Chapter Text
She ignored the first red flag of her losing her powers once Sora vanished.
Xion, last name pending, had finally managed to drag herself back into the world of the living and awake, after being trapped inside of Sora’s heart for over a year or so.
She wasn’t the only one, either. A number of people, most created from splintering from the boy, had found residence in Sora’s ‘Heart Hotel’. Alongside herself, Roxas and Ventus both needed to help in the climactic battle against Xehanort and his… many selves.
Xehanort. A man so isolationist and friendless he’d split himself apart across time to win his war… It left an odd weight in the pit of Xion’s stomach, no matter how much she tried to shake it.
She was one of the “Lucky chosen” to get a shard of his heart and sent through time, after all.
Well, technically that was her heart from the past, not hers now, because of how time travel–
Where was she again?
Ah, yes. Ventus and Roxas and her.
Time in Sora’s heart had been a heavy blur, but it was a boat all of them had shared. The same sense of unreality. The same inability to exist on their own. The same time swallowed up so deeply by someone else’s soul that they’d never see the light of day again.
They all got out.
So why was she the only one who couldn’t summon her keyblade anymore?
“They just up and left?” Axel, man of a thousand quilly red hairs, quirked a brow in disbelief. “But, Xion, you were fighting just fine with us at the battle!”
“I know, but–” Xion shook her head. “–my powers just faded, all of the sudden. My magic, the keyblade, everything!”
“Seriously!?” He gaped at her.
It had been just a couple days since Sora’s essence dissolved to a plane above (hopefully above), when Xion finally discovered that her everything was on the fritz. Perhaps it was bad it took her a bit to notice, but she just got her own body again, dang it! Let the girl live a little.
So the black haired teen went to the only people she trusted on the matter.
“So…” Roxas, Sora’s Nobody who looked nothing like him, tapped his chin. “Basically, you can’t summon your keyblade again, right Xion?”
“Oh!” Xion gasped.
Ah, that’s right! While they worked for Organization XIII, Xion had lost the ability to wield the keyblade for a time. Boy, that was terrifying. She could have been eliminated if she didn’t get it back.
No wonder she was so calm. The stakes weren’t nearly as high as the first time!
…What had caused that first time, actually? Hmm. Maybe it was related? Axel left for Castle Oblivion, Roxas fell asleep, and…
“Xion? You good?” Roxas looked concerned.
“Hmm?” Xion shook her head. “Sorry, I’m okay,” she downplayed. She’d have to file that thought for later.
“Course she isn’t good,” Axel retorted, “she can’t even do magic this time! Xion managed even that when Isa was breathing down her neck.”
“Hmm…” Roxas pursed his lips.
Suddenly, Roxas’s face brightened up like a Christmas tree. “Aha!”
Then his hands literally brightened up, and one black and one white keyblade rested in each palm.
Axel clapped his hands together. “Of course! Two keyblades! Good thinking Roxas!”
“Oathkeeper and Oblivion…” Xion looked over the two beautifully crafted blades.
The Kingdom Key was fine swinging around like a blunt object, but these two felt so artisanally made! She almost felt guilty smacking denizens of the dark with one of them. Good thing they were magic.
“Here.” Roxas presented her with the black keyblade, Oblivion. “I can improvise, just like last time!”
“With the stick?” Xion grimaced.
“Xion, that was a stick. This is a keyblade.” Roxas waved Oathkeeper in front of her face. “C’mon, relax!”
Xion rolled her tongue, unable to think of a retort. “...It shouldn’t hurt to share.”
She grabbed the charcoal colored blade and a sudden wave of offness radiated from her hand. It was like trying to wear used shoes that had been morphed by someone else’s feet.
“Roxas… is this okay…?”
Roxas didn’t notice her discomfort. “Well, Oblivion actually reduces your magic, which you don’t have right now so it’s not actually a downside, efficient right? Plus you love the color black so I figured–”
Xion snorted.
“Roxas, you dork, I meant something else entirely!”
“Wha-, hey!” Roxas’s cheeks flushed scarlett.
“Better change your keyblade’s name to Dork-Keeper, Roxas, you’re losing your edge.” Axel joined in.
