Just like Sora's Nobody, I took just over a month to recover from getting sent into the same sleep Liam was put into. Twenty-three days in which I had no idea what could have happened. The day I woke up, I set about pushing my ability to see other places and see if I could push past the where of things into the when, just to find out what had happened.

In a word, that failed entirely, besides giving me a splitting headache. Which is why I promptly decided to go back to sleep, since about the only thing I had discovered was that this was the day before the one I was meant to get up. I always was an early riser – just ask Liam. I'm forever kicking him out of bed so he isn't late.

Xion shares many things with what he persisted in calling his true life, but leaving shells beside my bed was not one of them. Instead, there were two small boxes, each with a mark on them identifying who'd left them, and one folded bit of card underneath with Xigbar's name on it. Unusual, to say the least.

Curiosity got the better of me, persuading me to see what Xigbar's card said first. It turned out to be a short note reading, 'Don't forget who hauled your ass back to the castle.' As if I could. That was the moment I conceded I owed him a favour, though at this point I had no reason to have any problem with that. I'd see to repaying that later.

The two boxes, one from Xion and the other labelled 'Stiltzkin', each contained a chain with a token on the end. Chains for the Keyblade. Liam is only just now finding this out while I'm writing (typing, whatever) this out, and he isn't too happy I kept it from him, but these two keychains, along with the others I was given during my life were the missing ones he'd 'lost' when he'd entered Castle Oblivion. I could have returned them to him, but honestly I felt he'd expect to have to gather them again, and anyway most of them are outclassed by the second round of Keyblades he got.

I did return Oathkeeper's chain to him though, just before I merged with him again. Neku, or perhaps just narrative causality, forced it to lose the chain until Xion activated it again later, not letting him have it early.

Oblivion, since Liam mentioned it just now... well, wait and see. Can't go spoiling the end of my story now, can I?

Anyway. These two boxes, as I was saying, both gave me new forms for my Keyblade. Xion had left me the one for One-Winged Angel and Stiltzkin, who I suspected was our resident Moogle, Diamond Dust. It was a start, at least. I picked One-Winged Angel over the standard Kingdom Key, in case you're wondering.

Rather than get up and wander around looking for everyone, I of course sent my mind wandering instead. The Grey Area, peculiarly, was empty. I used to think Saïx was always there once the missions were handed out, but apparently even he has business somewhere to attend to. I tried to tune in on him to find out, but was presented with the same kind of mental block that was on Castle Oblivion – perhaps he was there.

So I left him and Xemnas too, since I wasn't too interested in what my erstwhile boss was up to, and tuned into each of the remaining members in turn. Lexaeus and Zexion had evidently been terminated by Riku in Castle Oblivion's basement, as I drew nothing but their gravestones in Proof of Existence when I searched for them.

Xigbar was busy in Agrabah, by the looks of things searching for something. Perhaps he's the idiot that released Jafar again, as far as I know, no one knows for certain. Maybe I should have persuaded Liam to ask before he dealt with him.

Xaldin had been given Xion for the day, helping him gather hearts in Olympus Coliseum, a world I had yet to go to myself. They were actually in the Underworld, which is interesting as I never did find a way in myself. Corridors always got re-directed up to the main Coliseum itself.

Axel, like Saïx, was out of reach. This bothered me. While I held few doubts he'd made it through Castle Oblivion unscathed, I didn't know exactly what had happened. All I could tell was that he was still there. Perhaps Saïx was there looking for him?

Demyx was in Wonderland, apparently performing recon... and running from any Heartless that got in his way. Sometimes I seriously did wonder about him. After watching for a time it became clear that Luxord was also here, apparently intrigued by the card soldiers. I didn't push for sound, so I had no idea what he was talking to himself about. Luxord did that a lot.

I returned to watching Xion and Xaldin for a bit, but it quickly became apparent they'd only just begun their mission there for the day. After seeing Xion's somewhat irritated lashing out at the Heartless I gathered something was up, so listened in too.

"...asleep doesn't make it fair," he was grumbling. Xaldin said nothing, merely herding the Heartless back into Xion's path. I'm sure he could have finished them off himself, since as Liam knows anyone who accompanies someone with a Keyblade shares in the anti-Heartless and by extension heart-gathering effects it grants. Xaldin probably either didn't know that, or was lazy. Guess which I suspected.

