Kairi took in a harrowing breath, drew her sword, and stabbed it into the wall.

Kairi had seen people do it in movies, and presumed it would be easier than slowly climbing her way up. But using her sword as an anchor to the wall was harder than she had assumed, pulling up her full weight onto the one point in the wall was near impossible to do, and Kairi was only 2 steps in before switching to her tried and true climbing method. 

Once making it to the top, Kairi found even more heartless in her way, blocking the narrow passageway with ease. Once they saw her, they started clumsily crawling toward her. 

Kairi panicked, summoned a weak shield spell, and stood there, not knowing what else to do. She hid behind her shield as the heartless started to pounce, but she knew she wouldn’t have the energy to maintain the shield for very long.

Kairi braced herself, and charge forward, her shield spell ramming into the heartless in front of her. Recklessly she jumped off the edge of the small area, tumbling onto the floor with her arms over her head. The shield spell had already broken by the time she hit the ground.

Panting, Kairi got up, and found that she had made it to the other side of the obstacle course. She let out a huge sigh or relief as Della rushed toward her. 

“Oh my gosh! Kairi you’re hurt!” Della shouted.

Kairi waved her off. “It’s fine! I’ve gotten hurt before.”

“Kairi these are actual injuries,” Della said. “Not just a scraped knee… oh goodness I made the course too hard didn’t I?”

“I thought it was fine, difficult at times bu—“

Della put her head in her wing. “No, no it was supposed to be a beginners course.” She sighed. “Kairi come here so I can help patch you up.” Della gestured for Kairi to move closer to her.

Kairi walked close to Della, where she promptly sat down on a lone strip of wood. Della sat down next to her, cast cure on the worst injuries, and bandaged the rest. Kairi tried to muster up the energy for a cure spell herself, but couldn’t. 

“Alright,” Della said. “You should probably get some rest.”

“Nope! I wanna explore!” Kairi said. “I’ve only seen a bit of this world before and it looks sooooo cool! Like straight out if those edgy video games my friend Riku likes to play!”

Della grinned. “Well then let’s go off on an adventure!”

Walking the streets of Hollow Bastion, Kairi was amazed. So many people were packed into the small area of the town that was considered safe. Houses were built on top of one another, cobbled together haphazardly. The streets were cluttered with stuff, whether it was simple outdoor furniture, children’s toys, or pet housing, she found it all fascinating. Even though Kairi has been to this world once before with Aerith and Tifa, she still found it amazing.

“I know right?” Della asked, observing Kairi’s wonder. “Imagine what it was like when it wasn’t destroyed!”

Kairi nodded, looking past Della into the distance. Faintly, on the breeze, she could smell flowers. It reminded her of home. 

Della grinned up at Kairi. “Ready to go back to the ship and see some even cooler stuff?” She asked. 

“Only if I get to find my friends too!” Kairi exclaimed. They laughed and joked as they made their way back to the ship. Kairi felt happy, and a little bit sad. 

Chapter Text

Roxas didn’t like how every day felt the same, he didn’t like how there was only one part of his day he ever looked forward to, he didn’t like how only a few of the other members seemed to even like him. 

It didn’t matter what Roxas did or did not like. He had a job to do, and, if he did it well, maybe one day he could have more things to look forward to. That still didn’t stop him from wanting to complain, but last time he complained Saïx told him off for being “ungrateful” so he was careful not to.

Roxas’ least favorite days were always the ones where he was eating ice cream alone on the clocktower, it didn’t happen often, but Axel would sometimes miss it, and Xion was still sleeping. Those days where he was alone Roxas didn’t have anything to distract him from his thoughts, his worries, and his feelings. He reminded himself that Nobodies didn’t have real feelings, but they sure felt real.

It was one of those days today, Axel was caught up by Saïx so Roxas was sitting, alone, on the clocktower, trying not to feel terrible. At some point, Roxas started to feel watched. He didn’t know when, but he was starting to feel a deep, creeping dread that someone was watching him. It was different from the passersby who sometimes looked up to see Roxas, Axel, and Xion sitting on the tower, it felt more than that, like whoever was there to watch him. 

Roxas got up and started looking through the small space at the top of the tower, paranoid that whoever was watching was there, with him, but he found no evidence of anyone but himself. As he looked in vain, the feeling settled into a deep, lonely pain in his chest. Roxas knew he wasn’t just paranoid, he knew that he desperately wanted to talk to this person, to maybe get a straight answer, but in the end, it was just his paranoia, and nothing else. 

That was the only night Roxas ate alone that week, and the feeling of being watched never returned. Maybe he was just too busy joking around with Axel. Either way, the effect was the same. 

Xion was dreaming again, of loss and darkness, of pain, and of the small glimmer of hope that always existed. Above all else, she dreamt of fighting, fighting for good, and fighting for what you know to be right.

As she slept, she gained strength. 

