6H: (rips up plans and stories) ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anaretsu: Huh-what? What the hell is up with you?

6H: NO ONE IS REVIEWING!!!! You know what this means? I am a failure as an author!!!!

Anaretsu: But we knew that already. (Pats on the head)

6H: (headdesk) ARGH!!!!!!!!!!

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XI- You don't exist

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They were waiting on top of sunset hill, one of the more famous spots in Twilight Town. There were various stories about this hill, basically all saying that if you and a significant other watched the sunset from this vantage point, blah…. It wasn't Roxas's cup of tea. He never paid attention to things like that. But this was a great overlook of the train tracks, so if the ghost train did come, they'd be sure to see it. At first, it was easy to watch and wait, all of them sitting in silence and watching those tracks, as if something really amazing would happen. But nothing came. After awhile, all of them were starting to give up hope.

"So this one's a bogus one too, huh Pence?" Hayner asked lazily, blowing a piece of grass off his face.

"It's got to come eventually." Roxas said, leaning over the fence. For some reason, he really wanted that train to come. It might answer some of his questions. But that kind of thinking didn't make any sense to him. Then again, none of these wonders really did make any sense at all.

"I think we should just head home. It's nearly dinner time, and my mom will kill me if I'm late again." Pence whined.

"Just a little longer," Roxas said under his breath. "Please, come…"

"You could always head for home, Pence. The rest of us will stay here." Olette offered, trying to makes things better. It was clear that this project was crashing and burning before their eyes.

"Are you sure that's okay?" Pence asked.

"It's fine. We'll watch for the train." Olette assured him.

"Thanks a lot, Olette!" He said. He jumped up and started to jog off, but a figure coming up the hill stopped him.

"Hey, slackers!" Seifer called. The other three looked over at him, not pleased to see he had come.

"What do you want, Seifer?" Hayner asked, annoyed.

"Nothing. Just checking to make sure you're not f---ing up or anything." He said.

"Must you use that word?" Olette chided. "It's not really necessary." Seifer just ignored her complaint and focused in on Roxas.

"What?" Roxas asked, feeling uncomfortable under the older teen's tough gaze.

"How come looking at you always pisses me off?" Seifer asked.

"I don't know. Maybe…"Roxas thought for a moment. "Maybe it's just destiny. Something we can't help." Seifer thought over this for a moment, and then began to laugh.

"Destiny, huh? Perhaps…I hear sometimes that destiny likes to screw with people a lot." He replied. "Well then, let's just be friends."

"Huh?" The four of them all said at once.

"I don't feel like bowing down and becoming a pawn of destiny." Seifer explained. "I don't feel like cooperating with what some higher power has in store for me."

"You've never cooperated with anything in your life." Hayner retorted.

"I make my own path." Seifer said, turning his back to them and walking back down the hill. The four watched him go in silence, and then Pence turned around and looked back at them.

"Okay, now that…was seriously weird." He said.

"Yeah. Are you sure that was Seifer?" Olette asked. Suddenly, a noise reached Roxas's ears. He turned back and looked down at the track. There it was! Coming down from the track, which turned out of town and went to parts unknown, was a purple train car, with many ornate decorations all over it. He got a glimpse inside the windows; there was no one inside.

"There it is guys!" He exclaimed. He leaned as far over the fence as would prevent him from falling to a horrible death, and watched as the train came towards him, growing in size, and then disappearing in the tunnel under the hill. He turned back to them, a big smile on his face. "Did you see it? There really IS no one inside!!!" He exclaimed, as if he just got the best present ever.

"What?" Hayner asked, a confused look on his face.

"Let's go to the station!! Maybe we can catch it!!" Roxas began to run down the hill, his heart racing. If he got on that train, and took it, he might find what he was looking for.

----

Another day was ending, and night was starting to fall on the town. The red beams of light shone with an intensity through the window near the ceiling, letting in some of the outside world before it faded away again. The fires burned with a soft crackle and remained the only sound in this place, and the only good source of light. The weak sunbeams coming in from above could not possibly have penetrated the darkness themselves.

The guardian of the forbidden archive sat on the ancient wood table, playing with her misty hair and rocking back and forth as she did. The sound of approaching footsteps intruding on the silence did not disturb her at all, even when they stopped to the side of her. The person did not come any closer than the edges of the aisle, preferring to wait in the shadows of a poorly lit row. She did not cease her playing, even though she was perfectly aware of the new guest.

"You told him a lot." The person said.

"I wanted to tell him so much more, though!" She replied with a smile. She turned to look at her company. "Won't you come closer?" She gestured to a chair. "I don't mind. Please, come sit with me."

"I'd rather not." The person answered. "Sorry, but I'm in kind of a rush. They found me again."

"They're bothersome! Why don't you just not go back there ever again?"

