Who… am I? What am I… here for?

Everything was dark and empty. She couldn't feel a thing. Maybe she didn't even have a body to feel with; she couldn't see herself, and she couldn't move.

I am… I'm…

"Well what do you want to do, Xion?"

That memory was the key that unlocked her sight. She saw that she did have a body: gloved hands that were held in front of her face, a body cloaked in a flowing black coat, feet covered by pointed boots. All around her was liquid darkness that hurt her lungs to breathe, but far below something glowed.

I'm Xion, and I'm here for…

"You're headed home."

…I'm here to go home.

She began to fall, spiraling through the depths towards the faint light, and it rushed up to meet her. Her boots made a soft click on the smooth, hard surface as she touched down.

Is this it? She glanced back and forth at the circle of dim light, and it suddenly shattered.

Her hands flew up to protect her face from the tiny shards, but there was no true danger. They were harmless, tickling lightly everywhere they touched, and instead of falling again through the broken surface, a stained glass platform was revealed from under the cracking light shards.

"Ah…" Her hand came up to her lips, realizing she could speak. "That's me, isn't it?" She said, studying the image on the platform.

The picture of her slept with her Kingdom Key in hand, the faces of her friends and others she assumed she was connected to arranged in a circle slightly above and behind her sleeping image. Sora was in the middle, with Riku, Roxas, and Axel ringing around him. Twilight Town filled the background, and seashells made a border around the circumference of the purple-tinted glass pillar.

"Is this another piece of my heart?" She asked and received no answer, not that she'd expected one. "Didn't I go back to Sora?"

That questing got a type of answer – four sets of glass circles appeared, three trailing off near the top of the picture in different directions, one leading from the bottom, like stepping stones. She picked one of the paths at the top and followed it.

The circles were large enough for her to stand on, but the gaps between them were too big to cross without jumping, and it was difficult to avoid losing her balance each time she jumped. She didn't want to find out if the darkness had a bottom the hard way.

Just when she was wondering if the path went on forever, a platform like the one she had originally landed on phased into her vision. She went faster, spurred on by curiosity.

"Roxas?" This yellow-tinted pillar held a sleeping image of her friend, again with a circle of faces, including her own.

As she ran across the platform to get a better look at Roxas's face, she suddenly collapsed, overtaken by anger. It was a scarily similar feeling to when Saïx reprogrammed her, but this time she could tell the emotions weren't her own.

"Roxas! Can you hear me?" Her yell echoed eerily, and it seemed strange to her that there was no other noise to direct the anger at. "Don't be mad! Let it go!"

The fury seemed directed towards her now that she had tried to breach Roxas's heart. She felt a flood of thoughts invade her mind.

'I have to free Kingdom Hearts, I can't forget, so tired, need to get her back, I can't forget!' The burning in his muscles from fighting countless Heartless became her own, and she took on his rage at the slipping memories.

"Not yet, Roxas! Xemnas will destroy you!"

Roxas's heart was closed to her; his anger drove her back. Unable to withstand it any longer, she was forced to run back across the floating glass circles to her own platform.

She panted, resting her hands on her knees. "Roxas…" Would she be able to get through to him if he wasn't so mad at everyone? Part of her heart was connected to his, so it might be possible. She'd try later, when Roxas calmed down. If he calmed down.

But first, she would see where those other paths went. Looking back on the one she just came from, she noticed that it seemed to lead from Roxas's face on the platform. So, if there were three others…

Xion's mouth split into an ear-to-ear grin. One of the trails led from the opposite side of the pillar, which she assumed was Sora's since it couldn't lead from Sora's face in the middle, but one led from Riku's face, and the last led from Axel's.

"Axel," she whispered hopefully. She dashed past his picture and leapt across the red circles as fast as her legs could carry her. The small glass platforms flew beneath her so quickly her eyes almost tricked her into thinking she wasn't moving at all, but eventually, after an amount of time that she couldn't gage, she arrived on Axel's dive platform.

Warmth suddenly surrounded her in a thick blanket. Her eyelids drooped in drowsy contentment, and she had to rub her eyes to keep herself from falling asleep on the spot.

She breathed in deeply, wiggling her frozen fingers and toes. She hadn't realized how cold she had felt until she thawed out. "And you said my heart was better?"

For a moment she simply stood there and soaked in as much of the warmth as she could.

'-who am I forgetting? I know she was my friend, my best friend, and… and I hurt her, and… She's gone, isn't she…'

"Axel, it's okay. I understand," she whispered. "Thank you for trying to remember me, but don't be sad. I'm still here. I'm not going to leave you."

She felt an outside force descend on her, more calming than even the warmth of Axel's heart. It cleared her mind and pushed away her worried thoughts. Even though it was quiet and still, it tugged at her heart, seeming to say that it was time to leave. Xion couldn't comprehend why; trying to speak to Axel's heart sounded like a good plan to at least try, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was needed elsewhere.

Reluctantly she turned back, pausing to take a last glance at the stained-glass Axel and the faces surrounding him. To her surprise, Saïx was depicted along with her, Roxas, and Sora. She didn't know why Axel's heart would have a connection with someone so cruel, but she left down the trail of circles and tried not to worry about it. Surely there was a decent explanation.

She shivered as she leaped from circle to circle. It would be easy to go back to Axel's platform and fall asleep there peacefully, but she couldn't sleep now. She had to do something, even if she didn't know yet what it was.

I can probably come back later, she reasoned, after I do what I need to. As long as I don't have to go straight to Sora…

A spiraling staircase rose up in front of her. The floating rectangular steps appeared in the middle of the path, leading into the darkness above. She felt warmth radiate from the Wayfinder in her pocket, and she took it out and saw that it was glowing with a purple aura.

"Up there?" Xion's gaze followed the staircase before her feet did. It ascended farther than she could see, but she kept climbing. Her legs ached and the tail end of her coat flopped against them annoyingly every time she took a step.

"How long… does this… go on?" She panted. Stopping to rest, she sat with her legs hanging over the edge of the glass step and looked down. She couldn't see the bottom of the stairs anymore. "I hope it goes somewhere…"

It had to; it couldn't have just appeared there for no reason. She just had to figure out what that reason was, and the only way to do that was to keep going.

She stood with new determination and continued to climb the spiral. Besides, the aching in her legs was nothing compared to the pain of being reprogrammed and fighting her friends. She doubted anything could hurt her beyond what she'd already survived.

She couldn't tell how long she'd been running up the stairs, which was probably better than knowing and being bored out of her mind because of it, but eventually a shape materialized at the top: A glass star with a hole in the center. It looked just as dark inside as it did everywhere else, but she was still anxious to reach it. Knowing this place, or rather, not knowing this place, it could lead to anything.

When Xion finally came to the step below it, she gripped the inside edges and pulled herself into the unknown.