Chapter 4: Xsirch: XIV

"Axel!" I ran into the Gray area. "Has anyone seen Axel?"

Xigbar and Demyx were discussing Larxene being a total witch. Xigbar, however, turned to me with what seemed to be an apologetic look.

"Sorry, kiddie, but Axel left before you got here. What's up?"

"Nothing." I walked away, and grabbed a bowl of cereal. I was disappointed that I hadn't gotten a chance to ask him about my winner stick.

I looked at the cereal. There was a new brand there, taken from some world called Reality. Supposedly, they used something called "dollars" instead of normal Munny. Weird. But the cereal tasted good. It was called Honey Nut Cheerios. What's a Cheerio?

"Xsirch." Saix walked up to me. "Today I am partnering you up with number XIV, Xion. Report to me when you have finished eating. The mission I will assign you requires no delay."

"Sure." Saix had always made me feel nervous. I realized that it was because I had never seen him smile, or show any type of emotion. Maybe that was because we didn't have hearts, but still, even Xaldin, Lexaeus and Xemnas smiled once in a while! Well, maybe not Lexaeus…

I looked at Xion. Her hood was up, obscuring her face, and she stood silently near Saix.

When I had finished eating, Saix handed me my mission to Twilight Town. So far, most of my missions had been in that area. I wondered when I would get a mission to another world.

"So, you're Xion, right?" I asked my partner. Xion merely nodded slightly, saying nothing.

Saix opened the portal for us, and we went through. We emerged in Twilight Town.

I looked at our mission card. So… we have to find a certain group of Deserter Heartless and destroy them… well, we'd better get this one finished!

"Let's get going." I summoned my keyblade. Xion, her face still hidden by her hood, said nothing. I sighed. I wonder if she's mute. Honestly, even Saix and Lexaeus are more talkative then this girl!

We ran through the streets. There weren't many heartless. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a large black Novashadow ran up, bowling me over, and headed straight for Xion. Xion dodged back. I regained my footing, and tried to slice at the Novashadow. The quick heartless nimbly dodged away, before smacking me across the plaza. When I landed, my keyblade was twitching, as if the two bat wings that made up the main portion of the blade were trying to flap free and escape into the blue sky. Suddenly, they separated completely.

Oh no! What happened? I stood up. In either of my hands was a single bat-wing sword.

The Novashadow lunged for me. I quickly deflected it with my left hand weapon, and impaled it with the right hand sword. The Novashadow yelled in pain, before running away into the shadows.

Oh man, I've gotta find a way to get my keyblade back! There's nothing wrong with these swords, but if I don't have the keyblade, I can't finish Kingdom Hearts! I frantically dismissed the two weapons. I then tried to summon my keyblade. Instead of my dark keyblade, however, one of the bat-wing swords appeared. Xion looked at me expectantly.

NO… I CAN'T LET THIS HAPPEN! I NEED THAT KEYBLADE!

With that mental roar, the bat wing sword disappeared, and my keyblade, Last Chaos, appeared in my hands.

Whew… I don't know what that was, but I hope that doesn't happen again.

The rest of the mission passed uneventfully. We finally found the group of Deserters, and I easily eliminated them. I had noticed that Xion had no weapon, and I had told her to stay back. However, in response to this, she merely shook her head, and had accompanied me into the fray. She had no weapon, but she could still cast Fire spells and Blizzara spells, as well as cast a cure spell on me when I got injured once. She was all right as a support unit, but I really wished that she had some weapons.

After we had completed our mission, we wound our way to an out of the way area. I summoned a dark portal to the Castle That Never Was. We were about to enter, but then I remembered something.

"You go ahead to the Castle." I told Xion. "There's somewhere I need to be." Xion nodded silently, and left. A moment later, I had bought a bar of ice cream and was on top of the clock tower, eating. Axel never came. Duh. He was in Castle Oblivion.

I arrived late at the Grey Area.

"Hey Xsirch!" Vexen called. "Can you retrieve my silver flask from my basement lab?" Vexen asked. "I must get it before I depart to catch up with the other members of the Castle Oblivion team."

"Sure." I shrugged. When I arrived at Vexen's chilly basement lab, I say, curiously, a diary. My curiosity got the better of me, and I opened it to the last page with writing.