Roxas woke up tired, but he didn’t know why. Ignoring his exhaustion, he rushed into the meeting room, hoping that he had a fun mission today. Before going, he stopped by Xion’s room. Rixas set down a seashell on her pillow and took off again.

Saïx gave Roxas his mission. It was another boring heartless slaying mission in Agrabah, and Saïx was sure to mention that heartless slaying was the inky thing he should be doing . When Roxas got to Agrabah, he listened to the commotion of the streets from afar but never joined in, he never talked to anyone. He just continued hunting heartless,

He got tired quicker than normal, and stopped for a rest. This was when a young boy, couldn’t be older than five, shyly walked up to him. The boy was dark skinned, ragged and short, wearing what looked to be clothes for a much older boy. They started At each other for a moment, neither of them speaking.

“Do-do you have any food?” Asked the boy. He was a beggar Information that sprung to Roxas’ mind immediately, but he didn’t know where it came from. Roxas shook his head. “I do have this though,” he said, and silently handed the boy a large handful of money. 

The boy’s eyes bulged. “This… this will feed us for weeks! Thank you sir!” The boy bowed, and ran off to who knows where. Roxas watched it all with interest. and hoped the boy made it home, or, wherever, safely. He shook his head, knowing he should get back to work.

Roxas finished his mission quickly and headed off to Twilight Town. Axel was already waiting there for him when he arrived. Roxas sat down next to his friend.

“So… I’m assuming your day wasn’t great,” Axel commented through bites of his ice cream.

Roxas rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t bad, just boring. Every day feels the same.” Roxas took a bite of his ice cream.

“Ah I hear you there. Maybe we should start some trouble, get some action and excitement going you-know?!”

Roxas snorted “Let’s steal Demyx’s sitar, see how long it takes him to drive everyone else crazy.”

“Would that even work? Couldn’t he just summon it?”

“Does it matter?”

Axel looked towards the sunset, “guess it doesn’t, does it,” he said.

They sat there for a while I’m silence before Axel snapped his fingers, looking excited, “I know a calm type of chaos we could do,” he said. 

“You? Calm?” 

“What? It can happen!” Axel faked outrage. “We take small things from the other’s rooms, and put them in other parts of the castle, and wait. We never tell them, and when they start finding their stuff in weird places we pretend we don’t know what happened.” He had a devious smile on his face, it was contagious, Roxas couldn’t help but smile.

“That’s evil!” Roxas said. Axel gave out a bark of laughter. 

“When I was your age it did stuff like that all the time!”

“Well maybe you were just a terrible kid!” Roxas laughed. 

Axel was still smiling, but stopped laughing, “maybe. I dunno” 

They started out at the sunset, neither of them ready to start another day. 

Chapter Text

Xion was still dreaming. She was dreaming of keys, of friends, of fighting, of darkness and light, of worlds, and the beach. Small flashes of things that she should know but doesn’t, and in it all, that girl who looks like her, the girl who she might be. All of it, muddled together, as she slept. 

Roxas wished Xion would wake up, he missed her, he was worried about her. She had woken up from this kind of thing before, but what if she didn’t this time?

He was so worried that when Xion woke up, he startled, arms already going up to guard himself.

“Roxas?” Xion asked, sleep still in her voice. 

“Xion!” Roxas shouted, taking his arms down from guarding his face. “I was worried, this was the second time you’ve done this kind-of thing!” 

“Oh… I’m sorry.” Xion looked away. “How long was I out?”

Roxas rubbed the back of his head. “A couple weeks.”

“Again!” Xion shouted. 

Roxas shook his head. “You shouldn’t worry about it,” he said. 

Xion pouted. “Are you going on a mission soon?” She asked. 

“Yeah I was just about to leave,” Roxas replied without thinking. 

Xion grabbed his arm. “Let me come!”

“What?” Roxas asked, looking down at Xion, who stared back with big eyes. “Okay, let’s ask Saïx if you can come.”

As he led Xion down to the main room of the tower. Saïx was waiting for him at the entrance. 

“What took you so long?” Saïx asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice. 

Roxas waved a hand toward Xion’s direction. “Xion woke up!”

Saïx turned his gaze toward the girl. “That I see, you still haven’t answered my question Roxas.”

Roxas was about to say something when Xion piped up. “I would like to go with Roxas on his mission!” She said. 

“You should be in bed,” Saïx replied. 

“But I feel fine!”

“It’s not up for debate.”

“Come on boss, just let her come,” Axel walked up from behind Saïx. “Roxas and I can keep an eye on her.”

Xion smiled. “You’ll be there too?”

“Well yeah.” Axel returned the smile. “What’d ya say Saïx, let her come with us.”

Saïx took in a sharp breath. “Fine. But if you break the—“

“Yeah yeah whatever.” Axel brushed Saïx off, summoned a dark portal, and turned back towards Roxas and Xion. “Come-on kids let’s go on with our mission. Just remember, this isn’t a field trip, we have a job to do.” Axel headed into the portal and Roxas and Xion followed him through.

