Tenmei let out a low hum, taking the soft eraser in hand and rubbing out a mistake he had made. But it was necessary; his sketching had improved in the time he had been living with both Shun and Ren's Heartless (though, to make it easier on him, he simply called the heartless "Ren" at times). It had been quite some time since he had even thought of his hobby, and he was pleasantly surprised to see his talent had not been taken away in the time his training to be Prince began.

Currently, he had taken to sketching everyone in their party. Starting simply with Donald and Goofy, he continued on, sketching almost every iteration of Sora that he could think of, though he remembered best the keyblade warrior's first, primarily red outfit. Then he took his time to sketch out the resident replica, Shun, and finally, took to working on Ren's likeness, both in human and heartless form. Now, he was working on his memory to recreate Hikari, making sure to try and put her in as flattering a pose as possible, one that exhumed her femininity as well as her power. He was certain it wasn't perfect, but he continued anyway while he waited for news about the wayward Nobody.

The three boys had waited patiently for Ren's Nobody to come to them, but when some time had passed, they realized something was wrong. So, Tenmei, being the one most aware of their financial situation, easily found a way for them to sustain themselves while they scouted and waited. Of course, being the only warrior without a weapon, a punishment he had imposed upon himself, Tenmei was often the one left behind. Hence the interest in art once more.

The door to said residence opened at that point, and Tenmei looked up. Two figures with Organization XIII cloaks, with the hood up, came sauntering into the room, and normally one would flinch just seeing the cloak and knowing what it stood for, but Tenmei knew it was Ren's Heartless and Shun. Shun lowered his hood first, looking at Tenmei directly. "We got a problem..." he simply said, looking a bit sheepish.

Tenmei let out a light scoff, closing his sketchbook and looking at the two of them. "I'm assuming your hypothesis was correct and Xemnas got to him first... if that's the case, what else did you find out?"

Ren lowered his hood next, displaying the first hint of emotion Tenmei ever had seen in the boy since he had become a heartless. "He's going on missions for the organization... but why, I am not sure. He is half of me, so unless he somehow lost his memories, he wouldn't willingly join them unless he had a good reason to... I mean, I get that Xemnas is strong and he wouldn't have been able to take him out on his own, but it seems like he's willingly working along side them. I saw him with a girl member not too long ago, but sadly I couldn't approach... get this, she's a Keyblade Wielder too! And not just a normal one either, she had Kingdom Key!"

At that, Tenmei sat up a bit straighter, eyebrow quirked. "Kingdom Key? But... only Roxas could use that!" Then, before either boy could agree with that, he suddenly blinked, thinking back to the old stories he read. "Wait... a girl... with the Kingdom Key... it might be..." He then looked back to them. "What was the color of her hair? Blonde? Black?"

"It was black", Shun explained, sensing the tension drop from Tenmei and looking at him eagerly, thinking that he knew something. "She kinda looks like Kairi too, if that makes sense..."

Tenmei gave a sigh. "Xion... oh, boy, I was not looking forward to this. I straight up hoped we wouldn't be involved with her, but... I guess our little friend decided to get involved in her life." He stood up, drawing a black-and-white sketch of Kairi quick, though made her hair a bit shorter and shaded it completely with his pencil, before holding it up. "This girl... she shares more in common with you right now, Shun. She's the very first replica that, eventually, becomes her own person."

Shun blinked a bit, "Huh... don't remember that part of the history lessons... but then again, it was my worst subject."

"But why would he... or rather, I, get involved with her?", Ren muttered, glaring at Shun with a 'that isn't the point' type of look. "I mean, I get if he didn't have a choice but to go on missions with her, but this seemed... different... I just couldn't approach, cause... ya know."

"Well, I have no idea either", Tenmei stated with a shrug. "And obviously, Shun being a dark user, would have a hard time approaching as well. However..." He gave a sigh, unsure of how to bring up the fate of Xion. "... I might be able to get close. Perhaps, if your nobody recognizes me, he'll be willing to share why he joined the Organization?"