"Research Entry 326: The Program is largely on target. No. i, my finest Replica, has proven a greater success than I anticipated. I intend to take the other vessel- judged unfit for number status- to Castle Oblivion, where I will subject it to further testing. One thing is clear: could these Replicas not be classified as a special sort of Nobody?"

Vexen was a freaky old guy. I had no idea what his diary entry meant. I retrieved his flask, and went to my room. I sat on my bed, writing in my diary.

"Axel left before I woke up this morning. I never got to ask him about the ice cream stick. I was partnered up with No. XIV for today's mission. My keyblade acted up, but I managed to get it back to normal. Xion wore a hood the whole time and wouldn't say a word to me. Come to think of it, I didn't have a whole lot to say, either. Afterwards I went and had ice cream by myself."

The next morning, I got up groggily. I felt as if I had gotten slammed in the head by a hammer. After doing a few exercises in my room, I summoned my weapon. However, I had a different idea in mind.

Sure enough, it wasn't my keyblade that I had summoned.

In my hands was the pair of bat-winged swords.

After a good while of experimentation, I managed to figure out the strategy of combining my swords into the keyblade. It took concentration, but I was confident that I could do it.

Today I was partnered up with Xion, number XIV, again. This time, we were to hunt down a particularly fierce Novashadow that had been sighted by Demyx in Tram Common. Yippee…

I wish Axel was here. I prefer to go into battle with someone who actually has a WEAPON! I thought as I entered Traverse Town.

"Come on." I sighed. "Let's do this."

"…Mmhm …" Xion sighed affirmatively.

……?

"Hey you talked!" I said, unable to keep from smiling. Xion merely stared at me from under her hood. I shrugged and walked towards the area where our target waited.

Maybe that came out antagonistically? Heck, is "antagonistically" even a word? Whatever… I hope she doesn't get mad for no reason.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I ducked instinctively. As I came back up, I was eye to eye with my old friend: the Novashadow. Our target.

A Fira spell hurled it backwards into a wall. Xion took up a battle stance next to me. She unleashed a Thundaga spell, attacking the Heartless. The Novashadow leapt back, hissing. I summoned my keyblade.

"So we meet again." I muttered. The Novashadow stared at me. I stared right back at it.

I charged. The Novashadow spun and lashed out at me with its claws. I ducked the attack. Xion launched her assault in a group of Fira spells. The Novashadow was blown back. I ran in, swinging my keyblade in powerful strokes.

"WHY-" SMASH. "-WON'T-" SMASH. "-YOU-" SMASH. "-DIE!"I roared, breaking nearby jars, and leaving slash-marks on the walls as the Novashadow evaded my attacks.

I felt something ignite inside me. I threw out my hand, and a wave of pure, cold blackness blasted from my outstretched fingertips. As I watched, the blast took on the shape of a meteor with dark flames racing along its length.

What the ****? It's like a Firaga, but its as if its been infused with darkness! And I thought that I couldn't use magic! Hah! That'll teach Zexion to stop saying "Apply yourself" whenever he tries to teach me to use it! GO: DARK FIRAGA!

The bolt slammed through the chest of the Novashadow. The heartless let out a terrible scream, before collapsing. It was barely clinging to its existence. I raised my keyblade, and ended it's misery.

"Well, that's that." I said. Honestly, I was getting annoyed at Xion's lack of response. My hopes had risen after she had spoken earlier, but they had been decreasing progressively afterwards. I looked at my partner.

I immediately felt bad for her. She was probably shy, and I knew that I hadn't had much use with my talking skills until quite a few missions.

"You go ahead to the castle and relax." I told her. "I have to be somewhere again." Xion nodded. "See you tomorrow!" I waved, starting off in the direction of the clock tower.

"Xir… ch…"

I froze. Xion smiled and waved slightly, then left into the dark portal.

Later that day, I wrote in my diary.

"I fixed the keyblade problem. I teamed up with No. XIV again today, we finally talked a little- Xion even said my name for the first time. I think it's her first word. Afterwards I had an ice cream by myself again. The lady at the shop said you can trade the WINNER stick for an extra bar. But I can't eat more than one."