Tinker Bell nodded.
“Are those guys from before aboard?” inquired Axel. “Wait…are they your friends?”
She scowled, clearly offended.
“Apparently not,” Roxas said. “But then why do you want us to—?”
With a thunderous boom, something came hurtling toward them.
“Augh!”
It was a cannonball—obviously dangerous. And the pirate ship was firing more.
“They’re attacking us?!” Roxas cried, dodging another.
“No… I think maybe they’ve mistaken us for Heartless,” Axel presumed.
Tinker Bell pointed at the ship again and flew straight for it.
“Hey—wait!” Roxas started after her, but Axel grabbed him.
“Roxas, are you nuts? We don’t wanna go closer.”
“But…”
Roxas didn’t want to let Tinker Bell fly to the pirate ship alone. At that moment, however, a winged Heartless appeared right in front of them—their target.
“We’ve got a mission to take care of,” said Axel. “Besides, they’ll never hit Little Miss Sparkly. She’s a tiny moving target.”
“I guess…,” Roxas said reluctantly.
“Keep your eyes open, will you? I’d rather not have to scrape you off a cannonball.”
“Well—you be careful, too!”
Axel flung his chakrams at the Heartless, and Roxas swooped in with his Keyblade to attack up close, but it easily glided away. As Roxas tried to pursue it, a cannonball whizzed by in front of him. “Gah!”
“Yeah, I told you to look out!” Axel, already quite proficient in the air, caught Roxas’s arm to steady him. “C’mon.”
They soared out over the sea after the Heartless. It wasn’t particularly tough—the fight would have been over quickly without the cannonballs interfering.
Axel attacked with a jet of flame, and as the Heartless flailed against the fire, Roxas finished it off with the Keyblade. Not much of a challenge.
“Mission accomplished,” said Roxas, watching the heart float up and away.
“So what’re they shooting at now?” Axel grumbled. Even with the Heartless out of the way, the cannons showed no sign of stopping.
Roxas looked anxiously at the pirate ship. “I hope she’s okay…”
“Hmm? Your tiny friend?”
“Yeah. Maybe we should have gone with her…”
But they both knew there was no getting near the ship unless the cannon fire slowed down. Which it was not about to.
“Well, it looks like we’re not invited aboard anytime soon,” said Axel. “Anyway, whatever’s going on, it’s for this world to figure out. We’re not supposed to interfere, remember? Let’s call it a day.”
Axel was right—they didn’t have much choice. Still, without the fairy, they’d never have been able to fly like this. Roxas wanted to help if she was in trouble.
“Cheer up,” said Axel. “She’ll be fine.”
“Yeah… I guess so,” Roxas mumbled.
“C’mon, let’s get back.”
Giving up, Roxas nodded.
It was nice to have some time with just Roxas. He didn’t really want to think about Xion right now.
Holding an ice cream bar, Axel sat laughing with Roxas atop the clock tower.
“You think that sparkly dust would work in other worlds?” Roxas wondered.
“I dunno about that…”
Flying was quite an experience. Now he understood why it had Roxas so thrilled.
“Wow, you guys are early.”
“Hey, Xion! Where’ve you been?”
While Roxas shouted with delight to see Xion, Axel automatically found something else to look at. It made him nervous.
“Sorry I’m so late.” Xion took her perch beside Roxas. “I had my hands full today.”
“Okay—I have to tell you!” Roxas crowed, still full of glee. “Today me and Axel were flying! Like, actually flying! All you need is this sparkly dust!”
Xion let out a tiny sigh. “I was wondering why you two looked so happy. Lucky…”
“You can come next time. That world has this beautiful sea…”
“Really…?” Xion murmured, looking down at the rooftops. “I’ve been to a world with a beach before. It was so pretty. Destiny Islands, it’s called…”
“Isn’t the ocean nice? I love listening to the waves.”
“Yeah, it is.”