Roxas crossed his arms and grumbled, but it was obvious he was holding back a smile from the way his lip twitched. Xion thought her brother looked so sweet when he failed to present angstily.
“Alright, alright,” Axel nudged her shoulder, “now that we’ve had a good laugh, what did you mean, Xion?”
“Ah, right.” Xion nodded. “It’s just, aren’t your keyblades special, Roxas?”
“Well yeah.” Roxas smiled. “I wouldn’t have gotten them without you, Xion, you’re what makes them special.”
She’s what?
“Without me?” Xion glanced at Axel. “When did I help with that?”
Axel shrugged. “Beats me, he just started swinging them around like a maniac when I tried capturing him. Figured it was an adrenaline thing or something.”
“Roxas would manage that in a crazed rage.” Xion agreed like it was simply a fact of life.
Roxas choked indignantly. “You guys seriously don’t remember–? Oh crap!” He suddenly exclaimed. “Of course you wouldn’t know!”
“W-What?” Xion nervously asked.
He fidgeted with Oathkeeper’s charm. “...It was when you lost your first body.”
Oh. Right.
When she was a parasitic memory clone, a replica, who needed to be put down for Sora’s existence.
Xion rolled memories of her history in her head. “I… got absorbed into you after that. Which means…”
She looked at the keyblade. Her keyblade? Hers, but somehow not hers at the same time.
“Hey, it’s in the past!” Axel patted Xion on the shoulder. “Besides, it’s easy math. You had a keyblade, he had a keyblade, boom, two keyblades. Simple and clean.”
“Yeah.” Xion nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, Axel. That makes sense!”
He grinned. “Good, you got it memorized. Now–”
A sudden crashing sound from down the hall alerted their attention.
“Aqua!” Axel snarled. “I told you to be careful while you examined those!”
“Sorry!” Came a woman’s voice. “Your chakrams are fire based, so it kinda meshed with my water magic and-, oh wow that’s a lot of steam.”
Axel groaned, exhausted. “You two stay here. Don’t bash your heads in with your new toys, now.”
Xion lightly bonked Oblivion’s blunt edge over her head. “Heh, no promises~.”
“Quit it, you’re gonna give me a migraine.” Axel’s smile betrayed him, before he quickly stomped down the Land of Departure hallway to examine the damage.
Xion hummed.
Roxas still hadn’t said anything. He just silently played with Oathkeeper’s keychain. Holding his thoughts in, as usual.
“So you don’t believe it’s so simple either, huh?” Xion started.
Roxas flinched. “U-uh–,” His shoulders sagged. “...Yeah. I’m worried about you, Xion.”
“Mmm.” Xion smiled. “It’s okay.”
How Roxas still had two keyblades after she split off with a third could be addressed later.
She held up Oblivion high. “This is a symbol of our bond. No matter what, we’ll be connected.”
Roxas considered her words. He clearly looked hesitant, but a slow smile inched upwards regardless. “Yeah, hard to get any closer than how we have, huh?”
“Mhm!”
He held up Oathkeeper, letting it cross with Oblivion.
Xion boasted. “Now let’s get my magic back, cause we have a connection that’s unbreakable!”
Roxas grinned. “Wouldn’t break it for any world!”
Another crashing, with extra hiss, came from down the hall. That and a rather unmasculine scream from Axel.
“Woah, sounds like they need help.” Roxas’s brows raised. “Better leave this to me cause, you know.”
“Magic schmagic.” Xion did jazz hands with a grin.
Roxas ran off, hopefully to hold back the chaos bubbling out from the testing room.
Xion let out a breath as he rounded the corner.
The blade in her hand was Roxas’s. There was no doubt about it in her mind now. Where had hers gone if this wasn’t it?
Unbreakable bond…
She stared at the chain running between Oblivion’s blade.
Just how strong was her connection with Sora?
“–ow does that feel? Better?”
“Mmngh?” Xion’s eyelids were heavy as she groggily opened them. An absolutely disastrous wave of sunlight assaulted her eyes.
She was pulled out of her sleep by an unfamiliar girl’s voice.
