Happy 4th to those in America who actually celebrate it.
Hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 14
"Xion!?" Roxas yelled out, as Axel broke the illusion.
"Roxas?" Xion asked. "Wh...what are you doing here? The Heartless I was fighting-it was you?" They both were surprised. It must have been a powerful illusion.
"This mission was a setup." Axel spoke.
"What?" Roxas and Kixma asked. She casted curaga.
"It was rigged so you two would battle each other." Axel clarified.
"Me and Xion? But..." Roxas dropped off.
"They would do that?" Xion asked.
"Apparently," Kixma sighed, "Xemnas for sure, but the others... I'm not sure. Xemnas did threaten me himself. I wouldn't put it past him."
All four sat at the clock tower. The sunset sure was nice that day. "Brain freeze, ha," Xion laughed breaking some silence.
"Been a while since we all hung out like this, huh?" Roxas asked.
"Well, we have had our share of drama." Axel spoke, "Hey, I just remembered-did you guys know you should be checking your ice cream sticks?"
"Really? For what?"
"Once you finish your ice cream bar, check the stick. It might say WINNER."
"Hey, wait a second... Oh yeah!"
"Oh yeah what?"
"Uhh...n-nothing."
"Roxas found a winner?" Kixma laughed.
"So what do you win?"
"Heh, beats me." Axel responded.
Roxas laughed, "You don't know?"
"It's gotta be something good, if you're a WINNER!"
"Right."
Xion laughed, "Wow. The sun sure is beautiful. I know we've seen a lot of sunsets, but today's puts them all to shame. If only things stayed like this."
There was some silence, no doubt about it; everyone knew a storm was coming.
"What if we all ran off?" Roxas asked breaking the silence.
"What?" Xion asked.
"The four of us. Then we could always be together."
"We don't have any place to run."
"I know. Heh, I was just thinking out loud."
"Well, even if things change, we'll never be apart..." started Axel.
"As long as we remember each other...right? Don't worry, Axel... we got your hokey speech memorized." Xion spoke.
"Just checking."
"Why am I always missing the sweet moments?" Kixma asked.
"You see a different side of Xigbar," Roxas spoke next.
"Do not, just I know him and his pride."
"I'll have these moments memorized for a long time. Forever, I hope." Xion looked at the sunset.
"Me too. Forever..." Roxas spoke. It was the last day they sat together.
Kixma was out doing a heartless count mission for Saïx. She walked around on a ship graveyard. Xion showed up, her hood was covering her face.
"Xion?" Kixma asked.
"I know my answer, I'm leaving. I have too."
"I'll miss you." Kixma smiled softy.
"Me too. I'll never forget. Good bye, Kixma."
"Good bye, Xion."
After Kixma gave her report, Saïx looked at her. "It escaped, Xigbar is injured. Go check on him."
"Like I won't without the order." Kixma left to Xigbar's room. She knocked on his door, "Xiggy, it's me..."
"Come in."
She opened the door, and shut it behind her. She didn't even let go of the door knob. She leaned back. "What happened?"
Xigbar sat up on his bed. "Heh... your older brother let poppet go. Then again I couldn't even move when she left."
"Want me to heal you?"
"Since when do you ask?"
Kixma walked to him, casting curaga. "Somehow she got to you. Why?"
"Ha as if."
Kixma sighed, "You are a great fighter."
"Eh, guess keyblades are my only weakness."
"Xiggy..." She sat next to him.
"Heh, even in that form, I still get looked at as if I drowned his damn goldfish."
"In that form? Who do you see when you look at her?"
"This is another battle Pet."
"Xiggy..." she sighed again. "Who did you see? I know that she is Sora's puppet, and I know Roxas looks like Ven, not Sora. I know somehow Sora and Ven had touched hearts somehow. So who do you see?"
"As if I will tell you." Xigbar looked away.
"Can you not be stubborn with me at least once?" Kixma yelled standing up. "I know your pride... but..."
"Then you know what battles to pick from me Pet." Xigbar raised his voice.
Kixma looked down, she crossed a line. "Okay... I see how it is. Xiggy?"
He looked at her.
"You know I'm here right?"
"You are too damn loyal for your own good."
"Which is why you call me Pet right?"
"Yeah..."
"Got you to admit it." she smiled lightly.
He humphed. "Just go check on your brother will ya?"
Kixma found Axel in the dark city near the Skyscraper of Memory. "You let her go?"
"I had no choice, she looks like Sora now." Axel spoke.
"She went to tell me goodbye."
"I tried to tell Roxas that she was a puppet that was sucking his life away. He wouldn't hear it."
"Can you blame him?" Kixma asked. "He is still innocent in many ways. Or he could be in denial."
"It's either one or the other."
"Yeah... Xion knows it too." Kixma looked at the castle, "Roxas he won't take anything well."
"You wanna check on him?"
"Someone has too."
Kixma found Roxas in his room, she had ice-cream in her mouth, and had another in her hand. She handed him the ice-cream. He took it, as she sat on his bed, while he was at his desk.
