Chapter Seventeen: Return to Twilight Town

Hayner felt his eyes burning as Roxas and Xion got onto the strange orange plane and departed, vanishing from sight. This wasn't right. His friends were risking their necks doing who knew what. He should be with them.

"Hayner, I'm gonna miss them too," Pence said, shaking his head. "But it's like Axel said—it's the package deal of getting a Keyblade. You have to go and fight the darkness. With great power, comes great responsibility."

"And you know how Xion is," Olette murmured, rubbing her arm. "She hates it when other people get hurt. If there's a way to stop it, she's not going to stop until she finds out how to help people."

Hayner grit his teeth. They were right. They were right. But that didn't change how friggin' unfair this was. Roxas and Xion, and okay, Axel too, were missing out on stuff. And Isa…but Isa didn't actually join in for anything except ice cream on the clock tower. But stuff like skateboarding and Struggle matches and those classic video games ol' Scrooge was sponsoring. They still hadn't had a chance to set up Pence's old computer for Roxas and Xion to use. And they didn't have any movies or books either. Hayner didn't even like reading that much, aside from some of Pence's comic books, and he didn't like how Roxas and Xion didn't have fun stuff to read.

Hayner knew that he was stupid to get so upset—that saving the world and keeping the Order and fighting monsters was more important than, well, anything else. But it still irked him. They act like if they don't do it, they're wrong. It isn't wrong to want to live a regular life.

"Do you think…they'll ever…come back?" Vivi asked. Hayner winced. He had nearly forgotten the little guy was there. "They're…very nice."

"I'm sure they're coming back," Pence said assuredly. "They just have to go away for a while."

"But don't worry, Vivi," Olette knelt beside him and straightened the little guy's giant hat. "We'll be your friends."

"Until they…get back?"

"Until forever," Olette insisted. She blinked her bright green eyes at Vivi, meeting his weird, Heartless-y, beady yellow ones. "That's a promise."

"Okay…want a donut?"

Vivi looked up from Hayner to Pence to Olette, his beady eyes wide, hopeful. Hayner felt a twinge of guilt in his stomach. He had resented this little guy? Who hadn't actually said a mean word in…ever? And was offering to share his donuts?

I'm a slime ball, Hayner thought to himself as he picked up a donut. Chocolate with sprinkles….his favorite. Pence and Olette each took a donut and then Vivi took two for himself before closing the donut box.

"Thank you," Olette said. Vivi blinked at them. Hayner scratched the back of his head. He wasn't sure what to say now. He took a bite out of the donut. Ooh! It was fresh and it was so rich, it was almost like cake.

"It's still…early," Vivi said. "Not much…happening now. I will see…you later. Bye bye!"

Hayner blinked in surprise as Vivi waddled off, his giant hat leaning lopsided. He was out of sight in moments, but he lingered in Hayner's mind.

"Roxas and Xion have gone…" Pence muttered, taking a bite out of his own donut—glazed, with white cream frosting. "Now what do we do?"

"There's got to be something we can do to help them," Olette said. "And I promised Xion I would watch out for Vivi."

"I think he's gonna be alright for a little while," Pence said. "He's got plenty of donuts. And again, I ask, what do we do?"

"I need to get stronger," Hayner said. He looked down at his hand and flexed his fingers. Nothing happened. No Keyblade materialized out of air. Not even a magic staff or shield, like Donald or Goofy. "I need to learn how to fight."

"That does sound like a good idea," Pence agreed. He took another bite from his donut. Olette clenched her hands together, saying nothing.

"I understand that you want to fight," Olette said. She hesitated before continuing, "But…how would we even learn in the first place? We don't have magic."

"Sora said that the Struggle matches weren't that much different than the play-fighting he would do with the kids on the Islands," Hayner nodded. "Struggle's not much but it's a start. And besides, there's other ways to fight than with magic."

"I guess," Olette said. "We can split it up. Practice something practical to help Roxas and Xion, and then we can do something else for them. Maybe get some flowers for their house?"