Plus, I might be able to warn him about what happens to her so that he can break it off before he gets too invested, the prince thought. He remembered shedding a tear, learning of what happened to the poor girl.

Ren nodded at that, "Then I shall bring you to him tomorrow. I can't see me getting close to him right now due to her presence, but you might have a chance."

So it was planned, and the next day, at noon, Ren and Tenmei used a dark corridor to transport to where the nobody was. Due to Ren being a heartless now, he had the ability to sense the Keyblade like a magnet, and with two usually going on missions at the same time, it was almost as if he was sucked to the location against his will. Tenmei stepped out of the dark corridor, looking around and frowning, finding them on Wonderland.

"Of course they had to come here", Tenmei muttered, wearing a cloak of his own for this mission. He had borrowed Shun's, since Ren, right now, had little in the clothing department for himself, and after raising the hood, he began following them, waiting for the opportune moment to catch the nobody's attention. He watched their interaction closely, and could see that they seemed to get along rather well.

This is going to be harder than I thought, he said to himself, before finally getting his chance. He soon made his presence known, bringing his fingers to his lips and letting out a shrill whistle, waiting for Ren's Nobody to spot him. Eventually, the nobody had done so, but unfortunately so had Xion. She took a few steps forward, summoning Kingdom Key, but Ren's other half put his hand on her shoulder and smiled reassuringly. "It's ok... I can sense his heart. I know who that is... look, you go on and destroy the group of heartless ahead, I'll be with you in a moment."

"Are you sure?" Xion asked, looking at the boy concerned.

"Promise, and you know how I am about those", he said confidently, grinning from ear to ear. The girl couldn't help but smile, dismissing her weapon and nodding before walking off. The nobody looked after her for a few moments, before turning to Tenmei and running up to him as if he was seeing a friend for the first time in years. "Tenmei! Oh man, am I so glad to see you! I gotta admit, I was hoping you'd find me first instead of Mr. Darkness."

Tenmei blinked under his hood, taken by surprise. I'm not sure if I like Edgy Ren or Goofy Ren better... "And what do I call you? I'm sure you prefer it if I don't just label you as 'Ren's Nobody' all the time."

"Well, Xemnas named me Rexn", the boy explained. "And that is what Roxas, Axel and Xion- oh, she's the girl you just saw. They call me that too, so you can as well!"

"... Right", Tenmei said, resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Okay, Rexn, I'll get right to business." He grabbed Rexn's collar, throwing off his own hood as his red eyes glared into the nobody's cerulean gaze. "Why didn't you come back to be recompleted right away?!"

Rexn, despite the threatening glare Tenmei was giving him, only continued to smile as if nothing was wrong. "Oh, oh! I was hoping you'd ask and I am sure you'll love this! Okay, so Xao is all evil and stuff, right?" At Tenmei's bewildered, 'you've gotta be kidding me' expression, Rexn took that as a cue to keep going. "Well, I thought that he'd try and get into the Organization to mess with it all evil like, so I thought that if I planted myself in there, I could be your super secret spy and once me and Emo Boy merge back, we can have all this top secret information and stuff! Plus, since we're two separate people, merging will grant us twice the strength! Like we trained for two years instead of one! Pretty sweet plan, huh?"

Tenmei's eyebrow twitched at all of that. After filtering out all the goofy labels and processing exactly what Rexn said, he let the nobody go, finally giving in to temptation and firmly pinching the bridge of his nose. "Ugh... alright, I see where you're going with this. Info on any of Xao's doing, and plus, any strength you gain will go towards Ren getting stronger when you do, eventually, recomplete. That is a big plus. But..." At that, he pointed to where Xion was. "Why are you spending your time with her? You are aware she's Sora's replica, right? And she's not going to survive this encounter with the Organization!"

Rexn suddenly got a serious look on his face, and his goofy voice came out as if he was Ren himself. "All the more reason to make these 358 days the best she's ever had, right?"

At that, Tenmei paused, blinking. He looked at Rexn with a genuinely surprised gaze... though it did slowly become one of pity. "And what will you do when her time comes? You can't tell me that you would risk ruining the timeline should you decide you'd rather save your friend instead of letting her fade away? Your memories of her will vanish, as well."

