Author's Note: Good god, has it been a long time, but I just rediscovered my fanfiction account and reread all of my old stuff. I don't know if anybody even still cares, but I felt like this story needed a good explanation for why the ending was such a mess, so here is my answer to you, dear readers, after so many years.

~::~

Excerpt from the Diary of Xion Strife, Two Years Later

~::~

Today is the sixth anniversary of my brother's death.

A lot has happened in six years. Namine is married now, has one darling little girl, and another baby on the way. Sora and Riku are finally planning to tie the knot themselves. Mom and Dad are looking forwards to have another son-in-law join the family, and I am about to head off to my first semester of college. Not everything has been peachy, of course, but that's how life goes.

Peachy. Funny I should pick that word, as it reminds me so much of Roxas. He loved that peach incense so much for his birthday one year I bought him a huge case of it so he'd never run out again. Most of it still sits in the corner of my room, unused.

I miss my big brother still, and I know that my family does too. Even after what happened two years ago, I know that Roxas would have grown up to be wise like Dad and strong-willed like Mom. Nobody else remembers that one horrible week, but I do.

I wish I didn't.

Roxas always warned me of the evil forces that work in the shadows of our world, the malevolent spirits and bogeymen and demons, but I never believed him until the day I saw what the creature wearing my dead brother's face did to that poor man.

Axel survived, somehow, but he has never been the same since. Jumps at shadows, never ventures out alone, and refuses to sleep without a light on. His aura has faded, too. Where there was once brilliant, vivacious orange, now there is only gray.

Roxas saw the world in black and white. I see things in shades of gray. Exhaustion, illness, despair, all things that coat the streets of New York City like a mural in grayscale.

I talk to Axel about once a month still, to make sure that nothing else has happened since he and I last saw one another, that day at the hospital. When Axel awoke from his final nightmare, I felt as though a cleansing wave had washed over me, and I realized that my brother was still dead, that the whole week had been the fabrications of a twisted, evil being bent on stealing another innocent soul.

Even after all this time, I have trouble understanding what happened. The demon seemed to have latched on to Roxas during one of his ouija board sessions shortly before his death, if his notes were anything to go by, and caused the whole chain of events that stretched from the plane crash up until the fateful meeting between Axel and the demon who used my brother's form to trick him into letting it get close. I was confused by Axel's description of Roxas's friends Hayner, Pence, and Olette at first, as they all moved away years ago, but after some research surmise that they, too, were just puppets created to make the deception seem authentic. Even demon-Roxas himself was a puppet, just a physical manifestation of the demon made to look like him. It must have been a truly powerful demon to alter the memories of so many people, but when we all had so much love for him left in our hearts, I suppose it was easy making us all believe that Roxas never really died.

I talked to the exorcist, Cecil, after Axel was released from the hospital, and begged him to put every protection he could on and around Axel, just in case the demon ever tried to come back for him. Axel never knew, but it may be thanks to Cecil that he has had peaceful dreams for the last two years. I hope that never changes again.

Oh, and one last thing before I have to go start packing for college: Axel told me something extraordinary last week when we talked. Lately in his dreams, his spirit animal has begun to appear again, only now the tiny white kitten has grown into a majestic white tiger. He says that it sleeps beside him in his dreams, protecting him from danger.

The strangest thing, however, is the presence of another animal in his dreams. A tiny hummingbird, identical to the one he said he saw when the demon was impersonating my brother. If Amaranth has truly been watching over him all this time, then maybe Roxas is watching from the afterlife too, to make sure that his mistakes never harm another person again. Axel and Roxas never met in real life, but I wish they had. I think they would have been the best of friends.

~::~

Author's Note: Thank you for reading. I don't really write much anymore, but I sincerely appreciate every review or favorite I have ever received. Hopefully this is a satisfactory answer to all of the questions you had.

~Moriens-der-Lyset