Hayner rubbed his chin. Yeah, it would be like Olette to do something like that. Flowers didn't make much sense themselves—they might wilt before Roxas and Xion got back, but maybe they could use…well, something to make his friends' house homier. It still looked like a military barracks.

"Yeah, I guess we can do that. But we should do the…practical thing first."

"I wish we knew what might be going on," Olette said quietly. "Hayner, how can we help them if we don't know what they're facing?"

Hayner grimaced, that was a good point. The problem seemed bigger than just "hit the monsters with a Keyblade until they go away."

"It's not like we have camera recordings of all the bad guys they have to fight," Olette said. "But maybe we ask somebody—"

"Cameras…recordings…I got an idea!" Pence said triumphantly. He tore off down the street. Weird. Pence wasn't usually one to start a foot-race, at least not when he still had half a donut to eat.

Hayner ran after him, catching up in moments. Olette trailed behind them, but when Hayner looked over his shoulder, she was close enough that Hayner could see the tears in her eyes. But with that wide smile…was she laughing or crying?

Down the streets of town, through the tram station and then down the path adjacent to the Underground. The Underground itself was still closed off, but there were still ways out of town and into the woods. After a few more minutes, Hayner saw they were encroaching on the grounds of the oldest, most mysterious building in Twilight Town, the old mansion.

Now this…this could be something.

oooo

Computers were Pence's specialty. He wasn't as good at Struggle as Hayner. Olette could clean his clock at cooking and read faster than him. Roxas and Xion were ridiculously strong and could outrun a cheetah and could do wonderful magic. But computers were what Pence was good at—Xion was good at it too, but she tended not to actually like using them.

And there was no computer that Pence loved more than the one in the old mansion in the woods outside Twilight Town. That computer was magic in its own right. It was that computer that Pence had used to open a door to the Other Twilight Town so that Sora could rescue Kairi after Axel had kidnapped her. And there was the data they had used to help Ienzo, Even and Ansem the Wise build Roxas a new body.

It also was likely their best option to find out if there was anything else strange going on in Twilight Town. At the very least, there could be some sort of security footage of anything out of the ordinary. Twilight Town was strange in the way everyone was willing to go with the flow. Stuff that didn't make sense was normal here: Urban legends like the "Seven Wonders of Twilight Town" (six of which were bogus); a talking duck ran a bistro and an open-air theater, Heartless and Nobodies were treated like raccoons or stray dogs. Dangerous if cornered, but all in all not a threat if one wandered into town.

Even the big stuff—that giant tower of Heartless that Sora had destroyed, for example, or those shadowy orbs that popped up on walls and alleyways (or Sephiroth)—was stuff that people treated as normal. But maybe, maybe there was a chance that bigger stuff, serious stuff, stuff that might be tied into what Roxas and Xion had to deal with had been caught on the surveillance cameras attached to Ansem's computer. Or maybe something related to Sora.

"I don't like this," Olette said quietly, and even though she hadn't raised her voice, it still echoed throughout the room. "I don't think we should be doing this."

"C'mon, Olette," Hayner said, as he leaned over Pence's shoulder. "This is our best option. We need some answers, and this is where we can find them!"

"But it's an invasion of privacy. Roxas and Xion don't like talking about the bad stuff that's happened to them…we should respect that. They're our friends."

"Exactly!" Hayner half-shouted and Pence took a deep breath. He had a feeling Hayner was about to go on one of his rants. "They're our friends, Olette! And what does being a friend mean? It means helping people when they're in trouble!"

Yep. Definitely a rant. Pence sighed—those tended to last quite a while.

"How many times has Roxas done all the heavy lifting with those jobs we do around town?" Hayner began pacing around the little computer room and counting off on his fingers. "The poster set-up, the mail deliveries, the catering for McDuck, the clean-up for Mister Yanushi? Again and again and again, he's doing all the work, But Roxas doesn't do computers—Pence does do them. Think about it! And what about Xion? She risked her neck for you down in the Underground. None of us have magic like Roxas or Xion, but if hacking the computer is how we can help, then we owe it to them!"