It was hot, and windy Roxas recognized the feeling immediately. He groaned. “ Agrabah! Again!” He exclaimed. “Why do we go here so often!”

“Well it’s a hot dessert in the middle of no-where. A lot of people die, and a lot of people fall to darkness, so it has the highest numbers of heartless out of all the worlds we go to,” Axel responded. 

“Really?”

“No, I pulled that out of my ass.” 

Roxas glared at him for a moment before Xion started laughing.

“Saïx probably sends us here all the time out of spite, he doesn’t seem to like anyone much,” she laughed. “So he sends everyone here where it’s hot and uncomfortable out of spite!”

“I think you find that more funny than we do,” Axel told her. 

“Yeah, probably.” Xion started to walk ahead. “Let’s go! I’m anxious to get back on my feet!”

Roxas and Axel both laughed and followed her into the city. It was easily empty, but they said nothing about it as they went about their job joking and messing around. The heartless they where fighting where stupid looking and goofy, roxas found himself laughing at them more than fighting them.

They were a little ways into the city and getting almost nothing done when they saw a figure stalk around the edge of the city, keeping to the shadows. The figure didn’t look human, nor did it look like it was from Agrabah. Roxas found himself more interested in what the strange figure was doing than with the mission.

Xion saw Roxas’ curious expression and followed his gaze towards the figure, and to Roxas’ satisfaction she also looked intrigued. They both looked up at Axel to find him grinning down at him.

“You guys want to follow that guy?” He asked.

Roxas grinned. “It was like you read my mind.”

“But… the mission…” Xion said halfheartedly.

“We can multitask, come on!” Roxas put a hand on Xion’s shoulder. The girl looked over to him and smirked. 

“Let’s go.”

Making sure to stay out of the strange person's eyesight, Roxas, Xion, and Axel followed him down twisting back alleys of Agrabah. He seemed to be looking for something, but none of them could tell what. 

The figure himself was so obviously out of place that Roxas was surprised that no-one seemed to notice him or the three people stalking him. The figure was tall, round, and seemed to be a cat, but the concept was so confusing that Roxas elected to push it out of his mind. 

When the figure seemed to stop in an arbitrary place in the middle of a back alley in front of a dead end. Roxas was confused, he looked up at Axel for some guidance but he seemed to be watching the figure intensely. The figure muttered some more, and with a simple push on one of the bricks in the stone wall, the wall moved away almost like magic, the figure then stalked through the hole in the wall confidently. 

Axel smirked. “Bingo! He was up to something!” 

“Are we still following him?” Xion asked. 

“Of course.” Axel waved his hand. “Come on!”

He didn’t have to tell Roxas twice, the curiosity inside of him outweighed any fear or uncertainty. 

The figure seemed to be headed towards something in the desert surrounding Agrabah. He fiddled and puzzled while Roxas and the others watched. Soon enough, the figure took one step forward, a step that didn’t seem any different than the others, and the ground started to shake. 

A lion's head formed of sand as rock rose out of the depths of the desert. It’s eyes and mouth glowed, the light from some unseen fire shining through them. It spoke to the figure, something about worthiness, then silently opened its mouth. 

“What the hell?” Xion murmured, her voice quiet.

“We’re going in there right?” Roxas asked, unable to hide his own excitement. Axel nodded back, and after a moment, so did Xion. Carefully they followed the figure into the strange cave that laid behind the lion’s head. Some part of Roxas was scared the mouth would slam shut while they were passing through it, or even after they had entered the cave, but it stayed open, still as stone. 

Heartless seemed to love it down in the cave, which Roxas was thankful for. He didn’t want to have to search for his targets. As they walked deeper into the cave, the heartless became less and less common, and the cave became less cave-like. Huge sandstone walls towered several feet up, intricate carvings and details covering their surface. Statues lined the doorways, and small golden coins littered the floor. Roxas was feeling more out of place by the second.

The figure stopped in the middle of a more cave-like room and started searching. Roxas and Axel watched him while Xion took care of any nearby heartless. Then the figure took something off its pedestal, and the ground started to shake.

What seemed like hundreds of heartless started to stream out of the newly opening corridors. The figure shouted out in surprise, before turning around to run, and staring straight at Roxas, Axel, and Xion, who didn’t have any time to hide. 

“Ohhoho! Isn’t this funny! How long have you been followin me?” The figure asked. Roxas couldn’t take his voice seriously. 

“Well, can’t have you three blabbin out all of Pete’s secrets now can we?” With a shrug, the figure started to attack them along with the heartless. 

Roxas barely dodged out of the way of the charging heartless, Axel didn’t dodge, and he saw him get slammed into a wall. Xion cast freeze in a hopeless attempt to stop type swarming.

