Roxas felt like he was weightless, his body like air as he floated on nothingness. He tried to look out and see, to find something in what appeared to be a vast void, but his eyes were met with nothing but bleak whiteness, emptiness. He looked down at his hands and found nothing, he redirected his attention towards his body but seemingly was staring through his own chest as his view was filled with whiteness.

'Is this it? Am I finally gone?'

His voice echoed out, ringing in all directions but at the same time it felt like it wasn't real, like he had merely heard it in his own mind.

Suddenly he could hear something, a voice, but only faintly. They were repeating something over and over again... what were they saying? Roxas did his best to hone in on the noise, focusing with whatever was allowing him to hear the noise. Suddenly, he felt something gripping his shoulder. Perplexed he looked down and could see a slender hand holding onto his slowly reforming shoulder, grasping him like their life depended on it. His senses were slowly returning to him, he wasn't standing like he thought he had been, his body was horizontal, laying on the ground. He looked down and could see his chest again, reappearing slowly as his shoulder had.

'what's going on?' He spoke his words beginning to sound less like a thought and more like an actual noise again.

He could finally make out the noise he'd heard earlier, it was a word, a single word that was being repeated over and over again by a voice that was beginning to recognize.

"...Ruby?"

Roxas jolted up with wide eyes, several large beads of sweat running down the sides of his face as he gasped for air. He placed to a hand to his chest as he tried to catch his breath feeling as if he'd just been drowning and this was the first breath of air he'd been able to recover. He slowly collected himself, forcing the panic down as he started to take in his surroundings, then he frowned.

He was currently sitting in a relatively small single bed with plain white sheeting and a wooden bed frame. It was positioned against the side wall with a small window behind him letting in warm rays of sunlight. Beside him was a simple wooden night stand with a glass jug of water and a single cup. Roxas eagerly grabbed the jug dismissing the cup entirely as he lifted it to his lips taking liberal gulps of water as he did so. After downing over half of the jug's contents he slowly placed it back taking a second to study the rest of the room. It was small, seemingly only half the size of the dorm room he'd had at Beacon with the only other furniture in the room being a wooden old fashioned coat rack as well as an aged yet well maintained desk across from him pushed against the other side of the wall.

He slowly rose from the bed stretching as he did so as it felt as if he'd been in that bed for days with how sore his muscles were. He groaned groggily and noticed that his coat had been taken from him and placed on the coat rack just beside the closed wooden door. He took a step towards it and noticed immediately that something felt...off.

He staggered as he took the step, holding his chest tightly in a frown as he tried to understand what he was feeling. It was as if a weight he'd grown accustomed to had been... removed?

He took a few more steps breathing large breaths as he furrowed his eyebrows. Something was definitely different, but he couldn't quite determine just what as he pulled his coat off of the rack.

What happened to me?

He thought as he slipped the attire back on, covering his normal black pants and T-shirt. He tried to remember what had happened after he'd stepped into the room with Sora. He'd approached the pod and watched mystified as it opened revealing a sleeping boy with spiky brown hair. He remembered approaching the boy, stepping just in front of him before... something... started to happen. He remembered his body growing numb and his vision growing fuzzy as he'd struggled to remain conscious, as just standing became all he could do. Then he... couldn't remember anymore.

"Where... am I?... wait." he said pausing his thoughts as his ears picked up on something coming from outside the door. It sounded like... laughter?

Roxas grabbed the round door knob and opened the door with ease before stepping out and recognizing where he was finally. He was standing atop the upper terrace just before the railing that loomed over the bottom level of the mansion. He could even see across him on the other side of the terrace the 'library' room that lead down to where he'd last seen his friends.

The laughter grew louder seemingly coming from below prompting the young man to take a step forward, leaning on the wooden railing as he peered down. His eyes widened as he blinked several times in surprise trying to understand exactly what his eyes were telling him. In the center of the wide empty room sat both Yang and Weiss each with their backs turned to Roxas as they clapped for what appeared to be some sort of...dog man. He was smiling with large buck teeth, a dark furry face and floppy ears while also sporting a long tan colored snout. He seeming pleased with himself as he stuck a dignified pose and said

"A'hyuk! And then! Just when Sora needed us most! Donald and I!-" The Dog man pulled a nearby... duck man so that he was shoulder to shoulder with one and other despite the looming height of the dog man contrast to the white feathered yellow billed duck.