"I know…" Olette said, her bright green eyes hardening resolve. "I know that. You don't need to bring that up Hayner. But…getting involved in this…Roxas and Xion want to be normal. They want to live regular lives…I think we owe them that. To help them in ways they want."

"I think," Pence said quickly. "I think we all owe them our lives, all things considered. Sora saved us from that Heartless tornado thingy, and Roxas and Xion fought the Heartless too, so…um…oh, I'm in!"

The screen on the computer glowed bright and a moment later, Pence could see live footage of a young man, only a few years older than him and his friends, dressed in a laboratory coat. His hair was blue-ish grey, and long bangs obscured half of his face. His visible eye, bright blue, widened in surprise.

"Pence?"

"Good morning, Ienzo," Pence said politely. "Excuse me, it is morning there, right?"

That was the funny thing about communicating across other worlds: you could never be sure what time it was, what when it was, in another world. Way back when, Kairi had plopped through one of those weird Dark Corridor thingies around lunchtime, but for her it had been early evening (ironic, given the whole twilight thing).

"Well, actually it's nearly mid-day," Ienzo said pleasantly. "Though I must say, this is a welcome surprise. How are all of you?"

"Um…fine," Pence said. It was true enough, at least. They all had their health. "We were wondering, if it were alright with Master Ansem, if he would allow us to access the security footage on the computer grid for Twilight Town."

Even if Master Ansem said no, Pence was fairly sure he could handle getting access to the security system himself. As it was,

"Ienzo, is there a problem, oh! Hello, children," A very deep voice sounded out and a moment later, Pence was eye to eye with its owner, Ansem the Wise. Master Ansem was the ruler of Radiant Garden, though Pence and the others had met him just outside the mansion. He'd been abducted by…some other dude calling himself Ansem—Pence was still a bit shaky on the details about that.

"Good morning, Master Ansem," Pence said politely. This would go one of two ways—either Master Ansem would give them permission to access the security footage, or he wouldn't. And Pence wasn't sure if Master Ansem wouldn't tighten the firewalls and make unauthorized access to his files harder.

"Good morning, Pence," Master Ansem responded. There was a knowing tone in his deep voice. "I suspect this is not merely a social call."

"Er…no, not really," Pence admitted. "See…we were wondering if it would be possible to access the security footage for the computers in the mansion?"

"It isn't possible," Master Ansem shook his head solemnly. "Nothing personal, mind you, children, but I cleaned out the majority of the data i had stored on those computers. Upon…that is to say, upon Sora's awakening, I found it unnecessary to continue the majority of my computer's operational system. As I was no longer residing in the mansion, there was little need to maintain security footage of all things."

"We were able to use it to get to the alternate Twilight Town to send Sora to rescue Kairi," Hayner countered. "Is it really gone?"

"That is not to say the systems themselves are inoperable," Master Ansem said thoughtfully. "I do still have the majority of data from my time there. What I mean to say is that anything more recent has not been documented."

Drat. Pence couldn't fault Master Ansem's reasoning. If you weren't using something anymore, then why keep it in the first place? It was one of the reasons he'd been willing to set up his old computer for Roxas and Xion.

"Why would you want to access that sort of information anyway?" Ienzo's face came back into view. "Has there been any unusual activity going on in Twilight Town? I should point out that the security footage available would likely have a range limited primarily to the mansion and the immediate surrounding areas. Anything within the town itself would likely not have been recorded in the first place, even if the cameras were functioning."

"Er…well…the others probably aren't gonna like me telling you," Pence began. He'd have to be careful in how he worded this. He felt a twinge of guilt in his belly. Xion had been really upset the previous evening…she'd had thought it was her fault that Sephiroth had even come to Twilight Town in the first place. The last thing she needed was for Master Ansem and Ienzo to confirm her suspicions.

"Then you shouldn't tell them in the first place!"

"Is that Olette?" Ienzo asked curiously. "Is everything alright? As I understand it, Roxas and Xion were recently summoned by King Mickey for a…well, a mission of sorts. Master Ansem and I will soon be meeting with the King ourselves."