Roxas was still riding high on the excitement. Axel, on the other hand…
“Um, I’m not…being a third wheel, am I?” asked Xion.
“What?” Roxas was taken aback. “Xion, you’re our friend!”
Xion hung her head.
Roxas and Axel both noticed that something was off, casting a pall over them.
“Hey, Axel…,” Xion murmured timidly.
“Yeah?”
“You were at Castle Oblivion, right?”
Whatever Axel had expected her to say, it wasn’t that.
What do you know? was on the tip of his tongue, but he only nodded.
“What’s it like there?” she asked.
“Just an Organization research facility,” Axel replied, perfectly honest.
Her expression was dubious.
“Research, huh…? Seems like everyone gets sent there all the time,” Roxas said, trying to help her out. “Especially you, Axel.”
“They never send me or Roxas. We’ve never been,” Xion pointed out.
“Probably because they don’t need you there,” Axel said without missing a beat.
Silence fell between them again.
The bells chimed. Taking it as a cue, Xion stood up. “I have to get going.”
“Huh?” said Roxas in dismay.
But then—Xion staggered.
She lost her footing and slipped from the clock tower’s ledge.
“Xion!” Roxas lunged for her hand.
A memory. My first memory.
Saïx took me by the hand and brought me out of Castle Oblivion.
“This is the last you’ll see of these walls… Xion.”
Yes, I remember what he said to me. And I remember where I was. Castle Oblivion.
Roxas grasped Xion’s hand and held on with all his might, and Axel in turn grabbed hold of him.
“Are you okay?!” cried Roxas.
“I think so…,” she squeaked, suspended by only one hand high above the ground.
Somehow, they hauled her back onto the ledge. Roxas had to catch his breath. “Are you sure you’re feeling all right? Maybe you need to rest more.”
“No… That’s not the problem.” Sitting down again, Xion looked away from Roxas’s anxious stare.
“Hey, I know!” Axel blurted.
“Huh? You know what?” said Roxas.
Axel grinned at them. “Next time we get a day off, let’s go to the beach.”
“The beach? Where did this come from…?” Xion mumbled at her lap.
“Well, don’t you want to go do something together for a change?”
Axel didn’t often propose outings like that. He must have felt the urge to cheer up Xion somehow, Roxas thought, and then he brightened, too. “So it’ll be a vacation with friends?”
“Bingo!” Axel replied in kind.
Now he sounded just as cheerful as he had before Xion had arrived. I wish she’d been here for that part, too, Roxas thought.
“I’d like to join you…if I can make it.” Xion’s voice came out so small.
“Of course you can, Xion!” Roxas told her firmly.
“You’ll have a blast, trust me,” Axel added.
She looked up at them with a hint of a smile. “Okay…sure. Let’s do it.”
As she finally agreed, Roxas and Axel exchanged a glance.
“So for beach snacks…,” Axel thought aloud.
“It’s gotta be pretzels,” Roxas finished.
“Watermelon, too, right?” said Xion.
The three of them looked at one another and la
ughed in the light of the setting sun, just like always.
Naminé and DiZ gazed up at the pod. The air in the climate-controlled room should have been comfortable, but it felt stuffy somehow.
“You seem to be struggling,” DiZ remarked.
Naminé’s gaze dropped. “I think a Nobody is interfering…”
“A Nobody?” DiZ’s voice dripped with disgust.
“What if some of his memories are getting lost?” Naminé went on, keeping her eyes on the floor. “There would be no way for me to finish, no matter how long I try to line the pieces back up. If that happens, if the memories find their way into someone else and get linked to theirs…he’ll never get them back.”
Sora’s memories were leaking away. If they simply flowed into his Nobody, that would be easy enough to remedy. But they were being carried somewhere else, somewhere completely unexpected.
Maybe this was their punishment for toying with others’ memories.
“I’m sure he can do without a memory or two,” said DiZ.
“But what if he needs those memories to wake up?” Naminé insisted. “What if they’re the key?”