Roxas tuned out the two as the duck man protested the dog man's...

Goofy...

A voice told him in the back of his mind as he stared down at the spectacle. He blinked several times at this revelation but chose to accept it nonetheless.

As Goofy rattled on about some sort of adventure of valor he and …Donald...had supposedly been a part of, Roxas noticed that a trio of figures were sitting cross legs in front of the show with the back of their heads faced towards Him.

He could recognize two of the figures, one was Weiss, appearing bemused by Goofy's show as she clapped and laughed. Yang was beside her, clearly trying to get into the reenactment as she continuously decided to take the role of the villains in the bit as she'd laugh maniacally and attempt her best villain voice whenever the need would arise.

Beside her however was a figure he didn't know so well, from behind, he could only make out a massive mess of brown spiky hair, a short sleeved black and white detailed hoodie and a bright shade of red shorts.

"Sora..." He whispered under his breath as he made the connection to the boy he'd seen inside the pod.

Roxas furrowed his brows as he realized that Goofy and Donald's voices had stopped echoing throughout the room. Looking back to them he saw that they were now staring up at him meeting his gaze with wide eyes and mouths slightly agape.

"Oh..." He mumbled to himself as the others whipped their heads around to stare at him. He saw the looks of surprise expressing themselves on Yang and Weiss's features before bright smiles formed from their lips.

"Roxas!" They both cheered in unison as they rose to their feet. Weiss took to the stairs quickly ascending them as Yang decided to take a different route. Seemingly doing away with the concept of stairs entirely the blonde haired girl leapt into the air before aiming her two shot gauntlets towards the ground, firing the two weapons in unison and launching her straight over the railing beside Roxas.

"You're awake buddy!" She cheered pulling him into a tight embrace. Their height difference left Roxas's face smothered in her upper torso. The boy thought the embrace somewhat softer than what he'd grown accustomed to, but despite the comfort it felt weird to him for a reason he could not distinguish.

Seemingly recognizing this, Yang released the embrace early, appearing to blush from her mistake.

"Er- Sorry about that." She said embarrassingly scratching the back of her head not meeting his gaze.

Before he had time to comment he felt Weiss crash into him, drawing him into a much more traditional embrace, one that was tight as she pulled him to her.

"I'm so glad that you're awake... we were scared that-we thought that maybe you wouldn't-" The girl shook her head, seemingly ridding her mind of the thought "It doesn't matter. You're alright now. That's what matters."

He smiled back "Thanks. I'm glad I'm okay too." The two girls smiled back at him just as he looked towards the stairwell only to see the Goofy racing up it as well.

"What the-" Before Roxas could finish his statement, Weiss had been torn away from him and instead the boy felt himself within the tight embrace of this strange canine.

"Oh Roxas!" Goofy began sounding almost choked up despite their unfamiliarity "We didn't know if you'd evah wake up! Ah'hyuck!" Roxas noted that the creature's voice held an odd dialect that fittingly could only be described as goofy.

"Uhhhhh," Roxas groaned as he remained stiff, not returning the embrace. He looked over pleadingly toward Weiss and Yang who were only covering their mouths trying to conceal their snickers.

After several more seconds Roxas determined that this canine wasn't planning on ending this embrace any time soon, or at least, not without a proper response.

"Uh, there, there." Roxas patted Goofy's back stiffly "I'm alright now. You can let go now."

"Gawrsh! It's so hard to!" The canine exclaimed clinging onto Roxas tighter pushing the breath out of the boy.

"Goofy let the poor kid go! You're gonna squeeze him back to sleep doing that!" Said a much more guttural voice. Roxas peered over the canine's shoulder as could see that both Donald and Sora were ascending the staircase with the former appearing more than annoyed.

"Gawrsh I didn't realize! Sorry!" Goofy retorted as he quickly released Roxas who took several steps back coughing.

