Kingdom Hearts 358-2 Days

by Tomoco Kanemaki

  “You just worry about yourself,” said Axel. “That guy in the cloak won’t go down without a fight.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Roxas nodded without meeting his eyes.

  “Anyway, let’s check Twilight Town separately.”

  “Huh? Why?” Roxas asked, looking up. He didn’t see why they couldn’t work together.

  “We’ll find our targets faster if we split up. That’s just math. C’mon, let’s get going,” he urged.

  Roxas willed his feet to move, but they felt heavy.

  Things weren’t the same between them. He didn’t know what to do. How can I possibly fix it…?

  Did Roxas realize he was lying?

  Axel’s mind wandered as he went down the slope from the station plaza to the tram common.

  It was probably better for him if he never found out, Axel thought. But that was too optimistic.

  Roxas was starting to resent the Organization because of Xion. It was an uncomfortable idea, but some of the blame lay with Axel, and he was getting worried that Roxas’s doubts might include him as well.

  And he was still uncertain what was best for Roxas or for Xion. He couldn’t guess what would come of it if the two of them had any more contact. The only thing he knew was that Xion was copying Roxas’s memories and his powers.

  What would happen if the process ran to completion? He didn’t know that, either.

  Axel walked on. He wanted to find Xion before Roxas did—and that was why he had them split up. If he could find her first, maybe he could defuse some of the tension.

  But how would everyone be satisfied without getting hurt? How could he make that happen? He doubted it was even possible. That didn’t mean he was about to give up, though.

  He walked on.

  Uncertain what to do, Xion perched on a rooftop over the tram common. There was the shop where they’d always buy their ice cream to enjoy together.

  Would they ever be able to do that again?

  Riku said that if she waited in Twilight Town, Roxas and Axel would be sure to turn up. But she still wasn’t sure. Should she really let them see her? Should she go back to the Organization?

  She would have to leave them again eventually. But just for now—

  Then Xion jumped to her feet as she spotted a familiar figure. “Roxas…”

  He paused, his head swiveling this way and that—searching. Probably for her or Riku.

  Was she supposed to just…appear in front of him? What should she do?

  But as she hesitated, Roxas looked up. And he saw her.

  “Xion—!!” he cried.

  She darted away like a startled animal. How could she face him?

  Roxas chased after her.

  What could she say to him?

  There wasn’t much time left, Riku had told her. But that meant there was some. He hadn’t said how much. Nor had he given her any advice about what to do with it.

  All he’d done was give her a tiny push.

  But now she was running away. Her lungs ached. And she was lost.

  Branching off the plaza were some garages—and a dead end.

  “Xion!”

  I can’t run anymore. Xion stopped and pushed back her hood to look at Roxas.

  A strange, awkward smile came to his face as he stepped toward her. She avoided his gaze without quite meaning to.

  “Where’ve you been? Axel and I have been looking all over for you.”

  “You have?” She still couldn’t meet his eyes. “Sorry.”

  She wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say. Maybe she was sorry for deserting or…something else on the endless list.

  Roxas stepped closer, reaching out toward her. “Let’s go home. If you come back voluntarily, Saïx will let all this drop. He has to.”

  Saïx— But Saïx isn’t the problem. It’s me. I’m the problem. And Roxas doesn’t even know.

  Something in Xion’s chest panged. She clenched her fist there, hanging her head.

  “I don’t care what he said. I’ll be there.”

  She looked up at Roxas’s stubborn declaration. His unguarded smile made her chest ache even more. I’m not… I can’t…

  “Me and Axel, we’ll make sure—”

  Xion shook her head, cutting him off. I can’t do it after all.

  “I really can’t.”

  “Why not? Come on…,” Roxas demanded, hurt.

  But she didn’t have any answers for him. She still hadn’t found them for herself.

  She turned away. She wanted to run away—from here, from the Organization, from Roxas. From herself.

  “Wait!” Roxas took hold of her hand.

