Prelude:

Almost 2 years have passed since Xion and Larxene parted ways on that fateful day in the grey area. Larxene perished in a fight with a Keyblade wielding hero named Sora. Xion did so in a similar way, sacrificing herself for the sake of the very boy that eliminated her lover, in a battle against her once best friend, Roxas. Organization 13 has been reborn at the whim of master Xehanort, and their true purpose was revealed. However, among their ranks, faces had changed. Many original members that had once devoted their existence to the Organization were cast aside in favor of new members, who would serve as Xehanort's hosts, so that he may clash with the light in a decisive battle. Axel was among those cast aside. In current times, he has re-adopted his human name, Lea. He has since become one of the seven lights, a hero of the keyblade. On particularly glum days, he can be found alongside Even, once called Vexen, in his lab, in a place called Radiant Garden. It was here one day that Lea received an urgent summon from the wizard Yen Sid, once a keyblade master himself.

Standing in a corner, he watched Vexen scurrying about like a rabid rat on a sugar rush. "You're sure you don't want my help?"

"No! Fool, you cant even fly a gummi ship! How do you expect to aid me with such complex machinery? If you really wish to help, go aid those brutes in the basement." Ever since the scientist had regained his heart, he had been extremely bitter towards everyone else.

"Lea." a hologram of Yen Sid appeared before the spikey haired man, glitching and buzzing. "Can you hear me? I'm not accustomed to this infernal technology."

"Loud and clear old timer. What can I do for you?"

"Report to the Tower. I have a mission for you." the call ended, and Lea shook his head.

"You could have given me the details here, old coot." Holding out his hand, he summoned a dark corridor, and promptly stepped through, emerging in the wizard's study. He wasn't there. Nor was he in the fairies' work room. Descending two floors, he found the door for the training room, from which a feminine voice could be heard grunting and shouting. pushing the door open, he was immediately almost beamed in the head with a pink flowery keyblade. Almost. Tilting his head sideways, it breezed right past him, embedding itself in the wall behind him. Lea sighed, took a step back, wrapped his hand around Kairi's keyblade, and pulled it out. "Come on Kairi, You seriously aren't any better than that?"

"Well excuse me Lea, But I haven't been fighting all my life like the rest of you." she proclaimed, pursing her lips and plucking her weapon from the man's hand. "If you're looking for Master Yen Sid, he's in the next room over with Ienzo."

"Thanks. Here, real quick, I'll show you something. Hold it like this." He summoned his own keyblade and demonstrated, adjusting his hand to a 45 degree angle to the hilt. "It helps with stability and stuff."

"Oh cool! Thanks!"

"Memorize it." he said, before continuing to the next room. Yen Sid was reading through Ienzo's Personal spell book, the Lexicon. And vice versa, Ienzo was sitting cross legged in an armchair flipping casually between pages.

"I must say, I had believed that you would need additional training as a mage but clearly I was wrong. Where did you get this?"

"I wrote it."

"You don't say? Such powerful magic. Ah Lea, so glad you came. Ienzo, if you would cast spell number 3,452 for our friend."

"No problem." The little guy said, raising his hand. after muttering a few words, among which Lea swore he heard "Arlene."

"Lea this is a live Feed from the streets of Agrabah. She has been there four two days now. I suggest you hurry."

And that's exactly what he did. Didn't even say a word. He just opened a corridor and bolted straight through. Harsh sun and soft sand greeted him upon arrival, prompting him to cover his eyes until they adjusted. Then he spotted her. Or rather, she spotted him. Standing at arms length from him, she had a hand full of her Foudre to his throat. She was clad in a plain Arabian dress, with a scarf hanging from her shoulders, and covering head in a hood-like fashion. "You... Why are you here?"

"My boss sent me. Just, calm down, alright? I'm not here to fight you. Now, Why are you here?"

"I'm looking for Xion. Is Xemnas still around? I though that kid would have beat him."