"C'mon Goofy, we only just met these people." Said a voice that made Roxas stop his coughing fit and look up, meeting two pools of blue that felt like a mirror as he stared into them.

The group seemed to part at these two finally met eyes, staring back at one and other with looks of surprise, looks of acknowledgment, and most of all, looks of uncertainty. They each bore wide expressionless eyes, each clearly not knowing how to proceed as they recognized each other. Several seconds of silence filled the large space as the two stood still, choosing to merely study one and other as they tried to come to some sort of decision on what to do next.

A smile flashing across his features, Sora shook his head seemingly shaking the uncertainty from his expression before reaching out a gloved hand for a handshake.

"Hi!" He said brightly "I'm Sora.I uh- know this is kinda weird. You're friends have told me a lot about you. And I know that this is um, well, I don't know how to describe this." The boy's smile wavered slightly from as he looked down clearly trying to make a good impression, he looked back up a moment later and said with a cheery demeanor "But either way it's good to meet you!"

Roxas took a moment to glance at Weiss and Yang who each smiled sheepishly as they're interest in astronomy suddenly peaked.

Roxas rolled his eyes with a faint smile as he took the hand "I'm sure they have." His smile widened "Roxas." he paused before adding "But I'm sure you already knew that."

"Haha yeah!" Sora responded pulling his hands behind his head casually "But I think it's nice that you introduced yourself anyway haha!"

Roxas felt something within himself want to join in on the laughter as he studied the boy's laid back features. Sora was carefree in his demeanor, relaxed, not tense in the same way that Roxas found himself at most times. It was a strange observation and Roxas momentarily questioned why he'd even made it.

"Ah'hyuck! And I'm Goofy! Nice to meet you!" The lanky dog man said stretching out a white gloved hand. Roxas smiled taking it.

"I'm Donald. I keep him in line." The duck said with a grin. It was an odd feature to see on a duck of all things, leaving Roxas to question how a duck would even be able to smile. But that didn't stop Roxas from shaking his feathered hand when the hand was offered.

"And I'm Jiminy!" Said a much quieter voice.

Roxas's eyebrows furrowed as he traced the voice back to Sora who was grinning knowingly.

"Who just...?" Roxas began before he saw am extremely small figure emerge from Sora's pocket. The boy stuck out a flat hand which the creature promptly jumped onto.

With a bow he said"Sorry about that! Sometimes I forget that not everyone can see me!" he straightened his back before smiling and continued "I'm Jiminy! Jiminy cricket!"

As Roxas studied the figure's features he came to the realization that this thing was a cricket, albeit a very well dressed one with a red vest, dark coat with two tails swinging in the back and a 1800's style top hat which he took off as he greeted the boy.

"Uh, hi." Roxas responded sheepishly. He saw that Jiminy was offering an outstretched hand and very carefully took the gloved hand with his index and thumb before performing the most subtle of hand shakes.

"A pleasure to meet you Roxas!" The cricket announced with a smile.

"The pleasure is all mine." Roxas responded calmly before he realized that... something was off.

Suddenly, Roxas's head looked back and forth as a frown reshaped from his lips noticing something he scolded himself for not noticing sooner "Wait, Where's Ruby?"

The features on the groups faces grew more reserved as the room echoed with Roxas's voice.

"Who? Oh wait... Gawrsh that's..." Goofy started looking down with a frown. It was the first time Roxas had seen the canine not sporting a smile of some sort.

"What!?" Roxas shouted panic in his voice "What happened? Where is she? Did DiZ take-"

"She's okay,she's okay!" Yang said jumping into the conversation with her hands out in a calming motion "It's just-" she said looking away for a moment, rubbing her arm uncomfortably "We found her the same condition we found you."

Roxas felt himself relax slightly as he heard this "Oh... she was unconscious?"

Weiss nodded in confirmation.

"So... where is she now?"

The group paused outside of a room that was just a few doors down from where Roxas had stepped out. Roxas took the doorknob in his hand before twisting and stepping through, he frowned as he stared down at the sleeping the girl, appearing so peaceful tucked under plain white sheets.

A question that he hadn't thought to ask suddenly popped into his mind as Roxas said "How long have we been out?"