Strelitzia’s voice.
…Okay, she was woken up by a Strelitzia. Whoever the heck that was.
But she just met her?
Xion quickly rubbed the blurriness out of her eyes. She did? When?
The veil lifted to reveal a young, pale girl with green eyes and orange hair; who was giving her an increasingly concerned stare. She was quite pretty, with her white dress and black ribbon.
She had never seen this girl before in her life.
She first saw her this morning.
Oh. Then was this one of Roxas’s friends?
Xion had slept in one of their houses the night before, after all. Didn’t get that much of a chance to really talk with them, cause it was the big night for Roxas to finally spend time with them again.
It was better to give them private time for the whole ‘I was friends with you in a digital recreation of this town, it traumatized me horribly, wanna be friends irl?’ talk.
So she hung out more for background support. Might as well bide her time until the next morning to finally get to meet them. Learn how to embarrass Roxas in front of them for good measure.
Hayner, Pence, and… Strelitzia? Yeah, okay, that checks out.
That’s silly, She could never forget Olette! Not after She saw the girl wield that wicked spiked bat!
…What? She never saw that. What the heck was going on?
“You… didn’t answer my question.” Strelitzia spoke up. “Are you quite alright?”
Xion didn’t know how to respond.
Xion’s lips moved.
“I’m having these weird thoughts all of the sudden, is that normal?”
Xion didn’t say that.
Of course She said it.
“Weird?” Strelitzia looked curious. “Do they feel wrong?”
“No, not at all, actually.” Why did she say that? “I suddenly feel like everything’s clicked into place. It’s…kind of amazing, I love it!”
Xion so desperately wanted to argue with the voice coming out of her, to retort whatever thoughts were slipping out of her body without her input.
But to her light horror she realized she agreed with the voice.
Things felt overwhelmingly right like this. She felt light surges of peace and butterflies in her stomach with every moment spent thinking on it. She had never felt this bubbly joy before.
She tried glancing around the room to find a source for this sudden burst of–
This wasn’t Hayner’s house.
She jolted upwards and screeched. “Where am I?!”
“W-What?” Strelitzia sweated.
“Is this an apartment!? What am I doing here!?” Panic fully gripped her body. “I went to sleep in a futon, next to Roxas’s! W-why did I wake up on this couch!? Where is everyone!?”
Strelitzia flinched backwards, blinking owlishly.
Was she Xion’s captor? The reason her body was so off but so right all of the sudden?
The girl gave Xion a good, long, inquisitive look. “...What’s your name?”
“Xion!” She gasped out.
She–
SHe–
Xion? Sora asked.
Xion jolted up from her futon with a hearty gasp.
Breathing heavy, drenched in sweat, Xion’s eyes darted around her immediate surroundings.
Hayner’s parents’ house.
It was still nighttime, judging by how dark it was. But she could clearly see she was still in her futon, and sleeping next to Roxas’s as well. (She could tell by his snoring.)
Xion flung her blanket off and catapulted towards the bathroom.
A sputtering choked sound came from Roxas as the blanket impacted on him. “Bwuh-huh?”
No time for that now. She flung the door, flipped the light switch, and saw–
Herself. Xion.
She pressed her palms against her round face. Yep, same dark tan skin, same black box braids.
She pulled one of her eyelids down. Eye color was the same, not piercing yellow. Opened her mouth to check if there was a heartless caught in her throat. Nope, not this time. (Incident at Wonderland, don’t ask.)
She wore the same black pajama shirt, black pajama pants, black socks, black sleeping mask, and black nightcap from last night.
Nothing was different.
So why did that feel wrong?
“Mnngh… Xion…?” Roxas drowsily stood in the bathroom doorway. He was unsuccessfully rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“Oh, Roxas! You’re awake.”
“No thanks to you.” Roxas yawned. “You sprinted to the bathroom so fast, I assumed your magic came back just to set you on fire. Your outfit sure looks like it.”
Xion puffed out her cheeks. “Not funny!”
“Yet I laugh regardless.” Roxas said flatly. “So, bad dream?”
“I sure hope it was just that.” She scoffed. “I was Sora.”
