To those of you who have read this before: yes. This is the same story I've posted before. I'm just rewriting it. Some stuff will remain the same. To everyone else, I hope you enjoy this story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, or Disney. I do own the OC's though.

Courage and Sacrifice

Chapter 1: A second chance

Xion collapsed to her knees as the last of Xemnas's devices wore off.

"Who are you, again? It's weird. I feel like I'm forgetting something really important," Roxas said as he walked over to her.

"You'll be...better off now...Roxas," Xion said, her strength beginning to fade as she fell to the ground.

Roxas ran over and caught her just before she hit the ground.

"Am I the one who did this to you?" he said worriedly.

"No," she said, getting weaker, "It was my choice...to go away now. Better that...than to do nothing...and let Xemnas have his way. I belong with Sora. And now...I am going back...to be with him.

Roxas, I need you...to do me a favor. All those hearts I captured, Kingdom Hearts, set them free."

"Kingdom Hearts?" asked a confused Roxas, "Free them?"

"It's too late...for me to undo my mistakes," Xion said as her legs crystallized and disappeared, "But you can't let Xemnas have Kingdom Hearts. You can't."

"Goodbye,...Roxas," Xion said with a sad smile on her face, "I'm glad...I got to meet you. Oh, and of course...Axel too. You're both my best friends."

"Never forget..." Xion said as she touched Roxas's face, "that's the truth."

As Xion was in her final moments, she could hear Roxas pleading with her not to go. But it was too late.

Xion awoke suddenly in a strange place not remembering anything. The first thing she noticed was that she was in something that looked like a cross between an underground palace and catacombs. The tunnels were large enough to fit a large hill in. Torches the size of elephants lined the walls.

The next thing Xion noticed was her clothing. She wore a white tunic over silver-colored chain mail armor. The tunic had a red hurricane symbol superimposed by a red phoenix in the center of it. A brown leather belt was fastened over the tunic and around her waist. A steel gauntlet covered her hand, wrist, and forearm. She also wore steel boots that stopped just below her knees.

Xion removed the hood of her chain mail and started exploring.

She saw that carved out of the wall there were eight cavities each with a ten foot tall statue standing guard over the great hall in each of them. As Xion walked down the tunnel she noticed that each one of the statues had the same clothing carved out of sone for it as Xion wore. The hands of each one were resting on top of a large sword. At the end of the hall there was a dead end. The smooth stone wall that formed the dead end had a strange symbol that looked like a human handprint with talons of a large bird sticking out between each finger.

Xion placed her hand on the wall and lined up her hand with the human portion of the symbol. Fiery talons seemed to grow between each one of her fingers and line up with the talon portion of the symbol. The symbol itself caught fire before the wall split perfectly down the middle and the two halves slid into the wall on either side. Xion stared at her hand as the fire disappeared, surprised by the talons, the wall, the symbol, the fire and the lack of pain from the fire. As she proceeded further down the hall, the doors closed behind her, leaving her in complete darkness.

Suddenly, fire lit up in a hollow space carved out of a ledge running down each wall. Xion followed the fire to a large room with eight large, stone thrones.A longsword floated juster inches off the seat of each one. On the back of each throne was perched a large fiery bird.

"Phoenixes," Xion recalled.

Xion suddenly fell to her knees, grabbed her head with one hand, and groaned in pain as memories started flooding back to her. Roxas, the organization, her birth, heartless, the key blade, even her death.

"Whe-where am I?" Xion stammered as the pain subsided.

"You are in the realm of second chances," the largest phoenix, the one in the center, said, "The realm where guardians of innocent lives are awakened."

"But I never really guarded innocent lives." Xion said as she stood up.

"You sacrificed yourself to save not only those you cared about but someone you didn't even know so he could set things right; knowing full well that no one would remember you. Knowing that it would mean giving up your existence. Your courage and your sacrifice has not only proven you worthy of a second chance, but has also proven that you have a heart like a phoenix."

As an eighth throne rose out of the ground, Xion looked down at her hand and saw a longsword of her own begin floating above her outstretched palm.

"The energy that makes these swords float is the life-force of yourself and our descendants. It is what empowers you. Guides you. So as long as you hold on to what motivates you, it will protect you from the darkness."

"How can this be?" Xion asked as she gripped the sword.

"You said yourself that I gave up my existence," Xion said the the largest phoenix ,"How is it that I am here?"

"Some of the memories that you were compromised of did not belong to Sora. They are memories that you formed during your time with the Nobody known as Roxas. Because of this, we were able to purge those memories from Sora to restore you. We were also able to purge Sora's memories from Roxas and return them to their rightful place."

"So, why am I here?" Xion asked.

"Sora cannot save the worlds on his own. The forces of darkness are too great," the largest phoenix said, "You will be fighting alongside our descendants to aid him."

"How?" Xion asked.

"All in due time," the phoenix said as he touched a claw to her forehead.

Xion disappeared in a flash of light. The sword disappeared and reappeared floating above the ninth throne.

Hope you enjoyed it. Read the next chapter to find out what happened to Xion.