Rexn gave pause at that, actually stunned silent. He had not expected himself to grow attached to Xion, but already he found himself enjoying the time he was spending with her. With a heavy sigh, he looked at Tenmei. "I-I will not get attached", he lied, though the quirked eyebrow told the Nobody he didn't believe him. "And once that happens, Roxas will defect and fight Riku, and that is when I'll rejoin you guys." He quickly changed the subject at that point, "Oh, Xao's already tried something! Though Xemnas shot him down... I guess that the reason I am in the Organization in the first place is to make up for the lost hearts that Xao is taking, so I'm also kinda correcting history the Xao is messing up as well! Anyway, if anything too serious happens, I'll signal you guys right away, ok?"

Tenmei looked into Rexn's eyes. He knew that something was up. He was tempted to play on Ren's stubbornness for promises and force Rexn into one of his own, but he decided against that - the boy had enough on his plate already. "Very well. We'll be in touch, then." He turned away, starting to walk off, before pausing, looking back towards Rexn. "Oh, by the way... the minute that I feel anything off about my memories - the minute I start to forget her name... we will come for you if you choose not to return home immediately."

"Yeah, sure", Rexn grinned, once again returning to his goofy attitude. "So, where is that anyway?"

"Hollow Bastion, for the time being", Tenmei said. "I'm thinking we'll try to negotiate with DiZ, find some temporary arrangements in the mansion at Twilight Town, if we can." He pulled his hood up over his head. "Now... be a good boy, Rexn, and don't get into too much trouble."

"I mean, I am 'working' for the bad guys, so that's unavoidable... but I'll do my best", he cheerily said, waving at Tenmei before racing off to where Xion was watching their conversation from a distance, a concerned look on the Sora clone's face.

"What was that about?" Xion asked, as soon as Rexn had caught up to her.

"Old teacher I had when I was a somebody", Rexn explained, though he gave pause when he thought back to their entire conversation, but shook it off to grin at Xion. "Come on! Let's go complete our mission so we can relax!"

Tenmei, in the meanwhile, merely opened another corridor, finding his way back to their house. He soon pulled off the coat, throwing it back to Shun as he stepped into the living room, where Ren was waiting. "Well... he decided to spy on the Organization to see if Xao would try anything with them... according to him, our enemy made contact but was rejected by Xemnas."

"Not surprising since Xemnas wants to do things his way", Ren growled, though he did not look happy. "But why not rejoin now!? It doesn't make any sense! The Organization will be just fine... I'm sure Xao can't really do much, and since he wants one of us, not a half-a-heart-nobody, he won't even bother... guess I got the logical side of us..."

"Well, he did come up with a good argument, surprisingly", Tenmei explained. "If he keeps training while he works with them, he'll gain strength that'll only be added to you when you do become one again. On top of that, Xao's little rampage is weakening Xemnas' Kingdom Hearts, so him working with the Organization is correcting history to how it should be. Although..." At this, he lowered his head a bit. "... he has become close to Xion, from what I could tell. And I don't have the heart to try and rip him away from her... especially not with what'll happen at the end of this year."

"That can go one of two ways", Shun muttered, shaking his head a bit as he placed the cloak back on. "Either he will rejoin us willingly, but Ren will get the depression from losing Xion... or he's going to rebel, and Ren will get the depression from losing Xion..."

"I can handle whatever depression I have for a-", Ren was about to say replica, but the fact that Shun was on stopped him. "For a Sora-clone." Shun snorted at that, which Ren was grateful for. "I'm more worried about him... it's clear he did not inherit the emotional attachments we have for our friends." Shun raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing.

Tenmei gave a sigh. "Well, it's in his hands now. We'll just have to be ready for whatever we face. As for now, though... I think it's time we make ourselves known to DiZ. If the timing is right, Sora has been put under in Castle Oblivion, and since I didn't see Roxas anywhere, I'm assuming he's in a coma. If we make it seem like we can be useful allies, I'm certain he'll let us in on not only Sora's recovery, but Hikari and Yumi's as well, so we can be sure he doesn't mess with the girls while they're in his care."

