“Hey, there’s our sleepyhead,” Xigbar called to him. “Did you hear the entire Castle Oblivion team was wiped out during your beauty nap?”
“Huh…?” Roxas tried to ask more, but the words wouldn’t come out.
Wiped out? All they told me before was that someone had been terminated… What happened to Axel?
“Ah, you’re awake,” said Saïx.
Roxas looked up at him. “Everyone at Castle Oblivion was…wiped out? Is that—?”
Saïx crisply cut him off. “We’re investigating what might have befallen them.”
“You still don’t know anything?” Roxas pressed.
“I know that I don’t owe you any explanations. Now, it’s time you got back to work. You’ll be on your own for a while. Whatever happened, the fact is we’re understaffed.”
Investigating? Might have? Does that mean it’s possible they weren’t all wiped out? Roxas wondered hopefully.
“Go on,” said Saïx. “You have missions to catch up on.”
Roxas considered the missions Saïx had for him and decided to take one in Agrabah. And then he stepped into the corridors, the same as any other day.
Today’s mission took her to a place she’d never been before—the Beast’s castle. She left the Corridors of Darkness to find herself in a cavernous entrance hall.
It didn’t look much like the Organization’s castle, but the gloomy, forbidding atmosphere was much the same, Xion thought.
Her task was to collect hearts by taking down Heartless that resembled dogs. After that, she would go to Twilight Town for her ice cream atop the clock tower.
I want to have ice cream with Roxas.
Being with him gave her a curious feeling. She’d noticed that yesterday. And she got the sense that he had been just a little bit different somehow since his awakening.
Xion climbed the stairs to a grand door, which opened onto an enormous, well-lit hall. It had to be a ballroom.
And smack in the center was a pack of the target Heartless.
“All right… This shouldn’t take long.” She summoned the Keyblade to her hand—or tried.
But something wasn’t right.
Xion cried out in dismay. Her weapon would not come to her.
She’d been able to use it since that day she fought alongside Roxas. But now…it just wasn’t there.
Panting ominously, the Heartless stalked toward her. She tried once more to summon the Keyblade as she fled, calling aloud to it in desperation. “Please, please come—”
But her entreaties turned to a scream as a Heartless knocked her to the ground.
“Why is this happening…?” She groaned. But if I don’t fight somehow, I’m done for!
She hurled out a spell. The magic she knew wasn’t particularly strong, but it would be enough. It had to be. “Fire!”
A tiny fireball struck the Heartless and, luckily, engulfed it in flame.
So she would have to take them down with magic. Xion flung spell after spell at them.
A mission was not officially over until the report to Saïx. Before that, she could do what she wanted. But she just couldn’t bear to see Roxas right now.
Xion returned to the castle and made her report.
She had to declare how many Heartless she had defeated—and how many hearts she had collected for Kingdom Hearts.
Saïx was none too pleased. “So you were unable to gather any hearts?”
“…I finished them off with magic.” The Keyblade wouldn’t come to her at all, but maybe she could get away with hiding that fact.
“Exactly what do you think the Keyblade is?”
“What is it…? Um, it’s a key for gathering hearts…”
The Keyblade was a special kind of sword. Xion knew that much. And without it, gathering hearts was impossible.
“Precisely,” said Saïx. “And you need to appreciate its significance. If you cannot wield the Keyblade to its purpose, you have no place in the Organization. Keep that in mind and make sure to eliminate Heartless with the Keyblade.”
“…I see. I’ll be more careful,” she replied.
I was just having an off day. That must be it. Tomorrow I’ll be able to use it again, and everything will be back to normal, Xion told herself as she left the lobby.
Roxas felt like the same day was repeating over and over.
The missions were different, but still it was terribly repetitive. After his missions, he would climb up the clock tower, alone. No one came to join him.
Not even Xion.
He didn’t know what to call the feeling. Probably because he had no heart, he thought.