"About five or six hours now." Yang said with a frown. Roxas could see the clear signs of worry in her eyes as she stared down at her little sister.

"What happened? Why were we unconscious?" Roxas asked astutely.

Weiss shook her head "We don't exactly know honestly. All we know is that DiZ tricked you," she paused before adding "He tricked all of us really. He knew that you're plan wasn't going to work. We all could see that you were fading away on the camera and Ruby was just fast enough to get to you in time."

As she said this Roxas's eyes widened, the memory of those moments flooding back to him now.

"We saw her reach you, and then everything-"

"Everything went white." Roxas finished her sentence with a nod.

Yang smiled down at her little sister "Whatever she did." she reached down, resting a gentle caressing hand against the girl's cheek "She managed to save you. She actually stopped it." a pang of pride could be seen bleeding through Yang's tone in those words.

"Speaking of which," Weiss continued "What did exactly happen? Do you recall at all what she did to accomplish this?" She asked taking her typical studious tone.

Roxas shook his head "Not a clue, All I know is..." he paused, collecting himself as he reflected on what he'd felt in those moments "I was gone. I don't know if I was completely gone... but I was so close that I may as well have been." he sighed looking down before his attention returned to Ruby's sleeping form "Thank you." he quietly whispered to the girl.

"It's okay Sora... It's not your fault." Said Donald behind them, prompting Roxas to turn and face the boy. Sora was looking away with a shameful expression. A deep frown plastered on his face looking wrong on the usual cheerful teen. Donald's hand was resting on the boy's arm as the duck looked up at the boy with concern.

Roxas's mouth gaped as he realized what he had been describing to the teen. He'd been describing how Sora's reawakening was taking everything away from himself.

It must feel awful knowing that you're responsible for something like that.

"I'm just gonna wait downstairs." Sora said forcing a smile as he realized that the others had noticed his discomfort "I think this is uh- a little too personal for us to be apart of." he flashed one more smile before exiting the doorway.

The room grew quiet as Yang, Weiss, and Roxas each stood stiffly beside each other.

"Hey... Roxas?" Yang asked suddenly.

"Yes?"

"What exactly are we going to do now?" Yang asked motioning with a nod towards where Sora had just been standing "With him?"

"I..." Roxas began before realizing that he didn't have an answer. What were they going to do? What should they do? Roxas realized that he'd been so focused on the simple task of returning Sora to consciousness that he didn't even stop to consider what would come next.

"What happened to DiZ and Ansem?" Roxas suddenly asked, conflicted about the hopefulness in his voice "They would probably know what to do with Sora."

Weiss shook her head "The two disappeared quite suddenly after we came and collected you from that large chamber. Sora awoke moments after that. And when we returned to the... um... well I suppose I could call it the monitoring room there was no trace of them."

Yang nodded confirming this fact "We searched the mansion just to make sure, apparently Sora and Ansem have some sort of... history together."

Roxas furrowed his brows "Yeah, I thought that they were friends or something. That's what Ansem said."

"Well that's certainly not what Sora told us." Weiss said crossing her arms "Apparently Ansem was a force of darkness that did a lot of bad things, corrupting multiple worlds, and nearly drowning everything to the darkness." The girl paused before adding "Or so Sora's said. Apparently, the two are actually enemies, not friends."

"Huh..." Roxas mumbled cupping his chin "but... I thought... he seemed so sincere about that..." Roxas said regarding Ansem.

Weiss shook her head "Nope. Sora was adamant about that fact, he also appeared quite concerned that Ansem had returned. It seems that Sora and his friends defeated this 'Ansem' fellow some time ago and the fact the he's returned is quite a big deal."

"Great." Roxas grumbled.

First the Organization and now we apparently have this Ansem guy to deal with... but wait.

"Why would Ansem help us wake up Sora if the two are enemies? It makes no sense."

Weiss sighed growing annoyed "Look I don't have all the answers. If you'd like to know more maybe you should go down there and talk to him yourself. You'd probably get more answers that way."

"What Weiss is trying to say." Yang began "Is that we don't exactly know what's going on. It turns out that Sora waking up has lead to a lot more questions than answers."