"He did. I'm under new leadership." he paused for a moment. "Who's Xion?"

"What do you mean, 'Who's Xion'? You used to sit on the clock tower with her and Roxas all the time. Are you telling me you don't remember her? That precious friendship of yours?"

"I have no idea who you're talking about. Maybe Even and the others do. If you want, I'll take you to them. But first..." he put a hand on her forearm and pushed it away from his throat. "No stabbing, Got it-"

"Even?"

"Vexen. We're all human now, so we've changed our names back. They're all back at the castle."

"I don't want to go back there. Never again."

"Nah, It's a different castle. It's the one in Radiant Garden."

"You mean Hollow Bastion."

"No, the place is being rebuilt by the folks that live there. They're almost done, I think. Larxene, a lot's changed." he said, making a move to grab her shoulder, only to have her jerk away. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."

"Take me to the castle. I need to see Vex- I mean, Even."

"All right." he prepared to open a corridor, but a shrill ringing stopped him. Reaching into his pocket, he fished out a special phone that Even had developed alongside Cid, a Gummi technician in Radiant Garden. Each of the guardians- those that had been gathered thus far, anyway- had one. It was honestly too advanced for Lea's taste, but Even had argued that he had no choice but to make it as he did. He said it had to be able to reach across worlds, and lock on to each of the other phone's signals. Sliding his thumb across the screen, the youthful face of Riku appeared on the screen. "Hey. What's up kid?"

"I'm not a kid, Lea. Any way, Yen Sid wants you to bring Larxene to the tower." before anything else could be said, the screen went black and silence ensued.

"Jeez, he really needs to lighten up. Change of plans, you get to meet the new boss man." he said, turning around to face his former comrade. "You ready?"

"Maybe I don't want to meet this new boss of yours? I may have my own plans."

"You really don't want to piss of Yen Sid. He's like, a supreme wizard or something. But he's a nice guy, really. Easier to work for than Xemnas, that's for sure," he stated with a sigh. "Look, I'm not thrilled about this either. Don't get me wrong, it's great to see you again, but your timing could be better."

"What makes you say that? something big about to go down... again?"

"Yeah. Ever heard of the 'keyblade war'? Its this big ol' super war between the light and dark. Like, crazy big stuff."

Reaching out, he snapped his fingers, and opened a corridor to the tower. After stepping though, he and Larxene emerged just at the foot of the tower, greeted by a smiling Kairi. "You must be Larxene. It's nice to meet you. Lea, Yen Sid wants you to go arssist Riku in Wonderland. 2 Lurk Lizards have emerged and he needs you to take one out." Larxene's eyes, for some reason, grew as wide as golf balls at the mention of the heartless.

"Pssh. Riku's a Master. Can't he handle it?"

"I think it's just busy work, Lea. I'm not sure what he has planned. But I wouldn't make him mad. Miss Larxene, if you would please follow me, I'll take you to Yen Sid." Lea quickly departed, jumping into yet another corridor.

"Don't call me Miss. That's what she called me."

"Who?"

"My girlfriend. But, I guess she was more than that to me. It's funny, you look a lot like her. Or rather, she looked like you. You're Kairi, right? I've seen you in Sora's Memories at Castle Oblivion." "She explained, faintly smiling, despite the wrenching pain in her chest.

"Was she Namine? Lea's told me a lot about her. Says she was really sweet."

"A clone."

"What?"

"A clone of Sora. A failed attempt at copying your boy. Because of the fondness Sora held for the memories of you, Xion took on your form, instead of his. Still a kickass keyblade wielder, though. "I just... I miss her so much..."

"I suppose... she's gone, isn't she?"

"Yeah... I've been looking for her, trying to find a sliver of hope that she was still alive. But I'm just kidding myself. Stupid fucking heart... it's done nothing but hurt. I wish I could get rid of it..."