Roxas turned to the mysterious person he had been following all day and summoned his keyblade. He wanted answers, but even more than that he wanted something to happen. 

With a heavy swing Roxas landed his first hit easily, but it didn’t seem to do much.The guy could clearly take a hit. 

As he tried to find a weak point Roxas was hit by one of the guy’s giant fists. He bent over briefly clutching his side. Clenching his teeth through the pain, Roxas kept on fighting. 

Through the sound of fighting Roxas could hear Xion shout and cry out. She sounded more tired by the minute, but he kept fighting. He found himself angry for no real reason, a directionless sort of anger he needed to get out somehow. He fought until he was knocked onto the ground. 

Before Roxas knew it Axel dragged him to his feet. “We need to go,” Axel whispered. 

“But-“

“We’ve gotten enough heartless, let’s throw in the towel. I’m not dying to this dude.”

“I’m not done yet!” Roxas shouted. 

“Doing what exactly?” Axel asked. Roxas didn’t have an answer, just saying “fighting this guy” didn’t seem like the correct one. That’s when Roxas noticed Xion, a little further away, looking exhausted and beaten up. 

“All right, let’s go,” he relented. 

With a flick of his wrist Axel summoned a dark portal, the three of them rushed inside, hoping their adversary didn’t follow them. In the end, he didn’t, and they ended up in twilight town safely. 

They managed to walk for about a block before Xion collapsed. It looked like her legs had just given out on her for some reason. She hadn’t passed out, but even Roxas could see that she wouldn’t stay conscious for long. Her eyes were drooping and were always half closed. She said something like an apology but it was to quiet to hear. Axel had already started to pick Xion up when she mumbled something under her breath, and finally passed out.

When they got back to the castle, Saïx was waiting for them. “Did it break already?” Saïx asked, looking at Xion dangling in Axel’s arms.

Roxas looked into the older man’s golden-yellow eyes with disgust. “She’s not an it!” He shouted. Saïx didn’t respond, he just looked at Roxas with the same, unknowable look he always did. 

Axel was already walking ahead, he did not stop to talk to Saïx, he ignored him. But, he whispered something to Saïx as he passed by him, it was almost an order. 

“Keep your mouth shut.”

When they got to Xion’s room Axel put her on her bed, and then that was that. Roxas stared at her, sleeping, and felt utterly helpless. He couldn’t think of one thing he could do except wait, and he didn’t feel like waiting. Axel hadn’t left either, impatience showing on his face.

“Are you worried?” Roxas asked, not knowing what else to do. 

Axel looked taken aback, “worried? Course I’m worried, she just woke up…” Axel looked away and his words were rushed. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I dunno, you always like things to be simple…” Roxas said. “I just assumed you felt like there were better things to do.” He felt bad for saying it, but he felt like it was true. It would make sense. 

“Roxas, every day we go up to the clocktower in Twilight Town to have ice cream, we… I do not have to go out of my way to meet you guys up there every day.” Axel but his lip. “Do you know why I do?”

Roxas shook his head. 

“Cause, cause you're my friends, and, well, you’re my best friends.” Axel turned away to hide his face.

“Awww, that’s sweet!” Roxas and Axel jumped as Xion went to pull herself up. “Thank you Axel.” She said. 

Axel desperately tried to hide the fact that he had turned red, but both Roxas and Xion could tell he was blushing. “Ugh whatever,” murmured Axel. “Why do I put up with you brats?”

“Cause we’re friends! And that’s what friends do!” Xion sang. She started pulling Axel towards her by his arm and he desperately tried to hide a smile. Roxas started to laugh at them, then he shook his head. 

“Are we gonna meet for ice cream today?” Roxas asked, avoiding eye contact with the others.

“I dunno Roxas, why don’t you ask the Nobody that just woke up after passing out .” Axel replied. Xion looked around desperately now that the answer was all on her, tiredly she murmured. 

“No-not today please, I’m scared I’ll accidentally fall off the tower.” 

“Okay, well, tomorrow then.”

“Obviously!” Xion shouted. “Now, you two should try and rest as well, okay?”

“Alright alright if you insist.” Axel got up, stretched his legs, and immediately headed towards his room. Roxas rolled his eyes. 

“You’re just looking for an excuse to sleep Asshole!” Roxas shouted as he left.

“Oh definitely! But what are you gonna do about it? Yell at me? I’ll be asleep!” Axel laughed as he headed towards the room. Roxas shook his head, smiling. 

Roxas waved goodbye to Xion and started to head towards his own room, which was in the opposite direction as Axel’s. A faint smile on his face, Roxas realized that the castle no longer felt so big and empty, like it had been filled with something while he wasn’t looking. 

She smiled and walked down the hallway, but the smile didn’t last long, and he turned the corner, he saw Saïx, waiting outside his bedroom door. 

