"It's me, Lexira! Don't you remember me? ...Right. I wouldn't expect you to..."

Hearts aren't ment to be encoded...

...encoded hearts aren't meant to be.

"True... name? I... I don't have one."

"No true name?"

"I'm just... Me. Not... Anyone else."

"But how can you be a nobo

BOOOOOO

d-d-d-d-d-d-d

"E"

How can

Noboooo

Data Corrupted

------------------------------

Encoded Hearts
Chatper I

Stained Glass

He woke up again, sweating, in the bed he had known since he was a child, The only bed he had ever really wanted to know, yet, sadly, not the only one he had known. The young key bearer had been to many places before, and had resided in many different worlds. All much more luxurious than his small, secluded world. Though, it seemed he could never get a decent night's sleep ever since he had come 'home'.

Sitting upright on his bed, the young man ran a had down his face, as he stared out at the moon, hanging in the sky. A thought fluttered through his soul; maybe, somewhere, someone else in the other worlds could see this moon, without having to be in the same, drab world as he?

Yes, he thought.

That's a lovely thing to dream about.

--------------------

"It's not worth playing anymore if you're gone. It's just boring without you. All of you. Most of you..." She whispered, walking slowly around this forgotten stairway. This ascension to heaven, as she liked to call it.

It had been made a forbidden place among them. If she could travel into it with ease... It was only pure luck. Not even a 'battle of the fittest' kind of thing. She was weak, and she knew it. And although her logic could solve many things by itself, she was at a loss when it came to knowing why she had been the only one in this strange world, why it had held her captive while her comrades had fallen, one by one.

But now, she had a new goal. She would bring him back. And him, too. Just the two of them, just so that she could have this peace of mind. Just so that she could know that they had settled things, just so that...

"He's awakening again." She whispered, to no one at all. To the vague breeze that had flown by. "But how can that be...?" She asked herself, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms. She stood amidst nestling doves, over a large disk. She knew it was a mosaic, for having seen and heard of it a few times in the past. Though, she wondered why so many birds covered it at that moment. Why everything seemed so dull, whereas the light and colours would usually explode and surround the area in a welcoming feeling.

"You promised me last time really was the last one, Roxas. You promised." She sighed, hanging her head and sitting down with the doves. Though after a while, feeling rather drowsy, she let herself lie on her side, gently petting the feathers of the nearest dove.

"You promised..."

What did I promise?

She blinked.

Impossible. It just couldn't be; she was nowhere near anyone. She was the last one, and wherever she would return would be just as empty as this place, give or take a few birds, of course.

"Roxas? Is that... You?" She asked hesitantly, her black dress fluttering quietly as she jumped on her feet. "Well, is it?" she asked, with a little more instance than she had dared use before.

Why do you always call me-

"ROXAS?!"

Silence.

She had greeted him with the most raw of silences. She didn't dare say anything; what, really, could she say after such a sudden appearance? There was nothing to add, nothing to reply, nothing to do, to say. She stood there, her dress floating, still, after the gust of wind that had ran through her along with that burst of blinding light.

"The name's Sora. It'd be fun if you could stop calling me Roxas, miss..." The key bearer sighed, again, running a hand down his face.

"Sora... It's such a beautiful name." The girl sighed, somewhat happily, smiling and the newly arrived young man and interlacing her hands in her back. "It means sky, did you know that?"

Sora quirked a brow at the girl; she was strange. She didn't look like anyone he had met before. She seemed to be from a world similar to Jack's, but completely different at the same time. Though, her mentioning Roxas had to mean she had some ties with Organisation XIII. And he was well bent on finding out just who she was and what she was doing there.

"What's... Your name?" Sora asked hesitantly, taking a few steps towards the girl, who didn't so much as flinch, or look back at him.

"...Lexira. My name is Lexira." She answered airily, looking down at the doves, smiling at one and picking it up. "I'm curious. I used to be the only one able to come in this world. How can you be here t-"

The doves, as if on cue, sang and fluttered away, carrying the girl's words away with their feathers. Her dress flew around as the birds took flight, and her own dove, the one she had held in her hands, flew after the entire flock had already taken off. She gave it her farewell, before turning her attention below her.

