Information (Kingdom Hearts)

[FormlessAlien]

Information
Follow Roxas's lead​

Xion glances at the words in the corner of the world, and then back at the yellow-hair person who is Roxas. The words are something █▌already knew this time.

"Let's go," Roxas says, and then he starts walking off. Xion follows.

Then, things appear in flashes of light, and Xion narrows █▌eyes and reaches for █▌weapon.

Information
Defeat the Heartless!​

Xion's weapon doesn't appear in their hand, and the weapon Roxas is holding looks like Xion's weapon, but that's not important, because Xion has to fight. █▌remembers the thing █▌uses for fighting that isn't the weapon is magic, so █▌hols out █▌hand and shouts "Fire!" and something warm and strong flows through █▌arm and surges forward into one of the things the words called Heartless in a flash, and that Heartless burns up, and Xion steps to the side to let one of the Heartless's attacks fly past▐█, and then █▌pulls on █▌power again and says "Fire!" again, and magic shoots out and burns up another Heartless, and the last Heartless explodes as Roxas hits it with his weapon again, and all that's left of the Heartless is some black mist and a pink thing floating into the sky.

It's a Heart.​

A pink Heart floating into the sky, apparently. The words know a lot.

When Xion looks away from the words and the disappearing Heart, and back to Roxas, █▌notices that Roxas is staring at▐█. █▌wonders why… There's not anything very interesting about▐█.

Then, Roxas turns away and starts walking off the yellow onto the red between the buildings.

Information
Follow Roxas's lead​

Xion follows. █▌wonders why the ground here is yellow and red, instead of white and grey like in the Castle? There's other colors too, here, like brown and pink and green, that aren't in the Castle except for on the people in it sometimes. Xion thinks it would be nicer if all these colors were in the castle too, cause if the words didn't tell █▌things about where █▌was supposed to go, █▌would probably get lost a lot, cause everything looks the same. Maybe █▌could—

Information
Defeat the Heartless!​

Xion's eyes narrow, and █▌looks at where the words are pointing, and sees more of the short Heartless and another flower Heartless. █▌gathers up power again, more than before, and shout "Fire!" and █▌swings her hand and spins the power around █▌like a glowing ring as █▌leaps into the middle of the Heartless and the magic burns up one of them and sets the other two on fire before it goes away, and then █▌goes to swing at the little one that's still there, and then █▌remembers █▌doesn't have █▌weapon, so █▌just hits it with █▌hand instead, which hurts, and then █▌jumps back again. █▌feels kinda tired already, even though it hasn't been much time…

Recover magic more quickly by hitting things!​

Oh, Xion's running out of magic. Already. █▌leans to the side to let more of the flower Heartless's green ball thing go past, and think about doing more magic, but then █▌doesn't. █▌knows in The Fight █▌used a lot more, but █▌doesn't have █▌weapon either… and how is █▌supposed to hit things, when █▌doesn't have █▌weapon and hitting with █▌hand hurts?

Oh. Maybe don't hit things? Until you have a weapon?​

Xion frowns. The words not knowing something is weird, but they're probably right about that, but how is █▌supposed to fight if using magic is harder than it should be and █▌can't hit things?

A stick.​

Xion looks at what the words are pointing at this time, ducking one of the little Heartless charging without thinking about it, and looking at it makes █▌frown even more than █▌was before, even though █▌doesn't know why, but █▌sees what the words mean, so █▌dives for the piece of wood and snatches it up from the ground in the middle of █▌roll, and then █▌spins and hits the only little Heartless that's left, which sends it flying but doesn't hurt it, but it does make the thing so Xion can pull magic out of it, and █▌feels a little less tired. Then, Roxas hits that Heartless with his weapon and it explodes into another Heart, which is a bit of a shame since that means Xion won't be able to get more magic from it, but there'll be more later, so it's fine.

And Roxas stares at █▌again. █▌wonders why he keeps doing that?

He fights like he doesn't know what he's doing.​

Xion thinks back to the bits▐█'s seen of Roxas swinging his weapon, and █▌understand why the words say that.

"…Why do you have a stick?" Roxas asks.

Xion tilts their head.▐█… doesn't know how to talk. Fighting's the only thing █▌knows how to do, really…

You say words when you cast magic!​

…Ah, █▌supposes that █▌does, so maybe █▌actually does know… █▌opens █▌mouth. "…Ma-gic," █▌says, and █▌thinks █▌has the words mostly right.

"You were doing magic before, though," Roxas says. He's still staring pretty hard.

"…To… get magic back," █▌says, and the words are easier than they were before.

Very good, Xion!​

Xion smiles. █▌likes when the words say▐█'s good.

Roxas blinks a few times and then looks down at his weapon. "How does a stick help get magic back, though?"

Xion shrugs. █▌says, "Recover magic more quickly by hitting things," cause that's what the words told ▐█.

"…Huh," Roxas says. He looks down at his weapon in his hand, frowning. Then he looks back up, and turns back to the way he was leading █▌before. "Let's go."

Information
You know what to do.​

Xion does. █▌follows Roxas's lead.

-----​

The fight against the Heartless that Xion and Roxas were actually sent out to kill doesn't end up being that hard, since even though Xion's way slower than █▌was in The Fight, the poison flower Heartless is even slower, and fire is also really strong against it, and Xion only has to push Roxas out of the way of a few green balls that would've hit him before the Heartless explodes into a Heart like all the others Roxas kills.

"You're good at this," Roxas says as the Heart fades away in the air above them. His voice sounds… odd. Xion feels like █▌should do something.

Information
Reassure Roxas of his strength!​

"…You're strong," Xion says after a moment, though █▌doesn't really understand why the words think it'll help. "Just need practice."

And then Roxas smiles, instead of frowning like he was, and Xion is thankful for the millionth time that the words are there to help▐█. "Thanks, Xion," he says in a more normal voice.

Xion nods. █▌feels like █▌did another good thing.

-----​

When █▌gets to the portal thing that goes back to the Castle, Roxas stops and looks over at Xion.

"…Go ahead and RTC without me," Roxas says quietly. "I've got someplace to be."

Xion looks at him for a moment. █▌wonders what he's doing, if he has another mission…? But █▌guesses it's not something █▌should worry about. So, █▌nods, and start walking towards the portal thing again.

▐█'ll see him tomorrow anyway.

-----​

When she wakes up the next day, Xion knows something's different. She doesn't know what's different, but there's this… feeling, inside her, like something's shifted. Lying on her bed staring at the ceiling hasn't helped her figure out what it is, though…

Information
Report for a mission.​

Xion nods. The words are right, she is supposed to go to that grey place every day. So, she sits up, swings her legs over the edge of the bed, stands up, grabs her stick off the table, and walks out of the room.

To your left.​

Xion nods again. She knew that one, but the directions are nice to have.

A few hallways in, Xion passes a wiggly thing

Dusk​

a Dusk using some things on a stick to hit the ground kind of, and she doesn't understand what they're doing, but they're doing whatever it is with a stick, so they must be dedicated. She nods at them, and hopes both she and they will have their own weapons soon.

I think it was cleaning?​

Xion doesn't really know what cleaning is, since it's not fighting and fighting is the only thing she knows how to do, but she nods at the words anyway, cause they're usually right.

The Castle is just as boring as usual the rest of the way there, and Xion thinks she would have gotten lost at least twice without the words helping her, and then Xion walks out into the grey place, and most of the usual colors are there, but not all of them. She looks up at the words, hoping they know what changed.

Demyx talked about people going to Castle Oblivion.​

Well, Xion doesn't know where Castle Oblivion is, but that mostly explains things. She nods, and then walks over to blue

Saïx​

Saïx, and waits for him to tell her what to do.

"Xion," Saïx says. Xion looks over at him. "Why do you have a stick?"

"Magic comes back faster by hitting things," she says, and immediately regrets it, because Saïx's unhappy face gets mean, and Xion suddenly feels cold.

"Are you not one of the keyblade's chosen?" he asks, and it doesn't sound like a normal question, it sounds worse somehow. "Or was your recruitment a waste?"

Xion takes half a step back. "I-I'm good at fighting," she says shakily. She can't look away from Saïx's glaring eyes.

"Drop the stick," Saïx orders.

Xion does, and it clatters on the ground.

"Now, summon your keyblade."

Information
Summon your weapon!​

Xion reaches out for her weapon, and light flashes in her hand, but her weapon doesn't come.

Oh no.​

She tries again. It's always been easy, except it isn't now, and her weapon isn't there. She steps back.

"Now, Number Fourteen," Saïx says in an angry voice.

Please!​

This is bad, this is bad! Xion can fight without her weapon, but whatever this is isn't fighting, and she can't do this without it, but it won't come! She needs her weapon to come! She needs it to come or she might lose! She might get hurt, oh no what if Saïx attacks her, can she fight him off without her weapon, she might die!

Xion reaches out again, eyes shut tight, wishing desperately for her weapon to answer her call.

And then there's a weight in Xion's hand.

Thank you…​

Xion opens her eyes. In her hand, pointed at Saïx's head, is her weapon. It looks just like it should, and just like Roxas's does, and it makes her feel strong. She looks around the rest of the room, at the pale hair and the brown hair, and she doesn't know how they fight, but she's sure she could at least hold them off long enough—

Saïx moves, and Xion steps to the side and brings her weapon to catch whatever he's swinging at her—

He nods. "Good. Now wait for your mission." And then he looks away from her, back to the door, like he's ignoring her.
Xion realizes that she's breathing hard. She still feels cold.

You're okay, Xion.​

Xion nods quietly. She wants to shut her eyes, and curl up on the ground, but then she wouldn't be safe. She brings her weapon back, and grabs the handle with her other hand, so she can block stronger stuff, and she backs up towards the window so nobody can get behind her.

You're okay. You're okay.​

Xion leans back on the window. She hopes she won't have to wait here much longer. She wishes she knew how to do the portal thing. She wishes she could leave.

She's shivering.

----------​

Moving this out of my snip thread cause I've got a pretty large amount of it written.

 

[FormlessAlien]

Information
Listen to the mission instructions from a safe distance​

The words in the corner of the world have the right idea. Xion can hear Saïx well enough from over here.

"Roxas," Saïx is saying, "you will be teamed with Xion again today. You will be eliminating Heartless known as Deserters in Twilight Town." He holds out a stack of floppy flat things

papers​

papers. "This is the intel we have on them. I will open a Corridor when you're prepared."

Roxas nods, and he takes the papers and starts reading them. Even though he just started, Xion wants him to go faster, incase Saïx gets angry again, but she doesn't wanna get Saïx's attention either, so she just stays quiet and holds her weapon tighter.

"...Okay, I'm ready," Roxas says, and he stuffs the papers into a pocket.

Not much longer.​

"Very well." Saïx turns and waves a hand, and a portal thing appears in a woosh of blackness. "Do your job."

Xion doesn't need the words to tell her what to do. She pushes off the wall and walks over to the portal thing as fast as she can, keeping her eyes on Saïx and her weapon ready to catch an attack, and she steps through the portal thing into the colorful place before he does anything.

You're safe now, Xion.​

The words are right. There's only Heartless here. Those are easy. And breathing doesn't feel so hard anymore.

Roxas comes through the portal thing after not very long, and his eyes look wider than they did before. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Xion says. "I'm safe now."

"...Okay," Roxas says, but he still doesn't look really happy. He looks down at her hands, at her weapon. "You have the Keyblade too?"

Xion nods, and her lips turn down from the smile she didn't realize she had before. "It appeared." She wishes it did earlier. She wishes Saïx didn't get angry about it not appearing. But it did appear.

You're okay.​

She is. She's a lot better now. And she has her weapon, and the words.

