And so, a week has passed with many missions out carried out and completed.
-DAY 62-
I woke up to the sounds of birds chirping. It was rather loud and annoying. Wait, birds?
Opening my eyes suddenly, there was a bird cage beside my pillow. Okay. I always wake up finding weird stuff but what is it this time?
As I examined the bird cage more, there was a bird. A yellow canary, to be precise. Observing it more, there was paper sicking onto the metals of the cage.
"Please take care of me. From the dusks ^_^" Ughh, what. What's with the '^_^' face. Sheesh, why would they suddenly give me a bird... strange. Whatever. Might as well keep one for a pet. It looks cute.
Anyways, it was time for a mission. I quickly rushed to the kitchen, pouring some rice into a small bowl and gave it to the bird with water also.
After that, I headed into the Grey Area. Xion was receiving her mission from Saix.
"So this is your target for today. Get prepared as soon as possible." Saix gave Xion the target documents.
"Ah, alright!" Xion seemed motivated.
I walked towards her, seeing Demyx on the couch and Xaldin standing up, thinking of something. "Hey, Xion."
"Morning, Roxas!" She showed me her target for today.
"!" Isn't this...? This... I remember this heartless. Xion disappeared for days because she wasn't able to use her keyblade to defeat this thing...
"Hmm? Does it look scary?" Xion looked at the paper.
It was that lizard-looking heartless thing. I guess... I'll just go with the flow.
"Haha, not even!"
"Roxas. I also have your mission prepared. You will only be collecting hearts for today." Saix handed me the sheet of information of the town I'm going to.
"Well anyways, Roxas. I'll be off to my mission. See you later!" Xion smiled and left.
'Should I just help her now or what...' I sighed. But I have a mission too. The quota's high in numbers and I won't have time to go to her even if I finish it. Guess I should just stop worrying. It all turned out well in the end anyway.
I took off and carried with my mission, heading to Agrabah for heart collecting.
...
"Pheww! Aaaaand that's all for today!" I wiped off my sweat on my neck. It was tiring and worst of all, it was hot! "Ughh, so sandy. And hot."
Anyways, I RTC'd and of course, I didn't find Xion at the clock tower as well. Axel didn't show up either.
"OH CRAP! I FORGOT! I have a bird... wait, why don't I just return it. I can't be always there to feed my pet!" I rushed back to the castle.
I came back with some vegetables I found on the kitchen. I opened the cage and the bird started to chirp. It was a small bird, probably a young one. It started eating the vegetables I laid out.
"Hehe... sorry. Totally forgot." I poked the bird a little.
I wonder how Xion's going...
...
10 days have passed. Still no sign of Xion. I acted accordingly to what I did in the past and was waiting for the mission to track Xion down with Axel.
I headed to the Grey Area, finding Axel.
"Hey, Axel. So did you find anything about Xion?"
"Not really. I asked Saix. He said we're to track her down... I'm getting worried for her."
"Worried? Haha, mr. I-don't-have-a-heart, that's funny!" I laughed.
"Hey! Ugh, let's just go track Xion."
"Yeah, let's go."
"But wait. Where should we start off?" Axel scratched his head.
Remembering where Xion was, "Hmm, I think I might have an idea. Let's head to Twilight Town first."
"Idea? Well, alright..."
So we headed to Twilight Town and walked around.
"So. What makes you think she's here?" Axel was looking around.
"Just a hunch. Just keep following me!" I walked faster.
We headed to the mansion with many trees surrounding it. There, we reached to the gate and found the lizard-looking heartless. It was camouflaging itself.
"Wait... I think that was her target. No wonder Xion had a tough time tracking that thing down." Axel readied his chakrams.
"Yeah. Let's kill it!" I also readied my keyblades.
Axel threw his chakrams towards the heartless and pierced the heartless dangerously. "Firaga!" I threw a fireball towards the heartless, damaging it more. Then, I dashed towards it and sliced it's flesh into pieces. It resisted but Axel and I overpowered him easily.
The heartless was found in dark mists shortly after. Right after that, there was a noise on the bush.
We looked and there, it was Xion. Her coat was covered with dirt.
"Xion! Are you alright?" Axel asks, heading towards Xion, examining to check if she has any wounds.
"Y-Yeah... why are you guys here?" Xion looked very surprised. "And that was my target you guys defeated..."
"Yeah, we know. We came to look for you. What's up? I asked, knowing the answer.
"W-Well..." Xion hesitated, taking a step back.
"What's wrong? Xion, we're your friends. You can tell us anything." Axel reassured Xion.
"Right... sorry. Let's go head to the clock tower first? I'll explain there."
And so, we headed to the clock tower. I bought the ice creams as we headed.
"So?" Axel sat down. "Tell us what happened to you." Xion and I sat down as well. I opened the ice cream and gave one to both.