Ren nodded at that, thinking that whatever his... his... "Hey, what's his Organization name anyway? Xemnas names all his members anagrams of their old names with an 'X' due to his obsession with the x-blade, so what's his?"

Tenmei let out a snort. "It's 'Rexn'."

Ren scowled at that, "Seriously...? Ugh whatever. Well, at least maybe seeing Hikari will prevent whatever 'depression' I can get from Rexn losing Xion to break me once we are recomplete... I hope..."

XxXxXxX

"...normally, I do not accept help like this, and I do have Riku assisting me right now... however, I shall make an exception."

Tenmei gave a short nod. "Alright then... what would you need us to do?"

"Ren and Shun will be heading out, keeping tabs on the Organization and the worlds they visit", the mummified man said, looking over to the Heartless and the Replica. "I believe they're best suited for this, since they are always prepared for combat." He then looked over at Tenmei, who looked down at his hands morosely. "However, from what I understand... you are a keyblade wielder as well, and yet you have not summoned yours in quite some time. Care to explain this?"

Tenmei looked up at DiZ, glaring a bit. "It's personal, but... this is my punishment for allowing my friends to be hurt and broken like this", he stated. "I am not worthy of my title, nor am I worthy of my keyblade. So, for this, I must atone. I am certain you understand this desire, do you not, DiZ?"

At the emphasis on his name, the older man let out a low chuckle, before nodding. "I certainly can. Very well... I will rely on you to defend Sora and his friends while they slumber. I am certain Naminé would appreciate the company, and she'll fill you in on the... roadblock she seems to have come to."

Although he knew the reason for this "roadblock", Tenmei only nodded, getting up and heading for the lab, looking forward to seeing their friends... even if only their faces, seeing as their bodies were obscured by the pods they were resting in.

Several days passed since the meetings with Rexn and DiZ, and Tenmei only got company for short bursts by Ren's heartless and Shun, who filled him in occasionally on the Organizations movements and what was occurring with the outside world. His constant company was Naminé, who was usually too busy with Sora to be much of a conversationalist. Once again, sketching became what he passed his time with, finishing his rendition of the mighty mage, Hikari.

Now, he focused on Yumi. He remembered seeing her several times during their travels, and she usually bore one of two expressions, for whatever reason; that proud, happy grin whenever she did something worthy of praise or whenever Hikari or Ren made her laugh... or that timid, flustered look that she tried to hide behind her shield. Both depictions made it onto the paper, but so did so much more. He drew all the expressions he recalled and paid extra attention to all the details he could remember; the way her cheeks puffed up when she got mad at him, the tears in her eyes as she cried for not only the horrible moments he put her through but also for the nightmares she endured, remembering the age they had escaped from. He remembered the few times he caught her blushing, and how hastily she would cover her eyes with her hands, trying to play it off as something else, like it being too warm or saying he caught her by surprise.

He found himself thinking of her a lot as he waited, and knew his feelings had grown for her. He had never experienced love before, but the word had been mentioned several times in the books he read as a child. Perhaps this was what he felt for her? He wasn't sure. All he knew was that he could not wait for the day that she awoke. How would she react if he told her how he felt for her? How would he even put it into words?

He was finishing yet another sketch, this time of Sora's keyblade, when the sound of a dark corridor opening nearby.

"We got a major issue", the heartless' voice came even before he emerged from the darkness. "The girl has fallen... and Rexn isn't coming to either here, or the place we have in Hollow Bastion."

At that, Tenmei perused his memories. He knew of which girl Ren spoke of, but for whatever reason, her name wouldn't come to mind. He gave a nod. "More likely than not... he might be heading for Castle That Never Was", he stated, standing up. "We'll have to act fast. Thankfully, I did have time to draw up a map of the city on that world... if you can point me to which route he might be taking, I can cut him off with a barrier."

Ren nodded, the dark corridor still open behind him. "Then let's move... we don't have much time."