Roxas nodded, a puzzled expression on his face as he cupped his chin.

"So I suppose the only real answer we can give to your question Yang." Weiss began sighing "Is that we haven't the slightest clue as to what we should do now that all is said and done. Is that about right Roxas?"

Roxas bore a reluctant smile "Yeah, that sounds about right."

Demyx found himself resting his face in his hand as he lazily sat atop one of the many crates filling the massive warehouse. His eyelids were half closed, but the pupils of his eyes were darting back and forth, following the traffic of people moving throughout the warehouse going about ordering and arranging its contents. The last few days had been a blur for the young Nobody as he'd not had a break with the group Roman Torchwick called the 'White Fang'. From what Demyx could gather, they were a bunch of people that had sorta animal-like features and all wore the same uniform of a white vest and mask. Pretty basic stuff. He knew they had some sort of cause or ultimate goal but he didn't feel like going through the trouble of actually figuring out what that was. Instead his mind was going over the events that had granted him back his powers just days ago.

He closed his eyes as his memories replayed the strange scene. He recalled entering a relatively small room, he suspected he would have seen something like an office space if it hadn't been too dark to truly make out anything. Roman, Neo, Mercury and Emerald had all been told to wait outside by Cinder who had walked into the room side by side with the Nobody. Demyx remembered seeing something... odd almost floating in the center of the room before it approached, becoming clearer as it did so. However, revealing what it was only left Demyx wondering yet again just what it was. Demyx could make out a dark black translucent sphere with a swirling cloud of purple and red inside with shards of hard white shell littered atop it's exterior. The bottom of the floating sphere bore an opening lined with sharp fangs that appeared almost canine in nature. Dangling limply from this opening were several red, vein-like tendrils each reaching to the ground despite the fact that the orb hung in the air above Demyx's head.

The Nobody remembered Cinder taking a step forward and kneeling before the object before shooting him a gaze that demanded he do the same. Complying, Demyx found himself on one knee keeping his gaze to the floor as the anxiety he'd felt before around Cinder seemed laughable to what he was experiencing in the presence of this mysterious device.

"This man is like the one who was responsible for the imprisonment of Torchwick. He has powers that are identical, but have been locked away by the power of Ozpin." Her gaze fell on the orb "I request that you unlock his abilities so that they might be used for our cause."

The room fell silent and the seconds ticked by as a nervous sweat began to roll down Demyx's face. He wanted to look up, to see what this disturbing looking orb was doing in response to this request but something told him that he shouldn't gaze upon it without permission. Each second felt like an hour as he continued to study the vacant ground, his knee growing sore from the constant pressure.

Suddenly without warning Demyx caught a glimpse of red out of the corner of his eye before he felt something flesh like wrap around his neck. The Nobody gagged as the tendril tightened, cutting off his windpipe as it pulled him up and off of the ground. Demyx's feet fluttered in a panic as his fingers desperately worked at the bind strangling him. His eyes were wide with panic as he first looked to the expressionless orb, trying to make out something that would indicate just why it was doing this before deciding to look over to Cinder in desperation. His eyes met hers and he saw the same confusion and panic that he himself was going through in her gaping mouth and expression of stunned horror. It appeared to him that she wanted to help but knew she wasn't allowed to.

Dymex's vision began to litter with black spots and his mind was growing fuzzy as his struggling grew less and less. Soon the Nobody was only barely clinging onto consciousness as his arms fell to his sides limply before he faintly felt a small pressure against the center of his chest. The grip on his neck was suddenly released and Demyx found himself collapsing to the ground, coughing for air as he held a single hand to his throat.

A enforcing voice with an almost feminine nature announced "He is restored.". Demyx didn't waste any time as he quickly recovered his breath before scrambling to his feet and rushing out of the room.

"Hey space cadet, you okay there?"

Demyx blinked his eyes rapidly as he was drawn out of the memory by the voice. A young woman with dark tan skin and deep pools of red for eyes was standing before him.

Her short mint colored hair swayed with her head as she placed a hand on her hip "Hey c'mon hair spray get it together, it's time to go."

Demyx shook his head ridding himself of the memory before pushing himself off of the crate to his feet.