"Umm... well. I can't use the keyblade anymore. I'm probably going to get turned into a dusk!" Xion looked down.
I didn't like seeing her sad. But knowing the outcome, I felt a bit better.
"R-Really? Try calling for it again." I looked at her.
Xion raised her right hand for a few seconds but nothing happened.
"See... sorry guys. I think I might of forgotten how to call for my keyblade. If Saix finds out about this..." Xion dropped her right hand and took a bite of her ice cream, looking down.
I also took a bite. "Don't worry. We'll figure something out, Xion. Axel, got any clues?".
"Hmm..." Axel thought for a few seconds. "I think I got an idea. Roxas, you can do missions with Xion until Xion gets her keyblade back."
"Ohh! Great idea!" I was getting better at acting.
"But you'll have to do twice as work." Axel pointed out.
"That'll be taken care of. Xion, what do you say? It's a good idea." I looked over to Xion.
"Erm... but you'll have to do twice as work. I don't want to be such a burden to you..." Xion looked cute when she worries.
"Haha, no problem! Just remember how to use your keyblade and everything will be alright. Okay?" I patted her back, smiling.
Xion started to smile as well. "Well... okay, if you say so."
And so, the day ended fast and morning came up.
I went to the Grey Area, as always and met Xion there already.
"Ready to give this a shot?" Xion asks.
"Yep. Let's do this."
...
"Together? Saix glared at us.
"Yeah, is it a problem?" Xion asks, having her hood up.
"What in the world possessed you and asked at a time like this? We're shorthanded and you expect me to say yes?"
We looked down. Waiting for Axel's arrival, he came.
"Why not? Seems like a good idea to me. Put half pints together and you get a whole."
"..."
"If you let us pair together, we can do tougher missions." I added.
"Hmm. Fine, as you wish."
Axel was able to persuade Saix.
Saix gave us our mission for today and walked off. Xion and I looked at each other and smiled.
"See? It went well. Anyways, good luck you two. I need to go start my mission now. See you later." Axel waved and left.
"Right. Don't worry too much, Xion." I grinned.
And so, we did many missions together everyday. Saix started to get suspicious but it didn't matter too much. It was certainly tiring for me to do twice as work but it's great training anyway.
...
It was now day 78. The day Xion finally gets her keyblade. So according to my memories, we should get a mission at the Beast's castle.
And I was right. We reached onto the Beast's castle just as expected.
"Soo. We came here to gather some information about this castle, right?" Xion asked to confirm.
"Yeah. Let's get in." We entered the castle, trying to be as stealthy as we could.
We found ourselves in a huge corridor after a few minutes of walking. We haven't met any heartless yet.
"The master is in quite an unfortunate mood today." A voice came out of no where came.
"Roxas!" Xion looked at me.
"Yeah, I heard it too." I took a small peek at the corner.
There, I saw a walking candle lighted up. Looks like he looked the same. "If only he would leave his chambers..." He continued to hop, going somewhere.
"What did you see?" Xion asked.
"Would you believe... a walking, talking candelabra?"
"Oh, come on." Xion looked at me with a funny, weird face.
She decided to take a peek also.
She looked at me with her mouth open. "Whoa, you weren't kidding. But how can it..."
"Beats me. Anyway, let's keep looking for more information about this castle."
"Right." Xion nodded.
After about 10 minutes of walking, we heard a loud roar. We rushed in and followed the noise. Luckily, it wasn't too far.
"It's coming from that room... wanna take a look?" Xion looked at the door cautiously. It was open but only a few centimeters open.
I looked inside, and found the Beast inside. I knew he was there.
"GRAGHHHH! How dare she not join me for dinner!" His arms swung onto the table. Right next to him, there was rose petals inside the glass. "This is MY castle and this is MY wish. UGHH!".
I looked back at Xion.
"Well, Roxas?" She asks, with her hand gesturing.
"There's a weird monster inside." I moved aside, letting Xion take a peek as well.
"Whoa, what is he?"
"Don't know. Move out of the door. Let's not get involved with him..." I took Xion's hand and pulled her towards me.
"O-Okay..." She looked at hands holding each other.
"Ah, sorry." I blushed and felt disappointed as I let go of her hands.
"Ahh no, no need to apologize." She chuckled.
"GRAHHHHHHHHHHGHHH!" Another loud slam on the table was heard along with the Beast's roar.
"Ugh, let's get out of here before he finds us out."
We left and found ourselves looking at something weird again.
"Is that a..."
"Yep. A walking clock."
"This castle is weird, Roxas."
"It sure is... haha."
"I heard him mention master. Is he a servant of this castle or something? That Beast must be the master..."
"Hmm, you could be right. Well anyway, we need to get up to that stairs. We haven't checked that bit yet." I took another peek. "Looks like he won't be leaving soon. Let's be careful."
"Roger that." Xion nodded.
