Thank you for editing Book Wolf. And thank you reviewers and readers! I'd be lost without you guys.
The next few weeks were rather eventful for Xion. Every day she would meet Melle for lunch at the top of the tower. At first, the girl was really nervous and quiet, but she started to open up. Despite the sheer insanity of the entire situation she had been thrown into, she had found a friend in Melle.
Oddly she'd always disappear throughout the day, usually around breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Xion had asked where she went off to several times only to have Melle quickly change the subject. The same thing happened whenever Xion asked about Melle's scars. Eventually she just stopped asking.
Some days Melle would come up there in a happier mood than usual. Whenever Xion asked why, Melle simply said, "I did a good job." Other days when she was in a bad mood (on those days she always wore the Organization's coat with the hood up) she would say, "I messed up."
Xion visited Namine as well. Namine told her that DiZ didn't want her or Riku to help find the Organization, but the blonde still offered to help.
They had to be more secretive when Xion was at the mansion. Riku didn't mind Xion visiting; DiZ on the other hand, did. More than once he found Xion and quickly asked her to leave. That didn't stop the Replica from coming back though.
Namine had made more progress in restoring Sora's memories, as well as helping Xion. Her appearance used to change in relation to the person's view of her. Now she was starting to appear like how she saw herself more often to others, regardless of what they used to see her as.
She was losing her-rather, Sora's memories. Now her dreams and visions of him were less frequent.
Xion looked at the new drawing and laughed. Namine had recently taken up drawing funnier pictures based off of Xion's stories. This one had a picture of the Saix-dog, Ulfr, howling at the moon while Etsuko was standing over him with a rolled-up newspaper in her hand. Many drawings including the impostors had started to over up the table. Xion set the paper down. "That's pretty much what happened," Xion commented. "Good job, Namine."
Namine smiled at the compliment. "Thanks. So, how's life in the castle?"
Xion thought of what she should say. "Well...I've made a new friend. Melle."
"You mean the one that told you that the others are alive?"
Xion nodded.
Her plan was working perfectly. Melle was opening up to her. Still, she couldn't help but feel a little upset at the fact that she was using her new friend. If everything worked out, hopefully Melle would forgive her. Hopefully Xemnas wouldn't punish her too badly.
Then there was a knock at the door. Xion looked at Namine, who held up a finger to her mouth. "Who is it?" Namine asked.
"Riku. Come on Nam, we have to go somewhere today. Are you ready?"
Xion mouthed to Namine 'where?' Namine shrugged, then mouthed back, 'go now.'
"Yeah. I'm almost ready!" she called out. Xion opened a dark corridor; waving to her friend as she stepped into the swirling vortex.
When Xion stepped into the dark corridor; she realized something. When making the corridor, she didn't exactly have a location in mind. "I'll just see where this takes me," Xion said, sighing.
Xion emerged in a grassy area. In front of her was a throne with a very imposing woman in it. "Who are you!" the woman screamed. "I will have your head for interrupting the royal meeting!"
Xion looked around, and her eyes widened. She was surrounded by at least 50 card soldiers; their weapons all pointed at her. "I-it was an accident!" she stammered.
"Silence! Off with her head!" the woman yelled. The card soldiers lowered their spears and started to charge straight into the girl.
Panicking, Xion quickly opened another dark corridor and dived into it, causing about five spears to narrowly miss her. The dark corridor closed, leaving the spears stuck partway in Wonderland and partway in the corridor.
"Oww..." Xion slowly sat up, holding her left arm. The full force of her landing had been right on her arm. She tried moving it, causing her to wince in pain. "I hope it's not broken..."
Xion looked towards the other end of the corridor. Yet again, she didn't know where it led to. As she got up and walked to the other end; she hoped that it was somewhere peaceful so she focus and get back to the castle.
Alas, the dark corridors hate her so she landed in Agrabah.
In the middle of a sandstorm.
As soon as she stepped out of the corridor she was buffeted by sand flying everywhere. Soon curtains, pieces of wood, and even ceramic dishes joined the frenzy. More than once Xion was hit by a piece of wood.
She closed her eyes to prevent sand from going into them and opened a dark corridor. She struggled against the wind to walk into it. It felt as if she wasn't moving at all.
Xion made it into the dark corridor just before it closed off. Most of her body felt sore from being pelted with whatever was flying around in the sandstorm. There were going to be a lot of bruises on her tomorrow.
"Alright...Please, please, let there be a peaceful world at the end of this corridor." Xion begged. How it would help, she didn't know. Right now, she just hoped that it would.
This time, Xion stepped out of the corridor into Neverland. In the distance, she could see a pirate ship. She sighed with relief as she started to open another corridor.
