The waves sounded so loud. His head hurt.
“Is that you, Riku…?” Naminé murmured as she gazed up at the pod where Sora slept.
With the memories leaking out bit by bit, pieces returned to Sora. She could sense so many people in those memories. One—no, more…
The shards came from several different sources. Riku’s were in the jumble, too.
She remembered because she had tried to manipulate his memory, too, just once. She’d copied that memory into the Replica.
But why was the other girl absorbing Riku’s memories, too?
What is happening?
What exactly is that girl?
Riku gently cradled Xion in her sleep.
His head hurt, and his brows tightened in pain. Why did it hurt so badly…?
He’d first noticed that faint headache a little while ago after recalling what Zexion said to him. Now it was getting much worse—from bearable to excruciating. He had nearly blacked out for a moment, struggling with the worst headache of his life. What was going on?
“Who…am I…?” Xion murmured, her eyes still closed.
Feeling uneasy, Riku lifted his blindfold just a bit to look at her. And just for an instant…she looked like someone else.
Not Kairi or Naminé—but him.
As the vision faded, his headache began to ease. What was that?
Then Riku heard footsteps running on the dock. He looked up to see Roxas dashing for a portal into the Corridors of Darkness.
We’re watching the sunset together, all three of us. We promised to go to the beach.
See? Here we are.
Xion watched the sun sink toward the horizon. Roxas and Axel were beside her. The soft rush of the waves filled the air.
We’ve watched sunsets like this. But I know this isn’t real. I’m just dreaming about something I’ve wished for.
“Is it true that I’m not supposed to exist?” she asked quietly.
“Well, what do you want to do, Xion?” said Axel.
She thought for a moment. Now that someone was asking, she could see the answer for the first time. “I want…I want to be with you two.”
Yes, that’s it.
I just want to stay with them.
But I’m an anomaly. A fake. I’m unworthy of being in the Organization.
“Then come back to us,” said Roxas.
She wished that she could.
“I can’t… Not the way I am now. But…what would it take for me to be like you?” Xion wondered.
Axel and Roxas had no reply. They only watched the sunset.
In Riku’s arms, Xion stirred. He hadn’t meant to get so close or become her savior. But a Nobody with some connection to Sora’s memories was trying to get away from the Organization, and he intended to help her with that, at least a little. Plus, he could learn more about what she was doing.
He’d never expected that it would lead to them meeting on the islands of his home.
“Are you…?” She groaned.
He paused for a moment, uncertain how to respond, then decided to tell her the truth. “Riku. Sora’s friend.”
“…Sora? You know Sora?”
“Yeah.” Riku helped Xion get herself upright.
“Thank you,” she said.
Riku replied with a slight shrug, unaccustomed to genuine gratitude from others.
“You saved me… But I don’t know why you did.”
“I guess I just felt like it,” he said vaguely, listening to the ocean instead. The ceaseless rush of the tides never changed.
Xion looked out at the island’s tiny promontory. “Riku, please… Tell me more—about Sora and that girl he’s always with.”
“You mean Kairi.”
“Kairi… That’s right. She’s the one who looks so much like me.”
“To Sora, she’s someone very special.” Riku focused on the distant horizon. Only a year had passed since the three of them talked on the beach here, and yet, it felt like eons ago.
“It’s just…I remember things about the two of them,” said Xion. “But I’m nothing more than a puppet, something that somebody created. So why do I have these memories? What does it mean?”
Gazing at the sea, Riku had no answer.
“Do you know where Sora is now?”
“That secret stays with me,” he said.
“Why’s that?”
Riku had resolved to answer all of Xion’s questions. If she really was made out of Sora’s memories, then she was a piece of him, and that made Riku unwilling to lie to her. “Xion…your memories… They come from Sora.”
“So you mean I’m like a part of him?”
Xion hung her head, staring at the waves soaking her feet.
“When his memories were scattered, some of them found their way inside you. Now, Sora has been put to sleep so that we can piece together his memory. Except…”
She turned then, looking up at him. “You can’t, because part of it is inside me. That means…he can’t wake up.”
“Yeah. That’s about the size of it. But if you go with me to Sora right now, we could give the memories inside you back to him.”
At that suggestion, Xion lowered her gaze for a moment—only a moment, before raising her eyes defiantly. “Do you hate me for taking your friend away from you?”
“Nah. I guess…I’m just sad,” Riku replied.
Talking to her like this, Xion reminded him of Sora and Kairi as he saw her. So Riku couldn’t hate her.
“I’m sorry, but…I can’t go with you,” said Xion. “It’s my friends—they need me. And I need them, too.”
Friends… The word echoed in Riku’s chest. She was strong enough to be honest with her own feelings. Sora had that same strength.
“Then take some time and think about it,” Riku told her. “Think about where you really belong, Xion.”
“Where I…belong?” She looked down at the sand. “How will I know? I’m not sure I can promise you I’ll come up with the right answer.”
Even her self-doubt was so much like Sora.