Roxas looks down at his own hand, and his weapon appears in it with a flash. "We should do the mission," he says.

Xion nods and looks expectantly at the corner of the world.

Information
Follow Roxas's lead​

The words are nice, telling her what to do even when she already knows.

-----​

Xion thinks it's a lot easier to fight with her weapon and magic than it was with a stick and magic, and it wasn't very hard even then.

She steps to the side as another Deserter tries to jump on her, and catches its neck with the teeth of her weapon so she can spin around behind it and hold it in place, and she shouts "Fire!" and warm power flares around her to burn it so much more easily than when she didn't have her weapon, and she ducks and pulls down to put the Heartless in the way of another one

Last one!​

that's running at her, and she twists her weapon to get its teeth out of the way and kicks the scorched close Heartless into the one that ran into it, and she swings her weapon down from where it settled up high and smashes through both of them, and they both explode into pink hearts.

"That was faster than the Poison Plant," Roxas says.

Xion nods and straightens up. "You got better," she tells him. She didn't have to push him out of the way of anything, this time.

Roxas smiles. "Thanks. So did you."

No, she didn't. She just got her weapon back.

You did get better. You're more used to your shape and speed now!​

...If the words say so. Xion decides to just nod, cause it does feel nice to hear and read.

"Also, I've got some place to be again, today, so--" Xion remembers, very suddenly, that being done with the mission means she has to go back to the castle, where Saïx is, and she feels cold "--go on ahead without... What's wrong?"

Do you... have to go back right away? If he doesn't?​

Xion doesn't know either. "Do I... have to go back?" she asks Roxas hopefully.

"Not right away," he says, and his eyebrows scrunch up. "And... everything went well, so I... guess you've earned the icing on the cake."

"...Huh?" Xion glances at the words.

It sounds like a weird saying.​

Well, the words know more than she does, but not much, and it doesn't really matter. She looks back at Roxas, and he's smiling again.

"Come on, I'll show you," he says, and his weapon disappears in a flash, and he turns to walk down one of the paths Xion hasn't been on yet.

Information
Follow Roxas, and don't RTC yet!​

Xion's very glad to do that.

-----​

Xion sits down on the edge of the tower and stares down at all the colors and shapes below her. "How'd you find this place?" she asks Roxas excitedly. "It's great!"

"Here," he says, which isn't an answer. Xion looks over, and he's holding a blue... thing, on a stick, out to her.

That's an ice cream bar.​

Xion reaches out and takes the ice cream bar by the stick, because she thinks she's supposed to. "How, though?" she asks again.

"Axel took me here on my first day in the Organization," he says. "And then, after my first mission, he brought me here again, and got me ice cream again. Said it was 'icing on the cake.'"

So that's what that means.​

Xion nods and looks down at all the colors spread out below her again. "Thanks for showing it to me," she says. "What do I do with the ice cream, though?"

You eat–You haven't eaten anything before, have you?​

Xion shakes her head a little. She hasn't, and she's not… that sure what eating is, either.

"You bite it," Roxas says. Xion looks over at him, and watches as he brings the ice cream bar to his mouth and closes his teeth on it. "Like that."

"Okay." Xion looks at her own ice cream bar and copies what Roxas did, and it… tastes. A lot. She doesn't have the words for it.

It's salty… and sweet?​

"I like it," Xion decides firmly, staring down at the ice cream in her hand. She should eat things more often!

"Sea salt ice cream," Roxas says. "It's Axel's favorite flavor."

"There's… flavors?" Xion should definitely eat more often!

"The ice cream stand has five, but this one's the best," Roxas says, confidently enough that Xion thinks he has to be right.

You should try chocolate some time, but this is good.​

Xion nods, and says, "How do you get ice cream?" because she wants to try all the flavors.

"You go to the ice cream stand, and you tell the person there what you want, and then you give them money, and they give you ice cream," Roxas says. "It's not that hard once you get used to it.

Xion makes a noise. She guesses she'll have to see if he's right when she actually tries that, because she doesn't know what money is, and that seems important. And does she just tell the person at the ice cream stand what kind of ice cream she wants, or does she talk about how she wants to never go back to the castle, or–?

I can walk you through it. Right now, you should eat your ice cream before it melts.​

…Melts? Xiom's hand loosens on the handle of her weapon, and she looks closer at her ice cream. There are bits of it sliding down the sides. Will it… turn into water if she takes too long? Or fall off the stick? That doesn't sound good! Then she won't have ice cream! She hurries to take another bite.

-----​

When Xion finally walks through the portal thing back into the gray place, she makes sure to have her weapon held in front of her, so she'll have a chance to block if Saïx notices her, but he barely looks up from his papers, and she has to hold back a sigh so he won't hear her.

Information
Get out of the gray place without alerting Saïx!​

Xion nods and starts walking around the edge of the room as quietly as she can, but she can't stop her shoes from clacking every time she sets her heel down. She makes sure to keep her back to the big windows, in case she messes up.

"Xion?" Roxas says far too loudly as he finally comes through the portal thing. "What are–"

Xion shakes her head urgently, eyes wide. "Quiet!" she whispers.

Roxas frowns, and the way he looks back and forth between Xion and Saïx makes her think he's confused, but he does stop talking. Xion goes back to trying to sneak around the edge of the room.

"Congratulations on your first mission, Xion," Saïx says, still looking at his papers. Xion freezes. He knows she's here! She brings her weapon higher, there's nobody else here this time, maybe she could win against just him even with how slow she is–

Information
Run!​

That's a better idea. Xion runs.

"You will need to fill out a report–" she hears Saïx say before she gets around the third corner and he's too quiet to understand, but she doesn't stop until she's gone around six. Her blood's rushing so fast it feels like it's going to burst out through her skin, and she's cold, and she never wants to see Saïx again.

And she has to get another mission from him tomorrow.

Xion looks over at the words.

He isn't following. I think.​

That's not what she wanted an answer for, but that's good. Now, she just has to get her blood to slow down, and get to her room, and figure out how she's going to deal with tomorrow. She leans back against the wall, does her best to take a few deep breaths, and looks around.

At… colorless walls. That look like every other colorless wall in the castle. She… doesn't know where she is.

I don't know where we are either.​

…That's not good.

No, it isn't. But you'll be okay.​

Xion hopes so… Right now, she guesses she needs to start… looking around.

Information
Search for your room!​

The words agree. At least there's nobody else here to be angry at her. She turns, pushes off the wall so she can lean with her arm instead of her shoulder, and starts walking.

 

[FormlessAlien]

Xion still doesn't know where she is, and she's been walking for a while. At least she's feeling bored, instead of like she's in a fight she doesn't know she can win. She looks back and forth between another two utterly-the-same colorless hallways, sighs, and turns down the one on the left, since it doesn't make a difference.

She knocks her weapon against the wall and slides it along as she walks, so her footsteps won't be the only sound. It helps a little. She sighs.

The castle has to end somewhere…​

Even the words are getting unsure. This hall curves around, like a lot of them do, so Xion won't be able to see where she came from for much longer, not that that would help, and her weapon catches on something. She frowns.

That's weird.​

Very weird. Xion looks over at the wall, and it seems blank, but her weapon's teeth are definitely on something… She tugs on whatever it is, and it doesn't move, so she tries poking it with her hand. Whatever it is, it feels like metal, and it's round, and… she thinks maybe it's a door handle? One that she can't see. She tries to turn the handle, and something beeps, and then the handle slides to the side so fast it almost pulls her off her feet! And… now there's a hole, in the wall.

Well, this hall doesn't look the same as the others anymore.

Information
Investigate the mysterious room!​

Xion nods, and steps into the hole the door left when it tried to pull her over, holding her weapon out in front of her. It's dark, so she takes another couple steps to get all the way into the room and presses the button she knows is on the wall, and lights up above turn on with a buzz. She recognizes that buzz, she thinks. She looks up at where it's coming from, and…

Where has Xion seen that ceiling before? It looks so familiar, but she doesn't know from where, at all.

I don't think I've seen it before.​

Well, the first thing Xion remembers except for stuff the words in the corner of the world know more about is seeing the words for the first time, so that doesn't make any sense. Maybe she should keep investigating.

Xion looks away from the ceiling and steps over to the big shiny tubes along the walls. They have labels on them, on metal plates on the top.

'No. π, No. e, No. i…' These numbers don't make any sense.​

They're definitely not like any numbers Xion knows about. Though, she really doesn't know much about numbers at all… The words not knowing, though, is surprising. But they've been not knowing more things, the longer she's been with them, so maybe it shouldn't be so surprising.

No, I was never really that good at math, but 'e' and 'i' are definitely letters.​

And there's a whole lot more weird numbers on the metal plates, on a lot more tubes. Twenty, Xion counts. And there's something in them, but the windows they're made of are too dark for her to really tell what, except… Xion leans in closer to the one with 'No. e' on it, squinting, and she puts a hand up to block the light from above so she can see a little better, and now she's sure. Whatever's inside has arms, and legs, and a head, and no face.

People? Stuck in tubes?​

Not in all of them. 'No. i' looks empty, and so does 'No. τ' across from it. There's probably more things in the room to investigate, though, so Xion leans away from the tube she was looking at and starts walking around the room, looking around carefully. There's a… sort of box, with some handles on the front.

A filing cabinet.​

Xion nods at the new words. Seems kinda like a chest, so she should probably open it. She bonks the top of it with her weapon, just in case it's locked, and then she grabs the top handle and pulls.

Lots of files. It'd take a while to read all this.​

With how thick they are, and how it seems like they're full of papers, Xion definitely agrees. She tries flipping through the files and looking at the labels, but they don't really mean anything to her. Stuff about 'circulatory imitation' and 'memory anchor experiments' and 'biomimetic musculoskeletal design' and things. She grabs one of them and pulls it out, to see how many papers are actually inside it, and–Footsteps. There's footsteps coming from the hall outside.

Information
Take some files and get out before someone notices!​

Xion nods, squeezes together a bunch of files in the cabinet as well as she can without dropping her weapon, shuffles them under her arm, and kicks the cabinet shut as she stands up. She doesn't know why she needs to get out, but she trusts the words to know that sort of thing, so she rushes out to the hall, pulls the invisible handle to make the door start to close, and just runs.

Identify yourself, one of the wiggly–the Dusks says from somewhere behind her, and she runs faster. There has to be another turn soon, the halls aren't that long–There! She jumps left, swings her weapon to carry her a bit higher, and runs along the wall for a second to keep from losing speed, and she keeps going. There's another turn just ahead, only two ways to go, they look as much the same as everything, so thinking won't help, and she goes left again because she–Doors! She sees doors!

There's your room!​

Yes! Xion bounces off the wall, pulls her room's door open, and shuts the door after her as she rushes inside.

Information
Hide the files under the bed!​

She grabs the files out from under her arm and shoves them into the gap underneath her bed. Her blood's racing again, but it's a whole different sort of excitement than when she was running away earlier today. She did it! And that was sorta fun!

Good job, Xion! Now, we just wait until we hear the Dusk leave, and we're home free!​

Xion nods, smiling, and sits down on her bed. She rests her weapon across her knees and tries to slow her breathing back down so she can listen to what's happening outside better.

For a while, it's quiet, and the only thing Xion can hear is her own breathing. Then, something thumps, loud, and then there's quick footsteps, and those footsteps are getting quieter fast. She waits for a while longer, until she hasn't been able to hear the footsteps anymore for what feels like a long time, and then she flops back onto her bed, and something she'd been holding inside so she wouldn't make noise comes out of her mouth, and she doesn't know what it is, but it feels good.