We both bobbed down while he was looking at a pillar, thinking of something. We walked walked cautiously and silently. Though I passed this before, even I could still make a mistake. A sweat drop formed onto my face.
Almost up to the stairs , the clock tower looked behind him.
"Huh? I felt something weird behind me... guess it was just me."
Oh my gosh. That was so close. Luckily, I grabbed Xion's hand and hid behind the huge pillar. There were many pillars lined up in this room so we were lucky. Because the pillars weren't fat enough, I hugged Xion tightly so that our coats wouldn't hang out for the clock guy to see.
Xion shifted her head and looked at me. Her cheeks were as red as strawberries and soon, mine as well. Her arms were leaning on my chest. Our eyes were so close to each other, we stared at each other. Her eyes were as cerulean as mine. It was pretty, I thought. Realizing the current situation, I pushed her shoulders away from mine and looked away. I took a peek of the walking clock and he was looking at a different direction.
"L-Let's use this time to get up now." I whispered, still embarrassed. I could die of embarrassment right now. She nodded and followed me.
So we got up to the stairs and had found many more rooms leading somewhere.
"A-Anyway, let's continue the search" Averting my eyes away from her.
"Y-Yeah." Xion also looked away.
As we walked down the corridor, I had an idea.
"Xion, since I have two keyblades, why don't you borrow one of mine so you might be able to remember how to summon your keyblade? I let out two of my keyblades, grasping firmly onto my hands.
"Ohh, that's an interesting idea... I think that might work. But is it alright? Xion stroked her chin as if she has a beard.
"Of course! That's why I asked. Heh, here." I handed her the Oblivion keyblade, leaving me with Oath Keeper to hold only.
She held it and slashed the air. "It feels the same... I think I'm slowly remembering it." Xion started to swing around the keyblade.
"Great. Let's continue to gather information."
We searched any rooms, mostly empty but with furnitures. No one was inside. We also met many heartlesses on our ways.
"This... hahh... castle is so big!" Xion puffed, as she finished the last heartless in the group that came before us.
"I know right... I think we already explored the majority of it." I took out a full bottle of water as I was getting thirsty. "Want some?" I pointed my bottle at Xion.
"Ah, sure. I could totally drink a ton of water right now!" She took my bottle and started drinking it. She drank half of the water in the bottle, leaving me some to drink as well. "Thanks." She smiled, passing me my bottle back.
"No problem." I drank the rest of the water and felt more refreshed. "I think it's time to RTC now. Let's head back?" I called my keyblades off. Both disappeared off our hands.
"Sure!"
I nodded. I summoned a Corridor of Darkness and as I was about to get in, another horde of heartless appeared. Not realizing this, one came at me from behind.
"Roxas!" Xion shouted.
CLANG!
"...?!" Looking behind me, I saw a familiar keyblade. "Xion?! Your keyblade's back!" Looking so surprised, I didn't expect her keyblade to be back today...
"Y-Yeah! Let's finish them off first!" She deflected the heartless and countered it.
I re-summoned my keyblades as well, helping Xion defeat the heartlesses. We stood back to back.
"Let's go!"
"Roger that!"
We both launched at opposite directions and slashed our way through, defeating them all easily. It was only those mini heartlesses so they didn't give much challenge.
"Haha! Yeeeeeeeah!" I walked towards Xion, giving her a high five.
"We make a great team!" She grinned.
"Yup. And what's better is, you got your keyblade back! Axel would be happy if he hears about this." I dismissed the keyblades and held both of her hands. Her hands were cuffed into mine, making her keyblade point upwards.
"Hehe, yup. It's thanks to you! And Axel too!" Her cheeks were getting pink.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHH!" A clamorous shout was heard again, with loud stomps coming on our way.
"Oh, crap! Let's go!" We both ran into the dark portal and soon, the portal disappeared as well.
"Well, that was close. He rings too much decibels for my ears, sometimes." I sighed.
"Ehehe! I know right."
"Anyways, once we get back, I have something to show you."
"Show me? What is it?" She asked, looking at me.
"A small bird. It's random but I decided to look after one!" I grinned.
Sorry if it seemed too rushed, I just wanted to get this arc done with. Heh, I felt the needs of Roxas having a mini pet. I was also given a small birdie a few months ago, randomly and suddenly! It was a birthday present though. YES, I NAMED HIM ROXAS. HE WAS YELLOW, THEREFORE, GIVEN THE NAME ROXAS. ^-^
And to the anonymous person who PMed me, yes, I'm thinking of making another fanfic with the lovely couple, Rokushi! I'm thinking of making it into a whole different story. Not anything to do with the whole heartless thing. Maybe. Well, I'm open to suggestions, so...
Yes, I changed some bits to the original story line so I hope you guys don't mind too much!
Anyway! Please review~ Reviews are my motivation to this story and how fast I can be motivated enough to update!