Then a cannonball bigger than her flew above her head. Startled, she watched it as it flew into a Phantomtail. The sudden shock stopped her from fully forming the corridor.
She warily watched the Phantomtail to make sure it wasn't going after her. Again she had to stop from opening a corridor when another cannonball flew to the left of her.
The huge Heartless reappeared right in front of her. It roared as it spit out small jets of air at her. She rolled out of the way just in time to dodge the attack as well as a huge cannonball.
She started running away from the Phantomtail so she could have enough time to open a corridor. Unfortunately the cannonballs were soon aiming for her instead of the Heartless.
Whoosh! Another cannonball flew by Xion just as she rolled out of it's path. Panting, she looked around for a place she could hide in. She spotted a mound of earth a little ways away. Figuring that it might be big enough for her to hide behind, she started to sprint towards it.
It was barely big enough for her to hide behind. In this case, barely was more than good enough. She stayed behind the mound as she opened another corridor. As she stepped into it she hoped that it would lead her to the castle.
Xion stepped out of the corridor onto the huge 'bridge' that led up to the Castle That Never Was. "Thank you!" she shouted, though this being The World That Never Was, no one heard her.
She started walking up the bridge, holding her injured arm and shivering. The rain was pouring down relentlessly, quickly soaking the girl's head. She pulled her hood up and started to walk faster.
Xion wasn't entirely sure where she should go to ask for help. These people didn't need it since they healed from injuries -and death- extremely fast. The worst part was that she couldn't remember where they kept the castle's stock of recovery items. Magic was out of the question since she had let Demyx borrow all of her Cure and Cura panels.
It wasn't exactly her smartest idea, but Xion had settled on just wondering around until she ran into someone. She started to go higher into the castle when she saw Ulfr. "Umm..." She walked up to the Saix-dog (who was on all fours unsurprisingly) and slowly asked, "do you know where the potions are?"
And unsurprisingly, he just turned around and growled at her. "...So you don't?" Xion laughed nervously.
He kept growling, but in an odd way. It sounded like he made a 'zer' sound.
Wait, zer? That has to be that Vexen impersonator! Xion smiled down at the dog. "Thanks!" she yelled as she started to sprint into Vexen's lab.
Xion's relationship with Vexen has never been the best, but when she found out that she was a Replica, it became downright creepy. Technically since Vexen made her that would make him her father. At least she finally understood why he was always nicer to her than most of the others.
Although she did NOT want to who her 'mother' was. She mainly hoped that she didn't 'have' one.
The Replica poked her head into Vexen's lab and gasped.
One half of the lab looked like the regular lab (beakers full of weird substances all over the place) while the other half had a lot of...Animals.
At least, she thought they were animals. They weren't in cages and seemed to be nice to one another. Several bowls of 'food' were placed across the table.
Out of the animals, she recognized a few turtles, a cat -with wings, of course- and Etsuko's five flying mice-rabbits. But what caught her attention was the silver unicorn in the corner. Out of curiosity, she walked over to the unicorn and touched it's horn. The unicorn nickered as the gently poked the horn, then the animal itself. "It's real, that's for sure..." Xion shook her head. "But I have to find a potion."
She went back over to the half of the room with the beakers and started to look around. She rummaged through cabinets and drawers but she didn't find a single potion. Exasperated, she sat down on the floor, nursing her hurt arm.
Xion heard someone's footsteps coming down the hall. She ignored them, assuming that they would just pass by.
But the person came into the lab. It was Zer. She looked up at him and waved with her good arm. He waved back and laughed. "Xion! What are you doing in here?" he asked, not seeming in the least bit mad.
"Well, I hurt my arm so I was looking for a potion," she explained.
"A potion?" he asked. Xion looked at him with an expression of confusion matching his own. How did he not know what a potion was?"
"Let me see your arm," he instructed. It hurt too much to move her arm so she just rolled up her coat's sleeve. She winced to see her arm below her elbow out of it's correct place. Zer inspected her arm then pulled the sleeve down. "It's fine," he said happily. "You'll be fully healed in a few hours! Just take a Tylenol to get rid of the pain."
"I don't think a Tylenol will put my arm back in it's place," Xion grumbled. "I'm gonna go find Melle. She might be able to help..." She carefully stood up them walked out of the lab.
"Melle isn't here right now!" Zer called out. Xion sighed, but then decided to ask someone else.
She soon ran into Etsuko. The tall woman looked down at Xion and hugged her. "Hi Xion! How are you?"
Xion struggled against the hug; the overpowering smell of berries choking her. "Uh...My arm's kinda hurt..."
Etsuko gasped. "Oh! I am so sorry! Is there any way I can help you?"
"Well do you know where Melle is? Or where we have any recovery items?"