That's laughter. You're laughing, Xion.​

Xion's laughing. She likes it! And she feels the most relaxed she has all day! If she didn't have to breathe, she might even try to laugh forever, but she does have to breathe, and also the laughter kind of… runs out, apart from that, and then she's lying there smiling up at the boring gray ceiling of her room…

Xion sighs, rolls over onto her side, and grabs the pillow from the top of her bed to set her head on. She thinks the words should do things like taking those files with her again. Running from Saïx before was…n't fun… Xion suddenly doesn't feel so happy anymore.

It'll be okay.​

If the words say so… He hasn't tried to hit her yet, and she might be able to block it if he does, or even win a fight against him if the other colors in the gray place don't help him, but she's not sure. And, with how fast she is, she'd definitely get hurt.

No, I–You could, you'd definitely win, but what I mean is, you won't be somewhere he can be mean to you forever.​

Xion rolls the rest of the way over, shifting her weapon so she won't be on top of it, and presses her face into her pillow. She doesn't see how that's possible.

We'll find a way. I promise.​

…If the words say so.

It's quiet, and the words don't change, for a little bit.

…Do you… wanna try reading some of the files you got?​

…Xion wants the words to tell her to.

If you want, Xion.
Information
Try reading the files​

Xion rolls over again, off the bed, taking her pillow with her, reaches underneath, and pulls whichever file's on top out towards her. 'Unanchored experiments,' its label says, which doesn't mean anything more than the others to Xion, so she just opens the front and grabs a paper from the middle somewhere to look at.

There's a lot of words.​

Lots of ones Xion doesn't know, too. It has the word 'Heart' a lot, though. That's the one for the pink things that come from the Heartless, she thinks? She doesn't know what it has to do with memories, or what a puppet is, or… anything else, really. There's a lot of words she doesn't know.

Yeah, we might need a dictionary to really read these…​

Dictionary?

It's a book that tells you what all the words mean.​

Xion nods. She can definitely see how that would be helpful for this. She also definitely doesn't have one. Maybe there's pictures, somewhere? She flips the paper around, and there's something that's sort of a picture with some lines that go up and down

a graph​

a graph, but there's not really any pictures. Maybe there's something on one of the other papers? Or in another file? She sets the first paper down, and starts shuffling through the others in the 'unanchored experiments' file.

There isn't anything for a whole lot of papers, but she does find something about a third of the way through. There's some pictures of a person without a face lying on a table, staring blankly up with blue eyes. There's some kind of tubes going into their right side, and they're wearing some kind of weird hat that makes Xion's head feel squeezed from looking at it.

It's labeled 'No. i Unanchored Activation Test XII.'​

So it has something to do with the first empty tube. She sets down the other papers and tries to read again.

"Sub-ject's eyes tracked fl… flower-escent tubes when moved," Xion sounds out. "Similar-ities to p-previous test pronounced, response increasing…" She shakes her head "That doesn't help."

It means something, but who knows what.​

Xion thinks maybe she should look for more pictures. Even when most of the words are ones she knows, things don't make sense, so until she has a dictionary, she doesn't think she'll be able to understand what anything but the pictures really mean.

The no-face person is kinda creepy, but having more pictures would definitely be good.​

Xion smiles. She didn't get creeped out by the picture at all, but the words in the corner of the world can think that if they want.

Aw, come on!​

 

[FormlessAlien]

Xion doesn't want to go to the gray place. She doesn't want to do a mission. But she has to.

Until we have a way out. Also, right, here.​

Whenever that happens. Xion sighs. She swings her weapon beside her as she turns down another hallway, and her feet move slowly. The walls are gray and boring, and the floor's gray and boring, and there's a Dusk with that weird stick cleaning like there was yesterday. It's not the same hallway as they were in last time, she thinks, so the Dusk must be making progress.

"I hope you get your weapon soon," she tells them as she walks by.

Thank you, my liege, the Dusk says back in that soundless voice the people without faces have.

I'm not sure if Dusks have their own weapons?​

Xion's weapon came to her when she needed it. She's sure theirs will, too.

And even if it doesn't, I'm sure they have lots of friends, with how many Dusks there are, and those are a power all their own.​

Xion nods a little. She supposes having a dozen other people to help you fight would make things pretty easy, even if all you have are your hands and some spells.

That's… Well, I guess that's true, too.​

Xion's glad she got it right. She's getting better at understanding things.

Not much happens for the rest of the walk to the gray place, except for all the happiness draining out of Xion as she gets closer, and she's holding her weapon tight in a low guard when she finally walks in.

"Good, you're here," Saïx says as soon as Xion steps out of the hall, and Xion's eyes snap to look at him. He has papers in his hand again. "A giant Heartless has surfaced, which you will be exterminating as soon as Roxas arrives, but in the meantime, work on filling this–" he shakes the papers in his hand "–out."

Information
Carefully get the papers from Saïx​

Xion nods and squeezes her weapon tighter. She has to, and she'll have warning if he calls his weapon. She walks forwards carefully, keeping her eyes on Saïx's hands, grabs the papers with her free hand, and steps back as fast as she can to get out of his reach.

"Have the report filled out as soon as you can," he says, glaring at her, and it's not as bad as yesterday, but it's still scary, and she has to make herself keep moving away.

"I will," she says quickly so he'll stop, and he does.

"Good."

I'm here to help.​

Xion takes a deep breath and backs up the rest of the way to the seats in the middle of the room, because she doesn't want to have Saïx at her back.

"What'd you do to make him angry?" someone says from behind her, and she risks looking at him out of the corner of her eye. It's the brown poofy hair one.

Demyx.​

"I don't know," she says to Demyx, quietly, as she climbs over the back of a seat and drops down onto it. "I think he hates me."

He's mean enough for it.​

"Aw, but you just got here!" Demyx kicks his feet up on the table and puts his hands behind his head. "I mean, that's how it is with me, cause I'm lazy, but you?"

Xion shakes her head. "I don't know," Xion says again, and she sets the papers on the table in front of her, because she has to look at them.

'What was the purpose of the mission?' 'In what ways did you accomplish this purpose?' That looks like homework.​

"Well, lemme know if you need help with that, I guess," Demyx says. "I've got plenty of experience with em."

"You'll have more if you don't have today's mission done in a timely manner, Demyx," Saïx says, which means he was listening. Xion curls in on herself. She doesn't like that.

"Ugh. Fine." Demyx pushes himself up from his seat, waves a hand, and makes a portal thing appear. "I'll get going."

And then he walks into the portal, and Xion's suddenly alone in the room with Saïx. She hunches over more, and switches her weapon to her left hand so she can grab a pen from the table and start writing. She hopes Roxas gets here soon.

-----​

"Morning, Xion," Roxas says.

Xion grabs the report she was writing off the table and stands up in a rush. "Good morning! We should–"

"You should complete your preparations quickly, both of you," Saïx says, stepping into Xion's eyeline towards Roxas, and Xion shifts her weapon into a guard that feels awkward in her left hand, but it's better than nothing. "I've told Xion already, Roxas, but a giant Heartless has appeared, and the two of you will exterminate it today."

Roxas frowns a little and turns towards Saïx. "What, uh, preparations should I be making?"

"Configure your panels, or don't," Saïx says in the flat voice he uses when he's not being mean. He points an arm at the little floating coat with a red ball over its head

That's a moogle.​

the moogle on the edge of the room. Xion has no idea what he means about panels. "I recommend you install at least one Block panel, but getting hurt would be your problem, not mine."

"Right." Roxas turns and starts walking towards the moogle, and Xion goes to follow–

"You stay here."

Xion pushes off the ground to turn her step into a jump to ge out of the way of the hand Saïx was reaching for her with and lands on the other side of the table, her weapon coming up into a higher guard.

"The report," he says. "Give it to me."

Xion looks down at the papers in her hand. "I-it's not done," she says.

"You've done enough for today. You didn't think I couldn't see what you did on missions, did you?" Saïx holds his hand out again. "The report."

I don't like this.​

Neither does Xion.

I don't like him.​

Neither does Xion. She walks carefully around the table anyway, because there's not anything else she can do, and holds the papers out–His hand wraps around her wrist–her weapon comes up under his arm, maybe she can hook around it and force her way free–pale light flashes, and her weapon stops cold, caught on something else in Saïx's other hand. She's stuck.

Saïx glares down at Xion. She can't move. "Don't. Try. To fight me."

Magic! You can use magic!​

Xion has plenty, she doesn't need to move for that, that's a good idea! She says "Fire–"

"Reflect," Saïx says, and light flashes again, and the warmth flowing down Xion's left arm turns back, and she screams.

Xion!​

"Xion!"

Xion's weapon is on the floor. She can't reach it. She needs it, she calls it back, but it hurts to hold onto it, and she can't move her–Saïx has both of her arms. And he can turn her magic back on her.

"What are you doing!" Roxas says. It's Roxas who called her name. The words didn't get a voice of their own. She can't move.

Saïx's glare moves from Xion to something over her shoulder, but that's not any better, because that means he's glaring at Roxas. "Only disciplining an unruly child," he says. "You'll stay back… unless you want to be next."

We need to get out! How do we get out!​

Xion doesn't know. Saïx has both her arms. Magic doesn't work. Her left side hurts. Is he going to kill her? Is she gonna die? She doesn't wanna die. She needs to get out.

You're not gonna die! We're gonna get out of here! And you'll be fine!​

Xion doesn't–Saïx is glaring at her again. She freezes.

"Let her go!" Roxas yells from behind her.

"Very well."

Xion's hands are free again. She scrambles back

Information
Get away!​

away from Saïx on her hands, the papers she was holding long abandoned. "H-Heal!" she says, pushing her weapon up above her head with a shaking hand, and green light flows down over her and takes the pain with it.

"Good, you can put yourself back together," Saïx says from above her. "After you come back from your mision, go find the laundry and get your coat fixed."

Xion nods quickly. She's breathing fast. Her blood's rushing. She needs to get off the ground. She can't move very fast like this.

"I'm glad you understand, Number Fourteen. Now, you two." Saïx waves a hand and makes a portal thing appear in a woosh. "Go do your job. And never fight back again."

We'll have to. If we can't run away.​

Xion hopes she can run away. She nods again, jerkily, and goes through the portal thing as fast as she can, and then she's standing on yellow, and she's not next to Saïx, but he's the one who made the portal thing, so he could just follow her if he wanted to, and she feels terrible. She stumbles over to a wall and leans on it. Her eyes are blurry.

I hate this.​

Roxas rushes through the portal thing in front of her, and his eyes are wide, and he has his weapon out in front of him. "Xion! Are you okay?"

She nods. She's lying. "Let's go… fight the Heartless," she says, pushing herself off the wall.

Roxas shakes his head. "I… We should take it slow. You don't have to force yourself."

He's right. We could stay here for a while.​

"It's just Heartless," she says to both of them. "Those're easy. I'm… okay enough."

Xion…​

"If… you're sure…" Roxas says, frowning.

Xion nods. She is. "I want…" She shuts her eyes, wipes her right sleeve across her face, takes a deep breath, and tries to focus. Her blood's finally starting to slow down, and things aren't blurry anymore. "…I wanna have a fight I can win."

Oh… Yeah. Yeah, I get it.​

Roxas nods slowly. "Let's go, then. I guess."

Information
Find and defeat the big Heartless!
It's probably a Darkside or a Large Body. Do you remember those?​

She… thinks so. Her memories from before The Fight are stronger than they were yesterday. The one from the Islands was scary, but looking back on it, it's slow, and she has her weapon now. And the round ones, those are easy if you know how to block.

That's right. You'll do great, Xion.​

She will. Heartless are easy. Something has to be.

Xion takes another deep breath, pulls herself up as tall as she can go, and walks out of the tucked away place she appeared in after Roxas.

 

[FormlessAlien]

"Behind us!" Roxas says from Xion's left, and she spins, and there's the Heartless from the Islands, standing up from a pool of black.

