They exchanged titbits of information as they travelled. Xion eventually divulged her name and Joy happily nattered about the strange situation the emotions found themselves in and how they normally wouldn't have known much about how to navigate the mind outside Headquarters but had committed the maze to memory out of necessity. They eventually came to a large, steel grey, industrial building that was in a rather poor state but construction equipment and jellybean-like workers were moving around, piecing it back in order. The emotions waltzed through, sometimes casually greeting the workers (especially Joy). They entered a dark, spacious warehouse room with two entrances on either side. Xion apprehensively resisted on account of the wonky sign hanging above the door that said 'DANGER' but the emotions insisted that it was a good short cut.
"Don't worry! Abstract Thought can only be fired up while Sora's awake and also mentally functional," Joy had told her. "So this route is safe."
"For now," Fear added anxiously, not trusting the large, dark tunnel until they were all safely on the other side.
The exit of Abstract Thought led straight to a train station with a freight station along most of its length and a traditional passenger platform to one side. A train was parked at the station but it would be destined to remain for a while longer. Despite being complete and well-maintained compared to everything else so far the station was inactive. The cranes and forklifts were still and the train yard and platform were empty.
Across the tracks lay their destination. A grand gate that had been restored to its former glory proudly welcomed visitors to 'Imagination Land'. Beyond it the park wasn't as grand as the entrance made it out to be.
"This is Imagination Land, one of the greatest places in all the mind ever!" Joy gushed. "Sorry about the mess. We've been trying to clean up but it's a little difficult to get this place back up to scratch without Sora being awake to provide active imagination. In the meantime, we've got Temporary Headquarters in here since it's a good place to rebuild from. Here and Dream Production are the only places in the mind that already have all of the construction equipment and tools to fix and build stuff. If you look to your left you can see the new recall plumbing ready to be installed and coming up on the right are some of the components to rebuild Headquarters…"
Joy chattered on and on like a tour guide through this dilapidated land of broken bits. Xion looked around, only sometimes following her instructions on where to look. Her eyes passed over the piles of new glass pipes that were reminiscent of the broken ones all throughout Long-term Memory. Completed pieces of machines or buildings were also arranged along the road for easy access when it was time to cart them away but what drew Xion's eye the most was the collapsed buildings and broken-down conveyors that stood forgotten and half buried in broken, fanciful things piled up like junk.
"I can't wait to restore Headquarters so that this place can get cleaned up even a little," Disgust muttered, grimacing at what appeared to be the tail of a dead magical creature poking out from under a pile of imagination trash on the side of the path.
"This place used to be so bright and wonderful," Sadness moaned, "but now everything's broken. It's so sad."
"Yeah…" Xion replied in a low voice, swallowing thickly. It wasn't her fault, she hadn't asked to be made but being made was part of the reason why this had happened and the guilt strangled her. "Sora can't be Sora because of me. When I exist everything of Sora's is ruined. That's why I need to disappear…"
It was the truth, she told herself. There was no need to get upset over the truth but the aching only bloomed wider, engulfing her from her belly outwards. A small hand touched hers and she flinched.
"I'm sorry," Sadness said. "But you looked really sad."
Xion laughed sardonically. "That's not possible…"
Before Sadness could ask her to elaborate, Joy announced with a great flourish: "And here it is! Temporary Headquarters! It's nothing much to look at right now, just bits and pieces that don't even work but once they're installed in real Headquarters it will be amazing."
Temporary Headquarters was nothing more than a cleared out space on the ground with a disconnected control board behind a round apparatus with slots for memory orbs. Some of them were already filled with core memories. Fear and Sadness went straight up to it to slot in the memories they held. Joy cheered.
"Alright! Two more! That means we only need one, two… four! There's only four left to find. Alright, group huddle. Now that Xion's in the mix, we need a new game plan to find the rest."
The emotions all gathered around and started to scheme, a conversation that was overwhelmingly dominated by Joy. Despite mentioning her they had already disregarded Xion's involvement. That didn't really surprise her, not after everything she had been told throughout her short life. Looking for something to do, she wandered over to the hub holding the core memories. There were four brightly shining orbs – the two they'd just brought and two other bright, golden memories. Xion peered into each of them. One of them was a memory of Sora and Riku as children, sitting on a beach and watching a shooting star sail by. It surprised her by suddenly fading into a new location—that mysterious stained glass platform—and another heart descended into Sora's hands. The next one didn't feature anything or anyone that Xion recognised but she could guess (from what she knew intellectually) that those people must have been Sora's family and the room must have been in Sora's home.
She reached out to touch this unfamiliar memory but when she got a look at her hand her eyes widened in horror. The yellow light was faintly shining through her gloved hand. She looked down, patting herself over and flapping her coat. It wasn't noticeable without the backlight and she could still feel herself as solid, completely physically present. Was she fading away or had she been a ghost here all along?
She cried out in pain when something struck her funny bone. She cradled her elbow as she turned to the brightly shining memory orb that fell to the floor. It was another yellow one with a joyful scene of Sora, Riku, Kairi and three unfamiliar children running around in a goofy game that seemed to involve evading the various adults laughing with them but she could only look at it for a second before Joy called out:
"Xion? Are you okay?"
Xion looked over her shoulder. The emotions were coming towards her like a wall, all concerned for her.
"We heard you yell," Fear said, wincing so much that his head was almost between his shoulders. "Is there something wrong?"
