It was on the roof of a building that Xigbar finally found Xaldin. The big man was staring aimlessly into the perpetual night over the Dark City, his hands shoved deeply into the pockets of his long black coat. It was raining, as it always was-water was already pooling in Xigbar's hood, draining down the smooth black folds of his own coat and making little rivulets over his boots.
"...Kind of a bummer, standing out in the rain." Xigbar spoke mildly, moving to stand by the other Nobody, his arms crossed. Xaldin gave him a brief glance and the barest hint of a nod, but didn't reply. Xigbar moved forward and folded his arms on the parapet, staring out over the dimly lighted city beyond.
"It always rains here." Xaldin said at last, his voice low and even. "even in the shadow of the Castle."
Xigbar glanced up at the massive structure suspended so unnervingly above the lifeless city below, and then beyond at the silent moon. He shook his head and peered over his shoulder at his friend-if a man with no heart can have a friend, a dry little voice in his mind temporized.
"Yeah? Keeps the grass green."
Xaldin snorted. "That's even stupider than the things you usually say, Br-Xigbar."
Xigbar's mouth tightened and he turned his gaze back to the vista of steel and stone.
"...yeah, well, hard to make conversation with a big lug who stands out in the rain all night looking all broody."
"I didn't ask you to join me."
"I don't really care." Xigbar snorted and turned, lounging with his back against the rail-and the drop of several hundred feet.
Xaldin eyed him for a long moment, his arms crossed across his chest.
"...how's your eye?" He asked at last, and Xigbar raised one black-gloved hand to tap the right side of his head.
"Doesn't hurt anymore. I'm not really sure what that means, but it's nice not to have it ache all the time."
Xaldin grunted. "One small mercy in a horde of injustice."
"Come on, don't be like that!" Xigbar grinned. "We're still around, aren't we? Still got a job to do."
"You mean we have Xemnas giving us a job to do."
"As if," Xigbar said, a sneer in his voice-but the certainty had gone out of his face. "I'm not sticking around just to do what he says."
Xaldin took a step forward, moving to look over the parapet at the teeming masses of Heartless below.
"...then why are you here? What's the point?"
Xigbar didn't answer, shifting his feet uneasily even as he regained his insouciant mask.
"Where do we go from here, Braig?"
"Don't call me that." Xigbar said flatly, straightening. "That's not my name anymore."
"It's Somebody's name." Xaldin smiled grimly, amused by this rather morbid play on words.
"Shut up," Xigbar growled. "Look, if you're going to be all depressing, I'm gonna let you stand out here and get all soaked like the idiot you are. Don't look up, you might drown."
He turned to go, jaunty defiance again in every line of his wiry body-but if Xaldin could have seen the Freeshooter's face before he flipped the soaked hood into position, he might have seen doubt in the Nobody's single golden eye.