Yeah, that's a Darkside.​

It is. She knows how it'll fight.

Information
Win the fight!​

"Be in the air when it punches down!" she tells Roxas as she runs forwards. "Hit the chest balls back, and keep moving!"

"Got it!" he shouts back, and Xion doesn't have time to look and see what he's doing, because the big Heartless is swinging its arm at the ground next to its feet.

"Jump!" Xion says at the same time she does, and a wave of white rushes across the ground under her as the pool at the Heartless's feet surges, and then, what seems like dozens of yellow eyes open in that pool all at once.

"What's it doing?" Roxas asks from right beside her.

"Calling little ones," Xion says. The big Heartless starts standing up, and the small Heartless surge out from its pool and out of the ground towards her and Roxas. She shifts her grip on her weapon and lifts it high. "I've got them! Thunder!" And power surges up through her arms, out the end of her weapon, and then back down in bright lines with a loud boom, and there are a lot less yellow eyes now.

"Okay!" Roxas jumps past her, cuts through the little Heartless in his way, and runs for the big one. "I've got this!"

The rest of the little Heartless still have their eyes on Xion, which is good. She can deal with them, and she doesn't know if Roxas could afford being distracted. She steps back as one of them jumps up out of the ground and tries to slash at her, bats it away with a quick swing of her weapon, dives to her left in a roll as two more try to attack, and then point at them, all in a perfect line. "Deep freeze!" she shouts. Big blocks of ice cover the Heartless that weren't hiding. Their eyes go dark.

That's all of them!​

Xion nods. She'll win before it can call more.

She steps to face the big Heartless again, and its fist full of purple-white power is swinging towards Roxas, and he's dodging, but that's not enough. "In the air!"

"Yeah!" he says back, and he jumps just in time for the new wave of white to slide under him without hitting him. When he steps off the big one's arm and starts swinging at it, hard, Xion's there with him.

Xion swings her weapon in a wide circle, shouts "Force!" and slams her weapon down on the big Heartless's knee, and purple light flares, and its legs collapse and it slams into the ground hand-first in front of her.

Roxas falls from where his weapon was holding him above, pointy-end first, right onto the big Heartless's back. "Take this!"

His weapon sinks deep into it, and Xion joins in, kicking off the ground to hack at its side, but more darkness keeps flowing in to fill the holes. They need to hit it more.

The big Heartless's hand on the ground flexes, and its fingers dig into the pool of black underneath it. Xion recognizes that move, and her magic can't hold it down much longer. She stops letting her weapon carry her, and her next hit on the Heartless launches her away.

"Balls from the sky!" she calls as she slides to a stop. "Get distance! Use magic!"

"I didn't bring any!" Roxas says as he pulls his weapon out of the Heartless and follows her away. She blinks. Didn't bring–? It doesn't matter.

The Heartless is standing back up. In its twitching hand is a clump of red and black, and it lifts the clump up to the sky.

"Dodge! Fire!" Light flashes from Xion's weapon and burns a chunk off the Heartless's side, and she's starting to feel tired, and then the clump in its hand breaks apart into smaller balls, and those balls fly towards the ground… way more slowly than she remembered. A sound comes out–It's a laugh, again. She didn't think she could laugh again. "Nevermind!" she says, and she rushes back in. "Just don't get hit!"

I had trouble with this…?​

"Okay!"

Xion cuts into the Heartless's leg again to get her magic back, and Roxas jumps in above her, slicing into its chest with a shout. The darkness isn't filling in as fast anymore.

It's hurt!​

It is! "Force!" Xion shouts again, jumping up and spinning another purple spell into the Heartless's chest, and her energy drains, but the Heartless slams into the ground again, so it doesn't matter. She shoves her weapon through its side. "Time to end this!"

"Yeah!" Roxas spins around after his weapon in the air and lands hard enough on the Heartless to knock its head the rest of the way into the ground. "You're done!" he says, and his weapon hits the Heartless's head, and there's a flash, and the head's gone. The rest of the Heartless follows the head, burning away in a surge of purple fire.

You did it!​

Xion stands still for a few seconds, breathing hard, staring at the scorches and cracks on the red squares where the big Heartless used to be. She did. And it was easy.

She sets her weapon's end on the ground to hold her up and looks over at Roxas. "Good job," she tells him once she has her breathing back under control.

"You too!" he says, smiling at her. "That magic was amazing!"

Using Gravity on it was a great idea, too!​

Xion smiles back at him, and at the words, leaning harder on her weapon. "Thanks!"

Roxas's weapon disappears from his hands in a flash, and he walks over closer to Xion. "Do you feel better now?"

Does Xion feel–Oh. She slumps. "...Some." Less, now. And now the mission's done. And she has to go back.

No. No, we shouldn't. He'll–He'll hurt you again. We'll have to fight, and I don't know if we can win on our own.​

But… what else can she do? Saïx can make portal things to this yellow and red place, and she doesn't know how to make them at all, and he said he could see what she did on missions, so she can't just hide…

I… I don't know. We need help.​

"Would ice cream help?" Roxas asks her, and she looks over at him. He looks sad, and angry, but not scary like Saïx does. "Do you wanna go to the tower again?"

Xion nods silently. She really doesn't wanna go back.

"Okay." Roxas looks around at the buildings all around, and Xion looks around too. She thinks she sees something move in one of the windows.

I forgot people lived here.​

Xion guesses it would be weird if there was just a place to get ice cream, here, but she never thought about it. She looks down at the cracks and things again. Somebody'll have to fix the things she broke, won't they?

I guess so… I'm glad we destroyed the Heartless, at least, so they don't have to deal with it.​

"I think I know the way from here," Roxas says after a moment, and he starts walking off to the red path they didn't come in through. "This way."

"…Can I try chocolate, this time?" Xion asks as she walks after him, because the words said she should.

"If you want," Roxas says. "Axel says it's not as good, though."

Axel sounds like he knows a lot, but the words know more. "I want to try it," she says more firmly.

It's more that different people like different things. Like, Riku and Kairi and I don't like the same foods, but​

Xion's eyes hit the end of the words, where they just stop, and she blinks. She doesn't think they've done that before. Are they okay?

Yeah. I–I just had an idea. But I don't know how to make it work yet.​

Xion hopes the words can figure it out. Those names… She doesn't remember them very much, but they feel warm.

Up ahead, Roxas looks around again and nods. "Yeah, this is the right way. The ice cream's two roads over."

"Okay," Xion says, and she tries smiling on purpose. She doesn't think she does it quite right.

There's not much walking after that before Xion can see the little building with a black haired person standing behind it. She saw it from a distance last time, because she didn't want to let go of her weapon, but this time, since she knows her weapon will come back, she walks up right beside Roxas.

"Right on time again!" the person says, smiling. She looks over at Xion. "Is this your friend you were buying the extra…" The person's eyes move to Xion's left arm. "…Are you okay? That looks…" Her eyebrows come down, and her smile disappears. "…Do you need a hospital?"

Xion looks down at herself. The end of her sleeve is rough, and shorter than it was before… She didn't notice. Is she supposed to say something? She's… supposed to say what she wants, she thinks, so she says, "I… want some ice cream?" quietly. "Chocolate?" And what's a hospital? Why would she need one?

It's a place people go when they're hurt.​

Oh, that makes sense. "I'm not hurt, either," she adds, and she pulls up her sleeve, nd her skin just has some taller red parts on it that should go away if she uses Cure a few more times, like she expected, but she realizes as soon as she sees it that she shouldn't've looked, because now she's thinking about how she got them. She covers it back up fast, focuses back on the person with black hair, and tries to make herself smile again. "I fixed the burns."

"And I want sea salt," Roxas says beside her.

The black haired person looks really unhappy, now, but she does pull some wrapped ice cream bars out of a box on her side of the little building. "Um, what's your name?" she asks as she hands Xion one of the ice creams.

"Xion?" she says, confused. She has no idea why this person wants to know, but she wants the ice cream.

The person sets the ice cream in Xion's hands. "Here you go, Xion."

Xion looks over at Roxas. "Aren't we supposed to give her money?"

"Don't worry, Xion and…"

"Uh, Roxas," Roxas says. He looks as confused as Xion feels.

"Xion and Roxas." The person holds the other bar out to Roxas and smiles, but the smile looks weird. "Ice cream's on me, today."

"...Cool!" Roxas says, and he takes the ice cream. "Thanks!"

"No problem," she says. "Enjoy!"

"Okay," Xion says slowly, and she turns and starts walking towards where she thinks the tower is. She doesn't know what's going on.

She seemed worried, but I dunno either. I don't see how your name could let her help.​

Neither does Xion. It was nice of her to give them ice cream without any money, though. She looks back, as she's going around a turn onto another road, and the person with the ice cream has a box up to her ear that it looks like she's talking into. Do the words…?

No, I dunno what the box is. She's talking into it like a phone, but those are shaped way different and they plug into the wall.​

Weird. Xion… wonders what a phone is, too, and a plug, but that doesn't really matter. Roxas is getting ahead of her, and since the words warned her about ice cream melting last time, she guesses she needs to get to the tower fast, too, and not just eat it fast, and she has to run to catch up.

 

[FormlessAlien]

Information
Focus on eating your ice cream!​

Xion definitely wants to, so she won't have to think about–so she won't have to think. She bites into her ice cream, and… "Mgh?"

​

"Is it bad?" Roxas asks from beside her as he finishes unwrapping his own ice cream.

​

Xion shakes her head quickly, eyes very wide. it–it tastes so much, like the sea salt did, except this one's familiar in that way things she doesn't know but the words do sometimes are, and Xion has no idea what it tastes like, she doesn't have the words, but it's good! She swallows her first bite, so she can say, "I wanna try all the flavors!"

Vanilla's good, too. Did you see if there was vanilla?​

Xion didn't, she doesn't know how she'd know what the ice cream person has, but she'll find it somewhere else if there isn't. She takes another bite.

​

"Do–Uh. That's good," Roxas says. She doesn't really pay attention. She's busy eating ice cream.

​

She gets through the ice cream almost as fast as yesterday, heals herself to get rid of the headache it gave her, and leans back on her hands to stare up at the orange sky. Then, the words write something new in the corner of the world.

Information
Find out if Roxas can make those dark portals!
I have an idea.​

Xion's smile shrinks. "Can you make the portal things?" she asks him, still looking up at the sky. She hopes he can, because she thinks she knows what the words want to do, but she thinks he probably can't.

​

"Uh, like–?" there's a woosh on Xion's left, and then a second woosh on her right, and she sees swirling black in the corner of her eyes. Her blood speeds up.

He can .​

Xion spins to the side and her eyes lock onto Roxas. "How do you make them? Where can they go? Can you teach me? Please?" she asks urgently, the words coming out of her mouth in a rush.

​

"Uh, I can… try?" Roxas says, and his eyes are wide too. He waves his hand, and the dark portal thing floating behind him disappears. "I don't know… where they can go, I don't really make them to go places that aren't the castle."

​

That… doesn't sound good, but Xion tries not to be discouraged. "And making them? How does that work?"

​

"I just… I pull on the… prickly cold stuff, and ask it to let me go somewhere." Roxas shrugs, and he looks away from Xion and down at the buildings below. "I dunno. Sorry."

​

Xion has no idea what the prickly cold stuff is. That's definitely not good. She takes a deep breath. "Can you…make me one?" she asks. "So I don't have to go back to where–" Her voice catches in her throat, and she swallows even though she's not eating anything and squeezes her eyes shut, and makes herself keep talking. "…where Saïx is?"

​

"Oh," Roxas says. "Yeah, I–I can try."

​

That's–that's good. "Okay," she says. "Thank you. I–" She doesn't know–Is she gonna go to the islands? Are the islands still in the dark? She looks at the words.