"You know I can't survive on this side for too long. Not until I become whole can I break through the door again."

"And now even Mr. Bandage-head is after you." She said sadly.

"Oh, I'm not worried about him too much. He doesn't have a clue where to find me when I disappear. Neither does Riku, so don't you worry." He reassured her.

"You won't tell Mr. Bandage-head and Riku what I did, will you? I did it because he needs to know! When he arrived here, I knew that he was searching for knowledge, deep within his heart."

"I know. Don't worry; I think you did a good thing. I was just surprised."

"Are you leaving me now?" She asked sadly. Suddenly, the bells chimed out with a loud clanging. The archive shook a little, dust floating down from the rafters. Birds flew away in a panic outside, and the last bit of sunshine was slipping down and out of the span of the windows.

And once again, she was alone.

----

Roxas ran up the station steps just as the mysterious train car was pulling in. It stopped with a loud creak of the breaks, and the doors slowly slid open, inviting him to dare to take a step inside. Roxas stepped onto the platform and just stared at the car. He was so elated, he couldn't even describe it.

"Roxas, wait!" Hayner was yelling from behind. Roxas turned as his friends arrived, and pointed to the car behind him.

"It's real, you guys. Come on, let's get on and see where it goes." There was no reply except nervous glances to the ground. He turned and stepped towards it, but someone grabbed his arm.

"Wait," Hayner said.

"What? Why are you stopping me?" Roxas questioned, frustrated. They had finally found one of the wonders that was for real, and he was backing out now?

"It's just that…you'll get hurt…" Hayner replied quietly. Roxas turned back to where the car had been and found it was gone. The announcer came on the intercom to announce the arrival of the train. Roxas was aghast.

"But…it was right here!" He said.

"Come on. Let's go home." Hayner said, pushing Roxas into the train.

----

When they arrived back on the other side of town, they were all feeling pretty low. Their project was a failure-what were they to write about now? Roxas was still absorbed in his own thoughts about the mysterious train car. Had he been the only one to see it? How did this connect to everything else that had been going on? Not to mention it was also perturbing that the scent of dragon fruit was completely gone from the air. He thought something might've happened to Arlette.

"So now what do we do?" Pence asked.

"The wonders were all fake-the end! It's simple as that." Hayner replied, a little edgy with his tone.

"It's okay. We did put a lot of effort into this, and that's what counts. We did actually do some research, and it's a research assignment. We'll probably get credit for it." Olette remarked, trying to cheer everyone up.

"But that's still only six wonders, Pence." Roxas said quietly, after recounting each one.

"Enough with these damn wonders! I'm sick of it!" Hayner yelled. "This whole thing…it was all a waste of time!"

"Hayner, stop being so…." Olette chided.

"I'm going home. See you guys tomorrow." He turned and started walking home.

"Hayner, get back here!" Olette yelled. "I'd better chase after him." She said goodbye to her two friends and ran off after the hot-headed blonde. Roxas and Pence looked at each other.

"So? About that seventh wonder…?" Roxas asked, trying not to sound too desperate. Pence sighed.

"It's the mansion at the edge of town." He replied. "I don't really know if there's anything there. I doubt it, seeing how our luck is going." But Roxas was already off, heading towards the mysterious mansion.

----

The mansion…there was always something odd about it. He remembered them always coming up here to see if they could get inside, but of course the gate was locked. No one knew how old the mansion was or how long it had been here. Some say that it had been there since the town itself was created. But no one could find out who had lived there or for what purpose the mansion existed. People made up stories, sure, but no one really knew. But Roxas had always felt, since as long as he could remember that there was something more than a tragic love story or some ghost myth behind the house-and now he got the strange feeling that it was all connected to him.

He stood outside the perpetually locked gates, the only barrier between himself and the answers he needed, and gazed up at one of the windows, which seemed to have a white room behind it. He sighed-of course he couldn't get close enough to see. But then he had to take a second glance. There seemed to be a figure in the window…a familiar figure.

"Namine…" He muttered under his breath. Suddenly, he felt like he was being pulled forward rapidly into that white room. The world spun around him as he tried to gain control of his movements, and found himself within the white room he had suspected to be beyond the window just a moment ago. He looked around to find papers scattered all over the place-not just papers…there were drawings on them. He looked at all of them as he walked around the room.

Though the drawings were rushed and crude, he could easily tell what they were supposed to be-they were of Sora's memories. Though some were very quick scribbles of events that had happened, others were very high detailed and realistic pictures of people he knew-his mother, his father, even one of Riku…

Roxas was stunned. It was all a lot to take in, because most of these memories he had seen in his dreams lately. He reached out to touch a scene in which Sora and Cedeile were meeting up in Traverse Town, when a voice stopped him.

"Hi, Roxas," He turned around to see Namine sitting at the far end of a long, white table.

