Jessica's Point of View

Since my encounter with Axel, I had avoided him and, in turn, Roxas and Xion as well. I had spent my days alone with Luna in my room playing the Sailor V game. I stopped eating anything the Dusks brought me. Instead, I went to the kitchen and fixed myself food when I was hungry. I didn't trust anyone but myself anymore. I went to my father's lab when I ate, not only because it was closer to the kitchen than my room but also because it reminded me of better days.

I didn't count the days and had no idea how much time had passed until the night Xemnas came to my room. I paused my Sailor V game. "Tomorrow, there will be a vacation day. If you can promise that you won't pull any more stunts, I will allow you to go where you please with whomever you please, so long as you stay away from Sunset Kingdom and don't talk to any strangers."

"Thank you. I promise." The old Jessica would likely have acted rashly and told him I wouldn't play by his rules anymore and I would talk to strangers if it suited me, but this version of me was broken. I didn't have the energy to resist, nor did I want to. I simply wanted to be.

"You will come home by the end of the day, won't you?"

"What difference does it make? Even if I don't, you'll find me and bring me back anyways. Maybe you'll even keep me chained to the wall," I deadpanned.

Xemnas nearly yelled at me, but he stopped and thought carefully about his words that followed. "Turn off your game. It's time to sleep." I obeyed and turned Sailor V off. "Get under the covers."

"I will. You don't have to breathe down my neck."

"You're on thin ice, Jessica. Do you want to have freedom or not?"

"Yes."

"Then you'll do as you're told."

With a heavy sigh, I got under the covers. Xemnas pulled them up to tuck me in. "I miss when Daddy used to do that," I admitted.

"I know you've been lashing out because he's gone. I want to fill the void that his absence has left if you would let me."

I was sure I didn't hear that right because I didn't want to believe he would say he would try to replace my father. "What?"

"Think about it, Jessica. Good night." Xemnas turned the light off before leaving the room.


In the morning, I went to Axel's room to see what he was up to, but he wasn't in bed, so I started heading to the Gray Area. I found Axel in the hall talking with Roxas. "Hey, guys. What's up?" I greeted.

"Hey, Jess, get this. Roxas doesn't know what to do during vacation," Axel commented.

"It's not my fault I've never had one. I don't know what to do," Roxas defended.

"Hey, you don't have to do anything. Just enjoy it. The point is to let you have a day of rest. Speaking of rest, I thought you would be in bed, Axel. What's up with that?" I wondered.

"I was just headed there when I ran into Roxas," Axel replied.

"Don't you spend enough time in bed?" Roxas wondered.

"You kidding? I'd nap six times a day if they'd let me. Ain't that right, Jess?" Axel chuckled. I giggled as he ruffled my hair. "All right, snooze-land is calling. Enjoy your time off!"

Axel started to walk away, but I grabbed his wrist. "Actually, Axel, there's a reason I was looking for you. Xemnas gave me permission to leave the castle so long as I come back tonight."

"Hey, that's great. Let me know how that goes after I finish my nap. I hope you can find someone to take you." He tried to pull his arm away from me, but my grip was firm.

"Nice try, but you're not pulling a Demyx on me. You want to make things right between us, right?"

Axel was less than pleased. "Oh, so you're using that over my head to take away the one vacation day we've had in practically forever? Forget it. It's not worth it."

"Why don't you go see what Xion's up to, Roxas," I suggested. He had been watching our exchange, and I didn't know if things would get ugly between Axel and me. Roxas looked to Axel for approval.

"Yeah. Why don't you do that? I'm sure she'll be up to doing something with you," Axel agreed.

"Um, okay." Roxas looked uncertain but left anyways.

"I just want to get out of here with the one person who won't breathe down my neck. We can talk about anything. Even Castle Oblivion," I said.

Axel looked torn. "Yeah, okay. Who needs sleep anyway? This better be worth my while. Where do you want to go?"

As tempted as I was to say Sunset Kingdom, I selected another world instead. "Can we go home? Back to Radiant Gardens?"

"Um... I don't know if I can really do that. I think you're banned from there since you revealed yourself to the locals."

"Xig told on me? He said he wouldn't."

"That was before you started doing stupid stuff," Xigbar said as he approached us. "Well, more stupid than usual. How about this? I'll take you. Xemnas won't say no to me. All you have to do is stay hidden and keep your hood up."

"Why would you take me, Xigbar?" I demanded.

"I'm oh so curious as to what business you have in Radiant Gardens. Besides, I don't have any plans, unlike Sleeper Boy, here. I could use something to make today interesting," Xigbar commented.

"You mean you want to spy on me," I huffed.

"As if. Can't I take my favorite niece to our hometown?" Xigbar tried.

"I'm not your niece. I don't know why I'm even surprised you've been reporting everything I do to Xemnas. Did he tell you to watch over me today, too? Is that it? I can leave for the day, but only if it's with you?" I accused.

"I only tell Xemnas what you've been doing when I see that you're risking your safety. I'm worried about you, Rabbit. We all are. Isn't that right, Flamesilocks?" Xigbar asked.

"Some of us more than others," Axel grumbled.

"What do you say, Rabbit? Want to go?" Xigbar offered.

"May as well. Wherever I go, you're just going to be watching me from the shadows anyway, right? I may as well know that you're there instead of guessing every second," I snapped.

Xigbar slung his arm around my shoulder. "That's the spirit."