“Well, the answer you come up with can’t just be right for just you,” said Riku. “It has to be the one that works best for everybody—you and your friends and everyone else. Just think about it.”
Even as he said those words, it felt like he was avoiding the real issue. But it was still true, he thought, fixating on the line between sea and sky. The afternoon sun was already turning the water red.
“I’ll try.” Xion gave him a hint of a smile. “Thanks, Riku.”
He would have to make up his mind soon.
Staring absently at the setting sun, Axel bit into his ice cream.
What should he do? What did he want to do?
It seemed he’d been thinking about nothing else for ages.
A replica, a manufactured puppet…and a Nobody, a being that shouldn’t exist. Axel heaved a sigh and wondered if there was really much of a difference.
Nobodies had no hearts. What they had was self-awareness, a sentience guided by memory. But Axel had come to wonder lately—if memory directed all their actions, was that really limited to the memories from their human lives? Wouldn’t they be swayed by memories of the day before—even minutes ago?
Memories from when they were human were just more vivid.
What do I want to do?
And what am I supposed to do?
He wasn’t sure that bringing Xion back to the Organization would be good for her. Although when he was sitting here eating ice cream, the answer seemed perfectly clear.
And here came proof positive.
“Hey… It’s been a while.” Roxas sounded surprised to see him.
Axel turned with a grin. “You think so?”
But Roxas didn’t have a smile in him. Axel shouldn’t have expected one.
Roxas sat down beside Axel as usual. “I got to go to the beach for my mission today,” he said, pausing for a bite of ice cream. “And there was this girl who looked kind of like Xi
on…”
Axel peered at him. There was something hazy about his eyes.
“But I couldn’t get close enough to tell for sure. I probably imagined it. To be honest, I’m not even sure today’s mission really happened…” Roxas took another bite of ice cream. “I feel like I just woke up from a dream or something.”
Apparently, Xion’s disappearance was deeply affecting Roxas. He kept rambling without looking at Axel.
“You know how we promised one another we’d all go to the beach?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I felt like she was there today. But…maybe just because I wanted her to be there.” Roxas looked unwaveringly toward the sinking sun.
I do have to make up my mind, huh? Axel thought. Right about now.
He dragged himself to his feet and stretched. “You wanna go look for her?”
“Huh?” Roxas finally looked at him. “But Xemnas said—”
Axel grinned. “Forget him. Starting tomorrow, let’s use our spare time between work and coming here to try and find Xion.”
“Okay… Yeah, it’s a deal!” Roxas nodded and stood to face him—and smiled.
Maybe we will get to go to the beach together one day. Roxas’s smile had ignited hope in Axel’s mind, and he rejected the doubts that followed. Instead, he chose to watch the sunset.
Chapter 2
Quickening Memory
XION HELD HER KNEES TO HER CHEST AND STARED AT THE WALL. This world was so quiet. Dead silent.
Hollow Bastion, this place was called. She was back in that small room in the huge castle, once Riku’s and now hers. She wasn’t sure how many days had gone by. Riku came in to check on her every couple of days.
She had stopped dreaming quite so much. But she remembered the one she had that day—on the Destiny Islands. The three of them were together at the beach, watching the sunset.
I want to be with you two. That was her only wish. How could she be more like them? Enough to stay with them?
Her origins were so different. Maybe it was impossible.
What should I do?
She peered at her gloved hands and then removed the gloves. Her fingers were pale white.
Come to think of it—she hadn’t seen herself in a while. At the Organization, she had looked in the mirror every day.
What would I look like to myself today?
Standing in the cave in Agrabah, Roxas sighed.
His mission had brought him here today, so after he was done, he had wandered as far down as he could go in search of Xion. But he found nothing. There was no sign of her in any of the worlds he’d been to, nor of that Organization impostor she was after. Only Heartless that swiftly fell to his Keyblade.
He had started sleeping better since they decided to look for her. That perpetual muzzy feeling had left him, as if it had never been, and the worlds were all in color again. He wondered what that meant.
He’d been stumbling through days that were no more than numbers to be counted. Maybe it was losing Xion that had made everything seem so murky—or so he’d thought, but she was still gone, and yet, he felt better. What had changed?
The only difference was that he and Axel had decided to look for Xion. He didn’t know why that was enough to change his outlook so much.
Maybe his memories were so indistinct because he’d done nothing but follow orders for days on end. He went to a different world each day but did basically the same things, so there wasn’t much to recall… Still, he felt it was more than that.
And he didn’t even know why Xion had left the Organization. Had she failed another mission? Or was it something with Saïx? What could have happened to her that Roxas didn’t know? True, she had been acting strange—but not strange enough to make him worry she would leave.
What happened…? Why, Xion?
And he was stuck with all these questions. It was so frustrating. Roxas clutched the Keyblade so hard his knuckles turned white.
Anxiety came over him. He began to wonder—would he ever see Xion again?
Tomorrow, he would search another world.
They gave Axel the same mission again: Hunt down the impostor, Riku. He’d been on that for a while now. He kept expecting them to tack on the objective of searching for Xion, but fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—Saïx gave him no such order.
