Chapter Two~ Squeaking Wheels and White Light
___All the world fell away last night
____Leaving you
_____Only you and fright
______I watched you float away out to sea
~Squeaking Wheels and White Light, This Providence
Heartless…Heartless… Xestra thought as she searched Traverse Town. She couldn't seem to find them anywhere.
She walked through a pair of doors leading to the Second District.
Where do Heartless live…?
She made her Keyblade appear in her hand, and stared at it.
What did it have to do with her?
Suddenly there were several patches of dark on the ground slithering toward her. Little creatures, with sharp hands and feet, and long, black ear-looking things on their heads emerged from the dark patch.
They looked around madly, and then their glowing yellow eyes focused their attention on Xestra.
She took a step back, holding the Keyblade in front of her to protect herself.
Are these the Heartless?
They crouched down and became patches of shadows on the ground again, and advanced toward her.
Xestra took several more steps back as they were little creatures again, closer than before.
She decided she'd try her Keyblade out on them. She raised it up and struck them all in a single blow. They disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Xestra looked at her Keyblade, positive that the ones she wiped out were indeed Heartless, and she had just begun what she promised Sora she'd do: defeat Heartless.
Taking a deep breath, she ventured further into the area, looking for more Heartless.
Axel walked out of a portal, and started through the sand that covered Agrabah.
Where could she be?
His black boots became dusty as he walked, but he did not know where he was going.
He sighed after a long time of looking around, knowing she couldn't be there.
He decided he'd try another place after his mission the next day. He clenched his hands into a fist as he made a portal with his other hand, determined to find her.
The wind whipped past him as he entered the portal, leaving behind him the quiet sand of the desert.
The area full of Heartless disappeared as they hit the end of Xestra's Keyblade, but Xestra was out of breath from the constant appearance of the Heartless.
Why are they after me? Xestra thought to herself.
She glanced at her Keyblade, but decided it was unfair to blame the thing that was protecting her.
Suddenly a bigger shadow than Xestra had seen so far appeared on the ground.
Xestra gritted her teeth and prepared for a Heartless to pop up.
It slowly raised itself, revealing a tall Heartless, with longer arms and legs than the other Heartless, but the same glowing yellow eyes.
Xestra took a deep breath, but before she could do anything, the Heartless released a burst of energy that sent her flying back. Her back was slammed against a wall, knocking the wind out of her.
She lay there helpless, knowing it would come over to do away with her momentarily.
Xestra closed her eyes as the Heartless leapt forward, but after a moment, she felt nothing.
She peeked one eye open, and saw the back of a man with brown hair, holding a large sword.
His sword had blocked the attack of the Heartless.
She sat upright slowly, clutching her Keyblade and looking for the chance to strike the Heartless to help him.
"You're hurt. I don't need help," the man said, as he knocked the giant Heartless back.
"But…" Xestra started, but stopped short as he threw a small glare over his shoulder.
The Heartless jumped back to attack him, but with one swing of his sword, the Heartless turned into a puff of smoke.
Xestra stared at him in awe as he walked over to help her up.
She took his hand and started to pull herself up, but she immediately started to fall back down. He caught her, and sighed as he picked her up.
"I can walk," Xestra protested, but he didn't let her go.
"You're just going to cause more trouble if you try to walk and hurt yourself more," he argued, turning around a corner.
Xestra pouted, but suddenly felt the aching of her muscles. In that condition, she knew she couldn't do much more than crawl.
"Who are you?" she asked quietly. She felt kind of dizzy, but fought back the sleepiness to hear his name.
He stayed quiet, ignoring her question as he continued walking.
"I don't like the idea of being carried around by a stranger, so tell me your name," she persisted. She felt panicked as the sleepiness was taking over her consciousness.
"Leon," he said in a gruff voice.
Xestra's eyes began closing. "You know Leon…you're nice to me like Sora…I don't know why, though…"
Leon looked down at Xestra, and said something, but it was muffled. Then everything went black.
Axel walked up to the Clock Tower in Twilight Town, and found a boy with blonde hair already sitting up there with two sea-salt ice cream sticks in his hand.
He handed Axel one as he took his seat on the right side of him.
"You're late," he said, giving Axel a teasing smile.
Axel rubbed the back of his head and gave him a weak smile. "Thanks Roxas."
"Why the long face?"
"Just…stuff…" Axel replied, taking a bite of his ice cream.
"Stuff? Can you be more specific?"
Axel quietly continued eating his ice cream, deep in thought. "Where was your mission today, Roxas?"
"Wonderland, why?"
"Did you see a girl with long black hair, and blue eyes?"
Roxas paused and thought. "Not that I know of…I think I heard Xigbar mention someone like that in Traverse Town, though."
"Really?" Axel asked, jumping up.
"Yeah…why? Who is she?"
Axel cleared his throat, composing himself, and sat back down. "Oh…well…long story. Traverse Town, huh?"
"You're weird sometimes, Axel," Roxas said, looking at him confused.
Axel smiled. "You're even weirder, former-zombie. Got it memorized?"
"So Squall, where did you say you found her?" Xestra heard a girl's voice ask.
"In the Second District, Yuffie. I already told you that. I don't know what she was doing there, but look at her necklace." That voice belonged to Leon.
The girl gasped. "It's a Keyblade!?"
"Yeah, and she was using a normal size one to fight, too. I don't know what to make of it."