"Namine…" He replied, and sat down across from her.

"I'm glad you came to see me." She said with a touch of melancholy in her voice. "I thought I wouldn't get the chance to see you again, so I'm glad you're here."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Do you see all the pictures around you?" She asked. He nodded.

"Did you draw those?"

"Yes, I did." She replied. He smiled.

"They're really very good, Namine. I like them a lot." He complimented. She blushed, and then looked down to the table, where her sketchbook lay opened to an unfinished sketch of a red haired girl.

"No, they're a curse. A curse of memories…You see, I'm a witch, with the power over memories."

"Why a witch?" He asked, thinking that witches only existed in fairy tales.

"Well, that's what DiZ called me. A while back, I was under the control of some bad people, and they made me do something awful. Luckily, I'm able to fix it now, but it's taken a lot of time. I've had to reconstruct all of Sora's memories from the beginning to right now. It's taken almost a year, but I'm almost at the end. What no one realized, though, was how it would affect you."

"You mean…the dreams, right?"

"That's right. And your own memories coming back."

"My memories of what?"

"The memories of your true self and the life you had before now. You see, there's something you don't know about yourself, something that will come into play very soon."

"What are you talking about?" He asked with a slight smile. "No one knows me better than me." Namine sighed sadly.

"Roxas, forgive me for sounding cruel, but I really don't get to talk to people much. You see, you were-"

"Enough, Namine," A fierce angry voice called out from behind Roxas's chair. Roxas turned to discover a very angry looking Arlette standing in the corner, holding one of the drawings in her hand. She completely looked past Roxas, fury building up in her deep green eyes, as she stared the blonde girl down. "Don't go any further." Her fingers began to clench into her palms, crumpling the edges as her hands shook with suppressed rage.

"Arlette, you know this has to come sooner or later. We can't ignore this any longer." Namine replied calmly. Arlette shook her head.

"Don't even dare, Namine! All of you want Roxas to submit to his plans, just like you wanted to do with him!" She ripped the paper she was holding in half and let the pieces fall to the floor. Namine didn't even so much as flinch. The ghost began to walk towards her slowly, her voice rising in volume with each syllable. "They're all your experiments, aren't they?! They're just yours to toy around with, to see how far you can push them to the edge, to see what makes them tick. Doesn't he understand yet?! This is what happened the first time seven years ago, and it's only going to keep getting worse until everything is pulled into the land of death!" She slammed her fist down on the table and Roxas jumped at the resounding thud that resulted. Namine hardened her face against the other girl's rage and looked up at her with a blank face. "You're one of them too, you know. How can you do this to those who are just like you?"

"Are you angry because you feel like you have to protect all of them?" She asked. "Oh, Arlette…the pain you must feel the way things are now. I'm so sorry…"

"Don't even…! You have no idea, Namine!" Arlette shouted back. "You aren't alive like I was once. And you don't understand how the dead wish to be with the living. We're all so powerless…" Arlette clasped her hands over her eyes and shook her head slowly back and forth, and Roxas assumed she was crying.

"I know. I can't feel quite what you can, Arlette. But don't you think Roxas has the right to know? You wish for him to be free, but you're keeping him within a cage of ignorance by keeping secrets." Namine soothed.

"But what if he returns to how he was?" Arlette sobbed. "If he knows, then DiZ will have that much more power over him."

"No, he won't."

"I wanted to save just one." She cut in before Namine could continue. "Just once, I wanted to bring one back, and I wanted that one to be Roxas. I wanted one of them to not have to be caught up in that hopeless struggle that the one started. He can feel, Namine…Roxas can feel, and it's a real kind of feeling. It's so much like the pure one I brought back…but it's different because this is a more normal case, you know?" She took her hands away from her face, a melancholy smile framed by two streams of tears. "And Cedeile's dormant feelings are coming through for him because of Sora. But I also want to protect him."

"I understand." Namine replied.

"What is it?" Roxas finally asked, frozen in his chair. The two girls looked at him, as if they had forgotten he was there. "What do you need to tell me?"

"You…were never really supposed to exist." Namine said. Roxas gasped as Arlette turned away, crying silently a bit more.

"How could you say something like that?" Roxas asked, jumping up out of his chair. "Even if that was true…"

"I'm afraid, after being locked up for so long, I'm not very good with people." Namine explained apologetically. Roxas looked to Arlette's turned back.

"Did you know?" He asked her, aghast. She half turned back.

"Yes. I knew…I didn't want you to know because I was so sure you could live as a whole…"

"A whole what?" He demanded.

"A whole person." Namine filled in. He looked back to the other girl. "I'm like you Roxas-I'm what they call a 'Nobody.' Beings like us are those who have lost our hearts, but retain our souls and bodies."

"What's going to happen to me?" Roxas asked, depression and shock setting in on him.