"Right. I'm on it don't gotta worry bout a thing." He said with a convincing smile.

The girl smiled back before turning and walking away towards where a group of White Fang troops were stiffly waiting in a group. Demyx sighed scratching the side of his head as he contemplated how much effort he would have to put into this little heist. He stepped forward taking a place between where Mercury and Emerald were waiting, the former clearly growing impatient.

"C'mon now, let's get a move on already." He complained.

"Well I gotta know where we're going first now don't I?" Demyx responded with the same level of attitude.

Roman stepped forward, several photographs in his hand "Here, it's the storage facility we scoped out together earlier." Demyx recalled their little stroll through a town he couldn't bother remembering the name of.

"Right..." Demyx said taking the image from the man.

"We need you to create the portal right here." Roman said pointing to a point corner of the room. It appeared that the picture had been taken from outside from a very awkward angle.

Probably Emerald's work

Demyx thought to himself as he nodded while simultaneously raising his unoccupied hand. A moment later dark flames erupted from the ground swirling in a mixture of dark purples and blacks. Roman's lips peeled into a smile "I'm never gonna get tired of having free access to anything and everything."

There was an awkward pause as Roman's smile slowly faded into a frown. Whipping his head around, he addressed the nearest masked man and shouted "Well? What is it that you're waiting for? Get a move on!"

The man nodded nervously before he turned and called out for the others to follow.

"Brilliant." Roman said his smile returning "I knew you were worth it kid." the man said patting Demyx on the back "You've made things so much easier."

"Thanks." Demyx responded. The Nobody stretched before walking away, resuming his place on the crate before summoning his Sitar, the Arpeggio. A frown formed on his lips as a thought entered his mind which had been frequenting his thoughts ever since his powers had returned.

Why am I even doing any of this?

Demyx knew that with his powers returned to him that he was fully capable of returning to the organization. He'd even found his coat on the way out of the jail, so there was no risk of being consumed by the darkness by the journey. None of them had any means of restricting him from fleeing right here and now.

He stared at a point on the floor only a few feet away from him.

I could summon a Corridor right there and head back.

But he realized that he didn't want to.

The Nobody sighed as he let his head fall back and stared up at the ceiling with a dead panned expression. He knew he'd been with the Organization for what felt like forever. It had become natural for him to return every day after his sometimes less than successful missions. This had been the first time since his recruitment that he'd spent so much time away. He'd grown used to his routine, and as a result, he'd never thought to question why he'd done it all.

You know why you stuck with them you dummy, why you should be heading back right now.

Demyx rolled his eyes at his own inner monologue as he admitted to himself that he did in fact know why he stuck around. As far as he knew, the Organization was the only way he'd ever obtain a heart of his own again.

But what about Roxas...

His mind drifted to the last time he'd seen the very boy responsible for all of this mess, responsible for his initial loss of powers, responsible for his imprisonment, and by extension responsible for this inner dilemma he was facing. But those facts weren't the reason his mind came to Roxas in reflection of how to obtain his heart.

He...cried.

For what had to be the thousandth time Demyx replayed the scene in his head as he reflected on what had been the most confusing thing he'd ever seen during his time with the organization. He remembered being uncomfortable as the rough bristled ropes tightly pinned him to the hard wood chair leaving very little for him to do. They hadn't gagged him however, which he'd deemed to have been a mistake on their part as it left him to consistently interrupt the conversation being held between Roxas and whoever the rest of those people were. He was sure the they'd said their names at some point, but he hadn't bothered to remember.

He remembered loosely following the conversation, his eyes wandering around the room as he took in the strange surrounding. Catching a glimpse of a set of tea cups on the professor's desk left the Nobody parched as he realized that he could go for a cup of tea just as a very particular set of words struck his ear drums.

"His name was Axel. He wanted to get to me. He thought getting to them would get to me. I'm sorry."

"His name...was Axel?"

At that moment Demyx's carefree attitude abandoned him, realization crashing into him like a tsunami wave.

"Wait wait wait," Demyx remembered calling out "You're not saying what I think you're saying...right? You didn't- Axel isn't-"

The solemn look on Roxas's face said it all.