Saïx glared at him more fiercely than normal. “Hope you enjoyed the semblance of a friendship. You know it’s not real, and I’m sure you know that it won’t last long.” Saïx turned and walked off. It seemed he had waited for Roxas just to tell him that. Roxas wasn’t sure why, but it pissed him off. 

Still, his mood dampened a little, as Roxas felt just as helpless as before, because in truth, he didn’t know how long his life would stay the way it was. He didn’t want things to change, despite everything, he liked his life, he wanted to live. 

Chapter Text

Naminé chewed her lip, something was going wrong, she could see it, Sora should’ve been at least halfway recovered by now, maybe more, but he wasn’t. It was like she was desperately trying to keep water from going down a drain. She racked her brain for days trying to figure out what was going on. She barely rested. Until Aqua and Ven told her she was working too hard, and even then she ignored them.

So of course her breakthrough came on the day Ven decided he was going to force Naminé to take a break. He had dragged her to a new bakery in town, adamant that she was going to try something from there, sit down, and relax. Naminé couldn’t relax. She was too wrapped up in Sora’s restoration (and the problems she was facing) to be able to relax. Still she ate the cinnamon roll Ven gave her, and told him she liked it.

Naminé tried to people watch a bit while Ven wandered around shopping. She hoped it would spark some kind of realization. When her eyes reached the clock tower in the distance, they absentmindedly drifted upward, and there sitting on the clocktower, where three dark figures. It looked like they were part of organization 13.

“Oh? You saw those organization members up there didn’t you? They must’ve finished with their missions for today,” Ven walked towards Naminé looking more serious than she usually saw him.

“Have you spied on them at all?” She asked sheepishly.

“Yeah, a couple of times, their conversations are surprisingly boring. Just like, normal person stuff.”

“Which members are they?”

“What?” Ven asked.

“Who are the nobodies who seemed to have made a habit of sitting on the clocktower Ven,” Naminé deadpanned.

“Oooooooh, Axel, Roxas and Xion.” Ven counted each one off on his fingers.

“Xion? The fourteenth member?”

“Umm, yeah, she’s a bit… strange, used to be super quiet, now she… isn’t. I dunno it’s hard to explain,” Ven admitted.

Naminé tried to think of an answer for Ven about why Xion might be strange to him, and she found one, along with the source of her problems with Sora’s recovery.

“Oh no,” Naminé muttered.

“What! What is it?” Ven stiffened up, his blue eyes shot wide.

“I need to get back to Sora right now,” Naminé said as she got out of her chair.

“You’re supposed to be relaxing,” Ven protested.

“I need to check something.” Naminé started to walk back to the mansion, and Ven followed, it didn’t seem like he knew what else to do.

Naminé practically fell back into the room where they kept Sora, stumbling over the steps and almost crashing into the pod he slept in. Bringing up the pod’s interface. Naminé pressed a few buttons and examined the data. The memories looked like the were simply going missing, and it didn’t seem like Roxas had the memories, it was becoming increasingly obvious that they were being delivered to a third party.

Naminé turned around to face Ven, who was fidgeting with his thumbs. “Can I ask you to do something for me?” She asked.

“Of course,” Ven looked up at her, concerned.

“Can you keep a close watch on Xion, I… I have a suspicion that she is where Sora’s missing memories have ended up.” Naminé refused to look him in the eye.

“Course I can do that, the organization isn’t too hard to spy on, and she’s like, the nicest one there.” Ven smiled.

“Thank you, let’s just hope…” Naminé shook her head. “Never mind.”

Ven cast a glance at Naminé but said nothing as he walked out the door. As soon as Ven left, Naminé leaned forward into the table, head in her hands. She knew where this was going to end, and she didn’t like the ending.

Naminé didn’t want to tell DIZ this information, but when he visited soon after, she told him it anyway, unable to stand the anger in his gaze. Naminé whispered apologies to her drawings, and wished they were enough.

Riku didn’t dare take off his hood anymore, he didn’t interact with many of the other occupants of the mansion, besides Naminé, so no one mentioned it, but he still felt guilty. He was weak, he made people suffer, and now he was paying the price, he knew that, but he always hated lying.

He sat on his bed, head in his hands, wondering what the hell was he gonna do, get back Sora, that much was clear, keep Kairi safe? Definitely, but other than that, he had no clue. He doubted he had much of a chance to go back home, even though he desperately wanted to, he felt lost, almost adrift.

DIZ had walked into the room some time ago, he cleared his throat to alert Riku of his presence. “Riku.” He said. “If you are done… moping, I have something you need to do.”

“What?”

“The fourteenth member of the organization, it is getting in the way of our work, I want you to take it out for us, in any way you can.” Riku knew DIZ wanted the nobodies dead, but Riku didn’t know if he did.

“Fine, I’ll see what I can do,” Riku replied. DIZ nodded and walked away, leaving Riku alone again.

Maybe it was better that way.