Stained glass.

It seemed so...

"Ethereal."

"What?"

"Unreal."

Not made by man... Or heartless, or nobodies, or anything else. What else could it have been made by? Not just a spirit... Right?

"Spirits can't do such incredible things..."

"You're creeping me out, now..."

"Am I?"

She giggled, spinning around on herself once or twice.

"Quite possibly. I scare myself."

The stained glass, she noticed, contained various portraits. The strang-Sora's, a girl's, an other young man's, and, somewhere at the bottom, she was blowing petals out of her hand. Unlikely, she thought, because there are no flowers around where I live.

The floor broke.

She started falling; but why?

This used to be her world... But Sora's still floating there. Not even flinching, it seems. He reached out to her, and grabbed her wrist. She didn't so much as make an effort to grab on.

"I see... This is yours." She whispered, reaching up with her other hand, and prying Sora's hand away from her captive wrist. She let herself fall, giggling like a little girl, spinning around on herself, only to disappear...

Not in a vortex made with tendrils of darkness, like Sora had expected from her.

Not in a flash of light, as anyone else would expect.

Not simply by fading away.

Not in a flurry of feathers...

But a flurry of petals, blown from her own hand.

--------------------

She woke up gasping again, from that world she had been used to visiting so often. Either in her dreams, or when she chose to visit that place out of pure nostalgia. But that time had been far from what she would expect from a 'routine visit' through that world. It had been enjoyably surprising, to find someone else there. Under that endless sky...

Right.

His name was Sora...

And, she remembered, the other platform, the other mosaic disk(which had been devoid of any bird whatsoever) on which she usually landed when going to that place, had depicted four other strange characters. One looked like a dog, the other looked like a duck...

And, well, the two others were very close friends of hers. Yes, she knew them very well... They had been her only friends. Well, Roxas, at least, had proven himself to be enjoyable company. The other one...

"...Oh? Already this late..?" Lexira sighed, swinging her legs over the bed she had claimed after they had all gone. A girl, one she was used to seeing around, gave her the light dress she used as a night gown, when she claimed to come for the last time. It was a rather dark and sorrowful reunion, seeing as, the first thing that other girl had said was 'This is the last time we'll see each other, Lexira.' She remembered how rude she thought that was. But, then again, she braced herself a little more readily when the girl actually DID leave, and for the last time.

Lexira frowned with closed eyes as she stretched once again, her elbow had popped. Not painfully; actually, the noise hurt more than the actual elbow. As strange as it sounds.

Lexira shook her head vigorously; it was well past dawn, and thusly no time to be lurking in the few memories she had retained of that dream. It was, she reasoned with herself, a dream, and really wouldn't ever be anything more than just that:

A dream.

--------------------

Two years.

It had been two years since he had come back home, with Kairi, and Riku, too. It had been two years since they had fought Xemnas, since they'd met up with the king and brought he and Donald and Goofy back to the Castle. It had been two years...

Since he hadn't so much as thought about the keyblade again.

It's not that he hated the thing, and neither did he resent seeing it after such a prolonged absence. It was just that... After two years, the young keyblade master had grown used to his relaxed life, although, at first, he found it all slightly boring. But of course, with no Heartless or Nobody around to take care of, Sora had had all the time in the world to catch up with that year he had been away from Kairi. Well, in fact, the entirety of the time he had been away from the girl. And that, in fact, presented itself to be quite more than just a year.

Sighing, Sora got out of bed after realising that the sun wouldn't cease its relentless attack on his retinas until he got up and dealt with it. He made himself a quick breakfast; just two eggs with a little salt, and a glass of orange juice. Normally, he would've taken the time to eat more than that, but seeing as he had seen the keyblade overnight(he had gotten up and hit himself with it, just to make sure the pain and blade itself were real), he couldn't afford spending too much time on mundane things. He needed to talk to Kairi and Riku. Fast. Maybe try to come in contact with the King, or Yen Sid or... Well, anyone who had any important amount of knowledge on what was going on.