"You'll be fine!" Arlette exclaimed. "I promise you, Roxas, you'll be able to live how you want to!!" She approached him carefully. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you…but I couldn't bring myself to. See how weak I am?" She opened her arms. "Look at me-I died because of my own stupidity, and now I'm trying to make a difference. I try to guide nobodies to the NEO Zone so that they can find themselves, and they end up trying to take back their hearts by force, causing all this mess. I had one selfish wish, though, even though I didn't deserve it-I wished that you would escape and live freely."

"Arlette…" Roxas remarked dumbly.

"I'm a stupid, stupid person." She added. "There is nothing I can do." Before Roxas could respond, a portal appeared behind Namine. She gasped and turned around as a hooded figure stepped out.

"Hold your peace, Namine!" The figure commanded. "You're going to send everything all helter skelter if you keep messing around like this!"

"He needs to know!" She replied back. "Why can't we let him know?"

"No, Namine!" Roxas called out. Arlette suddenly came next to him and grabbed onto him arm. He felt the room starting to slip away from them as Arlette stared down the hooded man.

"Roxas, you won't disappear!" Namine exclaimed. "Now that I've met you, I know that!"

"I'll disappear?" He questioned back, unable to make out what she said.

"No, you won't disappear!! I think we'll meet again, but as two different people! I really think that-"

"Enough!" The hooded man said, and he dragged her back into the portal.

"No! Namine!!" Roxas called as Arlette whisked them away into the darkness.

----

It was dark all around, and the space was vast and empty. A translucent figure began to move through the darkness and stopped before a slouched over figure. The figure turned out to be a young boy with spiky blonde hair and empty blue eyes. The figure put a hand on her hip and gave the figure a gentle smile.

"Hi there." She said kindly. The boy looked up at her. "My name is Arlette, and I'm here to bring you to a safe place. Do you know what your name is?" She asked. The boy took awhile to respond.

"Sora…" He finally recalled at last. "My name is Sora." She seemed surprised by his answer at first, but then shook it off and extended a hand out to him.

"That's a nice name, Sora. Come on, I'll take you to your new home." She said. He reluctantly and limply took her hand, and she helped him up and began to take him along with her. He looked around as if he was mildly interested in the darkness.

"Do you remember anything about your other life?" She asked as they went along. The boy didn't respond as his glazed over eyes took in the surrounding darkness. "That's okay. I'm sure the memories will come back to you soon. No one really remembers what happened to them on the other side to get them over here. But don't worry; I'm sure you'll be whole again soon." Suddenly, big shapes began to form in the darkness, and soon it wasn't darkness anymore, but a rainy city at night, with lots of tall buildings and creatures roaming about the streets.

He looked at all of this blankly. His guide turned back to him and smiled.

"Well here you are-you'll know where to go from here. Welcome to the NEO Zone." She said. She let go of his hand and turned to go.

"My name…" He began to speak again. She stopped, but didn't turn back to look at him. "My name is Roxas." He said, and he walked into the city, making his way towards his new life. Arlette smiled knowingly to herself before disappearing off into the darkness.

"That's a nice name."

----

Roxas awoke from the feverish nightmare and felt a heavy weight on his chest. He blinked rapidly a few times and took a few deep breaths. Was that a memory or just a dream? He realized that he was back in his room and laying sprawled out on his bed, even though it was the middle of the day. He looked down and saw the source of the weight on his chest- Arlette's arm was draped across his chest as she lay next to him, sobbing into his bed sheets. She glanced up at him with the most pathetic and sorrowful look on her face that he felt a part of his heart break. But then he remembered he didn't have one.

"Arlette, I…"

"Please," She said softly, "just let me stay here for a little bit." He looked at her, shocked, and felt a blush rise up in his face. She was so close to him, and he found that he liked it, as much as it also terrified him. "I want to protect you, Roxas." She said. "I'm sorry." Roxas hesitantly brought his hand to rest on her back.

"Its okay, Arlette." He replied. She rested her cheek against his side and stared ahead with determined intent. Roxas found himself looking back up at the ceiling as he gripped the material of her sweater tighter.

What was that supposed to mean- that he didn't exist? How was he supposed to deal with that? Was he not real-was everything for nothing? What about his friends? Would they remember him?

'But I feel real now.' He thought as he practically glared a hole through the ceiling. The scent of dragon fruit was strong, so much so that he felt it lulling him off to sleep. 'I feel real. I want to always feel this way…'

"…She loves you the most…!"

'I don't care. Just let me feel real.'

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6H: End of this chapter! It turned out pretty good, I have to say. I was worried about the last scene, but I think it turned out okay. Sorry for the long delay, but I've mostly been working on my original stuff over at fictionpress, so please drop me a line there. Next chapter is the final Roxas chapter, so enjoy.