Would he ever see Axel again? The question made something tighten in the back of his throat, a painful sort of lump.
Most days, he would ask Saïx what was happening at Castle Oblivion, but the only answer he ever received was “It’s under investigation.”
If he could at least see Xion and talk to her up on the clock tower…maybe something would change, just a little. But he never found her there or even in the Grey Area in the mornings.
Maybe she had been sent away somewhere on a long-term mission, like Axel at Castle Oblivion.
But…asking about Axel seemed to put Saïx in such a foul mood, Roxas couldn’t bring himself to inquire after Xion.
Every day, he carried his slender ray of hope to the clock tower in Twilight Town, and every day he sat there alone.
So it’s true. I can’t use the Keyblade anymore…
Xion destroyed the last Heartless with magic and despondently sat down on the spot. Saïx would scold her again for not obtaining any hearts, and she had no idea how to explain herself.
He said if I can’t wield the Keyblade, I have no place in the Organization. So what am I supposed to do…?
Xemnas had a secret laboratory hidden away behind the Round Room.
There were several places scattered throughout the castle which might have been facilities of some kind or another, but only members of the Organization could enter this laboratory. Xemnas was not alone there.
“Something’s fishy here,” Xigbar remarked, sprawled on a couch at the edge of the room.
“What, exactly?” Xemnas asked.
“The kid annihilated everyone over at Castle Oblivion? As if.”
Xemnas was occupied writing something, but at this, his hand paused.
“They goaded him into taking out Marluxia, standard operating procedure,” said Xigbar. “Did you give the order?”
“Yes, I did. What do you want to know?”
“I’m saying they shouldn’t all have gone down. It kinda looks like the big plan went off the rails, because terminating half our original members definitely wasn’t part of it. Was it, Xehanort?”
“That’s a name I haven’t heard in a good while…” Xemnas had to smile at it, his mouth twisting.
It was his name when he had been human, an apprentice to a certain man—and when he had fought them.
“Yeah, well, about those unplanned terminations…” Xigbar kept a level stare trained on him. “I have to wonder if this involves you-know-who.”
“Whether or not that is true, we have at least two Keyblades at our disposal,” said Xemnas. “Which means the plan is proceeding smoothly. There is no need to alter it simply because of a decrease in numbers.”
With that, he turned back to his documents and resumed scribbling.
Xigbar only shrugged and disappeared from the room.
Roxas awoke and headed to the lobby same as usual. It was his seventy-first day with the Organization. He had not seen Axel or Xion in what seemed like ages.
“Well, good morning, sourpuss.” Xigbar greeted him with a chuckle. “Why the long face?”
“It’s nothing…”
He wasn’t wrong, Roxas thought. It was nothing. Nothing ever happened, and even if he went to the clock tower, no one would meet him there. And he had nothing to say to Xigbar.
“Seriously, though, the castle has been awful quie
t lately,” Xigbar rambled. “Half as quiet, you might say.”
Then, as if to prove him wrong, someone came hurtling into the lobby.
“I could get used to it, though,” Xigbar muttered.
“Hey, Roxas, man—did you hear?” Demyx blurted. “Annihilated! No survivors! Everyone at Castle Oblivion, done in!”
This was not the source Roxas had expected. “…Did Saïx tell you that?”
“Yup. Straight from the Nobodies sent to look into it. That castle’s totally deserted! Whew, sure am glad I didn’t go there. I’d like to keep existing, thank you very much.”
Roxas could barely keep up with Demyx’s rapid-fire chattering, much less reply. As he studied the floor, Xigbar burst out laughing.
“Hey, c’mon, Xiggy, this is heavy stuff,” said Demyx. “Half our members are gone.”
“Yeah, and you get to double your hours to pick up the slack.” Xigbar gave him an expectant look.
“Blegh… Sure.” Demyx’s shoulders slumped. “I’ll, uh, get right on that.”
“You pulling your weight, too, kiddo?” Xigbar turned to Roxas.