I don't know, but I know Riku isn't there. There's another castle we have to go to.​

Another castle. What does it look like? Why is Xion going there?

I remember going there, after beating… something, and I knew as soon as I walked in that Riku was there. It's white on the inside, really bright white, and the rooms turn into other places sometimes.​

Xion hopes that's enough. She opens her eyes again. "There's a castle, with bright white rooms that turn into other places."

​

"A second castle?" Roxas asks. Do the words know more? Anything?

It feels brighter than the one we came from.​

"It feels brighter than the one we came from," Xion repeats, even though she doesn't understand what that means.

​

"Okay." Roxas frowns. He looks like he's concentrating really hard. Xion thinks she sees his shadow twitch. "A bright castle… where the rooms turn into other places…" He reaches out to the flat part of the tower behind him, and black wooshes up from the pale yellow floor into another portal thing, which means it worked.

It worked.​

It worked .

It worked !​

"I think this should go there," Roxas says, and Xion smiles.

Information
Go through the portal and escape!​

"Thank you," she says. The words come out rough, and her eyes are blurry again, and there's wet on her cheeks, but she's so happy. She doesn't have to go back . " Thank you!"

​

Roxas smiles, too, but it looks not quite right. "You're… welcome," he says. "We should probably… go, though. I don't know how long the, uh, thing will last."

​

Xion immediately launches herself to her feet, her own smile slipping. She should've done what the words said right away . She won't take too long. She won't get trapped here. She steps towards the portal, and then she stops, and looks back down at Roxas to see him standing up, because there's something she's supposed to say when she leaves, but she's not quite sure what it is, and then she realizes Roxas said 'we,' and she says, "You're coming with me?"

That's great!​

Roxas nods. "Yeah, I… think I know what castle you're going to. But we should go."

​

Xion nods and calls her weapon in a flash of light. "Let's go!" she says, and she jumps through the portal thing and lands… on… the red ground. She blinks.

This looks like the place by the ice cream stand, but the ice cream's not here.​

Xion thought this castle was supposed to be white? She turns around to see Roxas step out of the portal–She gasps. "G…"

Goofy! Donald!​

Those are their names! "Goofy! Donald!" Xion steps forward, smiling, and then someone else steps out from behind the portal thing, and she freezes. She's… seen that face. In the mirror. Is it hers?

Is that me ?​

"Who're you?" Not-Xion says in an unhappy voice, holding Xion's weapon out towards her. "Are you here to–to taunt me about Naminé and Riku, too?"

​

"The girl in front sounds happy ta see us," Goofy says "Maybe these two are friends, and we forgot 'em?"

Forgot…?​

Donald shakes his head, staring at Xion in a suspicious way that hurts to see. "They've both got the keyblade! We wouldn't forget about that!"

​

Xion doesn't know what's happening. They don't recognize her, why don't they recognize her–why does she want them to? She doesn't remember them, except for flashes, but the words know their names, and–

I–I don't know either, but that's–that's me standing there, not you or us, and–I don't know, but we need to
Information
Avoid a fight with Donald, Goofy, and the copy!​

Xion's head hurts, and so do her feelings, but the words are right, so she takes a breath and makes herself talk. "I. I'm not here to taunt… you," she says to Not-Xion, looking as much at the face from the mirror as she can manage. "I'm looking for Riku. I need help."

​

Not-Xion's frown shrinks, and Xion's weapon in Not-Xion's hand lowers. "You too? Maybe we really did forget–Woah!" Not-Xion suddenly jumps off the ground, moving faster than Xion can anymore, and Xion spins to follow, lifting her weapon to cast–

Oh no!​

"Roxas!" Xion says, and she rushes over to where he just fell, where Not-Xion's holding him. He's limp in Not-Xion's arms, like he's asleep, but his eyes are wide open, and he just–he just collapsed! Is he hurt? She can fix hurt! "Heal!" she shouts, waving her weapon over him, and green light falls into him, but nothing changes.

​

"What's going on!" Donald shouts from behind her.

​

"I don't know!" Xion says. "He just–collapsed!" Her voice is echoing.

​

Xion hears the slap-slap-slap of Donald's footsteps coming up to her. "Libra,"he says, but nothing happens that Xion can see, and he sighs. "No, no, of course I forgot that too." A feathery white hand reaches past Xion to hover over Roxas's mouth. "He's still breathing. Sora, lay him down so I can get a better look.

Sora? Is that…​

XSioon nods, and she reaches out to–She stops, and blinks. There's hands there already, leaning Roxas back onto the ground. Wait, why did she… She's Xion. What's she doing?

I… think Sora might be my name. Or… was. Or something.​

That… makes sense, kind of. Xion remembers a lot of stuff the words do (Sora does?), just not as much, or as strong, so confusing her name for theirs… But, no, why would Donald ask the words to do something, when they don't have arms–How would he know they were there in the first place? And why did Not-Xion… answer…

​

"…Are you Sora, too?" Xion asks the person with the face she–or the words, she supposes–sees in the mirror.

"That's my name," the Sora who isn't words says as he frowns down at Roxas, looking confused. "Did the castle take–Wait. 'Am I Sora too ?'" Sora looks really confused, now, but for Xion, things are just starting to make enough sense.

Well, they're not for me. How are there two of me?​

That's very very weird, but it's also something she has to do later. She clenches her fists, stands up straight, and takes a deep breath. "The words in the corner of the world are called Sora, but we need to help Roxas and find Riku, so that doesn't matter," she says out loud, because she wants both Soras to hear it, and she needs to believe it too.

You're right. Sorry, Xion.​

The Sora who isn't words's face turns serious. "Yeah. We can figure that out later." He looks to the side. "Donald? Is–Roxas, right?" He looks at Xion. She nods. "Is Roxas okay?"

"I… I don't understand what's going on," Donald says, and Xion thinks he's not just talking about Roxas. "He seems like he's just asleep, but with the way he just fell over…" Donald shakes his head.

"We'll take him with us, then," the Sora who isn't words says, and he stands up. "Goofy, can you carry Roxas?"

"I sure can!" Goofy crouches down, puts an arm around Roxas, and picks him up really easily. "I hope we can figure out what's wrong with him soon…"

Xion hopes so, too. He's here because she ran away, and he helped her, and then he just falls over. Maybe he really is just asleep, maybe he'll wake up tomorrow…

He'll be okay. Whatever's wrong, we'll fix it.​

Xion nods. That… She'll… She'll make that be true. She calls her weapon, squeezes its handle tight, and takes a deep breath. "Where are we going?" she asks.

"We don't know," the not words Sora says. "Every floor of the castle's been kind of a jumbled-up maze, and none of us even remember being here before. All I know is we came from there," he points at the corner she thinks goes to the tower from here, "so we shouldn't go that way."

​

"We're keeping on the right side when we can," Donald says.

​

Well, Xion knows about being lost in mazes… "We should go, then," she says, and she starts walking away from the place Sora pointed at. "This has to end somewhere."

----------​

Having to fix the formatting every time I move this somewhere is... unpleasant. I should keep my work in one place, so all the copy-paste errors are consistent.

 

[FormlessAlien]

Information
Protect Roxas from the Heartless!​

"Heartless!" the outside Sora shouts at the same time as the words appear. Very briefly, as she jumps towards the side road the eight tallish Heartless are coming out of, Xion thinks maybe seeing Heartless fast is a skill everyone who's been Sora has. Then, her first swing smashes one Heartless's head into another, and she focuses.

"Fire!" she says, sweeping her weapon across the line of Heartless that didn't manage to get onto the main road yet as she follows through on her first attack, and she jumps back so the fire can't get on her when they dive towards her in the last seconds before they fade into purple mist. Now, she has their attention. "Sora!"

The outside Sora doesn't answer with words, but his weapon flies across her vision from the right almost as soon as she's done talking, and then he follows it through the air, catches it as it bounces off the back of the Heartless that's the furthest out's head, and slams it straight through two more with one swing. "Take that !"

Xion misses that strength, but she doesn't need it. She swings her weapon out level with her shoulder one handed, chants "Fire! Fire!" to burn the two Heartless further from her that are in outside Sora's way, and then steps in and swings at the one she knocked over at the start of the fight as he stabs through the one she knocked it into, and all of the Heartless are gone. She jams her weapon's point into the ground, leans on it, and tries to slow her blood back down.

You're getting faster!​

Faster with easy spells, and a lot of that's the outside Sora getting used to fighting with her. This was way slower than Xion could go if she could use Thunder.

You're a lot of the speed in fights too, Xion. It's not good to talk down about yourself!​

Xion's just thinking the truth. She's been just as good at fighting since she woke up to her inside Sora's words in front of her.

"Leave some for the rest of us!" Donald says from back behind her, but his magic's more limited than hers since he can't afford to fight up close and get it back, and he's already told that joke anyway.

"Maybe next time!" outside Sora says, smiling back at Xi–at his friends.

They're our friends too, Xion.​

Xion frowns. She barely even remembers–

"You did great, Xion!" outside Sora interrupts happily, and he reaches towards her. She doesn't flinch this time, grabs it, and lets him pull her upright.

"Fighting's what I'm good at," she says. If she hits first. If what she's fighting can't turn her magic back on her.

There's four of us, now. We'll beat him, if we have to fight him again.​

Three. Someone has to hold Roxas, because she got him hurt.

Three's still more, and Roxas'll get better, and then we'll have five!​

Xion's inside Sora is… She doesn't know the word. But even if what he writes seems so far away right now, she still has to make it true.

"We should keep moving, if nobody's too tired," Donald says. "Goofy?"

"Roxas ain't that heavy," Goofy answers cheerfully. "I could carry him all day!"

Xion's glad for that, because she definitely couldn't. She looks away from the words and squeezes her weapon's handle to remind herself it's there. "Us in front again?" she asks outside Sora.

"Yeah." He turns back to the way they were all going before the Heartless appeared and he starts walking, weapon swinging in one hand at his side, and she walks beside him. "Were you talking to the other me, there?"

Xion blinks. "Yeah?" How did he know? Can he see the words too?

I don't think so. Or, I can't see his thoughts like I can see yours, at least.​

So, it's not that, then.

"You kinda stand there and make faces, sometimes," outside Sora says. "I thought that's what it probably meant, but I wasn't sure, cause I can't see your eyes under your hood."

"Why are ya wearin' that hood, anyway?" Goofy asks from behind Xion. "And that black coat, like Axel and L–Lar–the lady with the lightning?"

Axel? Isn't that the guy who said that 'icing on the cake' thing to Roxas?​

Xion almost doesn't notice that she's slowing down. How would they–Maybe they're talking about a different Axel?

Well, maybe​

"Larxene," Donald says before the words finish appearing.

No, that's definitely one of the colors from the castle.​

"Yeah, Larxene," Goofy says. "And that other guy, too…"

Xion… Xion stops walking. She thinks she knows what's going on. She hopes she's wrong, she really hopes she's wrong, but she has to know. "…Is this Castle Oblivion?" she asks, looking at the ground.

Oh. Oh no.​

"Uh, that's what everyone says it's called," outside Sora says, and Xion feels like her blood's stopped moving altogether. "Why?"

Xion takes a deep breath, and makes herself talk. It's hard. "I came here to get away from–from Saïx, cause Riku's here, and he could help me. But he's–he knows where this is. He could…" She grabs her weapon even tighter. So tight it almost hurts. "He could come and get me."

"…Gawrsh," Goofy says quietly.

Donald slap-slap-slaps up around in front of her. "Would you be okay telling us what this Saïx did, to make you run away, Xion?" he asks, and when she lifts her head up to see him, he has a look on his face a lot like the one the black haired person with the ice cream had after she saw her arm.