"Um…well, I guess…" Pence rubbed the back of his head. This was harder than he'd thought. Roxas and Xion wouldn't like this—Axel really wouldn't like this…but Hayner was right. The three of them needed some answers and with their friends gone, there was nobody left to keep Twilight Town safe from monsters. Master Ansem's data could give them a real leg up against the Heartless and Nobodies and whatever other monsters that might be lurking out there.

"This is taking too long!" Hayner snapped. "Look, a week ago, Olette and Xion were jumped by some freak with a giant sword. Had a big black wing, could summon meteors. Said his name was Sephy-roff or something like that?"

"WHAT?!" Ienzo shouted, so loudly Pence almost thought he was in the room with them. From the transmission, it sounded as if several others had cried out in alarm too. Oh, those must be Master Ansem's other apprentices. Pence really only knew one of them—Even, who had saved them after they had saved Master Ansem in the first place.

"Please tell me you're joking!" Ienzo begged. "Do you mean Sephiroth?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much how Axel and Isa reacted with Olette burst into the room," Hayner said. "It was really messed up. Half the sky was dark purple, and the wind was blowing like a hurricane."

"Hayner! Please!"

"I would like to hear more of this myself!" A taller figure with a lean, gaunt face and long blond hair filled the screen, crouching uncomfortably. Even, one of Master Ansem's apprentices, and a brilliant scientist. "Am I to understand that you were assaulted? Is Xion alright?"

"That's not exactly how it went down," Hayner admitted. "But really, i wasn't there for all of it. Olette was though…"

Olette looked down her shoes, rubbing her arm. For a moment, she didn't say anything. It was so quiet in their chamber, Pence was certain he could hear the clanking of machinery in Radiant Garden. He wondered what sort of device that might be—surely something wondrous and useful.

"Olette, I would like to hear more of this," Even repeated, his voice firm. "What happened?"

"We…" Olette hesitated. "I…it was my fault." Olette crouched down next to Pence and looked up at Even and Master Ansem. "See, they wouldn't let Xion onto the tram, because she had bought a pie at the bakery, so I thought we'd use the Underground for a shortcut home. And while we were there…we ran into Sephiroth. He said…things about Xion, he seemed to know things he shouldn't…and he pointed his sword at me, and said I had a…tremendous amount of light. And Xion summoned her Keyblade and told me to run…"

Olette swallowed hard, like she had a bad cold, and Pence felt as if he'd been kicked in the stomach when he realized she was crying. This hadn't been a good idea after all. He glanced back at Even and Master Ansem. Even's face betrayed no emotion, but Master Ansem looked mortified.

"And I ran…I just ran…I could hear Xion screaming," Olette whispered. "But I didn't go back to help her…Xion fought Sephiroth off, and she even summoned her Keyblade armor, which I guess not even Sora has? But she got really hurt."

"Hurt?" Even asked. "How badly was she injured?"

"Not sure," Hayner interrupted before Olette could respond. "Axel force-fed her like forty of those Potions that the Moogles sell, but she was stuck on her bed for three days. And anyway, she keeps saying that Sephi-roff, roth…whatever. Xion thinks he might have been holding back, to test her strength."

"Indeterminate," Even said. "We did a fair bit of research into Sephiroth's methodology and he does covet combat. To find opponents and strike them down and steal their strength and claim it as his own. It is not impossible that he might have sought a fight just to have a fight, though,"

"Right," Pence said. "Isa said the same thing, more or less. Well…that's why we were curious about the security footage in the first place. There's a saying in our world that birds of a feather, flock together."

"Pence, that phrase is near universal."

"Er…right. Well, anyway, where there's one bad guy, there might be other bad guys. And I know that Sora destroyed that Xehanort guy and all his friends. But there's this new threat that Roxas and Xion have to fight. And we want to help them…they're our friends. I understand that there's no way to go back for the last few months, but I

"Your logic is not without reason," Master Ansem said quietly. "Upon our return from visiting King Mickey, and gaining further knowledge of this new threat, Ienzo will assist you in analyzing the data of previously recorded information."

