She hadn’t been able to sleep, and yet, she didn’t feel tired at all. On the contrary—she was brimming with strength. But her strength was a sham. This power was all fake.
Last night’s conversation with Axel came back to her. She knew she was created to “copy” powers from Roxas, along with Sora’s memories. That she was a puppet.
But she anxiously recalled Roxas’s performance yesterday. All the materials she’d found, even in Castle Oblivion, said that she—the Replica—could copy others’ powers, while Axel had said she might be taking more than she needed. Taking rather than copying. She hadn’t read anything about that.
I’m draining strength from Roxas… That’s why he’s gotten so weak.
Then what’ll happen if I keep being around him? What if—?
No, I know. I know what’ll happen to him. And if I let it happen, coming back here will have been for nothing.
“If I stay…I’ll ruin everything,” Xion mumbled to herself, turning to the window as if she sensed someone there.
There was nothing but the heart-shaped moon in the sky. Kingdom Hearts.
“Riku… What should I do?”
Of course, he wasn’t there to answer her. No one was.
Roxas slept peacefully without being plagued by dreams, and yet, he woke up with heavy limbs and a fuzzy head. The palms of his hands felt hot, and his feet prickled with numbness. An oppressive weight sat on his chest. He tried to take a deep breath and—he couldn’t. It hurt.
Seated on his bed, he stared at his hands.
He knew something was wrong with him. But that didn’t mean he knew what to do about it.
Roxas tried to get up, but vertigo pushed him back down. What’s going on?
All this when Xion just got back—although, come to think of it, that was when this had started.
Well, he was just a little tired. There was a lot going on. It would pass.
He put his hands atop his knees, closed his eyes, and curled his fingers into fists. I’m fine. Everything is fine.
Axel barely slept a wink thanks to all the thoughts turning in his head. He scowled at the throbbing pain in his temples. These sleep deprivation headaches were awful.
Rather than going back to sleep and getting a lecture, he went to the Grey Area before anyone else and claimed the sofa to keep thinking.
Xion and Roxas… Memory and power. Sora, the Keyblade master. A replica whose only purpose was to copy another.
Back in Castle Oblivion, Axel had met the Replica created from Riku’s memories. Although he wasn’t sure it was appropriate to say they’d met. He had encountered the Replica there—that much was a fact.
Vexen’s creation had gained Riku’s powers by copying his memories. The copying itself involved Naminé’s abilities as a memory witch. But Vexen had always said Naminé’s very existence was an anomaly—meaning the original plan had never accounted for her. There had to be some method of copying memories without Naminé’s power; otherwise, the Replica would have remained an empty shell.
Axel reflected on the operations of the Organization members in Castle Oblivion, extracting memories from Sora and Riku. Larxene took them from Sora, and Vexen from Riku, by doing battle and sealing those memories in cards. They gave the cards over to Naminé, who then subtly rewrote the memories stored there before they were returned to Sora and the Riku Replica.
So perhaps Naminé’s power was only necessary for the rewriting part. What if copying memories and abilities could be accomplished simply through battle…?
Having Xion and Roxas work together, then, let the puppet copy his memories. Memories and power were inextricably entwined, which was how Xion gained Sora’s abilities along with his memories.
Last night, Axel had told Xion that she might be borrowing more from Roxas than she needed. But that wasn’t quite right.
He had it memorized, all right. The Riku Replica had another way of gaining strength—completely absorbing an opponent’s powers by destroying them.
Knowing that, Axel himself had goaded the Replica into terminating Zexion. At the time, he’d believed it necessary.
Xion was already copying memories from Roxas—or rather, the memories from Sora that Roxas harbored. Not all of them. Not yet. She was still incomplete. So what would the Organization have her do?
“Good morning, Axel.”
“…Xion?” He looked up to find a very gloomy Xion standing there. “So how did you sleep?” he asked with a little smile.
She shrugged and shook her head.