“Yes…,” Roxas replied, but he felt lost in a fog, unable to move.
Then Saïx arrived. “Your mission today is in Twilight Town. Leave as soon as you’re ready.”
Roxas didn’t even feel the usual urge to confirm whether there were really no survivors at Castle Oblivion.
Every time he asked, Saïx would always give the same answer. “It’s being investigated.” He wouldn’t mind hearing that again today.
But now he was afraid to ask.
He would never see Axel again.
Was there a word for how that idea made him feel?
I want to get out of here, Roxas thought, starting off for his mission. He would rather be anywhere else.
Roxas dashed headlong through the streets of Twilight Town destroying Heartless. He didn’t know why. He just had to.
“Annihilated.” “Terminated.” I’ll never see him again.
Every time the realization struck him, he couldn’t bear to stand still. What was driving him forward like this?
He charged down the alleyway, bringing the Keyblade down on the last Heartless, and the heart it released floated away into the air.
Then he heard someone clapping.
“Hey there, Roxas. Nice work. Still taking out Heartless like it’s your job. Wait…I guess it is.”
He whirled and saw—Axel.
“It’s good to see you.” Axel strolled toward him in no particular hurry. “Although, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
It really was him. Him and his ever-present sardonic smile.
Roxas fumbled for words. “They said…the whole team at Castle Oblivion was annihilated…”
“Correction: The weaklings were annihilated,” said Axel, cockily brushing imaginary dirt from his sleeve.
But something feels off, thought Roxas. Besides, Axel isn’t as strong as he says he is—I think.
“You had me worried,” he admitted.
“Worried?” Axel laughed. “That’s a feat, considering you haven’t got a heart to feel with.”
Roxas had to laugh, too—a little bit.
He really was glad that Axel wasn’t gone. Now that they were both here, they could hang out at their usual spot, and…
“I’ll go get us some ice cream!” Roxas took off at a run.
Concluding that his role was to go and wait at their hangout, Axel went on ahead to the clock tower.
When the dust finally settled, he was the only one to return from Castle Oblivion.
That would have been fine—except that he’d lost track of Naminé, Sora, Riku, and the other visitors. There were too many incomprehensible rooms in that castle. And he still hadn’t found that chamber.
“Axel!” Roxas called.
When he turned, he saw Roxas grinning with an ice cream bar in each hand, out of breath after a sprint.
Once again, Axel marveled at the resemblance to Sora. He took an ice cream bar and grinned back. “Your treat today, huh?”
“It’s a special day.” Roxas sat down beside him.
When he laughed, the similarities were even more pronounced. Although Axel hadn’t actually seen Sora laugh back there.
A Nobody like himself and Roxas was created in the instant when the original person became a Heartless. Which meant it was basically impossible to be acquainted with both a Nobody and their somebody. Axel had only one basis for comparison—the single person he’d known as a human and remained close to as a Nobody.
But being able to encounter both a Nobody and their somebody? That was unheard of. By nature, they couldn’t exist at the same time.
And yet, Roxas was right here.
It wasn’t just the Keyblade that made him unique. He existed at the same time as his somebody. That went against all the laws they knew.
The Keyblade embodied the will of the worlds or so Axel had heard somewhere. Were the laws of the universe and its will two different things?
Lost in thought, Axel was staring at their unique Nobody’s boyish profile, which Roxas eventually noticed. “What? Do I have ice cream on my face?”
“Nah, it’s just… I gotta check in with the boss, or he’s gonna let me have it.” Brushing off his distracted mood as anxiety over work, he bit into his ice cream.
“You haven’t gone back to the castle yet?”
“Um… Nope.” Axel shook his head and watched the sunset.
I wasn’t away for all that long, but it feels like ages, he thought.
“Then why’d you come here?” Roxas wondered.
Because before reporting at the castle, before seeing anybody else, I wanted to have ice cream here with you.