"I would be happy to begin now," Ienzo said. "I believe there is merit in your efforts, Pence."

"That sounds great!" Pence said and beside him, he could hear Hayner whoop in triumph. "What do you think, Olette?"

No response. Pence looked from his left to his right and back again. Olette was nowhere to be seen, but he could hear the sound of somebody going up the stairs to the ground floor of the mansion.

"Oh boy…"

oooo

Olette ran a hand against the door of the house where Roxas and Xion lived with Axel and Isa. It was at the end of the street, near the edge of town. Far from her own family's house. Far from the woods and the mansion. Far from Roxas and Xion, wherever they were now…

And the worst part of it was that it hadn't even been a full day since they'd left. But there was fear. Fear that the last meeting at the station this morning would indeed be the last time she'd ever get to see her friends.

"Please…please…let them come home safe," Olette murmured in a voice barely above a whisper. A prayer.

Olette choked back a sob. She was an awful friend. How could she have done invade her friends' privacy like that, again? Let Hayner and Pence convince Ansem the Wise to allow them access to the old security footage and data from the mansion? It was wrong! This was just like when she had snooped at Xion's diary. Xion had been so ashamed, she couldn't look Olette in the eye—Olette hadn't blamed her.

And after everything Xion had done for her…she'd fought that horrible Sephiroth. She had almost died fighting Sephiroth. That horrible, terrible sword was long enough to have sliced them both in half without even trying. And Xion hadn't even hesitated to summon her Keyblade. And the last thing Olette had done…had been to run.

Like a coward.

A phrase, memorized years ago for class, tickled in the back of Olette's mind. Greater love hath no one than this, that they would lay their life down for their friends. Xion, even if she didn't realize it, was like that. Sora was like that. Olette wished she could be like that.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw that there was no one behind her. The streets were quiet. Not unnaturally so, but quiet enough. Right, it was still very early. That was alright. A little quiet could be nice, now and then. Olette jiggled the door handle. Locked.

With a household that had three people who could wield Keyblades, one would think that Roxas and Xion didn't keep an actual key to their house. But they did—taped to the bottom of the windowsill. Roxas had showed it to her and Hayner about a week after they had first moved into the house.

This was not breaking and entering! This was letting herself into a friend's house. And besides…this made her feel closer to her friends. Kairi had described what it was like before, back when they'd first met, but Olette hadn't realized just how much. her heart would ache at how much she missed them.

Olette sympathized with Hayner's desire to help Roxas and Xion, but she was also aware that she wasn't a fighter. She could outrun Pence, but that was it. She had come in last place in the Struggle tournament last summer. And manipulating the elements—she wasn't sure whether she'd call what Roxas and Xion were capable of "magic," in a traditional sense at least—was far beyond her abilities.

But one thing she had been good at was helping people. Helping her friends with their homework—or, to be more precise, helping Hayner with his homework and making sure Pence didn't get distracted. Assisting the younger students in the tutoring program. Organizing the canned food drives.

So how could she help Roxas and Xion with that sort of thing? There wasn't much she could do there. But maybe she could make their house a bit homier. Now that she thought about it, Olette was pretty sure that Xion hadn't had a chance to read any of the books she'd meant to lend her. What else could she do to help her friends?

Maybe laundry. She'd see what she could do to fix Xion's blouse. The one Xion had been wearing when that those teenagers had splashed hot coffee and poured ice cream all over her. Ugh…it never made sense to her, the way people could be so mean to each other. She'd been teased before, mostly by Seifer and his gang, but she also knew what it was like being teased by those three. The girl with piercings who had dunked her ice cream into Xion's hair was Molly; the blonde girl who had splashed the coffee was Sage; the boy who had knocked Xion over, so that she would bump the table, was Kent. As far back as Olette could remember, those three had loved pushing others around, and for no real reason—even Seifer usually had a reason to justify his "Disciplinary Committee."