"NO! Look at me. It's soooo not okay to talk like that." Kairi crouched down in front of Larxene, pursing her lips. "Having a heart, yeah, hurts sometimes. But it's not all bad. There are good things too. If it weren't for hearts, we wouldn't fall in love, we wouldn't know what happiness is, and no one would ever have a reason to exist. I'm thankful for my heart. You should be too! Understand?"

"Yeah, Whatever. She even fussed like you do. Let's just go." Larxene slowly rose to her feet, moving towards the main door. The tower had a large spiral staircase leading up into a single door. Beyond that, a winding network of stairs connected by portals leading to one another nearly gave Larxene a headache trying to figure out the pattern. Fortunately, Kairi seemed to know the way, so the older woman just followed her. She couldn't help but see the resemblance between the way Xion and Kairi's hips moved.

A slight blush came over her face and she quickly looked away. How could she? Here she was, ogling another girl's ass because it looked like Xion's. Larxene's mouth formed a tight scowl, betraying her disgust with herself. What was she thinking? Pathetic, that's what it was. "Larxene, is everything all right? you seem a bit angry."

"It's... your hips. They look like hers. Sorry, I just glanced at them."

"That doesn't tell me why you're mad."

"I disgust myself. That's all it is."

"How come? It's not a crime to stare at my butt."

"It's always been like this. Even when I'm going steady with someone I really care about, I catch myself wanting the company of another, it's infuriating!."

"I know the feeling. I've got someone I love too, but his best friend is just so gorgeous. I always catch myself looking at him."

"Oh really? I suppose it's the key-boy?"

"Sora? Yeah. But Sora needs... Sora needs to focus on his training. He doesn't have time for a relationship."

"Did he tell you that?" she asked, putting her hand on her hip and cocking an eyebrow.

"No. Look, Let's keep moving. I don't wanna talk about it."

"I bet it hurts, huh? Knowing you can't have him. It's like having a twisting knife in your chest."

"How would you know?"

"Has lea told you about Marluxia?"

"Yeeaaahhh... Why?"

"My Ex. Bastard broke my heart. See, kiddo, I've been around the block a few times. I know what's what."

"So what? I don't need your help. What I'm doing, is sacrificing for the good of everyone, everywhere." As much as Kairi tried to stop it, tears started pooling in her eyes. She tried to stop it. She clenched her teeth and fists and every other muscle she could manage. It was taking everything she had, and her will was evaporating fast. She could feel her legs buckling beneath her. Why now? Why would this mean blonde lady that she didn't even know want to torture her like this? It wasn't fair.

Suddenly, Kairi was falling. Her whole body was tumbling forward. Larxene tried to catch her, but was caught in the momentum of the fall. As they tumbled down, the Larxene wrapped her arms around the child and held he tight, so that none of her bones would be broken. It took some time, and quite some distance before the two stopped rolling, and by then, Larxene's entire body ached, like she'd ben beaten nearly to death with a baseball bat. Kairi trembled in her arms, no doubt shaken by the fall. Looking own at the girl, she had her head buried in Larxene's chest and a fistful of her dress in each hand. Larxene could feel the chill of the kid's tears as they soaked through her dress. "Hey, Kairi, are you okay? Kairi? Kairi!"

It took Kairi several moments to respond to Larxene's panicked shouts, but she finally looked up from the grey canvas dress. "Thanks for catching me."

"No problem. Here, let's get you dusted off."

"No! I mean... um... Will you just... Hold me for a moment? I can't stop shaking..."

"Sure, kiddo." The girl wasn't lying, either. Her whole body was trembling. Being pressed so close, she could feel Kairi's pulse racing. "Take all the time in the world."

But unbeknownst to either of them, a certain silver haired master stood at the bottom of the stairs, quietly watching with gritted teeth.

So I actually almost made this the beginning of a sequel to this fic, but now that i's done, I think it's easier to add it as a chapter. again, I'm sorry for taking so long. I just got a job working at an ice rink and the shifts are pretty rough. so I really just don't feel like staring at a computer screen when I get home.