“It’s not like your time is up, you know. You’ve still got a while to think. Got it memorized?”
“I guess so…,” she mumbled at the floor.
Axel actually had no idea how much time she had.
“Xion. Your orders for today.”
She turned. “Saïx…”
Saïx looked down his nose at her. “An especially powerful Heartless has been spotted in Halloween Town. Go and eliminate it.”
“Understood.” Xion nodded, just as Roxas came into the lobby.
“Hey, Xion.”
“Good morning.” But she turned away from him.
Roxas didn’t even spare a glance at Axel, like an angry kid giving a friend the silent treatment. Axel let out a wry laugh under his breath.
“Listen—,” Roxas started.
“Sorry. I have to go.” Xion promptly cut him off and stepped into the Corridors of Darkness.
Roxas hung his head, the picture of dejection.
And he still looks like he’ll keel over any second, Axel thought. He’d just told Xion she had some time, but maybe she really didn’t.
Saïx had notice the exchange, too. He flicked a glance toward Axel and then turned to Roxas. “How are you feeling, Roxas?”
“…Same as always.”
Saïx smirked at the reply—and a chill ran through Axel at how vicious it was.
“I have an urgent mission especially for you and your Keyblade,” said Saïx. “There’s a fearsome Heartless that’s surfaced in Halloween Town.”
That was the location of Xion’s mission, too. Something was weird about this.
“I was hoping you might exterminate it for us,” Saïx went on.
“Yup, got it!” Roxas chirped.
Axel couldn’t hold it in. “Whoa, whoa, whoa— Roxas, are you sure you’re up to that?”
Roxas shot him a nasty look. “Why wouldn’t I be?” he muttered, turning his back.
“It’s just, lately you—”
“Shouldn’t you already be out on your mission, Axel?” Saïx interrupted.
Mission? Saïx hadn’t given him his assignment yet. Axel blinked up at him, and Saïx stared back.
Oh. Axel felt a little bit sorry for Saïx and his inability to lie.
“I better go. See you, Axel.” Roxas left, disappearing into the corridors as abruptly as Xion had.
“Can’t you just let things run their course?” Saïx complained.
“What course? Whose plans am I ruining, exactly?” Axel retorted, still staring at the empty space where Roxas’s portal swirled into nothing.
“The Organization’s. I trust you.”
Axel let out a low chuckle. “Yeah? Because your heart tells you to?”
“Just the memory of it. But if you continue to interfere, I’ll have to overwrite that memory with everything I’ve learned as a Nobody.”
“…Should I take that as a threat?”
“More or less. Keep it in mind.” Finished with the conversation, Saïx walked away.
Axel didn’t move for a while.
It was always night in Halloween Town. The humid chill in the air would have told her so, even if the gloom didn’t. The moon over the horizon was not heart shaped but fat and round.
Xion picked her way through the graveyard. She had so many questions on her mind and, yet, so few answers.
But she didn’t want to think about them.
And she didn’t have to when she was busy, which was
nice, she thought as she cleared out the Heartless.
She climbed through a hole in the stone wall deeper into the graveyard, where mist hung thick in the air, thicker than she’d seen anywhere else in Halloween Town. She drew her hood up tight against the clinging damp.
It gave her a bad feeling…
Just as she admitted that to herself, she felt the tingle of something behind her, and she whirled around. Heartless!
How could it have gotten so close without her sensing it? The Heartless slashed at her with its sword.
Xion sprang back, dodging the strike, and sank into her fighting stance with the Keyblade. But the mist was so thick she couldn’t even tell which way her enemy would come from. The right this time…?
She blocked another blow and moved in that direction. It jumped and swung at her again. It was strong—and fast. But she was stronger. She wouldn’t lose.
She stepped out of its range and then rushed at it. This will do it…!
But in that moment, something else cut through the mist—a chakram. One of Axel’s.
“Stop, both of you!” Axel leaped in between her and the Heartless.
