So, over in Desire to Protect, I mentioned my brain is full of what-ifs. Well, I found a fanfiction like this for the BBC Merlin show and thought it was an intriguing idea (it's written by Pawthorn, if you're a fan you should definitely check it out, especially since that one is funnier than mine), and while playing 358/2 Days and Birth By Sleep, I was amazed at how bad everyone was at explaining themselves.

So. Here we are. First up, Riku and Xion.


Helping Hand

"Do you know where Sora is now?" Xion asked, turning hopeful eyes on him.

"That secret stays with me," Riku said automatically. Whatever Xion was, she was still a member of the Organization. He couldn't trust her with that. ...Not yet, anyway.

Xion looked away, leaning against the palm tree again. "Why's that?" she asked weakly.

"Xion..." Riku thought back to Naminé explaining this to him, trying to decide how much to say. "Your memories... they really belong to Sora."

Xion's head lifted, and she turned to face him, though her eyes were to the side. "So you mean... I'm like a part of him?" And it hurt to hear not fear or denial like he'd expected, but amazement in her voice.

Maybe that was why he kept talking, walking back towards her. "When his memories were scattered, some of them... found their way inside you." Xion bent over, hand going to her head as if in pain. "Now, Sora has been put to sleep so that we can piece together his memory. Except..."

"You can't, because part of it is inside me," she finished. "That means... he can't wake up."

"Yeah," Riku said, struggling to stay impassive. "You got it." Xion sounded honestly regretful. Was Sora, someone she'd never met, only remembered, really that important to her? If he was, then maybe... "But, if you go with me to Sora right now, we could give the memories inside you back to him."

Xion finally looked up, voice cool as she gave him a sarcastic smile. "So, do you hate me for taking your friend away from you?"

Riku shook his head. Xion apparently got the wrong idea from what he'd said. That, or she was remembering how badly their last meeting had gone. "Nah. I guess... I'm just sad."

The cold mask broke in an instant, Xion looking like she would cry before she lowered her head. "I'm sorry, but... I can't go with you. It's my friends – they need me." She raised a hand, studying it before gently closing it into a fist. "And I need them, too."

Riku knew that feeling. Thinking about Sora stuck sleeping, or Kairi, who was just across the water right now, waiting for both of them to come home... He understood.

But Xion didn't know what Naminé had told him.

Slowly, he put a hand on her shoulder. When she looked up, he thought about giving her a reassuring smile, but decided not to – he was seriously out of practice. "I wish I could give you more time to think about it, come to a decision on your own. But, Xion..." Pale blue eyes stared up at him, hurt and vulnerable. "If you take in too many of Sora's memories, hold on to them too long, they'll destroy you. Your body might still be there, but you won't be you anymore." If his memories become her memories... she will never survive it. "And then you still won't be there for your friends."

"But..." Xion's eyes wavered, one hand held in front of her chest. "I can't just leave them."

Riku thought over what to say next very carefully. "Xion, if we don't get Sora's memories back from you, he'll never wake up. And those same memories are changing you, every time someone looks at you." Riku knew that if he were take the blindfold off now, he wouldn't see what he had before. Honestly, he was a little scared to find out what he would. "Sora's memories, especially of Kairi, are very strong. You need to let them go."

Xion backed up, eyes wide and afraid as she shook her head, hand closing tight around the chain hanging from her coat. "No! I won't –!" Her fingertips pressed to her forehead as she hunched over again. "I don't have anything else to remember! I don't want to give them up!"

"Xion," Riku said as gently as he could. "You're making your own memories, right now. Your friends, they're not something you got from Sora. With them, you have a chance for surviving without Sora's memories. But only if you give his memories up; otherwise, they'll overwhelm your heart."

Because even though DiZ claimed Xion was just a replica, an empty puppet with Sora's memories being the only thing that animated her, Riku remembered another replica that had, in the end, had something. And watching Xion now, seeing the uncertainty, hope, and sheer wonder filter over her face, it was hard to believe she didn't also have that something.

"I... have a heart?" she whispered. "I really have my own..." She looked up at him again, grabbing the fabric of his coat. "I could meet him? Sora?"

"Well..." Riku thought it over. DiZ was pretty sure Xion would be destroyed, but DiZ hadn't seen what Riku had, and neither of them knew what Naminé did. Naminé, who might very well be a Nobody with a heart. Who had urged him to get Xion to her before it was too late. "If everything goes right... I think so."

The complete joy that filled Xion's eyes made him hope it would.