Olette shook her head to clear her thoughts. Whatever their reason for doing it, that didn't make it right. Nor, she thought sadly, was it really that surprising. Darkness existed in every heart—or nearly every heart. Isa had once described Kairi as a "Princess of Heart," and Roxas had had to explain precisely what that meant—and boy had he looked excited about explaining something. Everyone had darkness, and thus, people would hurt one another…and in some cases, people would fall to darkness and lose themselves in the hurt.

That wasn't the sort of stuff she was good at, light and darkness and fighting. Investigating mysteries around town, sure…but only to a point. Olette shook her head again. Back to laundry. It took her only a few minutes to find Xion's ruined blouse. No, not ruined. There was a chance she might be able to salvage it—though in this light, she could see what Axel had meant when he had mentioned mistaking Xion for Kairi. There was a lot of stained ice cream on the blouse. Check the settings on the washer—this blouse was probably delicate—and make sure not to use too much detergent.

Olette busied herself by trying to tidy the rest of the house. It was not difficult—Olette suspected Isa was behind most of the cleaning, and of course, they had only just left this morning. The house Roxas and Xion stayed in was not large. Two bedrooms, one bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room—really, more of a den—and the laundry room and that was it. Olette grimaced. Her own bedroom was probably three times the size of the room Roxas and Xion had to share, and she had it all to herself.

The books she'd lent Xion were neatly stacked on a coffee table in the den. They looked like they hadn't been opened. There was a small sticky note on one of the books, with tiny handwriting written on it.

"Dear Olette. Figured you might show up. Sorry I didn't get a chance to read any of these. Don't know how long the trip is gonna be, so I decided it'd be better to give these back to you. I can borrow them again another time. And maybe find something of mine for you to borrow. Your friend, Xion. P.S. Roxas says 'Hi.'

"If it's the last thing I do…you two will get the lives you want…"

Ding!

That would be the washing machine. Olette walked back to the laundry room to check Xion's blouse. Most of the stains were fainter than before…maybe one more rinse cycle, just to be safe.

Olette sighed. Things never seemed to go right for Xion. Or for Roxas. And when it did, it didn't seem to last.

Knock knock knock!

Olette walked back over to the front door. She smiled when she saw it was Hayner and Pence. No matter what happened, they were still her best friends.

"Hi guys…sorry I ran like that. It just…"

"We know," Hayner shook his head. "You don't have to apologize."

"If anything, it was our fault for putting you on the spot like that," Pence said. "Ienzo said he'd call back later, on the Gummiphone."

"It's not your fault either…I get that you want to help. I've had nightmares," Olette admitted. "I keep dreaming about what happened down there. And what could have happen. And what didn't happen. It's not even Sephiroth all the time either—last night I dreamed about Axel kidnapping Kairi…"

Hayner held up a hand to shush her. Olette rubbed her arm and looked at Hayner. She saw determination in his eyes. Determination and compassion.

"Let's forget the last hour ever happened," Hayner said. "Forget the data and the cameras for the moment. You said you wanted to…do what exactly? Tidy the house?"

"Fix Xion's blouse before anything else," Olette corrected. "And as it turns out, there wasn't much else to clean. I know it's kind of silly, but…it felt like a way to say thank you."

"I can get behind that," Hayner said as he walked over towards the small kitchen. He opened the fridge. "Hey, there's still perishables in here. If Roxas and Xion aren't going to be back for a while, we might want to clean this out. It'd be a shame to let it spoil. Milk, sausage, butter, eggs…ice cream?"

Olette broke into a fit of giggles—of course, there would be ice cream—and soon Hayner and Pence were laughing too. Perhaps things weren't quite so dire as she thought. But this, friendship and fellowship, this was something she could get behind. And she wanted Roxas and Xion to get to be a part of this too.

Soon…one day, soon. And she would make sure she did everything in her power to make sure they got to enjoy every second.

Ding!

A/N: Another chapter done, my dear readers. I know I said that we'd be going to Disney Castle first, but I decided to give a quick glimpse back to our friends in Twilight Town. I've long nursed a soft spot for these three kids, so I wanted to give them a chance to shine.

So read away, my dear readers. Leave a comment if you're so inclined. I appreciate each and every one of you.