Once the current round of them had been finished off, Xaldin finally spoke. "The way you're fighting, we may not need Roxas by the time he awakens."

Wrong words to choose, Xaldin. Xion turned on him, eyes flashing dangerously. "Don't even suggest that," he replied in a low tone. "You don't know half the things he does. You need Roxas more than me, even if you are doomed to fail."

"That hasn't been decided yet."

"Doesn't matter," Xion muttered, wandering away from him continuing to mutter irritably under his breath.

"It's not as if this arrangement is permanent," Xaldin told Xion, following. "We merely have to meet the doubled quota until Roxas awakens."

So that was what had got Xion bothered. Without me on the job, Saïx had been handing Xion double duties – including the number of hearts gathered.

I was tempted to go give them a hand, but quickly discovered that after a long sleep like I'd had, lethargy tends to have taken up residence and puts up a fight when shown the door. As my counterpart for Sora tells Xion on the clock tower on this very day, I felt like a zombie. Physically, if not mentally.

There was no way I was going to stick around in my room all day with nothing to do though. I guess I could have gone to the clock tower early, but I'd have been waiting for a while. Time to test a theory.

"Sora, are you listening?" I asked the empty air. If you recall, he'd told me he did get an idea of what was happening to me, but at the time most of it had been overshadowed by Liam's activities. Maybe now because Liam was sleeping, he'd get more from me.

I'm not entirely sure what kind of response I was expecting, to be honest. Maybe a disembodied voice, or a copy of the book like Liam had. I wasn't expecting him to show up, appearing out of nowhere so suddenly I almost fell off the edge of the bed I'd been sat on.

"Well that's nice," Sora remarked. "I mean, I know I'm not much to look at here in Lee's body, but really Roxas, that just adds insult to injury."

"You could have warned me somehow," I told him. "Did I catch you at a bad time?" I added, noticing he had some blue overalls on that looked... a little mucky. To say the least. In one hand he held the copy of the book, a pen marking the current page, in the other a half-eaten sandwich.

"Nothing that can't wait. I'll get the book to help me catch up when I get back. It's a good thing you caught me on a break anyway, otherwise you'd have had to wait for me to check in."

"Won't anyone notice?"

"Oh, probably," he shrugged. "I'll just tell them I went looking for the toilet or something. Anyway, what's got into you? Don't tell me you want my help too."

"I'm good. I can see what's going on and things like that, I'm sure I can get by without you."

"Yeah, I was just reading you doing that. Not quite sure why you've got it. If you don't mind, I'll let Liam know about that when he wakes up." And that's how Sora was able to leave the note in the copy of the book for Liam to read. The only reason he didn't notice it for so long was because he was busy reading through the diary entries that got left for him to read.

"So go on," Sora went on. "What do you want me for?"

"I was just thinking. I've got nothing to do here. I'm meant to go off and meet Xion at the clock tower, surprise him since he doesn't know I'm awake yet, but it's too early for that and I'm bored."

Sora sighed. "I should have known. Leave it with me, I'll drop something in when I get back. Just don't tell anyone how you got it." He paused then added, "Except Xion. I'm starting to wonder if you two don't know altogether too much for your own good."

"Least you can count on me to do what I've got to, even when it comes to getting back to Liam."

"That's something, at least. Anyway, best I get back before I'm missed too much." He finished off the remains of the sandwich, then took out the pen and wrote something in the book. Sora vanished the same way he'd appeared. Next time I asked him to show up – if there was a next time – I'd get him to appear in a less abrupt way.

Not long after, I blinked and found my room just slightly different. A TV mounted on one wall, and a short set of shelves underneath with a games console on it, two controllers (evidently thinking of Xion) and a few games. Two of them stuck out right away – the Kingdom Hearts games, of course.

Well, at least it'd give me something else to do whenever I wanted to ignore missions. I can't say Sora would have liked what I did to his game-counterpart, but hey, that was the first time I'd ever played one of these things. Can't blame me for being inexperienced.