But fortunately for the young man, he wouldn't have to search for his friends for a very long time; the moment he came out of his room, in the house he and his friends had loaned a while back, he found himself flooded with questions.

"I saw my keyblade last night!"

"Did you see it too?"

"What's happening, Sora?"

"What's happening in the other worlds?"

"Is it just us, or is something really wrong?"

"What happened last night?"

Sora was forced, much to his disliking, to answer negatively to all the questions. Though, after a few minutes of silence, he was free to think. And he couldn't help to wonder if that girl in his dream had anything to do with it.

But... As much as he tried, he couldn't remember her name or face.

--------------------

After a hearty breakfast, Lexira had headed out to do what she had gotten accustomed to doing every day; she went out for a walk through the town, in shambled as it may have been. She smiled when her small white cat came up to her. Strangely enough, although the entire town was desolate, in ruins, dark and rather gloomy, not to mention completely deprived of any life, the single cat seemed to always find a way to her. What surprised Lexira most, though, was the fact that the cat was actually there. The others had always sustained that there was no one else around but them. Simply because nothing else would be able to survive in such an isolated place.

"Hello, Sunshine." She greeted the cat, who mailed happily upon hearing the young woman. "Cute as ever today." She commented, bending down to scratch the tiny animal behind the ears.

The cat purred merrily, a positive response to the apparently appreciated gesture. Lexira stood up, taking the white cat in her arms. She asked it if it would like to come around town with her. She guessed it agreed when it closed its eyes and mailed happily, once again, extending a paw and bringing back to its chest.

"You know, Sunshine," Lexira began, looking around. It was cloudy and lukewarm, as always. "I had the strangest dream last night. Would you like to know what it was?"

A meowl, and she continued.

"Well you see, I was in that strange world again. You know, the one with all the stained glass? But this time, I was in a black dress, like those princesses. But without the icky sleeves. And this boy appeared."

The young woman surprised herself sounding a little nostalgic and longing. But why would I sound that way? She wondered, unconsciously petting the top of the cat's head. Given I'm not a nobody, I know I can feel things... But why would I be longing to see someone I don't know?' She shook her head; she might as well stop thinking so much and pursue her recounting of last night's dream.

"We barely talked. I told him my name and he told me his. I was going to ask him why he was there too, but the birds flew away. And the stained glass floor showed people. The boy, Sora, an other boy, a girl, and I was at the bottom, blowing flower petals out of my hand. I thought it was stupid, because I've never had flowers before."

Lexira paused here, thinking back on her own thoughts. Why was I so calm? I should've been a little panicked, at least. She thought, trying to piece together her own behaviour. It almost seemed like I was intoxicated. So breezy and... Strange.

"And then, the floor broke." The cat meowed here. "Yeah, I know! But the strangest thing is that Sora, the boy, he kept floating. And until then, I thought that this was all my world. But I was wrong. Because I figured out it was his world. And then ,guess what?"

The cat shook its head, cutely.

"I disappeared in a flurry of rose petals!" She exclaimed, shaking one arm whilst holding the cat in the other. "Crazy, right? I hope I never have a dream like that, ever again..." I already lost my sanity, and I don't wanna know how losing my insanity will look like. Lexira sighed.

Her face suddenly lit up as she threw fugitive gazes left and right. Though, of course, after a second or to of thought, she found the action stupid. There was no one around to see her disappear into that world, anyways!

That thought actually struck a pang of sorrow and regret, which she all too hastily pushed aside.

"Would you like to accompany me to that world, kitty?" She asked, obtaining a positive reply from the cat. "Well, hang on tight, though! Because we've gotta fall a for a few looooong seconds before landing."

Lexira pulled out a knife from a small holster, strapped to her thigh. The blade glowed with an ominous green light. She stuck out her tongue to the side, as though thinking about where to slice.

"Here should be okay." She commented after a few steps, slicing through the air, creating some sort of gap, before jumping in, with her beloved white cat.