Etsuko giggled. "Melle is off doing something for me right now. I don't know when she will be back. ...And why would we need recovery items? Silly!"
Xion sighed. "Alright...Thanks Etsuko..." She started to open a dark corridor to Twilight Town. Nothing too crazy should be happening there and they always sell hi-potions. She had enough munny to buy a few.
"Bye hunny!" Etsuko shouted. Xion looked back to see her waving at the girl. She weakly waved back with her good arm.
"Ok, thank you!" Xion smiled, looking down at the two hi-potions she had just bought. Luckily the store was having a sale so she bought two for the price of one.
She quickly popped off the cap of one of the hi-potions and chugged it, her arm almost instantly feeling better. She was reluctant to move it, but after waiting for a few minutes she gingerly adjusted her arm, rolling up her sleeve in the process.
The hi-potion did just the trick. Her arm was somehow readjusting itself back into place. Xion made a silent note to thank whoever invented the hi-potion.
After trying out her arm (moving it around and stretching it) and experiencing little pain, she decided to celebrate te best way she knew how: ice cream.
She jogged over to the ice cream shop at smiled at the kind old lady behind the counter. "The usual?" the woman asked. Xion nodded eagerly.
She brought out a single bar of sea-salt ice cream as Xion handed her the last of her munny. "Haven't seen your friends around here in a while," she remarked.
Xion's face fell. She hung her head. "I know..."
"Oh don't worry," the lady replied, "they'll be back before you know it."
"Yeah...Thanks for the ice cream. Keep the change."
Having nowhere to go, Xion decided to go to a place she hadn't gone to since that first day: the clock tower. She didn't even bother to use a dark corridor. Instead, she walked to there from the Tram Common. It wasn't that long of a walk, plus it gave her something to do.
Ever since the impostors came, her life became...Boring. Before there was always some mission she had to do. Now she just did whatever she pleased. The problem was that most of the things she liked to do were taken away from her in some form.
After several minutes Xion reached the top of the tower. She hadn't come back here since that day when she met the first of the impostors.
Today they weren't there (thank goodness) but in their place was the three kids that Xion occasionally saw around Twilight Town.
The trio were in the same exact spot that her friends and herself used to sit in. The sight caused her to feel a pang of jealousy, as well as loneliness. She didn't even know they came up here.
The girl noticed Xion first. "Hey! I've seen you around."
The two behind her spoke up.
"Yeah, she's usually with those two guys. The tall one and the one that beat your Grandstander record, Hayner."
Hayner scoffed. "Don't remind me. As for her...I think I've seen her around."
The girl scowled. "Hayner, you could be nicer. She hasn't done anything to you!"
"It's ok," Xion interjected. "I don't mind."
The chubby boy spoke up. "You can sit with us! Well, if you want."
The brunette nodded.
"Uh, sure." Xion sat down next to the girl and started to unwrap her ice cream.
"I knew I was forgetting something!" Hayner groaned.
The two glared at him. "You mean you didn't get it?"
Hayner looked away. "Hey, I never said that I had a good memory."
Xion quietly ate her ice cream, watching the event unfold.
The girl turned to her. "We should really introduce ourselves. I'm Olette, this is Pence," she pointed to the chubby boy, "and that idiot over there is Hayner."
"Hey!" Hayner shouted.
Olette ignored him. "So, whats your name?"
Xion looked around nervously. It couldn't hurt... I mean normally we're not supposed to interact with outsiders, but Saix isn't here to hear about it.
"Xion."
"Weird name," remarked Hayner, which earned him a slap from Olette. "I like your name," she said, shooting a glare at Hayner the entire time.
"Thanks?"
Xion had just finished her ice cream. She looked at the stick, and frowned when it was blank. A while ago the lady had told her that you get a prize if you get a stick with WINNER on it- so far, none of them had gotten one that she knew of.
Olette noticed Xion frowning. "What's wrong?"
"I was hoping I'd get a WINNER stick. If you get one, you get a free ice cream bar," explained Xion.
Pence looked over at her, his eyes widening and a big grin appearing. "Really? That's so awesome!"
Hayner grinned too. "Alright guys, from now on, we're looking for WINNER bars!"
Pence and Olette cheered. Xion watched the trio with a blank look on her face.
After a while, Xion decided to leave. She waved goodbye to the trio then started to walk down the fire escape stairs.
She reached the bottom and stopped. "I could go back to the castle and see if Melle's there..." She looked up at the tower. If she made a corridor here, they would see it.
Xion decided to go into the underground passage to open up a dark corridor. She stopped when she heard footsteps.
"Uh...Hello?" To Xion's surprise, she saw the little mage Vivi come around a corner. He looked up at her. "Oh, hello. Your name was Xion, right?" he asked politely. Xion nodded. "Why are you down here?" she asked him.