“Naminé… You are a witch who has power over Sora and those connected to him. Do you see something I cannot?”
She looked up at the pod where Sora slept. “If his memories join with hers…she’ll never survive it.”
“She?” DiZ repeated.
Naminé shook her head.
It’ll destroy her… I just know it.
She didn’t even know where to find Castle Oblivion. But she knew it was where she came from. So it was up to her to find out.
Xion was in Saïx’s lab. She knew a little bit about computers, and when she typed on the keyboard, lots of information came up on the screen.
She wasn’t looking for any major secrets, so she shouldn’t have to contend with passwords. All she wanted to know was how to get to Castle Oblivion.
“That’s not it…”
She typed again.
“No, not that… Aha!”
The screen displayed a Nobody emblem and the location of Castle Oblivion. It was in the realm between…
Xion committed it all to memory and left Saïx’s rooms.
“Get up.”
“Just five more minutes…,” Axel mumbled.
“No. Get up—now.” The voice was distinctly annoyed.
Axel relented and opened his eyes. “What are you even doing in here?”
Saïx was standing next to his bed, as irritated as one might have guessed from his voice. Axel hadn’t been so rudely awakened since before turning into a Nobody.
“Xion ran away.”
Axel sat up. “Ran away…?”
Meaning she had deserted Organization XIII.
Xion… He climbed out of bed and started to freshen up.
“You seem to be wide awake now,” Saïx remarked.
Axel leaned back and stretched. “I’m guessing you’re gonna tell me to go find her.”
“Good guess. Xion is probably heading to Castle Oblivion.”
“…What?”
“Of the two of us, I imagine you must know Xion better by now. Weren’t you investigating?”
Axel was stunned into silence.
“What Xion does has no impact on the Organization,” Saïx went on. “But we can’t have her poking around there. You’re to go and destroy them. That is my only order; I leave the rest to your discretion.”
Axel nodded and left his room.
Xion’s head ached as she took in the sight of the strange castle.
No…it felt like someone was calling to her, echoing inside her head.
She was afraid to open the tall, heavy doors. She was afraid of what she would find beyond them. But she slowly pushed them open.
Inside, the walls of cold white marble reminded her of the Castle That Never Was. And yet, the air felt different somehow.
She made it to the middle of the entrance hall before a flare of pain in her head brought her to her knees.
But the answers I want must be here…if I can just keep going…
Then she heard something—footsteps. Behind her, she saw the familiar flaming hair of her dear friend.
“Axel… What are you doing here?”
Looking down at Xion, he scratched his head uncertainly. “I had orders, that’s all. I don’t know what you thought you’d find in an empty place like this.”
“Don’t lie to me!” Xion cried. “I know this is where I come from! The answers are here.”
Axel shook his head, unruffled by her shouts. “You can’t just throw orders to the wind.”
“Or else what? They’ll turn me into a Dusk?”
“Worse than that. They’ll skip right to destroying you.”
He said it like he didn’t care, and something in her chest ached. Xion looked at the cold white floor. “Because I’m useless?”
“I didn’t say that.” Axel shook his head again and took her arm, pulling her to her feet. “Just go home, Xion.”
This time she shook her head. What should she do? Wouldn’t Axel understand, if she told him?
She didn’t know how to put it into words, though. Nothing sounded right. But still, she tried. “I’m remembering things. About who I was as a human.”
“Well, stop remembering. Nothing good will come of it.”
She’d just put all her effort into explaining, and all he did was shoot her down. “I’ve been having dreams every night! You’re in them, too, Axel!”
“Then they sure aren’t memories. How could I be part of your past? Use your head, Xion.”
Why wouldn’t he listen?
“You can’t fool me!” Xion shouted. “We’ve met before, Axel, right here in this castle!”
“No, we haven’t.” Axel put his hands on her shoulders to peer into her eyes. “Xion, just go back. Roxas is gonna be wondering where you are.”