Xion always felt out of place. An organization named thirteen shouldn’t have a fourteenth member, but yet here she was. She knew it was wrong, and even beyond that she knew something wasn’t right with her, so She found the truth.

Axel always acted shady about castle oblivion, like he knew something she didn’t. He knew that the answers Xion wanted were kept there, but Xion didn’t know why he wouldn’t tell her, or why he refused to let her in. So, went to find answers on her own.

As soon as she entered castle oblivion, Xion’s head started to pound. Something felt like it was pressing in on her, trying to get into her head. Her temples throbbed and she grunted in pain. There was a flash, a memory, she was walking through the castle, following Saïx. For a moment there was only the satisfaction of knowing she was right, and then she noticed the pain in her temples slowly ebbing away, and that she had fallen, and someone had caught her.

“Xion! What are you doing?!” Axel demanded. He was the one who had caught her.

“I’m finding answers.” Xion responded, pulling herself up and heading further inside the castle.

“What answers could you possibly find here?”

“I-I think I come from here. No. I know it! When I sleep I have dreams, they're my memories! And this place is in them! And you are too! In this place!”

Axel looked taken aback. “Why would I be in your memories?” He grabbed her arm trying to stop her from going any further. Xion pulled her arm away and rushed forward, in that moment she didn’t care what would happen to her.

Axel reached out to stop her, but he didn’t, and she opened the door to her answers.

A replica… not a Nobody, something even lesser than that. She found why she felt out of place.

When the imposter came to take her away, she found that he was in her memories. When he asked her to come with him. She did.

The next day, Roxas woke up and found Xion had gone missing. He decided to spend some of his time before his mission to ask around about her. He tried to find Axel first, but he was nowhere to be seen. Xigbar was the only one who seemed to know anything, but he wasn’t telling.

“Ohhhh, it looks like the poppet has flown the coop...” Xigbar smirked.

Roxas stared up at him, eyes narrowed, “what do you mean? That she just ran away?!”

“Sure sounds like it, doesn’t it kiddo.”

“She wouldn’t do that!”

“Wouldn’t she?”

“Enough. Saïx interrupted. “Roxas. You have a mission to do, I suggest you do it.”

“But! Xion…” Roxas started.

“Focus on your mission, not the missing puppet.”

Roxas stared at Saïx furiously for a moment. Before storming off. Roxas wanted to do something besides his mission, as some story of rebellion. But he couldn’t find Axel and he had no ideas of his own, so he ended up going on his mission anyway.

It was just killing heartless in twilight town, and he was alone, so Roxas stewed in his confusion.

Sometime when he finished his mission he waited up at the clocktower like normal, Axel eventually came, but they didn’t talk, the gap in between them where Xion would sit felt like an empty void. The ice cream tasted the same as ever.

Eventually they had to leave, and the next day, there was an announcement. Xion was officially declared missing. Roxas stormed off to his room, staying there. When he finally got to sleep, he dreamed of a beach.

Chapter Text

It wasn’t that Xion was physically there, she had passed out enough times that it barely felt strange anymore. But this time was different, when Xion had passed out, he had known where she was, he knew that she was safe, but he didn’t, not now. He had no idea why she “ran away” (he didn’t even fully believe it) nor did he know when she was going to come back. There was a pit in his stomach and Roxas desperately wished things could go back to normal.

Axel knew something, that much was clear, the way he skirted around the topic and how he looked when it was brought up was enough to know. It made Roxas angry that he wouldn’t tell him, but should he even be able to feel it? Did it matter? Nobodies didn’t have feelings after all… he felt like he did though. 

The next morning Axel ran into Roxas’ room, startling him. “Hey guess what! Our mission is to go find Xion today!” 

Roxas’ eyes snapped open. “Wait really!” He jolted out of bed.

“No, go back to sleep.”

Roxas’ shoulders slumped, he started to lie back down again when he caught the grin on Axel’s face. He jumped up and pointed a finger at Axel. “Liar! We are looking for Xion today aren’t we!”

Axel held his hands up in defeat. “Yeah, yeah, you got me, now, come-on, let’s not waste anymore daylight.” 

Roxas jumped out of bed and ran towards the main room, ready to leave without even checking in with Saïx, his hopes were high, they’d find Xion, get ice cream, and everything would be back to normal, everything would be fine. 

Saïx coughed as Roxas rushed past him. “Forgetting something?” He asked.

“Oh right! Sorry, Axel told me, we’re being sent out to find Xion today right?” 

“Mmmh, yes, in Twilight Town, though, it seems like a waste,” Saïx’s expression drifted off. 

Roxas glared at the older man. “Well, it isn’t a waste.” He said, holding his head high. Saïx didn’t respond. 

Roxas huffed and walked away. When he met up with Axel, they headed to Twilight Town together to search for Xion. The town was stone same as always, the perpetual sunset tinting everything a golden orange, the loud music coming from the shops, the kids running around in the street, everything. It felt like home.