  She didn’t move. I have no idea what to do. What am I supposed to do? I just don’t know. But if running away is bad…then what? Maybe…?

  Slowly, Xion turned, summoning the Keyblade to her hand.

  “Wh…what…?” Roxas gasped.

  Her Keyblade was identical to the one Roxas had lent her that time.

  I’m sorry, Roxas. I just can’t, not yet…

  As she lifted her arm to point the Keyblade at him, something knocked it aside. A bladed ring—a chakram. Axel—!

  She watched the weapon return to its owner.

  “Well, hello there, Xion.” Axel stood there with a smirk.

  Roxas spun to look at him, too.

  Oh, so that’s how it is. Maybe. Sure. Xion leaped at Axel, Keyblade swinging. She had no intention of losing, but she did have doubts. Axel knows, doesn’t he? I probably can’t go back to the Organization. But what does he think?

  She heard Roxas pleading, “No, wait!”

  I’m sorry, Roxas. Axel knows what I am, and he’s going to tell me to come back. Riku gave me this chance, but…I can’t take it. Not like this.

  Xion jumped back from Axel and let out a furious shout. Then—she charged.

  “Stop!” Roxas screamed.

  Why did that make her falter?

  The air had frozen around her—no, she just couldn’t breathe.

  She felt someone behind her, then a blow to her back. Then everything went dark.

  * * *

  He was a moment too late. Roxas had found Xion first.

  Axel had folded his arms and eavesdropped.

  If Roxas had managed to talk her into coming back, so much the better. But Xion made her choice: a definite no.

  And the choice Axel made was to secure her. In that instant, he determined there was no other way. He believed he’d chosen the path that would hurt Roxas less.

  Even now, he wasn’t sure whether it was right. But he was sure—mostly sure—that it was the best one out of the options he had at the time.

  When Roxas screamed at them to stop, Xion flinched for barely a split second—but it was enough for him to dart behind her and knock her out with a blow to the back of her neck. He caught her as she fell, and Roxas ran to them.

  Axel turned away and opened the Corridors of Darkness, and then he was on his way back to the castle with Xion, alone.

  He still had no idea how to explain things to Roxas, and his thoughts had been so tangled he couldn’t even begin to find the words. That self-doubt had led him to turn his back on his friend. Maybe that, if nothing else, would plant the seeds of distrust in Roxas. But in that moment, Axel had seen no other way.

  Xion had her own doubts, and that was why she had rejected Roxas. Axel had no idea what might happen between those two after this. Someday, she would reach her decision, so for now he would have to obey the Organization—and Saïx.

  What would she do? What would happen to her?

  And Roxas?

  Gazing at the pod that held the sleeping Xion, Axel wondered what was to come.

  Roxas hung his head. The late afternoon sun shone on his slumped back, and a long shadow stretched before him.

  Why…? Why was this happening? He didn’t know anything.

  Not why Axel had abandoned him in Twilight Town. Or even what had just
happened.

  Xion pointed her Keyblade at me. Axel threw a chakram to knock it aside. And I couldn’t do anything.

  Why did she threaten me with the Keyblade? Why was she saying she can’t come back? Why did Axel attack her? We could have talked to her more if he didn’t start fighting. Why did he have to do that?

  Roxas squinted into the bright, warm sunlight. He had to go see Xion.

  He opened the Corridors of Darkness and stepped into the swirling portal.

  Once he arrived in the Castle That Never Was, he went straight for Xion’s room. Surely she’d be there, just resting after her ordeal…

  Axel was waiting for Roxas to come back. He would pretend he hadn’t been, of course—he would just happen to run into him. He leaned against the wall of the long hallway, staring into space.

  He’d put Xion in a pod to sleep rather than her bed, because she was no longer being treated as a Nobody who once was human. Her status had reflected what she really was. And he couldn’t let Roxas find out yet.

  “Axel!”

  At the sound of his name, Axel looked up. Roxas was furious, perhaps unsurprisingly, but Axel still answered with a smile. “Oh, hey, Roxas.”