“Axel, please—just listen to me! I need to know who I am!” She wriggled away from his patronizing attempts. She had to know.
So she ran.
“Xion, don’t! Stay out of there!”
He started to chase her, but Xion opened the door at the end of the hall. Through there…was a room created by her “memories.”
And someone was blocking Axel’s path—another young man in a black cloak.
Riku.
Then I…wasn’t who I am?
As Xion closed the door, Riku stared steadily at Axel.
Or he faced Axel anyway. His eyes were covered by a strip of black fabric.
“…Riku,” Axel muttered, readying his chakrams.
It hadn’t quite been a year since Axel had last seen him, and yet, Riku had grown into a completely different person.
“Let her go,” said Riku.
“What do you know about Xion?” Axel demanded.
“Xion? Is that her name? …Anyway, I don’t want to fight you.”
“Then maybe you should get out of the way!” Axel hurled his chakrams.
Riku smoothly dodged. “Like I said, I don’t want to fight.”
“What do you want with Xion?”
Without answering the question, Riku vanished into a dark portal without a trace.
In the Round Room, with Xemnas and Xigbar in attendance, Saïx carried on his report of Xion’s desertion. “I sent Axel to Castle Oblivion on short notice last night to address the matter. I also instructed him to clear out our facilities there. He should be returning soon.”
The question from Xemnas surprised him. “And where is Naminé?”
Why Xemnas would be inquiring about Naminé rather than Xion, Saïx couldn’t fathom, but he had to answer anyway. “Still missing, sir.”
“Ha-ha! Wherever could she be?” Xigbar snorted with laughter.
“Why, Xigbar, it almost sounds as if you know,” Saïx said.
Xigbar’s intentions were even more opaque than Xemnas’s. He didn’t like it one bit.
“Continue,” Xemnas prompted him.<
br />
“I found records of an unauthorized access to our main computer,” said Saïx.
“You’re really gonna pretend you don’t know who?” Xigbar pressed. A nasty smirk twisted his mouth at Saïx’s silence. “Our little Poppet’s turning into a problem. The resemblance is striking, isn’t it?”
Poppet…? Apparently, that meant Xion. But what resemblance was he referring to? Xion was just as much a puppet as ever.
Saïx had no time for all these deliberately oblique remarks from Xigbar. “Nonsense. I see no problem whatsoever.”
Xigbar only laughed louder. “Pa-ha-ha! No, apparently you don’t!”
“Something you find amusing?”
“Oh, the things you hear from a guy with no heart,” Xigbar said through his hilarity.
None of us have hearts, Saïx was about to remind him, when Xemnas spoke again.
“No matter what unfolds, our plans remain unchanged. Axel, Roxas, and Xion will play the roles Kingdom Hearts has chosen for them.”
“But, sir, Xion…” Apparently, Saïx was the only one in Organization XIII who had misgivings about what Xion meant to do. “If we don’t—”
“Leave it be. How can you not see how perfect this is?” said Xemnas.
Saïx averted his eyes, unable to follow.
“Xion is marching right into the arms of destiny but to destiny’s own time,” Xemnas told him. “All we must do is watch with caution and patience.”
What is that supposed to mean? Saïx hesitated to draw any conclusions from it at all.
He finished up his mission and went to the clock tower to watch the sunset and have ice cream. Having a routine wasn’t so bad, Roxas thought as he squinted in the low sunlight.
“Hey, you’re early,” said a voice he knew.
Roxas turned with a grin. “No, you’re just late.”
Axel smiled, though only faintly, and sat down beside him. The sinking sun drenched them in light.
“Today makes two hundred fifty-five…,” Roxas murmured.
Axel cocked his head at him. “What’s that about?”
“It’s been that many days since I joined the Organization. Man, time flies.”
“Got the number memorized, do you?”
“Yeah. Have to hang on to something, right? It’s not like I have memories from before the Organization. Don’t you remember? I acted like a zombie.”
Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days Page 22