Roxas’s drowsiness evaporated. “Woah, Xion, you don’t think–”
“I-I don’t think it’s that! Really!” She waved him down. “It didn’t feel like anything from that time, if that makes you feel better.”
Roxas whistled. “Don’t scare me like that, I just got this.” He patted his heart. “But you’re sure?”
“Sure as sure, see?” Xion held out her hand, and a puny spark fizzled out of it. “It’s been a week using your Oblivion, and still nothing. If I was absorbing his or your memories like last time, I definitely would’ve had my keyblade back after that dream.”
“Thank the light.” Roxas sighed in relief. “E-er,” he flinched, “not the no keyblade part, of course. That sucks.”
“Dork.”
“Mmgh.” Roxas grunted. “So, if it didn’t feel like last time, what did it feel like? The dream?”
“I’m not sure.” Xion shrugged. “It felt like I was Sora and myself at the same time, but somehow still separate? It wasn’t like last time where I just… took and took and took.”
She paused, thinking back to that time. She initially existed to siphon memories from Sora, to prevent him from ever waking up again. She wasn’t even supposed to have her own identity, or even be a girl. Just a mindless puppet nullifying a potential threat.
Xion continued, choosing her words carefully. “I guess I felt like I was sharing him, not absorbing him?”
“Oh, wait, that? I know that feeling.” Roxas said shockingly calmly.
“What!? Y-You do!?”
“Course! I’m his Nobody. That’s basically what I did from time to time when I joined back with him.”
“Seriously!?” She gaped. “I never knew that!”
“No wonder you’re confused, you were… dormant, I guess, the whole time that happened. That’s just what me and Ventus had to deal with whenever we were… fronting? That sounds right.”
“I was stuck in his subconscious! You guys could walk and talk that whole time!?”
Roxas chuckled. “One time, the moron looked at a picture of these morons–,” he gestured to where Hayner, Pence, and Olette slept, “–and I burst out bawling! Right then and there!”
“No way…” Xion ran her fingers through her hair. “So that’s what that feels like? Why didn’t you talk through him more? I would’ve probably gossiped with the first person I could…”
Roxas gave her a concerned look. “Because possessing someone else’s body is wrong, Xion?”
Xion’s heart plummeted.
Why had it plummeted?
“R-Right. Sorry…” Right. That… Stealing someone’s body was wrong. She somehow completely forgot. Why didn’t she realize at first…?
Terra, Riku, and even partially herself were possessed by Xehanort at one point, she couldn’t…
Roxas snapped his fingers. “Hey, maybe that’s it!”
“Huh!?” Xion did a little jump in shock. Her mind had wandered so easily…
“Maybe that dream was just that, a dream. And you just re-experienced some lingering experiences from me or Ventus, since all three of us were in Sora’s heart.”
“I guess?” Xion scratched her head. She’d love for that to be the case, but the dream felt so real. Was there anything she could do about it?
There was someone who could.
Naminé.
Xion nodded. “Okay, how about this? We interpret it as a dream for now. If I have another dream just like it, I go see Naminé about it to see what’s up. Deal?”
“Better safe than sorry, I like it! The new, responsible you, Xion.” He teased.
She gave her best angry pout. “I’ll get irresponsible on your face in a second, if you say that again.”
Roxas just laughed. “I see Hayner’s house is influencing you too. Night.” He waved her off.
“Night.”
As she tucked into the futon, she ignored the deep longing from her heart to return to that dream.
She took a deep breath. Everything was gonna be okay. Her friends were here. She had her own body. She existed.
She was Xion, clone of a boy who decided to be her own dang girl!
This magic drought wouldn’t get to her. And this dream certainly wouldn’t, either!
Maybe it was just a one time thing?
It was not a one time thing.
What wasn’t a one time thing?
No. No no no no. She was not doing this again. She refused.
She was back in that sunny, strangely textured apartment again. Waking up in a paradoxical state of both wide awake and hopelessly groggy at the same time.
SHe refused? Why would She–?
Her body suddenly gasped.
“Xion! It’s Xion!” She suddenly started yelling enthusiastically. “Strelitzia! It’s–!”