“Where should we start first?” Roxas asked Axel.

Axel put his hand on his chin, “hmmmm, the clock tower is probably no good, why don’t we ask around?” 

“We aren’t allowed to do that you-know.”

“Well you're not gonna find anyone without asking around at least a bit! Trust me, I know from experience.” Axel smirked. 

“Oh really?” Roxas lifted a single eyebrow.

“Yeah when I was like, a kid there was this one girl who when missing… ah it doesn’t matter. We better get searching.” 

“Yeah!” Roxas pumped his fist up into the air. “No time to waste!” 

Roxas was honestly surprised none of the locals gave them weird looks, maybe it was the way Axel acted, like he was meant to be there, maybe the organization cloaks were actually that unordinary (Roxas doubted it though), or maybe they were just used to seeing weird stuff. In any case, as they wandered around the maze-like streets of the city, it seemed no-one had seen Xion. 

A few of the kids, some of which Roxas recognized, said that they had seen someone in dark clothes heading down an alleyway not too long ago. 

“They seemed to be in a hurry,” The kid; whose name was Pence, said. 

“Thank you…” Roxas mumbled, his voice was barely above a whisper and it cracked.

“Don’ thank me, it’s the least I could do, you must be worried sick.”

“I-I am.” Roxas glanced over to Axel, who was mumbling something under his breath. “We are.”

“Well you better get looking!” Pence lightly punched his arm. “You can always ask us if you need more help.”

Roxas rubbed the spot that Pence punched and nodded, walking back to where Axel was standing.

“We need to go to the alleyway,” Roxas said. 

“I agree.”

“Well- oh you agree.”

“Of course I do,” Axel sighed. “Let’s hope there are still some signs of her.”

Roxas nodded, and started off towards the alley Pence pointed them towards, yelling his thanks as he started to run. Axel followed him closely behind, he hadn’t summoned his weapons, but Roxas could feel that Axel was tense. Was he expecting a fight? 

When they got to the alley the saw a figure in the cloak the organization wore, their hood was up but Roxas could tell who it was immediately.

“Xion!” He yelled, he started to run towards his friend, he reached out almost on instinct to try and pull her close.

“Don’t.” She said, backing away from him.

“What? Why?”

Xion didn’t answer him, instead she turned and tried to run. Roxas reached out to grab her again, but he was stopped. The imposter, a man in the organization’s coat that was not one of them, was blocking him from Xion. Wordlessly, the imposter left, following the girl and taking them away. 

Roxas’s shoulders slumped, his eyes burned. He felt Axel walk up next to him. He wanted him to say something, anything but he didn’t. There was just a terrible silence between them. 

Xion hadn’t gone far, she couldn’t really leave, seeing her friends so upset by her. Her lips pressed together, “What should I do… Riku?” She turned to her companion, who lowered his hood. 

She had never seen him without it after the incident at the beach, and she was struck again by how familiar he was to her, though, it made sense why, didn’t it? 

“There is a possibility… that Naminé can continue her work without you, would you take it?”

“What?”

“Would you take the chance to spend more time with your friends?” Riku turned to Xion, his expression solem. “Knowing what you’d risk?” He knew what choice she’d make. 

“Yes.” He knew he’d make the same choice as her. 

Then there was the shout, Axel and Roxas had found them. Riku teleported away without another word, and before Xion could say anything. Axel knocked her out, and suddenly the world was black. 

“Why did you do that?!” Roxas shouted. “She’s our friend!” 

“Orders are orders Roxas, she ran away, we were to get her back by any means necessary.” Axel pulled Xion over his shoulder, only putting a little care into making sure he didn’t bump her head. 

“She would’ve come with us!” He pleaded. 

“Would she?” Axel asked, and he summoned a dark portal. “Come-on”

Roxas stood where he was, almost trembling. He felt like his legs could give out from under him.

“Or, come when you’re ready, I won’t stop you.” Axel left, bringing Xion with him.

Roxas didn’t know what to do. The sudden realization that maybe he couldn’t trust Axel came into his mind, and if he couldn’t trust Axel, who could he trust? Xion, maybe? But she did try to run away… Roxas shook his head. He needed to think, he needed to be somewhere else.

So he found himself on top of the clocktower, with no ice cream, alone. He felt lost; like he was looking over a vast sea with no directions to home. Xion and Axel didn’t come to the tower that day, and Roxas didn’t think he wanted them too. 

Ventus was asleep in the vents of Castle Oblivion again, head resting on his arms, curled up away from the openings. He was dreaming. 

He dreamt he was walking through a field of flowers, of small wild daisies, pansies, and tons of dandelions, their seeds blowing in the wind. The wind carried with it not just the seeds but the sound of voices, up ahead, in front of him. When Ven squinted, eyes straining against a shining sun he could see figures walking up ahead. He tried to run up to them but he couldn’t seem to catch up. 