Demyx couldn't remember specifically what he'd said after that, he knew that he'd lashed out and yelled at the boy, an act that he'd only really done because he thought that Axel deserved someone to be angry about his demise. The red haired assassin had always been kind to him, and for that, Demyx did what he thought was right.

Then something unexpected happened. The boy took in his words, his friends said something to him, and then the Nobody cried.

It baffled Demyx the moment he saw it. No matter how much acting and pretending any of the members of Organization XIII did, none of them had ever been able to actually cry. The only one who'd ever come close to it had been Demyx himself, and that had only through the use of onions and a lot of practice.

"Was Roxas really..." He began to mumble to himself before dismissing the thought. Of course Roxas was a Nobody. Demyx remembered seeing him day one. The boy was more dead inside than most of the organization members just starting out. There's no way that he wasn't a Nobody when he joined.

"But what about... now?" He quietly asked himself as he stared up at the ceiling. He couldn't deny that Roxas had been a Nobody, but after what he'd seen with his own eyes, Demyx was beginning to doubt that this fact was still true.

Something... here, changed him. Something about this world caused him to become... a somebody?

Demyx couldn't immediately confirm or deny whether Roxas had truly regained his heart by some miraculous phenomenon. His tears had been convincing, but that was just one instance, and despite his carefree oblivious attitude towards most things, Demyx knew that he shouldn't come to a conclusion too quickly; especially when it was about something this big.

"I need to find out what really happened... I need to learn …the truth." Demyx finally said finding the sentence too mature and serious for his own taste. He wanted to know what had happened to the boy, if he had actually become whole once more, if he'd found a way for Nobodies to finally, after all this time, be complete.

"Maybe that's it." Demyx mumbled to himself as he reached a conclusion. If this world truly had the answer to his heart, then that would mean that he no longer needed the Organization. If this world could finally provide what Organization XIII had failed to achieve after all this time, then what was the point of going back? To be lectured by Xemnas? To be looked down on by the other members of the Organization simply because he was too lazy, or rather, better at pretending to be lazy? To be forced to do jobs that never actually felt like they were making any progress towards obtaining a heart once more?

"Yeah forget that." Demyx said louder than he intended as he crossed his arms with a frown. The Organization had already forgotten about him like they did any member who went MIA. They didn't care enough to send a search party out when he'd been jailed, unlike the White Fang or whoever Roman's group was that broke him out of Jail. They clearly valued their members unlike a certain Organization he knew. In fact, as the Nobody reflected on the topic he realized that this had been the first time he'd known he was actually valuable to the team and not just another pawn. He knew that this group needed him, they were grateful for his service, and although he knew he couldn't actually feel fondness for them, he did know that he preferred this dynamic over the setup that he had with the Organization.

"What was that?" Chimed a feminine voice.

Demyx's gaze, which had been studying the floor intensely, suddenly jolted up before meeting the gaze of two bright crimson eyes.

"Oh uh, Emerald was it?" He asked trying to revert back to his relaxed demeanor despite the raging discussion going on in the back of his mind.

She smiled back at him nodding which caused her short cut mint green hair to sway "That's right. You don't have the greatest time with names, do you?"

He responded with a grin that said 'You got me'.

"Well that's fine. I'm sure you'll get to know everyone with time." As she said this the young woman hosted herself onto the same box Demyx was sitting on, her thigh only inches away from his own "Man it's strange not having to do anything now that we have you. Just portal into the room, take what we want and leave." She sighed, looking almost bored that she wasn't needed for this heist before asking in a flat tone"Whatcha playin?"

Demyx looked to his Sitar which he'd been strumming absentmindedly throughout his inner monologue discussion.

"Not entirely sure." He admitted with a sheepish grin "Just a little melody that I like to play every now and then." In all reality he didn't know half of the songs he frequently played. He remembered most of his past life, but every now and then he'd find blank patches that he couldn't recall no matter how hard he tried. Despite this, and despite the fact that he couldn't actually recall how he'd learned to play the stringed instrument, his hands never forgot how to strum, how to transition into difficult and complex notes, and what his favorite songs were.