“I can hear you quite alright, Sora. As well as the neighbors.” Strelitzia sighed, walking into the living room. “But, goodness, she’s back so soon already?”
So soon? Since when was a month considered a short amount of time?
“Wait, what? It’s been a month for you, Xion?” Her voice, who she was painfully beginning to acknowledge was Sora, seemed confused.
Strelitzia blinked. “It’s been–,” she looked at the clock, “–an hour. At best?”
What? That’s impossible!
Xion’s thoughts raced through the last month, trying to ignore the presence observing them with her.
She made no progress on getting her magic back, but she could handle being an average, no magic person! After all, by definition of average, it was something most people already lived with!
Not to mention, Roxas was still okay with her using his Oblivion, somehow. So she fought just fine as they searched for Sora with the rest of the keyblade crew. Honestly, fighting at such a disadvantage meant she couldn’t just wail on Heartless mindlessly, so it was great for learning.
She didn’t just make those up, nor the week before the first dream, did she?
No! No, definitely not. That’s her life.
SHe tapped her lip. “Now that’s interesting.”
“What is it?” Strelitizia asked with a smile.
How Strelitzia looked so calm and patient right now, Xion would never know.
“Well, Xion says it took a week for the first dream to happen, doesn’t that line up with my whole–?” SHe gestured to herself. Himself. Themselves? Ugh.
“Well well.” Strelitzia chirped. “Yes, that would line up how I found you asleep for seven days, wouldn’t it?”
Seven days? Sora was here asleep for a straight week? (Wow, he really was a lazybones.)
Cut him some slack! SHe just died beforehand! …At least She thought so?
Strelitza raised a brow, deep in thought. “A week the first time for both, but nearly a month of difference the next. What could be the cause…?”
The woman shrugged, and turned around to rummage through the apartment. “Well, we can figure that out later, for now…”
She suddenly turned back around.
Pop.
Xion blinked as little confetti and streamers landed on her face.
Strelitzia giggled, a little party popper in her hand. “Welcome, Xion, to the city of Quadratum.”
“…Excuse me?” She said without thinking.
Strelitzia frowned, and placed the popper on the apartment table. “Sorry that this is the most I could manage in such short notice. Sadly, this was just a backup if the main one failed.”
Her body suddenly grumbled. “You’d call the first one a success…?” Xion didn’t say.
Her eyes suddenly darted to eye a blast of confetti plastered to the wall, and the suspiciously Sora shaped silhouette centered in Strelizia’s streamers.
“Ahaha, well…kind of?” Strelitzia giggled sheepishly.
Xion shook her head, which coincidentally shed off more confetti than she expected. “Why are you celebrating me being here? I didn’t die, I’m–,”
Wait.
Wait?
That was… her. Not Sora. She was speaking. Moving. Her.
Um, yeah?
“Xion?” Strelitzia asked, worriedly.
She. She had done that the last time she was here. She even screamed.
Oh yeah! Sure it was a little weird but She-
“I’m possessing Sora.” She whispered.
N-Now wait a minute–
Oh no. Oh no oh no.
“Xion, Xion. Take deep breaths.” Strelitzia gently placed a hand on her leg.
His leg.
“This isn’t my body.” Her heart threatened to burst out of her–, HIS, his chest. “I’m an intruder, I can’t do this!”
Need to break apart. Had to separate, had to disconnect. It’s wrong, this is all wrong.
Her body screamed it was right.
“Xion, look at me.” Strelitzia, all too patiently, took a few deep breaths. “Can you do that for me?”
She couldn’t, not as wave after wave of uncertainty and self doubt crashed onto her being.
But someone else could.
Her body resisted, due to how much she wanted to give in. But deep breaths soon began to mimic Strelitzia’s, and her heart slowly stopped pounding.
There. They just needed to calm down, and everything would be okay.
Xion strained and winced. “W-Why are you caring so much about a–” She tapped her throat in confusion, a sudden choking presence preventing her from finishing.
No! Xion’s not a parasite, she’s a friend! SHe refused to finish that thought!