"What will you do?" Roxas asked. "Xion left again, and Axel let her!"
Kixma stared at Roxas as he started his rant. "Xion is a puppet? She is a person. Xion is Xion! They are going to destroy her!"
"Roxas..."
"Did you know?"
Kixma nodded her head, "Yeah..."
"Why didn't you tell me? Why?" he yelled at her.
"I couldn't bring myself to. What would I have said? 'Hey Roxas, today I learned Xion is a puppet, how was your day.'"
"Kixma come on, we're best friends right?!" Roxas threw his ice-cream. She watched. "We have to get her back!"
"So she could run again?" Kixma snapped. "Don't you go around thinking you are the only one that cares. She is our friend, she is Xion. She just had a different birth than us. We aren't people Roxas. We are Nobodies; we are missing our hearts to be people. We are incomplete."
"How can you say that?" He snapped.
"It's the truth." Kixma tossed her ice-cream away. "Truth be told, I can go without your fits."
"Kixma... what are you gonna do?"
"Heal when needed."
"You're not gonna fight?! How can you just stand there?!"
"I'm not a fighter!" She yelled back. "I heal! You do know I am on thin ice here."
"For the imposter?! You didn't even try to catch him with Axel and me. Why?!"
"I left a message to Xion, hoping she would hear..." Kixma walked to the door. "Are you done yelling now?"
"We have to do something!"
"And what would you do Roxas?" Kixma finally snapped back. "Gonna force her back? She left again! As she gets stronger, you are getting weaker. Xion is a puppet, who is stealing your powers."
"Xion is Xion!"
"Just forget it..." Kixma sighed. "I'm tired... I'm done..." she walked out.
Before everyone started their missions, Xemnas called a meeting. Everyone was waiting. "Xion has vanished again."
"Do we know where she is?" Xaldin asked.
"'It' not 'she.' Xion is just a replica... a puppet."
"Puppet?" Luxord asked. "Someone made her?"
"Puppets generally don't make themselves." Saïx answered.
Xigbar humphed, "The Replica Program was one of our little pet projects."
"Replica whatza?" Demyx asked.
"Perhaps you care to enlighten us about this 'pet project.'" Xaldin spoke.
Xemnas started to explain. "The goal was to duplicate the keyblade wielders memories, and through them, his powers - thus making them our own. Vexen oversaw the project at Castle Oblivion."
Kixma sat back, "That's the real reason behind everything... and while they did that, Marluxia and Larxene took their chance. Damn... so much for me being informed."
"Yes," Xemnas conformed, "However, our efforts were severely derailed by his unexpected demise. And this particular Replica - the one we call Xion came to form an identity of her own."
"That caught us off guard." continued Saïx, "If anything like that happen before, no one at Castle Oblivion ever reported it. Did they Axel, Kixma?"
Axel didn't say anything, Kixma shrugged.
"Fortunately," Xemnas spoke, "The puppet has no means of dashing out our plans now, even if she learned to pull her own strings. Still she knows our secrets. We need to shorten her leash. And perhaps tighten it."
"You don't mean," Roxas started.
"Axel," Xemnas looked at number VIII, "Seeing as how she escaped on your watch, the onus is on you to capture her and return her here. I am willing to over look and nicks and scratches. Just ensure she still functions on arrival."
Xaldin shook his head, "Why would you allow a deserter back under our roof. She should be eradicated!"
Saïx humphed, "'Deserter' is hardly the term for a broken specimen who wandered out from under the microscope."
"Axel, you have your orders, dismissed." Xemnas left.
Kixma left without a word.
Kixma sat next to Xigbar waiting for Saïx, he and Roxas entered the grey room. Roxas walked to Kixma, "What exactly going on? Axel has no choice?"
"If Xemnas orders you to do it, you gotta do it," Kixma asked. "No questions ask. He is our leader... enough said."
"Is it really?"
Kixma sighed. "Let's just go do our missions shall we?"
Kixma walked on the bridge on Beast's Castle. She stopped half way, overlooking the frozen water below. She thought back how she became Kixma in the first place. She couldn't tell Roxas... no... not at the castle anyways. She RTC, then found him.
Roxas was in the dessert at night there. She walked to him. "Roxas... I have to answer your question. But it's too dangerous at the castle. About Xemnas... He... He is the reason why I am Kixma. I used to be Mika, a young girl... and he turned me into a Nobody. Now, it's mostly out of fear why some of us follow him. We can't feel the fear, but it's still there..."
"I... I had..." Roxas blinked. "What all can you tell me, that you can't at the castle?"
"What do you want to know?"
"Just... It's nothing forget it."
Kixma returned to the castle, Roxas came running down at her through Naughts Memory. "Kixma," he said.
"You are in a hurry." She spoke.
"Am I like Xion?"
"No." Kixma shook her head.
"Then how did I get here? Why am I special? Where did I learn to use the keyblade?"
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