"He burned me," Xion says. "With my own fire."

"Well, he won't do that again," Donald says, staring at her like looking serious is gonna make what he's saying true.

"That's right," Goofy says from behind her. "We'll keep ya safe, Xion."

"That's right!" outside Sora says, and Xion looks at him, and he looks the same kind of unhappy Donald does. "Even if he comes here, he won't get close to you!"

I told you they were our friends too.​

Xion blinks her eyes to get the blurriness out of them and looks down again. She doesn't know whether she feels happy or bad. She opens her mouth, tries to think of what she wants to say, and says "W-we should get moving," instead.

"Ya don't gotta if you're not up to it."

Xion shakes her head, stands herself up as tall as she can, and takes a deep breath. "…I do," she says to Goofy. "We need to help Roxas and find Riku. But I'm okay enough anyway."

"Xion's right," outside Sora says. "And we have to find Naminé, too!"

…Naminé?​

The name doesn't sound familiar to Xion, either, like all the other names have. "Who's Naminé?" she asks.

"Did you–uh, did the me in your head forget her? Like I did?" outside Sora says. "She's the girl we used to play with, Riku and I."

Xion frowns. "…That's Kairi, I thought?"

Yeah, it was always Kairi and Riku and me.​

Xion nods. "My Sora says it's Kairi, too."

Outside Sora's eyes get weird. "…Kai…ri…? I…"

…I feel like something's pulling on me, Xion. Something's going on.​

Something's pulling on Xion's Sora? That… shouldn't make sense. But she just felt something inside her chest try to move, too.

"…Kairi's the one who was stuck in your heart, wasn't she?" Donald asks.

She is! She disappeared when the islands sank in the darkness, and I had to get her out! She has red hair, she cuts it kinda short, she came from another island somewhere that we couldn't find, you promised you'd come back to her–He can't see me. He can't see me.​

"…I… can't… remember…" the outside Sora says. It sounds like the words hurt to say. "…Red…? Her hair was…"

Something's really wrong!​

Xion nods, at both Soras at once. "You promised you'd come back to her," she says urgently, half repeating what the inside Sora said and half remembering it herself. "The ground was coming apart, and you were holding hands, and there was water. You said you're always with her!"

Outside Sora's eyes get wet, and his face… Xion doesn't know the word, but he looks so, so sad. "I can't remember," he says. "Somehow, I know all that's true, but I can't remember!"

"To claim anew, only to lose…" Donald says, like it means something, and like he hates what it means. He grabs his weapon with both hands and glares at the yellow and red buildings around the road. "We have to go faster. Who knows what else we forgot that we forgot!"

"And who knows what Naminé might forget, or how much Riku might change, if we take too long!" Goofy says. "But I don't know how we could go much faster, neither!"

What's going on? Why are they talking like forgetting things is supposed to happen?​

Xion doesn't know, and she's getting more and more worried at the same time she's getting more confused, but before she can try to ask, outside Sora moves with all the speed Xion doesn't have anymore and grabs her shoulders with that same awful sadness on his face.

"You'll remember Kairi, won't you?" he says desperately, staring into Xion's eyes. "You'll tell me about her, when we get out of here? Remind me what I forgot? Please!"

I'll never forget her! And–And whatever this is, that's messing with your memories, once it's over, if you still can't remember, we'll remind you!​

Xion nods, pushes down the urge to make him let go of her, and takes a hand off her weapon to put on his shoulder instead. She doesn't understand what's happening at all, but she can't let that stop her now any more than she did before. "We won't ever forget," she says with as much belief as she can put into her voice. The words feel heavy. "Wherever you go, she's always with you."

"Then… you remember Kairi, and I'll remember Naminé, and we'll get everyone out of here, and it'll all be fine!" outside Sora says, and the words remind her of what her inside Sora would tell her about things getting better that she couldn't get herself to believe. He pulls away from Xion, spins around, and calls his weapon in a flash. "Let's go! We're wasting time here!"

Information
Get to the end of wherever you are!​

Xion nods, Donald says "Yeah!" and Goofy says "Let's go!" beside her, and then they're all running.

Heartless try to stop them, coming out of alleys and climbing out of the ground and jumping down from the rooves, but between outside Sora's weapon, Xion's fire, Goofy's shield, and Donald's thunder, they only last seconds, and then, Xion's slowing down on a floor of grass (she's never seen grass before, has she? It doesn't matter) in front of a wall that blocks the way to a tiny castle. Xion doesn't know how much later it is, when she stops, leaning on her weapon, but it can't have been that long. Even though her blood feels like it wants to explode out of her with how fast it's moving, and even though she's breathing harder than she ever has before, she still ran all the way here.

"I've been here before," outside Sora says, walking out in front of her. He isn't breathing hard at all. "I don't remember it, but it's familiar. Do you know it, Xion, other me?"

"It's… the city… we came from…" Xion says between breaths. She looks at the corner of the world.

I've never been to this mansion, or this city, before I was in you.​

"My Sora… doesn't know…"

Xion sees outside Sora's shoulders shift, and he holds his weapon tighter. "It doesn't matter. We just need to get through this gate and keep going, and we can figure out why I know this place later!"

Xion nods and does her best to straighten up. "…You're–"

"So quick to dismiss inconsistencies," a voice Xion knows but doesn't recognize interrupts her, and then black wooshes up in front of the–outside Sora called it a gate–the gate, and she pulls her weapon out of the ground and holds it out… It's the long pale-haired one, standing there in front of her. The one who used to follow her, sometimes, who muttered to himself a lot.

Vexen.​

Vexen. Vexen stares down at Sora, a frown on his face, and then his eyes flick over to Goofy and Roxas, and then to Xion, and those eyes go wide. "You aren't supposed to–Take off your hood!"

Xion's hand is reaching up and pulling her hood back before she realizes what she's doing. She blinks. "Why…"

Behind her, Donald and Goofy gasp. She barely notices.

"It is you," Vexen says. His eyes narrow. "Number i . What are you doing here?"

Number…?​

What did he… "Xion," Xion says, and she takes another deep breath to try again to get her breathing under control. "My name's Xion."

"Of course, of course, that's what the Superior called you, but that's not important," Vexen says, sweeping a hand through the air like he's pushing the words away. "What's important is that you are supposed to be at the Castle being useful, but you're here instead. Explain yourself."

Who does he think he is, ordering you around like that? And why's he talking like Xion's not your name?​

Xion doesn't know, but she doesn't like it. "I don't have to tell you anything," she says, frowning. She holds her weapon up, ready to cast magic, pointed at his face. "And I'm not going back."

Vexen sighs, and he looks at Xion like she's a… bug, or something, that's annoying him. She hates it. "You owe me your very existence , Number i , as well as that keyblade in your hands, but I suppose it would be too much to hope for you to remember after you were anchored." White flickers around Vexen's hand, and then there's a flash, and he's holding a weapon–a long, spiky, blue shield. "Given Number Thirteen is unconscious, I suppose you–"

Doctor, an empty voice says.

Vexen grimaces. "Assistant, this is not a good time."

I have recovered your notes, the voice continues, like it didn't hear him, and the white, wiggly body of a Dusk slithers over the wall, holding…

Aren't those the files we took from that hidden room?​

They are… They're Vexen's? Xion frowns, and her weapon lowers. Wasn't… Number i on the label of that picture?

It was 'No. i Unanchored Activation Test XII.' And he's calling you Number… i …​

Xion… thinks she might know why the ceiling in that room was so familiar.

He… said you owe him your existence. You don't think…​

"Very good, I suppose," Vexen grumbles, looking over at the Dusk. "Everything's there?"

The Dusk nods with their whole body. Several pages were removed from their folders, so they will need reorganizing, Doctor, but as far as I can tell, nothing has been lost.

"Put them back where they're supposed to be and report to me later, then," Vexen says. "Right now, I–"

"Nobody cares about your notes!" outside Sora shouts. "You can tell us what you know after you've put Riku back and you're out of our way!"

Put Riku… back…?​

Vexen makes a sound like a laugh, except that it isn't happy at all. "My Riku isn't worth the metal in his bones anymore, with how much of my work's been twisted and thrown out by now, but I suppose you have something of a point." Vexen brings his shield up again, and he lifts his right hand, and white magic starts to gather in it, and he smiles a smile that's just as happy as his laugh. "If you insist on fighting, then I suppose I'll see if my first prototype turned out any better than my second, Number i , Xion !"

Information
Beat Vexen!​

----------​

And here's the end of currently-written content.

 

[FormlessAlien]

"Fire!" Xion shouts at the same time she lurches to the side to get out of the way of whatever spell Vexen's casting, but her fire just splashes off his shield without burning anything.

"No good!" Vexen says, and he swings his hand down, and white surges up from the ground to her right, and she kicks off the ground out of it before it can do more than make her boots cold.

Xion has to get close. She's tired. She needs more magic. She swings her weapon around and lets it carry her back to the ground so she can run, and then outside Sora runs past her, trailing tiny bits of ice, weapon high, and yelling.

Vexen blocks Sora's first hit, a teeth-first swing from up high, as easily as he did Xion's fire. "You've fought me before! What makes you think you can just–" And then Sora hooks his weapon's teeth around the top of the shield and yanks.

"Now!" outside Sora shouts.

Xion jumps off the ground towards Vexen's right side, where his shield doesn't protect him anymore, and she jams her weapon's end into his side as hard as she can.

"Your strength is–"

"Thunder!" Donald shouts, and suddenly all Xion can see is light.

Xion swings again, blindly, and lets the hit carry her back so she can blink the spots out of her eyes.

"I've had enough of you, duck!" Vexen shouts. Xion sees another white flash, and she dodges to the side without thinking, but it's not her he's aiming at. "Donald!" she shouts at the same time as Sora, spinning around–he's inside a chunk of ice. "No!"

"I've got 'im!" Goofy says, running over towards Donald with his shield in one hand and Roxas in the other. "Focus on–Watch out!"

"Defense!" Xion shouts, spinning around, her weapon swinging, and white flies aroudn her, but it doesn't touch her, and she feels herself slump. She's really tired, but she isn't dead. And she has to fight up close again to get her magic back. Outside Sora's still there, fighting, but Vexen's not letting him get his weapon's teeth around around the shield.

Do you think you can jump over Vexen?​

Xion can try. She takes two long steps, shouts "Above!" at the Sora in front of her, pushes off the ground with all the strength she has left, and swings her weapon down.

Vexen lifts his shield up to catch it on the spikes, smiling that same unhappy smile from before. "I thought I built you to learn!" he says, like he thinks he didn't do what Xion wanted.

Xion pushes off the shield, and Vexen's eyes go wide, and she lets her weapon carry her down as she swings it into his back.

"This is not how I–" Xion's weapon catches Vexen on his right side, where she stabbed him before, when he tries to step past her, and she feels more energy rush into her. "I've had enough of this!" Vexen spins again, more light gathers around him, and Xion catches his swing with his shield on her weapon and lets it launch her back. "You are an experiment!" he shouts, and he waves a hand to throw more white magic at her, and she jumps, and then outside Sora hits him hard in the back, and it's his turn to go flying.

Xion swings around her weapon, brings it up, and–

Vexen rolls himself over, weapon disappearing in a cloud of ice, and Xion's weapon smashes into the ground instead of his back. "W-wait!"

Xion tears her weapon out of the dirt, and lifts it to point at him in case he tries something. "What," she says unhappily.

"If you'll let me talk instead of attacking me," Vexen says, lifting himself up onto his elbows, "I have a warning for you."

He attacked Xion! She takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself down. "Why now," she asks.

"And why should we trust anything you say!" outside Sora says as he walks up beside her.