  “Where is she?” Roxas demanded, breathless with effort.

  “Safe,” said Axel.

  Roxas grabbed his collar and shouted, “How could you do that to her?!”

  “Do what?”

  Axel’s stubborn calm took the wind from his sails, and Roxas went slack. His voice came out small and defeated. “You didn’t have to use force…”

  Axel sighed theatrically and circled his shoulders. “Didn’t I?”

  Still gripping Axel’s collar, Roxas shook his head with the emphatic refusal of a little kid. “No, you didn’t…” But he sounded uncertain as he said it, and his voice shrank even more. “We’re supposed to be best friends.”

  Axel brushed Roxas’s hands from his collar. “This isn’t about friendship.”

  Roxas raised his head. The glare in his blue eyes was sharp as a knife.

  Axel had never seen that from him before. His chest twinged, just a bit. He let out another sigh. “Listen, if that’s all, I gotta go.”

  Roxas wilted again, and something in his expression weakened Axel’s resolve slightly.

  I just did what I thought was the best thing at the time. For Roxas, for Xion, for the Organization—and for Isa. But most of all for me.

  He turned away from Roxas and made himself walk away.

  “Didn’t I?”

  That was Axel’s reply. He had to. Really?

  Roxas bit his lip, staring at the white floor.

  Maybe Axel was right, but surely he could have found another way. But right now, Roxas wanted to ask about Xion. He wanted to see her.

  He gathered his strength and ran the rest of the way to her room.

  He knocked on the door and went inside—but there was no sleeping Xion to be found.

  “Xion…?”

  He stood helplessly beside her bed.

  After he left Roxas, Axel’s distracted wandering through the hallways came to a stop when he saw someone else.

  Leaning against the wall with folded arms was his once-upon-a-time best friend—Saïx—probably waiting for him. But Saïx was keeping his gaze fixed on an imaginary point below the floor.

  “You’re sure things are better this way?” Axel wondered aloud.

  Finally, Saïx looked up. “I never expected you to question it.”

  Question it? Well, that was one way of referring to the buzzing doubt in his chest.

  Saïx left his perch by the wall and came closer. “Which one is more dear to you? Roxas or the puppet?”

  Axel looked away. “Dear” to him? What would he know about that as a Nobody?

  “Or put it this way,” Saïx said, as if he’d heard himself. “Which one would you rather suffer the loss of? Some idiotic charade of friendship or Roxas himself?”

  The answer to that was obvious. If it came down to Roxas or a puppet, Axel knew perfectly well which one he would save.

  “Things are finally right again,” Saïx went on. “Of course, we’re better off this way.”

  Axel had no retort for that. Maybe because he didn’t want to alienate Saïx anymore.

  “Xemnas is exasperated from all the ‘fixing’ we’ve had to do. We have to set things right. There is too much on the line…Lea.”

  Hearing his old name, Axel glanced up to see Saïx watching him intently. He remembered being human. Memories surged inside him, crowding the space in his chest. For Nobodies, memory had all the weight of a heart.

  I remember. I won’t forget. But those sunsets with Roxas and Xion were part of his memory.

  Axel broke away again from Saïx’s gaze, looking down at nothing.

  Xion isn’t here.

  Roxas tore out of her room and ran. A horrible anxiety seized him.

  She isn’t here. Axel brought her back, but she isn’t here.

  He passed Xaldin in the hallway. “Hey—have you seen Xion?”

  Xaldin was entirely uninterested. “What would I know about Xion?”

  “Fine…” Roxas kept running toward the lobby.

  Why was he so nervous? He just wanted to talk to her—about Axel, about what had happened, about what came next.

  In the lobby, he found Luxord on the sofa with his cards spread out on the low table.

  “Do you know where Xion is?” Roxas asked from behind him.

  Luxord paused mid-flip and turned to face Roxas. “I wasn’t aware Xion had returned.”

  “So you haven’t seen her?”