“What are you looking for Ventus ,” A voice hissed from behind him. Ven whipped around to face him.

Vanitas. 

“Get out of my head!” Ven shouted, his other laughed. 

“ No.” A grin spread across Vanitas’’ face. “It’s my head too, you know. Now.” The other boy stepped towards Ven. “Give up.”

“What?”

“Just… give in. Give me my life back!” Vanitas lunged forward, knocking Ven to the ground. The other boy wrapped his hands around Ven’s throat. “I’m not going to let you win this time.” He growled.

Ven woke up with his own hands wrapped around his throat, and tears in his eyes. 

Chapter Text

Days passed, then weeks, then months, Ven watched in pained silence as friends grew apart. Aqua told him there was nothing he could do, but he knew that wasn’t the case, he could’ve intervened, he could’ve done something. 

Axel was a liar, he had answers and pretended he didn’t to Roxas and Xion. He was desperate, trying to keep his friend group together but the tighter he held on the more it fell from his grasp. Ven heard Xigbar talking, apparently, the second time Xion ran away, Axel let her go.

Roxas was angry, rightfully so. He knew something was wrong from the start, but he didn’t have the experience or knowledge to know what. Roxas fought his friends and Ven saw it break something inside him. He was still at heart, the kind kid who wanted to eat ice cream with both of his friends was still there, but now he was angry, because he could never get tag dream. 

And Xion… poor Xion. She was in the mansion right now, if Ven wanted he could go over there and beg her to stop. To tell her that her life mattered and that she was a real person, but he didn’t. He owed something to Sora, something that he couldn’t repay with Xion around, he only hoped that maybe in the future they’d find a way to save her. 

He sat, leaning against a wall in his room, on the other side, Naminé was explaining to Xion that she must die, and she was probably trying not to cry. 

“What are you doing?” Aqua asked, she had just walked into Ven’s room to see him with his ear pressed against the wall. 

“Um… listening in on Naminé’s conversation with Xion,” he answered guiltily. 

“Of course you are. Look we-we’ll talk about this later.” She sighed. “An organization member has been spotted heading towards the mansion. I could handle them alone but I’d feel better if you came with me. Just in case.”

Ventus nodded, still somewhat in a daze, and rolled Aqua out of his room and down the hall. 

Xion rushed past them, shouting something about handling it herself and responsibility, Ven wanted to stop her but something kept him rooted to his feet until she was out the door. As soon as he regained his bearings he followed her, more too see what was happening.

The organization sent Axel to get Xion, and now they were fighting. Axel was oddly quiet and neither of them looked happy. Ven wanted to stop them, but Aqua put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

“This is her fight, don’t get yourself hurt,” she said. Aqua was avoiding looking at the fighting, it must’ve reminded her of something a bit too close to home. 

Eventually Axel won his fight with Xion, and he probably took her back to the world that never was. Thinking about how he did nothing made Ven sick. He knew it was for the best if he did nothing, but it reminded him of some terrible memories. Ven hated tragedies. 

Naminé was worried that the organization would keep Xion longed, but the strange cloaked man; DIZ seemed confident things would still go as planned. Ven didn’t know what to think, everyone else seemed sure of what they where doing, or at least they weren’t caught up about it, but Ven hated every second of it. 

He tried to find Riku, maybe they could’ve talked about it, but the other boy seemed to have disappeared, or maybe he was just avoiding them again. 

Ven still went to the clocktower to see if Roxas, Xion, and Axel were there, usually they weren’t. Maybe Roxas would be sitting up there sadly but he didn’t see anyone else. He’d go back to the organization’s base if he wasn’t so scared of what he’d find there. 

But now he could see Roxas fighting… something. A giant monster of nobody, wielding two giant swords. Ventus watched, mesmerized, until Roxas defeated his foe, and the two of them started to fall.

Ven blinked and suddenly, instead of a giant Nobody Xion was falling with Roxas. Falling, falling. Until they hit the ground beside the clocktower, Ven was so close he could run up to them. He didn’t, frozen in place with fear.

Xion was dying, Roxas was holding her in his arms. Ven averted his gaze, it was a private moment, to be shared between two friends, he wasn’t going to steal this from them. He walked away slowly, creeping along, trying to hold back a few tears.

Huh? 

That’s funny.

What was he crying about? Ven felt like he had just seen something, but he couldn’t for the life of him place what. Nobody was at the clocktower today. 

The few days were a blur, so much needed to get done and Ventus didn’t have it in him to track it all, so he just let himself fade into the background. DIZ had sent Riku out to capture Roxas, and he managed too, but Ven hadn’t seen Riku since. He tried to ignore the growing pit that was forming in his stomach, one made out of guilt. 

Ven had his own problems, he wasn’t getting a lot of sleep, he kept having nightmares. He never remembered them when he woke up, but his heart was pounding whenever he woke up. Aqua told him that the nightmares would pass, Ven hoped she was right.