What was going on?
The mist cleared, and she saw that Roxas was here, too.
“Xion?!” he exclaimed.
“Roxas? What are you doing here?” Xion realized there was no Heartless to be found. Had she been fighting one at all? “The Heartless I was just fighting—that was you?”
Cold sweat beaded on her skin. The Organization. This was their idea. What were they trying to do? Her chest twinged.
“This mission was a setup. It was rigged so you two would battle each other,” said Axel.
“Huh…?” The Keyblade fell from Roxas’s limp hand and winked out.
If Axel hadn’t jumped in to stop us, then I… I would have… Xion looked at the ground.
“Why would they do that?” Roxas murmured.
“We’ll figure it out later. Hey, since we’re all together…why don’t we get out of here and have some ice cream?” A tiny smile came to Axel’s face.
“But—,” Xion began.
Axel interrupted her with a look and clapped Roxas on the back. “C’mon, how about it?”
“Y-yeah. Okay,” Roxas stammered.
“Xion’s coming, too. Right?” This time Axel patted her shoulder.
“…Right.”
Axel opened the Corridors of Darkness, and they all headed in together.
The sunset was dazzlingly bright. Roxas squinted and took a bite of ice cream.
“Ooh, brain freeze,” Xion mumbled, then chuckled sheepishly.
Roxas smiled back at her. “Been a while since we all hung out like this, huh?”
“Well, we’ve had our share of drama,” said Axel.
Something still bothered Roxas about the way Axel was treating Xion. But sharing ice cream as a trio again was definitely improving his mood.
Why did the Organization want him and Xion to fight? The idea filled him with dread, but at least Axel had been there to stop them. If not for him, things might be very different right now. That realization made forgiving Axel seem a little more doable.
Axel followed his own rules. And Xion had said herself that if Axel hadn’t acted as he did, she wouldn’t have come back. Roxas was still convinced there was another way to bring her home, but maybe that was the only choice back then.
“Oh, hey, I just remembered…” Axel idly kicked his dangling feet against the ledge. “Did you guys know you should be checking your ice cream sticks?”
“Really? For what?” asked Xion.
“Once you finish your ice cream bar, check the stick. It might say ‘Winner.’ Not that I’ve ever seen one.”
“Oh yeah!” Roxas blurted.
Axel looked nonplussed. “‘Oh yeah’ what?”
Winner. Now Roxas remembered. So much had happened, it had gone right out of his head. I had one of those…
I was going to show it to Axel, so I saved it. Not to Xion. Back when I got it, I wanted to share it with Axel.
“Uh—n-nothing,” said Roxas. “So what do you win?”
Axel’s gonna be totally floored when I show it to him. Thinking about it cheered him up somehow. Roxas already knew what the prize was, but he kept it to himself.
“Heh… Beats me.” Axel shrugged.
“You don’t even know?” Roxas teased him.
“It’s gotta be something good, if you’re a ‘winner,’ right?”
“Right…”
“Hee-hee-hee.” Xion giggled at Roxas’s prodding. He and Axel both looked at her. “You two are such good friends,” she remarked and turned her gaze out to the sky. “Wow. The sun sure is beautiful…”
At the sincere admiration in her voice, Roxas and Axel looked out at the horizon, too.
The sun turned red as it sank, painting the whole world in the same warm crimson as so many days before.
“I know we’ve seen a lot of sunsets, but today’s puts them all to shame.”
Roxas couldn’t ever remember seeing her so alive.
“If only things could stay like this for the three of us,” said Xion.
If only things could stay like this. The three of us together. That’s my wish, too. That’s what I want.
“What if we all ran off?” Roxas mused.
“What?” Xion looked at him in surprise. Axel said nothing.
“The three of us. Then we could always be together.”
The Organization isn’t going to let us, so why should we stay? Can’t we just go somewhere else?
“We don’t have any place to run.” Xion shook her head.