"The poor girl. You were right to help her," another girl's voice, softer than the first girl's, said. "We can ask her questions when she wakes up."
Xestra felt a blanket being put on her. She tried to open her eyes, but she felt like she was under water, unable to say anything or move. All she could do was listen to them talk.
"Did Sora say anything about her when he was here?" the first girl asked.
"No, but she mentioned Sora, saying I was nice like him."
"Aw, that's sweet, Squall!"
Leon didn't say anything, and Xestra could hear his footsteps as he walked away.
The two girls laughed.
"I hope she'll be okay," the second girl said.
"Yeah, I'm sure she'll be fine. If she's got a Keyblade, she's got to have a strong heart. I'm sure she'll pull through!" the first girl said confidently.
A strong heart…?
Xestra heard their footsteps walk to the other side of the room, leaving her to focus on opening her eyes.
This proved to be a much harder task than she thought.
After Axel and Roxas RTC'd, they walked through the Grey Area, where Saïx and another Organization member were talking.
"But Saïx, man, I don't want to take out the Heartless!" the other member said. "Tomorrow, or any other day!"
"Demyx, you take the missions you are assigned, no complaining," Saïx replied matter-of-factly.
"But I don't even like Traverse Town! I mean, it's a giant town, and I always get lost!"
Axel froze and turned to them. "Hey, Demyx, I've got a recon mission tomorrow at Neverland. Wanna trade?"
"Do I! Sweet!"
Saïx turned and gave Axel a suspicious look. "What do you get out of this trade, Axel?" he asked.
Axel shrugged. "Just want to help out a friend."
By the look on Saïx's face, Axel could tell he didn't believe him, but he could also tell Saïx was curious as to what he was planning.
"Very well," Saïx said. "Just as long as both get done."
He gave Axel one last glance before exiting.
"Thanks man!" Demyx said, giving Axel a pat on the back. "They try to stick me with all of these Heartless-eliminating jobs!"
"Yeah, no problem," Axel said, before turning to Roxas.
"Ask and you will receive, huh?" Roxas asked smugly.
Axel smiled at him. "I guess so."
The first thing Xestra saw when she opened her eyes was a girl with a pink dress and a pink bow in her long brown hair walking around the room, humming a sweet song that put Xestra at ease.
Xestra rubbed her head and felt her neck for her necklace. Once she made sure it was still there, she swung her legs over the edge, getting ready to get off the bed.
The girl turned and noticed that she was awake. "Good evening," she said, smiling sweetly. "Feeling better?"
Xestra nodded her head, stepping down on the ground with more stability than she had earlier.
"I made you some food. It's on the table over there," she said.
Xestra looked to where she was pointing and saw a tray full of food.
She didn't want to be rude, so she walked over and began eating.
"Hey Aeris, has the little girl woken up yet?"
A girl with short black hair with a ribbon-looking cloth around her forehead, and long boots entered the room, whose voice matched the first girl Xestra had heard earlier. "Hey! How ya feeling?"
Xestra swallowed her food. "Good…"
"That's great! Squall was really worried about you, though he'd never admit it!"
"Squall?"
"She means Leon," Aeris said. "I'm Aeris, by the way."
"And I'm Yuffie! Nice to meet you!"
"You, too…"
"And what's your name?"
"Xestra…"
"That's a lovely name," Aeris said in her soft voice.
"So, once you're done eating, we've got some questions for you," Yuffie started.
"I don't know why I have a Keyblade, or where I got it. I didn't even know what it was until Sora found me and told me what it was not too long ago. I'm sorry that I can't help you at all…"
Yuffie and Aeris hesitated.
"Oh…" Yuffie said disappointed. "Well, I'm sure there's someone knows where you got it. Where were you before you came here?"
"I can't remember."
Aeris and Yuffie exchanged glances.
"What?" Xestra asked.
"Can you remember where you came from?" Yuffie asked calmly.
Xestra shook her head and Yuffie continued. "So you appeared here, and don't know how you got here?"
Xestra paused. "Basically…"
She left out the part where she had been walking through holes of darkness, mindlessly wandering between places she didn't know.
"I don't know how to tell you this but…your world was destroyed," Yuffie said. "People appear here when that happens."
Xestra looked up at her. Maybe that would explain all the darkness that she had in her memory. And why she couldn't remember anything about it.
"But wouldn't I have some memory of my other world?" Xestra asked, trying desperately to come up with some answers.
Aeris spoke up this time. "You do not remember anything about your past? At all?"
Xestra shook her head and absently poked her bowl rice with her chopsticks.
"Well, this is some kind of puzzle!" Yuffie exclaimed. "We'll solve it in no time! We should go ask Cid!"
"I don't know if he'd be able to help any more than we would. He's busy right now, anyway," Aeris said, then she turned to Xestra and noticed her almost-worried expression. "Are you afraid?"
Xestra looked into Aeris' eyes, feeling all the stress slowly disappear. "I don't feel anything…" she said sadly. "I don't know anything…"
Aeris walked over to her and hugged her. "Don't worry, we'll help you."
"Yeah!" Yuffie agreed excitedly.
Leon walked in at that moment, noticing Xestra was awake.
"And Squall will help out, too!" Yuffie exclaimed, reaching up to put her around his shoulder.
Aeris laughed as Leon leaned away from Yuffie. Xestra looked at them, and wondered why they were being so kind to her.
~*~