"I like coming down here. It's peaceful."
"Yeah, it is..." Xion trailed off.
Vivi adjusted his hat. "Is something the matter?"
Xion hung her head. "Well...What do you call someone who seems so perfect that it makes you mad? When everyone loves them and says that they're so spectacular?"
Vivi paused as if he was thinking for a long time about it. "I think...That's a Mary-Sue."
"A Mary Who?"
"A Mary Sue. Basically they're someone who is perfect and everybody loves them. They're good at everything they do, and have no flaws," he explained.
To Xion, that sounded a lot like Etsuko.
Vivi continued. "They usually have only one or two defining things about themselves. I think they're weird."
"How do you know all of this?" she asked.
Vivi kept looking at her. "My dad had tried to stay in a world full of them once. It didn't work out at all. We left after a month."
Xion nodded. This was really interesting. She'd have to look this up later on the Organization's computer. "Ah, well, thanks Vivi. I gotta get going. Bye!" she headed deeper into the passage. She ducked around a corner and opened a dark corridor back to the castle with more than one objective in her mind.
Namine.
I think my plan was going pretty well. I still had to lure Sora to Castle Oblivion, but by tampering with his memories even more than I thought I could do I managed to save the Organization, put Sora to sleep, and allow Xion to be created. Well, I at least saved Larxene and Marluxia. Axel saved himself. I don't know how Zexion and Lexaeus managed to escape. All I know is that they did.
I've done all of this before. I should be able to repair Sora's memories in time, even though I have even more work to do along with carefully extracting them out of Xion and Roxas. It helps that I can control my powers better.
I looked around my room. It wasn't actually my room, but I like being in it. My drawings were posted all over the walls, adding a slight bit of color to the walls.
But I do like white. It's my favorite color.
I looked at the different pictures I've drawn. They always make me smile. Through them, I release all of my secrets. When I was with Sora, these drawings said how I felt about tricking him. How I disliked -yet admired- my captors.
How Xion is my new friend. How I felt bad about tearing apart their friendship.
How I know DiZ is only using me to wake up Sora. How Riku only cares about him, even though he's nice to me.
Most importantly, what most people would describe as my 'crush.' Nobodies can't feel, yet whenever I saw him, something stirred within me. I knew him only for a week, but during that week I couldn't help but feel an attachment to him. Maybe it's because of our Somebodies and the connection they have. Maybe it was a memory of how liking someone felt. I don't know, nor do I really care.
All I know is that it's there.
Luckily Xion isn't exactly the most observant person, so she's completely oblivious about it, his pictures cover my walls. I wonder what she would do if I ever told her...Would she mind?
Finally! Xion thought happily. Aden had to go get groceries today, and Richard threatened him into doing it alone. Which means she was finally able to talk to Roku alone.
She found him in his room. He was sitting on his bed, staring off into space. "Hello," Xion greeted. He looked at her for a second then resumed staring off into space.
"How are you today?" she asked, hoping to initiate some kind of conversation.
"I don't know..." he replied.
This confused Xion. How could he not know how he was feeling? She tried a different subject; one that she thought would be easier for him. "Miss Aden?" He nodded.
Xion waited, but it was clear he had nothing else to say after that. "Well, why don't you try hanging out with someone else?" she suggested. He kept staring off into space.
"Um...What do you like to eat?" she asked.
"I don't know..."
"Do you like doing anything?"
"I don't know..."
This continued on for several minutes. The only responses Xion got were 'I don't know,' a shrug, or him still staring off into space. Eventually she gave up. "I have something I have to go do now," she lied. "Bye."
She walked out of the room and passed by Aden. "Why hello, Xion," he purred. Xion ignored him and kept walking. Behind her, she heard Roku shout, "ADEN!" and something hitting the floor. She backtracked to see Roku happily hugging Aden. "I can see you missed me," he said laughing.
Xion turned around and walked away. When she was out of earshot, she yelled, "Oh COME ON! That is just SAD! I give up..."
After that moment, she stopped trying to talk to Roku alone.
Someone wondered what happened to the rest of the Organization. You'll know soon enough. Chapter 9 or 10.
[update] Ok, because I have PROBLEMS/EPICALLY FAIL I'm fixing the Namine extra. I didn't mean for it to imply Namion. It's supposed to imply Namixas. (that is a downright awesome pairing name.) Grgh, I make myself mad. [/update]
Namine's crush is the only canon character pairing really implied in this fic. Romance isn't exactly the biggest factor in this fic. Oh, and anyone care to guess who it is?
Anyways, the first half of this chapter was really annoying to write. The extras were fun.
I like Vivi. You know what else I like? Reviews.