Axel looked out over Neverland’s ocean and leaned back, stretching. He couldn’t sense any trace of Riku or Xion here, either.
What did the Organization intend to do about Xion? Were they going to let her wander freely until she led them to the Keyblade master? Or…did they actually know where she was?
But if they did, they wouldn’t have Axel looking for Riku.
He hadn’t breathed a word to Saïx that Xion was probably with Riku. But he couldn’t have said why he was keeping his suspicions to himself.
But that had allowed him to suggest looking for her with Roxas. It was a choice, a resolution toward a certain path, and it was also…what?
Friendship?
Axel made a wry grimace at the word. His doubts still remained, and he agonized over what would be the best course of action.
Would he ever find the answer?
Roxas and Axel sat side by side, watching the sunset, in their usual spot on Twilight Town’s clock tower.
“It’s no use.” Roxas sighed. “We’re never gonna find her.”
They’d been to world after world searching for Xion with not even the faintest clue to show for it.
“Isn’t there somewhere you haven’t looked yet?” asked Axel.
“I’ve been everywhere I know how to get to.” Roxas stared down at the toes of his boots.
If there’s some other place I haven’t tried…it would have to be somewhere I’ve never been before. But somewhere Xion might know…
Then maybe—
Roxas said it as soon as it crossed his mind. “The only place I haven’t looked is Castle Oblivion.”
He stared at Axel until their gazes met.
That had to be it. He could recall Xion saying something about Castle Oblivion. Why had he forgotten until just now? Roxas kept thinking aloud. “Xion was asking about it, remember?”
Axel’s eyebrows twitched downward.
“And the day before she disappeared, you said she was put on an important mission,” Roxas went on. “When you go on those important missions, it’s to Castle Oblivion, right? So maybe Xion is—”
“Look, the place has been cleared out, man,” Axel interrupted, trying to derail this train of thought. “There’s nothing there.”
But still— Roxas couldn’t let the idea go.
“You know…that’s where she comes from. Castle Oblivion.”
“What? Really?” Roxas spluttered in surprise.
“That’s probably why she was asking about it,” Axel added.
“I had no idea…” Roxas slumped. Xion had never told him that.
And Axel hadn’t mentioned it before, either…
“Hey, neither did I,” said Axel. “I only found out about it a little while ago myself.”
“Castle Oblivion…,” Roxas murmured distantly. When had Xion discovered her origins there? She had no memory of her past, like him.
And their memories of the time right after becoming Nobodies were fuzzy, too. So maybe Xion wanted to know more about that strange, uncertain time for herself. But they had never discussed it.
Maybe Xion was struggling with something on her own.
Friends were supposed to help each other out when they were in trouble. But Roxas couldn’t do anything for her. He hung his head in the sunset’s glow.
She dreamed for the first time in a while.
She was in Castle Oblivion. But whose dream was it?
Or maybe it wasn’t a dream at all, Xion thought as she blinked awake.
She still didn’t know what she would find. But she felt like she had to go.
All the secrets were there.
Axel flopped over in his bed and st
ared at the ceiling. There was still some time before he had to head to the Grey Area.
He had lied to Roxas yesterday. Although it wasn’t the first time.
A single white lie had led to another, and even when he told the truth, he was trapped in the web of falsehoods. Had it really been necessary to tell Roxas about Xion’s origins in Castle Oblivion? He was regretting it now.
But he didn’t want to lie to Roxas. That feeling had been real, too. Almost like he had a heart…
He was still lying—well, lying by omission. He couldn’t tell Roxas the whole truth about Xion now. Actually, he was pretty sure he should never tell him.
Axel clung to the faint hope that keeping the truth to himself would allow both Roxas and Xion to keep existing.
Allow them to exist. Ha. Nobodies weren’t even supposed to exist in the first place. It was right there in the name—nobody, nonexistent. So why did he keep thinking about it?
Xion, Castle Oblivion…and Riku.
That castle was a very particular place. If he went there with Roxas, they might discover something.
Axel clambered out of bed. He got the feeling nothing would change if he didn’t make some kind of move.
Just like one lie led to another and another.
If he was going to bring Roxas to Castle Oblivion, a reason would help. Like a fierce enemy appearing there.
An enemy like the Organization impostor. Like Riku.
It was a while since Roxas had spent a restless night, but Castle Oblivion had given him one. He made his way to the Grey Area just a bit behind schedule.
Hopefully, the mission would be quick today. The more time he got to look for Xion, the better. When he stepped into the lobby, Axel and Saïx were deep in discussion.
He stopped short when he overheard Saïx. “The impostor has been sighted again?”
“The impostor?” Roxas started. “You mean—”
“He’s prowling about Castle Oblivion as we speak.”
“I’ll go.” The words were out in an instant.
If he met the Organization impostor, he could inquire about Xion—but really, he just wanted to go to Castle Oblivion. Xion had mentioned going there, so maybe he would find out something.
Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days Page 24