"Is that right?" She said smiling as she laid back on the crate, closing her eyes as she listened on with a peaceful expression.

"Yeah," He said growing more engaged with his music as he now had an audience "Actually sometimes I'll just start playing and something new will come out, it's like my hands have a mind of their own sometimes."

"Huh," She responded with eyes still closed "That's interesting. Well nonetheless it sounds pretty nice."

Demyx blinked a few times before smiling at the comment "Thanks." His fingers moved quicker as his motivation to play heightened. He'd never realized before but no one at the Organization had seemingly ever appreciated his music, let alone give him a compliment. From what he could gather, it had simply been something they'd had to bear with as the Sitar was his weapon of choice, leaving him with the excuse of "I'm sharpening my battle skills" whenever they would complain about the noise.

The melody picked up as the Nobody put more effort into the song which he still couldn't tell the name of. His fingers could execute a decent tune when he wasn't focusing on it, but when his mind was in the music his fingers moved with such precision that Demyx doubted that anyone could replicate it.

"Oh wow," Emerald suddenly commented as she sat up looking over at Demyx with raised eyebrows "That sounds pretty awesome."

His grin widened as he continued to play on, an intricately designed piece utilizing the higher notes in an effort to make the melody come off as less intense.

As he sat there strumming away at the instrument Demyx came to his conclusion. He liked it here, or rather, he preferred it here, at least for the time being. He'd stay for as long as it took for him to uncover the truth about Roxas and his heart. If things didn't work out, there was nothing that said he couldn't just go back to the Organization and continue doing things the way they had been. And hey, if he could get some fans and actually have an audience for once?

That was fine by him.

AN: Sorry for how long this chapter took to get out. It wasn't particularly long in any sense of the word. It stretched two pages longer than my standard, which I suppose is a slightly longer chapter. The real reason that this chapter took an extra week to get out is because while in the process of writing this, one of my close friends from high school committed suicide. It was a big hit and it completely deteriorated my motivations to write for a little while. I'm not looking for sympathy, that's not why I'm writing this. I only want to reach out to those who will read this and tell the few that I can that the stereotype 'you only know what you had once its gone' is absolutely true, and please do your best to value the people close to you while you can. Don't take advantage of anyone in your life, and if you are able to, please, reach out to your friends now. Text them, check up on them, maybe get together with them and hang out, because you never know when your last opportunity to do so will be. If you have a friend who's been distancing themselves from you, or you believe has been acting strangely or antisocial, please, reach out to them. Be there, and do everything you can, because if you don't, I promise you, you will forever regret it.

And also, I'm sure there are many of you that personally feel these depressions and at times may have some suicidal thoughts. Hell I myself had these thoughts many times during my time in high school. In fact it fueled my very first fanfic on this cite lol. It was terribly edgy and the angst was VERY apparent. So as a person who understands this dilemma, or at least to a certain extent, I offer myself as a listening ear if ANY of you ever feel you need someone to talk to. I know I'm just some guy on the internet, and that I'm not a close friend, but if ever any of you feel like you need to talk to someone about ANYTHING just to get it off of your chest, I PROMISE that I will respond and do my best to help the most that I can. This isn't an empty offer like you may feel some are when you hear these words. Those of you who have accounts and review know that I always respond to these reviews as well as the follow up comments via PM. It may take some time to get back to you due to how many there often are, but I always do my best to do so no matter what. So hey, if ever you're feeling down, you know you can get in touch your (hopefully) favorite author Roxashadow eh? How's that? and if not me, and you're having these dangerous thoughts, please PLEASE talk to someone like a parent or friend. You're parents love you, you're friends love you (if at a lesser extent regardless if they are willing to admit it), and if nothing else, know that I love you, and we all will be there for you if you decided to be strong and reach out to us.

I'm sorry for those of you who found that message annoying or inappropriate in a fanfic website, I just had to get that off of my chest really. I also hope the chapter didn't suffer due to this event, as I tried to maintain the relatively happy tone throughout the chapter without letting personal events bleed through.

As always, thank you all for being so supportive of the story and just being awesome people in general. It's been a blast writing this fic with all of you and I look forward to the many chapters to come.

Until Next Time!