“Urgh…” Xion held her head. Determination mixed with dread into an unrecognizable mush. “I can barely tell where I start and he ends…”
Strelitzia frowned in worry. Slowly, her brows raised. “...I have an idea.”
“What?”
Xion bizarrely felt like she only half-said that. Did Sora say that too?
Mhm!
Strelitzia, unaware of the inner machinations of their mind, continued. “Both of you are currently in that body, so it stands to reason that you shouldn’t be tying your specific individuality to said body, right? You might be interpreting any thought you feel as ‘your thoughts’, even if they’re not.”
“Hey, that makes sense! Even to me.” Okay, Sora definitely said that one.
“Good. Now if you could…” Strelitizia hummed. “Close your eyes, maybe?”
“Er, okay…” And she promptly shut them.
“Good. Now… Try to picture some sort of space. One you can relax in, preferably.”
Her face twitched a little. At first, she felt the clock tower from Twilight Town would be most appropriate. But Sora thought about the inside of the gummi ship too! Why there?
SHe heard space and his mind jumped to the wrong kind, sorry!
Urgh.
But… then something drew her in, naturally. A place she had been to a number of times…
A beach. One with picturesque off white sand, beautiful deep blue water, and so much rich greenery.
They had harmonized to see it.
Destiny Islands.
“It’s my home.” Sora must have said. “I think we can see it.”
“You’re doing great. Both of you.” Strelitzia’s voice echoed in their sort of… inner space?
No. Heartspace.
“Right, this next part might be hard. So… try to picture each of you in that space. Xion, picture yourself, and Sora, picture you.”
“Okay.” They both said.
Xion tried to put together every piece of her, every emotion, every fiber of her essence and bottle it together in a person shaped like herself.
She could feel little spots where she had to share something with Sora, but things were coming together, they were–
She was standing on the beach.
Xion blinked, well no, she didn’t. Her eyes were still closed. The her on the beach blinked. So she guessed she kind of did?
She held out an arm curiously. She was wearing her cute black dress shirt, and white skirt. She looked just like she did back home. But how… odd.
She wasn’t seeing through this Xion, yet she was still controlling her regardless.
Oh, kind of like a video game?
Yes, actually! It was a bit like when she played video games at Hayner’s house, and she’d control an avatar on screen. But this was full control, she could even–!
Hey wait a minute.
Wait, did I…? Sora’s thoughts rumbled, distinctly his own. I did! I did!
Xion gasped a little as pure, raw joy radiated in her body.
Xion! Xion! Sora yelled in glee.
And there Sora was, on the beach. Right next to her, actually, and about to tackle hug her!
“Xion!” His arms wrapped tight around her frame.
“S-Sora!” Xion stammered as he jumped up and down hugging her.
A warmth shot through her, like Sora actually hugged her in real life.
Sora laughed. “Alright Xion! You did it!” He smiled the brightest smile she’d ever seen.
Light, she FELT how happy he was! Was that how happy Sora regularly got? It was… precious.
She wanted to protect it.
Sora whistled. “Well, gee, thanks Xion. Wouldn’t mind protecting yours too, ya know.”
Xion flinched. She hadn’t said that?
“Noo, but you did think it.” Sora tapped the side of his head, chuckling.
Her jaw dropped. Wait, they were still–
Sharing thoughts? Sora smiled, putting his hands behind his head nonchalantly. “What took you so long to notice?”
She huffed in annoyance. “Give me a break! This is the first time I’ve actually fronted in your body!”
“Coulda fooled me.” Sora’s grin only got wider.
Why that little-!
Sora laughed as Xion chased him a little on the beach. Sand and shells kicked upwards in their destructive path. It ended with her grappling him and giving him a little noogie on the forehead.
Xion lightly gasped as she felt a tingle on her own forehead. She released to rub the spot a little.
Sora grinned with a stretch, now free from his restraints. “Weird, isn’t it?”
Xion watched herself stare at her hand.
“It is, but it’s also so…”
Manageable.
Mhm! Sora agreed. “This internal image stuff does wonders! SoOo much cleaner.”
Xion thought about their predicament. Is this why Roxas and Ventus never fronted? They didn’t figure this out…?