Vexen's face twists. "First of all, I attacked because you were being unreasonable, and–" He looks at Xion's weapon, and his face twists more. "Fine. And Sora! You're stronger than I expected, even with your twisted memories, but that won't save you! If you continue to seek Naminé, you'll end up just like my Riku!"

"I won't give up on her, so if that's what you're saying, I don't wanna hear it!" Sora shouts angrily. "And don't talk about Xion and Riku like you own them!"

Vexen leans further up and points at Sora. "Marluxia will own you if you continue as you are!" he shouts back. "You'll lose your heart, and end up as–"

Orange burns across Xion's vision, past her right shoulder, and then there's a ball of fire floating right over Vexen's chest. "I'd quiet down, if I were you," someone says from behind her.

That spell could've hit Xion in the back. She wouldn't even have known it was coming. She spins around and steps back, so she can still see Vexen, and the red color's standing there with one hand held out, smiling.

That's Axel.​

The one who showed Roxas the tower. That explains why he didn't hit her. She lowers her weapon. "You don't need to help," she tells him. "We already won."

I don't think he's helping.​

"Oh, I'm not here to help you, kid," Axel says. He sounds cheerful, but… wrong. Like he's pretending.

"Axel!" outside Sora says. "What are you–Aren't you on his side? What are you doing with that fire!"

"Oh, don't worry too much. Weren't you all angry at him a second ago, Sora?" Axel lowers his hand, the fire over Vexen drops down, and Vexen's eyes get even wider underneath it. "'I don't wanna hear it,' you said."

…Xion thought Axel would be nice…

Yeah. He's Roxas's friend, but here he is, hurting someone… just to make him stop talking?​

Maybe there's something wrong with him. Maybe it's like–No, with the way Vexen was talking, Riku's probably someone else who remembers being Riku, like Xion is for Sora. And Axel being tricked or controlled or something feels like a lie, anyway. Xion doesn't know why, she's only heard about him, but Axel being like this… hurts. She wants him to stop.

Xion steps forwards and lifts her weapon back up. "He's already stopped talking!" she says. "Take your fire away!"

"Oh, no, he's a repeat offender," Axel says back in that fake cheerful voice. "Used up his last chance when he blabbed about where the memories of this place came from, and then he just kept on blabbing, so I feel like I need to do something a bit more permanent than just giving him a light toast."

More… permanent…​

Vexen presses himself even more against the ground. "No! No, please! I won't–I can be useful! Number Thirteen, he's your job, right? I can–"

Axel's smile shifts. "Too late to tunnel out of your pile of mistakes now," he says, and something changes in Vexen's eyes too, and then Axel snaps, and Vexen screams, and everything all around Vexen turns bright red.

Xion stumbles back. "D–Deep Freeze!" she shouts, swinging her weapon at her feet to keep the heat away, and then the ball of red fire flashes into a bright white pillar, and Xion's ice burns away in an instant. It's hot. It's too hot, even from here. Xion squeezes her eyes shut, and covers her face with her arms to keep it away–

"Well, that's probably enough," Axel says after far too long, and the heat vanishes, and Xion opens her eyes. She breathes in, she can breathe again, and she tastes ash.

The fire's gone. Vexen's gone, too. All that's left is… black. A ring of black. Vexen's gone. He's… There's not anything left. There was a person there. There isn't, anymore.

He burnt him. He killed him.​

He–He did. Xion didn't–She didn't know Vexen, or like him, at all, but now he's… he's gone, forever. Just like that.

How… Why… What kind of person would just…​

"What are you people!" outside Sora shouts, and Xion suddenly remembers her friends are here too, and they're not safe at all.

Xion makes herself turn away from the circle of black and points her weapon up at Axel. She can barely keep her arms from shaking.

Axel looks back at her, and his eyes stare right into hers. He sighs, and that smile that's been on his face this whole time goes away. "Nobody knows," he says in a weird tone, like he's trying to tell a joke, and black starts gathering at his feet. "All I know is we're nothing good."

He's–That black means he's leaving. He's running. He shouldn't run away from–He shouldn't be able to run away from–"Stop!" Xion shouts, and most of the magic she got back in the fight against Vexen who's dead now flares out from her in a ring of numbers and time, and the air in front of her shivers, but she's too late. There's just a few wisps of dark caught in her spell.

There's another empty space, where there used to be a person. But this one could still come back. He could decide he wanted Xion dead, or Donald, or Goofy, or Sora, or Roxas, and Xion wouldn' know anything was wrong until they were already gone. She puts a hand over her mouth, because a vague half-memory tells her she should be sick, but she isn't. She just feels terrible.

"That cruel monster," she hears Donald say, and when she looks over at him through her blurry eyes, she sees light fading from the top of his weapon. "He even did it slowly!"

It didn't seem slow to Xion. He was there, and then there was light, and he was gone.

"I'm glad ya got out of this crowd, Xion," Goofy says. "They look… Oh, gawrsh, you're cryin'."

Crying. Is that the word for what she's doing. It's the same thing that happens whenever things are really bad.

Oh. Oh, Xion, I'm sorry, I got distracted, I was so angry, and–​

It's okay. Xion shouldn't–She has to keep moving, she shouldn't–cry. She wants to be angry, too. She remembers how to fight with that.

That doesn't matter, I should've been trying to help you! I–​

Goofy, shield hooked onto his belt, walks over to Xion and wraps his free arm around her shoulders. "It'll be alright," he says softly.

Yeah. It will!​

Xion hopes so. She's useless like this, and she feels… terrible. She leans against Goofy, and wraps her arms around him, too. "I d-didn't even know him," she says shakily. "And… he was m-mean, but now he's gone, and–!"

"I know," Goofy says. "I know."

 

[FormlessAlien]

Xion still feels awful when she follows the others through the door on the front of the tiny castle, but she's moving, and she took too much time already.

Xion…​

She did. And it's not important now, anyway. Her inside Sora should focus on what's happening, and so should she. She looks around at the room, instead of the ground and the words, and… Oh, she can see why her Sora wrote so much about how bright this place is. The walls almost hurt to look at.

…Yeah. It feels even brighter than I remember, too.​

Xion doesn't know about that. But, she doesn't really know how something can feel bright, either, so it's probably something else Sora can do better than she can.

Xion…​

Xion doesn't look at the words. She knows what she's good for.

"At least there's only one way to go," Donald says quietly as he follows Sora around a corner.

Xion agrees. She hasn't been alive for very long, she thinks, but she already knows she doesn't like mazes at all.

"And bein' here means we're further along!" Goofy says, smiling over the shoulder that doesn't have Roxas on it at Xion.

Xion tries to make herself smile back and nods.

Goofy's smile shrinks. He takes a big step backwards and puts his hand on her shoulder. "…Do ya like funny faces, Xion?"

Is this like the gummi ship again? Xion looks away from him. "Do our feet run on happy faces too, Goofy?" she asks quietly.

"No. But our hearts do," Goofy says.

"Our hearts." Xion grabs Goofy's hand off her shoulder and presses it against her neck, still looking forwards even though neither of them is walking anymore. "I don't have one of those."

Goofy's quiet, for a bit, with his fingers where Xion's pulse would be if she had one, and then he turns his hand around in hers to hold it and pulls both their hands away from her neck. Out of the corner of her eye, Xion sees him shake his head. "Maybe ya don't have the bit that pumps blood around," he says, "some folks just don't, but everybody's got a heart. It's what feels. It's what remembers."

"And it runs on happy faces." But she remembers all sorts of things she never smiled about anyway.

"In the way it makes things easier ta deal with everythin' goin' on." Goofy squeezes her hand, and when Xion lets herself look at him, his smile's even smaller than before, and his eyes look wet. "When things are hard, bein' happy helps ya to get through it," he says. "And a happy face, even one that ain't real, can help get your feelings where they oughta be."

Xion looks away again. "Okay," she says, and she tries again to make herself smile. It doesn't feel any more real than before, but she'll keep trying. "...We're falling behind."

"I s'ppose you're right. Would ya like to run to catch up?"

Xion would like to catch up. "Okay," she says. She pulls her hand out of Goofy's and points her smile at him. "I'll beat you there."

Goofy's smile back is much nicer than Xion's feels. "If it's a race you want, Xion, I'd better let'cha know I'm pretty quick!"

Xion's faster around corners, she knows from when they ran to the tiny castle. Her blood speeds up, and her smile feels a little more real, and she looks at the words in the corner of the world.

…I'm glad Goofy's here.
Oh!
Information
Beat Goofy back to Donald and Sora!​

"I'm faster," Xion says out loud, and she reaches out, calls her weapon in a flash, and jumps towards the turn in the hall.

Goofy laughs, and Xion thinks if her shoes weren't clacking off the wall, she'd be hearing him running. "We'll see about that!"

-----​

Xion walks around another corner, and the hall opens up into an actual room. "Finally," she says.

"It's been long enough," Donald says grumpily.

"Be careful," outside Sora says beside her. His weapon appears in his hand in a flash. "There's usually someone who wants to fight us in between floors."

"There's definitely someone here to stop you," a voice from Sora's memories says from the stairs at the end of the room. A boy with gray hair and blue eyes in a black and purple and red outfit walks down them. Xion freezes. He's glaring.

Riku?​

"Riku!" outside Sora says. "You still want–But you don't have to fight anymore! Vexen's…" He looks over at Xion, and his face falls. "Vexen's gone. Which means you're free!"

"I don't care about him," Riku says angrily. "What matters is, if you keep going, you'll hurt N–" His eyes catch on Xion, and he blinks, and his glare goes away. "…Naminé?"

"Wha–" Sora looks over at her, frowning. "No, that's Xion. Her hair's totally the wrong color."

Her… hair? Xion reaches a hand up to her head, and she pulls some of her hair in front of her eyes.

It's black. I guess Naminé doesn't have black hair?​

Not what Xion expected, but she's… not really sure what she–She shakes her head. That doesn't matter right now. Riku's here–or whoever it is that looks like Riku. She doesn't know. But she should try to find out.

"Her… hair…" Riku blinks and shakes his head. "You're right. Why did I…"

Xion steps forward. "Are you like me?" she asks Riku (or whoever it is that looks like Riku, she knows she wouldn't want someone to call her Sora).

"Like… you?" Maybe-Riku's eyes get weird, and then he glares at her. "You mean a tagalong nobody who shouldn't even be here?"

Xion's not nobody.​

"…What?" Xion blinks and takes a deep breath. She doesn't like him talking about her like that, but even if she knows him, or knows who he got memories from, he doesn't know her. "No, I mean somebody who remembers being someone else."

Riku's eyes go weird again, in that exact same way as before, and he flinches. "I've always been me," he says, in a voice that sounds like he knows he's supposed to be angry but isn't quite. Then, his eyes go hard again, and he brings his weapon forward. "And that doesn't matter, anyway! I promised to protect Naminé, and if you keep going, you'll hurt her!"

His eyes… It's just like when the other me couldn't remember Kairi!​

Something's definitely wrong with him, and he looks like he wants to fight, but Xion really really doesn't. Whether it's Riku or someone who remembers being him. "We're here to help her, too!" Xion says, and she doesn't reach for her own weapon, but she does put a hand behind her back in case she needs to.

"Yeah!" outside Sora says. "I promised to protect her, too! We should work together!"

Riku's face twists into something Xion's sure she's never seen pointed at–at Sora. Not her, she's meeting him for the first time. It hurts to see anyway. "And why would I want your help, Sora? You'll bring trouble and get her hurt! If you don't do it yourself!"

Outside Sora steps back like Riku hit him. "I would never hurt Naminé!"

"You might!" Riku snaps, and he glares harder, and it's just… it's wrong. "You were happy enough leaving me behind for your new friends, weren't you? And whatever promise you think you made is nothing like mine!"