  “That certainly is the implication.” Luxord returned to his cards.

  Roxas let out a tiny sigh and drooped hopelessly. No one knew where she was. Well, Axel probably did—but he didn’t want to talk to him. And while Saïx might know, he couldn’t expect any straight answers from him where Xion was concerned.

  And that leaves… Maybe…

  The only one who came to mind was the lofty personage he’d never even spoken to since joining the Organization. He turned to the window to see the great heart-shaped moon hanging in the sky.

  Xemnas. He just might know something about Xion.

  Roxas clenched his fists, bit his lip, and left the Grey Area.

  Making the decision to ask Xemnas was one thing, but he had no idea how to find him. The place where they usually saw Xemnas was…the Round Room.

  So that was his next stop. Come to think of it, this might be his first time just walking to the Round Room. No—he’d walked when Axel first brought him here. Just not when they were summoned.

  Roxas opened the huge doors and looked up at the thirteen towering seats. And, as if he’d known Roxas would come, Xemnas was there.

  Resting his chin in his hand, he looked down at Roxas.

  “I need to ask you something,” Roxas blurted.

  Xemnas responded with stoic calm. “And what would that be?”

  “What happened to Xion? Can you tell me?”

  Xemnas’s mouth formed a simulated smile. “Put your mind at ease. Xion is a valued member of our Organization, but she needs her rest.”

  A valued member of the Organization. That phrasing did reassure Roxas somewhat, and the news that she was just resting helped a bit more. He doubted that Xemnas would indulge any more prying, though.

  Suddenly everything twisted in front of him—but he knew this feeling. It was the same warping he felt in Castle Oblivion. Vertigo washed over him, and he ducked his head, trying not to lose his balance.

  And he heard a voice…

  “Sora.”

  No, this was a memory.

  Like Xemnas had called him that once, on that gloomy seashore.

  “…Sora.” Roxas murmured the name aloud.

  Xemnas laughed softly, and Roxas looked up.

  “Who is Sora?” he wondered to no one in particular.

  After staring at him in silence for a moment, Xemnas murmured in reply. “
He is the connection.”

  “The what?” Roxas said, mystified.

  “He is what makes you and Xion part of each other’s lives. And the reason I placed Xion among our number.”

  He makes us part of each other’s lives…? What did that mean?

  “If you want her to stay that way,” Xemnas went on, “I must insist you get your mind off these needless distractions. I will have Xion return to her duties tomorrow. Today, you must focus on yours.”

  Roxas had no reason to think he was lying. But what was this “connection”?

  Xemnas had just told him not to let the questions distract him, if he wanted Xion to stay with them. Was he supposed to just leave well enough alone?

  He didn’t want to.

  Still, knowing that Xion was still considered part of the Organization was more important than any other doubts he might have. So Roxas nodded. “All right.”

  Satisfied, Xemnas disappeared from the highest seat, leaving him alone with his thoughts in the Round Room.

  “Connection…?”

  Chapter 4

  Taking Too Much

  SOMETHING WAS DEFINITELY WRONG.

  Naminé gazed up at Sora’s pod, so nervous she could hardly breathe.

  Is it already too late…?

  Brisk footsteps announced DiZ’s presence. “What’s happened here?” he demanded.

  “It’s Sora… His memory has stopped.” Naminé glanced at the monitoring devices beside the pod. The data displayed there told the same story.

  “Stopped?”

  Naminé let out a breath and looked up at the pod again. “Unless something is done, he’ll never awake from his slumber.”

  DiZ, too, considered the pod for a moment. “Then so be it. The gloves must come off.”

  “But—!” she began to protest, lowering her head.

  She’d always known. Just as DiZ said, a day would come when they would have to take back Sora’s memories by force. And yet, when she thought of Roxas and that girl, she couldn’t accept that there was no other way.

  “Those Nobodies had no business existing in the first place—as you well know, Naminé.”

  “Yes…,” she murmured, even though it pierced her through to hear it.