“Nah, never did.” Sora bent down with a grunt. He kicked his feet out on the sand.
He stared out at the ocean. “Light, I miss them…”
Xion blinked. “Excuse me?”
He put a hand on his heart. “They… were a part of my heart for so long, Xion. Ven was there since I was four, even. I know Roxas wasn’t there as long, but… he’s still my other. My alter.”
“Your Nobody.” She finished.
He nodded. “When I got to Quadratum, I realized… I was alone. For the first time in over a decade, maybe my whole life, it was just me.” He frowned. “Like a big chunk of me was, just, gone. Poof. And I didn’t know how to fill the void.”
Xion put a hand over her own heart. That feeling… It resonated with her, deeply.
And why wouldn’t it?
That’s what she had felt for the past month straight.
An unending tug for her heart to come back. Like a hunger that could never be satisfied. But wasn’t that wrong? She got her own body, her own identity, she was a person again. Why did her heart crave that?
So much so that the attraction pulling her to his heart was gone now.
Could Sora tell it was absent in her?
Sora chuckled. “I can when you spell it out like that.”
Xion silently cursed at herself. “I have got to stop doing that.”
“No, no, keep at it, I’m sure you’ll get it eventually.” He grinned, full well knowing it wouldn’t work.
Ugggghh.
Sora sighed, content. “I felt so lost and lonely, but then… You came back.” He nodded. “I feel the same way Xion, thanks.”
“Why do you think that is?”
Sora shrugged. “Dunno. I thought you having a body to call your own was the only way you could be a person. But now you’re walking and talking in one with me. Not just shoving me deep into my heart to take over, so… It feels more complicated now.”
It did, didn’t it?
Xion bit her lip. “I… don’t know what’s the right way to approach this, Sora.”
Sora wrapped his arms around his knees. “You can say that again.”
“Can I have some time to think about this? I’m… so conflicted.”
He scoffed. “I’m not really sure how to give you…U-uh.”
Sora stood up.
Xion frowned. “What?”
“You’re fading.”
“I-I am?” Xion looked at herself. She didn’t look like she was?
Wait.
Sora’s feet were fading! He was the one going?
Sora clutched his head. “Ooh, boy, that’s a disconnect.”
“Is Xion leaving?” A voice boomed over the island.
“Strelitzia! What’s going on? You can hear us?” Xion asked.
“Well, um, I could hear you every time you spoke out loud. You should probably avoid doing this in a public space…”
Both Sora and Xion winced at that. They could only imagine the looks they’d get doing this. Maybe they should do internal speak when out and out, yeah.
“But, it sounds like Xion is being pulled back to where she came from.” Strelitzia continued. “There must be a strong connection back there too.”
Sora continued to fade, a void growing up to his knees.
Paradoxically, she could tell that was how she looked on his end.
“I… I want this, right? Isn’t it good I’m going…?” Xion mumbled.
“That is up to you.” Strelitzia answered.
She was still so conflicted, she couldn’t just up and leave now.
Sora grabbed her hand. He was gone mostly up to his waist now. “Xion, if you’re going, can you ask them if they feel the same as you?”
She bit her lip. “Alright. Alright, I’ll ask Roxas and Ven.”
“Ven? Did you say Ven?” Strelitiza’s voice asked, surprised.
Both Xion and Sora furrowed their eyebrows. “Our friend, Ventus.” They said simultaneously.
Oh, wow, that was weird.
No kidding.
“Oh, s-sorry.” Strelitzia said. “That’s just, it can’t be the same one, so I’m just making a bad connotation. I wasn’t even positive that was his name…”
Now they were really confused.
Sora’s upper torso was mostly gone.
“Sorry, what?” Xion asked.
“Ah, well…” Strelitzia fumbled. “You know how this is an after world of sorts? Because Sora kind of died?”
“Yeah?” Sora, now just a head, asked nervously.
“A young blonde keyblade wielder I believe was named Ventus murdered me. That’s not your Ven, right?”
Sora disappeared.
Xion woke up.
Back in her old body.
No, normal body.
The tug on her heart was there again.
“Naminé.” She quickly grabbed her gummiphone.