Yes, we can, Roxas wanted to say. We’ll get away somehow.
But it wasn’t true.
“I know,” he mumbled. “I was just thinking out loud.”
He knew that was impossible. Or…was it? Maybe they really could get away. Just…not now. They might be terminated, or something else terrible might happen. He’d ended up fighting Xion, after all… What would the Organization do if they tried to leave?
Axel suddenly broke his silence. “Well, even if things change, we’ll never be apart—”
“—As long as we remember one another,” Xion finished. “Right?”
Axel’s encouragement from ages ago echoed in Roxas’s head.
“Don’t worry, Axel. We’ve got it memorized.” Xion grinned at him.
“Just checking.” Looking at the sunset rather than her, Axel munched his ice cream.
“I’ll remember all these things for a long time,” said Xion. “Forever.”
“Me too. Forever,” Roxas added.
Never. I’ll never, ever forget.
I’ll always remember it, watching the sunset together like this.
I promise I won’t forget. Even if the three of us get separated someday…I’ll never forget.
The three basked in the sunset’s glow.
Chapter 6
Thirteen Chairs
XION GOT UP AND TOOK CARE OF HER MORNING ROUTINE in front of the mirror in the corner of the room. I’m the same as ever.
And yet, I’m not.
She stared hard at the mirror’s reflection. It showed…someone else. But she knew who it was.
The boy who looked like Roxas.
For a moment, she lowered her gaze, then looked again.
Just her.
Her and her identity crisis. Xion laughed at herself.
I have time here. Riku gave it to me.
But not forever. I’ll ruin everything if I stay. I have to decide…before the Organization decides for us.
They were reaching the breaking point.
Naminé gazed up at Sora sleeping in the pod. His slumber continued. No change and no progress at all.
“Sora…,” she murmured, looking down at the floor as she heard two others approaching behind her.
“It appears we’ve come to a standstill,” said DiZ, his eyes scanning Sora’s pod.
“Yes,” Namin�
� confirmed.
She looked up again. Sora was like a shadow of himself, a cast-off shell. So many of his memories were drained that maybe what they saw before them was not Sora at all—only an empty vessel where Sora was supposed to be.
“This has gone on long enough,” DiZ growled. “Riku, I think you know what needs to be done.”
Beside him, Riku nodded. “Right.”
Riku? What are you going to do to her? Naminé’s chest felt tight. And what will that girl do?
Nobodies aren’t supposed to exist. That goes for me, too. But—but that’s exactly why…
Her thoughts were so tangled with doubt.
“The earlier, the better,” said DiZ.
“…I know.” Riku spun on his heel and walked out.
“And you, Naminé. What do you intend to do?” DiZ asked.
“I’ll stay here and watch over Sora,” she said.
“Is that all? Well, I suppose you should do as you like. You are the witch, after all.” With that, DiZ left, too.
The room was suddenly silent again. All alone, Naminé murmured Sora’s name, earnest as a prayer.
When he woke, Roxas felt a little more refreshed than usual. The dreams hadn’t bothered him.
He remembered the day before—the shock upon discovering that the thing he’d been trying to fight was Xion.
What’s the Organization trying to do? Why did they make me and Xion fight? At least Axel saved us, which means he’s on our side. And we all got to have ice cream together again and forget about the bad stuff for a while.
Oh yeah—the ice cream stick. I have the Winner one.
Roxas got up and opened the drawer in the little nightstand. Dozens of seashells rolled around and, behind them, a single wooden stick.
I was saving it to treat Axel, and I totally forgot about it. But today I’ll show both of them, and we’ll all have ice cream again, like yesterday…
Axel walked the hallways, trying to sort out his thoughts.
Another sleepless night. He shook his head slowly to dispel the grogginess, but it persisted as he combed through yesterday’s events.
The Organization wanted to have either Roxas or Xion eliminated. But what could he do about it? That was what Axel had to figure out.
Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days Page 28