A/N: And thus, my tirade through the KH section ends not with a bang, but a headache.

Xion was warm. Her eyes flickered slowly and she blinked. Then immediately shut her eyes tight. Sunlight nearly blinded her and she sucked in a sharp breath, inhaling sea salt and the green smell of fauna. The crashing of waves was so familiar as she relaxed her eyes and just listened.

Slowly, she ascended to sit up and opened her eyes slowly while looking down.

Where-

Oh…

Destiny Islands. Specifically the spot of land Sora and his friends played on ever since they were children.

"She's awake."

Alert, Xion's head snapped to find several people staring at her. An older man, a boy who looked like Sora with black hair and gold eyes, as well as Roxas, though with different clothes. Off to the side, she could see someone propped against a rock.

Confused, Xion didn't think to stand and just stared at the people before her.

The person who spoke must have been the boy with black hair, because their tone was apathetic.

"Welcome to Sora's heart. Enjoy your life sentence."

Roxas frowned at him and stretched out his hand.

"Don't mind him. He's always like that."

"Roxas! I-how?"

Xion was pulled up and she looked around again. It was still the island, still sunny, and the people seemed to disperse to whatever corner they preferred.

"This is Sora's heart. Nice place huh?"

"Would be better if there wasn't a crowd!" the black haired boy shouted behind him.

"That's Vanitas, he's- well he's complicated."

Xion wordlessly pointed to the older man who sat beside the one propped up on a rock.

"Ansem, but he's sort of not real. I mean, he can think and speak, but it's more like a computer program."

"In Sora's heart?"

Roxas shrugged.

"The guy on the rock is Ventus. He's always asleep. No way to wake him either. Sometimes Vanitas sleeps too, but not as long. You were asleep for a while too, before you just woke up."

Xion took a few steps to get a better look and gasped.

"Yeah- I know. Was weird at first but at some point, Sora shared his heart with him and that's why I don't look like Sora."

As though trying to piece together a puzzle, Xion's eyes flickered side to side and she scratched her head.

"There's a lot of people here."

Roxas chuckled dryly.

"We make the best of it. If you concentrate, you can see what Sora sees, feel what he feels. But…" he went quiet, watching sand shift in a light breeze for a moment. "It's not always the best experience."

"Vanitas said it was a life sentence. Is this place really like a prison?"

Looking around, she could remember what Sora remembered of this place. It wasn't a large island, but it was still bigger than most places she'd been.

Roxas sighed.

"It's a complicated feeling. Especially when your company is that."

Xion followed Roxas' pointed finger to see Vanitas leaning against a palm tree, taking a paopu fruit apart by hand piece by piece. The leaves, pieces of skin, and segments of its star shape were discarded in a pile.

The cycle of day and night passed just as they would outside, and Xion could see Vanitas' point about being trapped in a prison.

There was nothing to do.

Popping in to see Sora's life was the only thing from keeping her still active mind from going completely numb. Vanitas and Roxas took to playing tic-tac-toe in the sand, Ansem never spoke or tried to interact with anyone, and Ventus continued to sleep.

This time on Sora's eyes, he was staring at paper with math equations at a desk in his room. Xion wasn't a math wizard but even she knew that you just had to divide to solve for x.

"Oh yeah! That's right! This stuff isn't as confusing when you just think about it." Sora exclaimed.

Sighing inwardly Xion retreated from Sora's mind and yelped when Ansem was beside her. He was standing just shy of the water's edge, looking out to the horizon.

"H-hi?" Xion tried.

Ansem looked down at her and nodded, eyes right back to the horizon.

Wide eyed and feeling awkward, the girl stood and set off to be anywhere else. Roxas sat on the bending palm tree in the same spot Sora would be. Vanitas was nowhere to be found.

"Where'd Vanitas go?"

Roxas looked over and Xion could see Roxas held a partially eaten paopu fruit.

"He sometimes goes into that dark cave. Not sure what he does in there, but he seems to like it. Want some?"

The paopu's legend crossed Xion's mind as she took off a segment of the star. Biting into it, it was somewhat bitter, but mouth wateringly sweet. Paopu ice cream would probably rival sea salt.

Together, they sat in silence for several minutes.

"If this is a prison, then I'm happy to get such a good jail mate."

"Who knows, maybe Sora will somehow get Axel in here."

They looked at each other and laughed.

Prison or no, Xion still had a friend to share something with every day.