Because I wanted to see if you really are Sora’s Nobody.
Axel wasn’t sure which reason he had been focused on. But he hesitated to name either one aloud. “Guess I needed some time to sort out my feelings first.”
He shrugged, and Roxas nudged his shoulder. “No heart, huh?”
They laughed.
That gave him such a strange sensation. Almost as if… Yes, it was like being human again. Like something loud inside his chest.
“Hey, your ice cream’s melting,” Axel teased, hiding his feelings again. “Eat up.”
“Oh. Right.”
Axel took a bite himself, and so did Roxas.
“You know,” Roxas said after a bit, “I started bringing Xion up here while you were gone.”
“Xion? Really?”
Their number 14 seemed to have no memories at all—or even a face, for all Axel knew. He had never seen Xion without the hood pulled up.
“I promised the three of us could have ice cream together once you got back.”
To Axel, that came completely out of the blue.
“Xion and I are friends now,” Roxas added quietly.
Axel was stretched out on his bed, staring vacantly at the ceiling, when Saïx appeared.
“Why didn’t you report in?”
Axel propped himself up to blink at him. “Gee, thanks for the kind words. Glad to see you, too.”
If the needling bothered Saïx, he made no sign of it. “I’m told Naminé has gone missing.”
“She was there one minute and gone the next,” said Axel. “Wonder where she could be.”
That was the plain truth. Of course, he was the one who had incited her to do something, but he didn’t know where she was now.
“And you searched every room?” Saïx prodded.
“You’re kidding, right? That’s like counting grains of dust in a building full of sneezing people.”
Castle Oblivion was full of rooms in which no one had ever set foot. Which was the reason it existed, in a way.
“What about the chamber? Did you find it?”
“Come on, I would’ve told you if I did,” Axel drawled.
Saïx heaved an exaggerated sigh.
In a way, Saïx put more effort than any of the
m into pretending he had a heart, Axel thought. And yet, he was more lacking than any of them.
“Anyway… You were right about everything.” In an attempt to change the subject, Axel hauled himself to his feet and leaned in close to whisper at Saïx’s ear. “About Marluxia, the traitors… You knew exactly what was up.”
“Hmm.” Saïx sniffed. “All I did was find a place to send everyone who was getting in the way.”
Maybe he was telling the truth. The other members were only obstacles to Saïx— No. To both of them.
And yet, Axel couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his response. “Well, nice to know where I stand.”
He said it with a grin, but the hint of a frown tugged at the scar between Saïx’s brows. Apparently, the joke wasn’t very funny. “You made it back in one piece, didn’t you?”
Were you worried I wouldn’t? Axel almost said, but he didn’t want to deal with putting him in an even fouler mood. Disgust and rage seemed to linger closest to the surface of Saïx’s memories.
So he shrugged and offered one more addition to his report. “I took care of Zexion.”
Saïx turned a pointed glare on him.
“Just making sure things go the way you want,” said Axel, holding his gaze. “For now.”
Chapter 7
Inseparable
WHEN ROXAS MADE IT TO THE LOBBY, HE FOUND AXEL WAITING FOR HIM.
“Hey, guess what!” He grinned, turning his palms up in a helpless gesture. “They paired me with you today, as a slap on the wrist.”
“Huh? Why am I a slap on the wrist?” Roxas asked.
“Well, they know how much I hate babysitting.” Axel let out an exaggerated sigh.
“Gee, thanks,” huffed Roxas.
“Sheesh. Would it kill them to give me a day off? I’m exhausted,” Axel whined. “I need my beauty sleep.”
Roxas had to laugh.
“All right, come on, partner.”
“Right behind ya… Oh, just a minute. I need to do some shopping.” Roxas went to talk to the Moogle. “Um…”
“Greetings—kupo? Well, you seem in high spirits today, kupo.”
It was a strange thing to hear. High spirits? Am I happy? I’m a Nobody, with no heart…
Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days Page 9