I–You're the one who got angry at me! And I came looking for you!​

Outside Sora flinches back again. "I never left you behind!" he says. "I came looking for you!"

"As soon as he could!" Xion says. "You're best friends, Riku!"

Riku huffs, reaches into a pocket behind him, and pulls out… a card? "Naminé's my best friend, whoever you are. She even gave me her good luck charm!"

Sora takes a step back and reaches into his pockets. "How did you–! No!" He pulls Kairi's seashell star out and holds it out. "Naminé gave it to me!"

Xion doesn't know what's going on. "Naminé gave those to you?" she says.

"Yeah!" outside Sora says at the same time as Riku says "Yes!"

"I made a promise with a toy sword!" Sora says angrily. He's glaring almost as hard as Riku, now.

"No, that was me! I promised to protect her–"

"–from falling stars! I know! I promised Naminé that!"

Riku shifts his grip on his weapon and sticks his… card back in whatever pocket he got it out of. "So now you're lying, on top of having a fake of Naminé's charm?" he says. There's an awful pain in his eyes, on top of the weird light that just keeps coming back, and Xion hates it. "What else about you is fake! Do I have to beat the truth into you!"

Sora stuffs Kairi's seashell star back into his pocket and puts both hands on his weapon again, and he looks just as hurt. Just as angry. "You're the one fighting for a lie!"

Information
Don't let Sora and Riku fight!
Please!​

They're going to, if Xion doesn't do something. Everything's wrong, and nothing makes sense, but she can try to fix all that once Riku and Sora aren't about to–to hurt each other! She kicks off the ground to launch herself in between them and shouts, "Wait!"

"Get out of the way, Xion!" Sora shouts from one side.

"Are you my enemy too?" Riku shouts from the other.

"You don't have to do this!" Xion says, holding her hands out to her sides. "We can–We can talk about this!"

"Yeah!" Goofy says, running up beside her.

Donald runs up on her other side. "Something got done to you, but we can fix it!"

Riku looks at Donald, and then at Goofy, and then he focuses on Xion. He's looking at her like he hates every piece of her. "Fine! If you're gonna hide behind your new friends, Sora, then you win! Keep your lies, and just stay here!" And he spins around, and runs back up the stairs, and Xion reaches out, and she should do something, and he's gone.

"Thanks for that!" Sora yells in a voice that makes Xion think he's definitely not thankful. "Now I can't beat sense into him!"

Beat sense into–"Riku's your friend!" Xion says. "Why would you–You shouldn't fight!"

Sora looks at Xion. His eyes look… scary. "Did the Sora in your head tell you that? Well, he's not me! Riku's trying to trick me into thinking my memories are lies, so he's not my friend anymore!"

"Sora!" Goofy says. "Maybe we should… slow down! Think about all this!"

"Slow down? But we can't! You and Donald said it yourselves! And now you're getting in my way?"

Donald gasps. "No, we're not–"

Everything's wrong. Xion needs to do something. She needs– "The charm! Sora, get out the lucky charm!"

Outside Sora's frown shrinks, just a little. "Why?"

"Just–just look at it, tell me what you see. Please!"

Sora takes a hand off his weapon and reaches into his pocket, and his hand comes out with Kairi's seashell star again. "…It's Naminé's good luck charm," he says.

"And–and what color is it?" Xion asks. "What shape is it?"

"It's a… yellow star?" Sora's frown comes back, but it's different, and he looks up again. "Why are you asking? Can't you see it?"

"I'm asking, cause there's yellow in the middle of the star, but it's pink on the outside," Xion says. "And there's a face drawn on the top. Cause that's Kairi's good luck charm, not Naminé's!"

Sora blinks. He looks down at his hand. He blinks again. "…What?"

----------​

This chapter took an incredible amount of drafts and attempts before I settled on it going this way, so I hope it's good. I'm really happy with the first scene here, but the mess of attempts I made for everything after that makes it hard to think about it clearly.

 

[FormlessAlien]

He's not angry anymore!​

He isn't, he's not–he's not scary anymore, but there's still a lot wrong, and Xion's learning that trying to just keep going is a bad idea. She keeps talking. "And Riku didn't have a yellow star either," she says. "He had a card!"

"A card?" Donald says. He scrunches his eyebrows. "Was it blue?"

Xion blinks, and nods. "And it had pointy things on top," she says. "How did you…"

"Well, that sounds just like those things that open doors ta new floors!" Goofy says.

"So Riku… doesn't have…" Outside Sora's still staring down at Kairi's star in his hand. "…It never happened," he says. "What I remember… never happened."

…Maybe Xion should've stayed quiet. Maybe she should've let outside Sora yell at her. "I…" Xion doesn't know what to say. "…I'm sorry. I don't…"

Sora shuts his eyes tight. Water drips onto Kairi's star. "W-we still need to help Riku," he says quietly. "He's real. We've s-seen him."

He is. We remember him.​

Xion hears footsteps. "Oh, Sora," Goofy says.

"Riku's real," Xion says as firmly as she can, even though she's talking about a different Riku than Sora is. "And we don't know Naminé isn't, just… just some memories, and…" She doesn't have any more words. She doesn't know what to do.

I don't–I don't think we can make things better. But we can be here for our friend.
Information
Give Sora a hug!​

Xion hasn't given a hug before, but she can try. She steps forwards, opens her arms, and wraps them around the Sora in front of her.

Outside Sora's shaking when he hugs Xion back. "I d-don't know what's going on…" he says. His voice is so small.

I… don't think any of us do. But it doesn't have to stay that way.​

Xion nods and hugs outside Sora tighter. "We'll learn," she says, even though it's hard to believe her own words. She'll make them true if she has to.

"We will," Goofy says. He steps forward where Xion can see him and wraps the arm that isn't holding Roxas around her and outside Sora. He's warm. "And we'll do it together."

Donald's arms join the hug, too. "We're here for you, Sora," he says firmly. "No matter what's going on, we'll be by your side the whole way."

Sora makes a familiar choked sound and shakes harder. "Donald, Goofy, Xion… Everyone…" Something wet lands on her shoulder, and she realizes outside Sora's crying. "Th-thank you."

Everything's gonna be okay, Xion.
Everything's gonna be okay.​

Xion shuts her eyes and takes a breath. She feels like she might cry too.

-----​

"…There's… other things," Xion says, eventually, quietly. "That I noticed. About Riku."

Outside Sora goes stiff in Xion's arms, and then he takes a deep breath. "Okay," he whispers, and he pulls away, and he and Goofy and Donald are close to Xion but they're not hugging anymore. Outside Sora shuts his eyes. "What is it?"

Goofy puts his free hand on outside Sora's shoulder. Xion makes herself straighten up, and opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.

You can do this, Xion.​

She has to. If she'd talked about what she figured out, about herself and Riku, after Vexen d-died, then maybe Sora wouldn't have gotten in that fight, and he could've helped her talk to Riku instead of at him, and nothing would've happened like it did. She breathes in, and opens her mouth, and the words come this time.

"…There's a look he kept getting in his eyes," Xion says. "When I asked him if he was like me, and… if he remembered being someone else, it was the same look you had when you–when you couldn't remember Kairi, when we met, but it wasn't when he was trying to remember things Riku did, it was when he heard something that made him think and then he just got angrier, and–The files that the Dusk brought Vexen before he… that the Dusk brought, my Sora and I took those from a hidden room, and I knew the room even though I didn't remember being there before, and there were tubes with people in them, and two of them were empty, and one of them had No. i written on it and that's me, but the other one had No. T except the T was short, and with the way Vexen talked about me and Riku, and the way Riku kept–kept going weird all the time…" She shuts her eyes and clenches her fists. "I think he's someone who remembers being Riku but isn't!" she says, the words coming out in one big burst.

Everything's quiet, for a second. Then, Sora says, "He's… not real…?" and he sounds exactly the way she knew he would.

No, he's–​

"No," Xion says, eyes still closed, fists still clenched. "He's real. And Riku's real, too, he just isn't him, but the one who remembers being Riku, he's not Riku but he is real, like I'm not you and I'm me instead. I–I think something's just making him forget who he is."

"This place!" Donald says angrily, and Xion hears him stomp his foot. "What it's doing to people–Was anything we felt about–!"

"I don't think it's the Castle," Xion interrupts. "Or–Or if it is, then whatever I am, whatever the numbers from that room are–but Riku, the one who remembers being him–" She stops. She shakes her head. "I think there's something else going on."

And then she hears footsteps. Her eyes go wide.

What–But everyone's–
Information
Find out who that sound is!​

Xion's already spinning around and calling her weapon by the time inside Sora's done writing the words. Her eyes sweep across the room, find red, and– "Axel!"

Information
Keep Axel from hurting our friends!​

"So you remembered!" Axel says with that same fake smile that was on his face when he k-killed Vexen. "And I didn't even have to tell you to memorize it." He steps forwards and spreads out his empty hands. Xion knows how quickly he can fill them. Her hands tighten on her weapon's handle. "Sorry to interrupt your chat, but I have some things to say to you all, and Xion in particular."

What?​

"To Xion?" Sora says behind her in a voice that still sounds more sad than anything.

Xion narrows her eyes. "Why should we–"

"Look, I only have a few minutes before someone checks on things again," Axel says. His smile disappears. "Xion, you're interfering with the plans of the big guy upstairs, so he wants me to kill you and Roxas."

Oh no. His fire–Blizzard, we can win. If we use blizzard to​

"And I am not doing that," Axel adds, eyes flashing like fire. "So! I'm getting you out of here, and then I'll do what I did for Vexen again, and nobody'll be any the wiser."

…Oh no.​

Horrible cold settles in Xion's chest. She lifts her weapon to point at Axel and gathers power up for a spell. "You're not killing my friends."

Okay, we didn't see him fighting before, but we know his fire's fast. Keep your eyes on him and keep moving, and if we get in close he won't be able to blow things up without getting caught in his own spells.​

Xion squeezes her weapon's handle tighter and nods a very small nod. She can do this. She has to do this.

Axel's hands move, and Xion's magic surges, and he… sets his face in his hands? And then he sighs? "No, no, of course you didn't figure it out, that was the whole point," he mutters.

"What are you talking about!" Sora shouts, stepping up beside Xion with his own weapon out, sounding as angry as Xion is scared. "If you're gonna fight us, go on and get it over with!"

Axel turns his eyes up towards the ceiling–

He's rolling his eyes.​

–rolls his eyes. "No, no, I'm not killing anyone here, and I didn't kill anyone before either–Look." Axel lifts his head up and smiles his fake smile and spreads his arms wide. "I'm here to eliminate the traitors, the ones upstairs running the show, and Vexen's not them. So, I made a nice cool ball of fire to hide away a Dark Corridor, since nobody but me and you was near enough to feel it, and then I turned up the heat for long enough everybody'd think I burned him to ash. And that's what I'm gonna do for you and Roxas, Xion, and you're gonna go right back to the Castle that Never Was, and everybody's gonna be nice and happy." Axel takes a step forwards. Xion takes a step backwards. Fire flickers around his hands. "Now go on, get that memorized, and get out!"

"N-no," Xion says. "I'm not going back. Saïx is there, and he'll hurt me again." She makes herself step forwards, even though she's afraid, and thrusts her weapon out towards him. "I'm never going back there!"

Axel… stares at her. "Saïx hurt–" He shakes his head. "No, no, doesn't matter, I don't need to hear your story." And his weapons appear in his hands in a flash of orange. "Roxas is getting out of here, one way or another. Even if that means things get a little toasty."

It looks like we'll have to fight after all.
Information
Get ready to beat Axel.​

Xion nods, eyes locked on Axel's weapons. She remembers inside Sora's idea. She's not getting any readier.