"Just great," Anger growled. "We've already got all this on our plate and now there's something else?"
"Oh, n-n-no," Xion stammered, picking up the new memory orb. She paid close attention to her hands this time, dismayed that the light was shining through stronger.
"Are you sure?" Sadness asked, tugging on her coat. "You look a little… translucent."
"Are you disappearing?" Disgust said.
"I hope not," Xion replied, trying to mirror Joy's optimistic face. "But I found another core memory."
She held it out to show them. Joy's eyes lit up and her smile broadened. "You found that one! This is great! I love that one!"
Joy snatched it from Xion's hands, gazing into it excitedly and paying no mind to anything else, not even the suspicious looks the other emotions were now levelling at Xion. "This is the core memory that powers Goofball Island. Sora gets so much mileage out of this one," she continued, giggling as she slotted it into place with the others. "Thanks, Xion. You have no idea how important that one is."
"They're all important," Disgust pointed out, rolling her eyes at Joy.
"What I want to know is how we never found that one when it was so close by," Anger said, turning to Xion. The top of his head started to glow like embers. "It seems to me that these core memories just spontaneously appear wherever you show up. Just what are you playing at?"
"Nothing!" Xion insisted, casting nervous glances at all of them.
"Yeah, guys," Joy cut in, coming over to stand between Xion and the emotions. "Everyone just chill out. So we must have overlooked that one, probably because it was so close that we didn't think to look very hard but once again Xion has helped us retrieve a core memory and now we're only three memories away from being able to restore Sora's personality and return power to the mind. Everything's all good and Xion's been-"
Xion interrupted her with an oof and almost doubled over like she'd just been smacked in the gut. Another bright memory dropped onto the floor between them, this one coloured in swirls of yellow and purple. Everyone stared at it in surprise. Then Fear, Anger and Disgust glowered at Xion. Sadness looked up at her, her mouth stretched into a lugubrious frown. Xion frantically swapped gazes with all of the emotions and then turned to Joy for defence but Joy was staring at the core memory on the floor in disbelief. She crouched down to pick it up.
"This memory…" she whispered as if telling it a sombre secret. Inside the orb two boys – Sora and Riku again – faced an ominous sound coming from a cave hidden behind some vines beside the waterfall on the small play island. With Riku by his side, Sora finally approached the cave and let the other boy take the lead to enter. There was no monster inside like they thought there would be but there was the disquieting sight of a mysterious door. "It's responsible for powering Curiosity Island but… how did it come out of you like that?"
She looked at Xion imploringly as all of her optimistic explanations came up inadequate.
"I bet it's because she's hiding them!" Anger shouted, pointing the accusing finger at Xion. "She's been hiding them inside her all this time! That's why she's always able to 'find' them. I think this is what Naminé meant about bringing the memories back from outside. She brought you right to us."
"You're fading…" Sadness said. Xion looked down. The piece of her coat that Sadness was holding was now more transparent, enough so that Xion could see the fingers holding it from underneath. "Maybe that's why you were brought here. You're made of Sora's memories so we have to deconstruct you to return them to the central hub."
Xion's breathing quickened and her body ran cold. It was the truth. She was supposed to accept it, had no choice but to accept it, she thought she had already accepted it back when she'd said goodbye to Roxas. Yet with the second wind she'd received in Sora's mind she'd lost her resolve.
"You've got more of his core memories, don't you?" Anger demanded. "Hand 'em over!"
"… No…" she said, forcing it out past her constricted throat.
"I knew it! Memory thief!" Disgust shouted.
"No! I… I want to exist!" she screamed, turning around and tearing her coat out of Sadness' hands, bowling the short woman over as she ran.
"GET HER!" Anger bellowed.
"Wait! Let's just talk this out!" Joy pleaded.
"The memories are more important," Disgust said.
With tears blurring her vision, Xion ran blindly through Imagination Land and all of its ruined artefacts and trash piles. Sometimes she stumbled over ruins or tripped over the mind workers trying to tidy everything up or construct new buildings and machines. She hadn't paid any mind to where she was travelling but it wasn't the path they'd come down. As long as it led away from the emotions and their central hub she would be fine. All she had to do was get back into Long-term and get lost in the maze, possibly forever.
While she was contemplating whether she could live with that, the edge of the cliff came into view and she skidded to a halt. One side was a towering pile of trash and on the other side was a walled-off construction site. She turned around. The emotions were right behind her, fire burning from Anger's head as he charged ahead. Xion took several frightened steps back. She halted and looked over her shoulder at the abyss only a couple of feet away.
"Catch her before she jumps!" Anger ordered.
"Not the Memory Dump!" Fear shrieked, speeding up and catching up to Anger in the vanguard. "If she falls into the Memory Dump it's over! She'll disappear forever!"
"Guys, let's not be a lynch mob about this!" Joy called to the front, trailing the party with Sadness. "Let's go talk it over at Temporary Headquarters. I'm sure we can make some compromises."
Nowhere to go. Xion's eyes darted about for any options available to her and then panned up the trash pile. It was steep on this side and only loosely sorted but surely she should be able to climb it. A loud clang above her and someone yelling "Look out!" interrupted her mid-step. She only caught a split-second glimpse of the bearing beam swinging before it collided with her. It knocked her off her feet and over the edge of the cliff, sending her freefalling into the Memory Dump.
A/N: I told you yesterday that I would have this to you by today. Such strong game. Final chapter tomorrow.