"Jess, you don't have to go with him. We can go somewhere else, you and me. There are other worlds that will bring back old memories. How about Twilight Town? Or maybe Neverland? We had your birthday there that one year, remember?" Axel tried.

As much as a part of me was touched by Axel's desire to protect me from Xigbar, and I wanted to go with him, I had a bone to pick with Xigbar. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I didn't want to let the opportunity to have him alone go to waste. "Thank you, Axel, but I think I'll go with Xigbar."

"Huh. I honestly wasn't expecting that. I thought he would sell you on going with him for sure," Xigbar remarked.

I put on a fake smile. "Can't I let my favorite uncle take me to our hometown?" I asked dryly.

"Jess-" Axel started.

"I'll see you this afternoon. You can take me to our usual spot," I interrupted.

Axel didn't look happy about my decision but let out a defeated sigh. "Alright. I'll see you later. Wake me when you return, but don't pull any stunts." He went back to his room.

Xigbar put his hood up and opened a dark corridor. "Shall we?"

I put my hood on and followed him inside. My steps were full of fury and purpose. "Are you going to break your promise not to allow Xemnas in my father's lab, too?"

"No need to be salty about it. What I told Xemnas was for your own good."

I stopped and turned to him just before we reached the end of a dark corridor. "And Xemnas trapping me in a cell and casting a sleep spell on all of my food? Was that for my own good?"

Xigbar paused, likely unsure how to answer my question, though I couldn't see his facial expression due to his hood. "I'm not going to grace that with an answer."

"Because you know I'm right. How about that time when I refused to go on any missions, and so he attacked me until I couldn't drink a potion without throwing up?" We left the dark corridor, which led to the outside of the castle. I inhaled sharply as memories of myself, my father, and Zexion flooded back to me.

"Are you actually looking for my opinion, or are you just going to turn it against me no matter what my answer is?"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I hissed.

Xigbar sighed. "I'm just looking out for you, Rabbit. That's all."

"Well then stop looking out for me!" I should have stopped there, but I had so many frustrations to let out that I kept going. "I'm tired of it! Whenever you try, you do it in the worst way! I just want to get away from you, but you won't let me!"

Xigbar just laughed. I was so disgusted that I couldn't even look at him. When he stopped, he replied to my exclamations. "You're not angry at me, you know. I'm not the issue here. You meant that for him, didn't you?"

I couldn't deny it. "Yeah."

"Look, I get it. Things have sucked. That doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want. You can't just go back to Sunset Kingdom. They would find you, Rabbit. I didn't want to get you in trouble like that, but I couldn't let that happen."

"I know how I went about it was wrong, Xig. I just really want to get away."

"Do what you're told, and things won't be as bad. You'll see."

I wondered if Xigbar knew of Xemnas's intentions to replace my father. "Xig, Xemnas scares me."

Xigbar removed his hood to reveal his glare boring into me. "He should. I don't know why you don't just do what he says."

I scoffed and briskly walked away, too irritated to finish telling Xigbar about my conversation with Xemnas. Xigbar followed me. "Was there something you wanted to tell me?"

"I've nothing more to say to you. Anything I say can and apparently will be used against me whenever you feel like getting me in trouble."

"Rabbit, I did what I had to do."

"If you had any sense, you would have taken care of the situation yourself instead of throwing me to the wolves."

"Sounds like extra work. Not really my thing."

"What are you, Demyx, now?" I snapped.

"We're just going in circles now. How about you just forgive and forget, and we can move on from that little incident, huh?" Xigbar said. Anger rising from such a suggestion, I ran inside the castle. Of course, Xigbar followed me. I stopped at a dead end, Xigbar right behind me. "Or just run aimlessly. That works, too. Seriously, how far did you think you would get? This place is in shambles, and the halls are caved in pretty much everywhere. You weren't trying to ditch me or anything, were you? That would be really stupid, Rabbit. You're not that stupid, are you?"

"No, though I was hoping it would take you a couple of minutes to catch up," I admitted.

"See, I would believe that if it weren't for your track record. You need to get your act together, Jessica."

I flinched at his use of my name but quickly recovered and lashed out at him. "And what happens if I don't?! I'm stuck in that dungeon forever?! I have no contact with any living being?! I fall asleep every time I eat?! What does anyone have left to take away from me?!" I wanted to cry but refused to allow myself to look weak, though I knew I was only delaying the inevitable.

I looked at Xigbar and thought I saw remorse, though I knew he was only pretending. He let his shoulders sag. "Yeah, I get it. I made a bad situation worse. I just want you to be safe, Rabbit. That's what we all want." I turned my head away. I couldn't keep looking at him without letting my emotions get the best of me. "Hey, look at me," Xigbar continued. I slowly turned my head back to meet his gaze. "All of us want you to be safe. Keeping you under the radar is doing more for you than you'll ever know. So long as you're with us, we can keep you safe. I've lost a lot of people over my life, some of them younger than you, but none of us are ready to lose you prematurely. So long as you stay, you're going to be taken care of. I know it's rough on you, but we need you to be more understanding and let go of the idea of leaving. If you go, you're a lot more likely to be found by Sunset Kingdom. Xemnas cares too much to let that happen."

I fought crying, though my face must have shown that I was on the verge of tears because Xigbar opened his arms to me. "Come here, Rabbit." Instead of taking a step toward him, I took a step back, but he teleported to me in the blink of an eye and enveloped me in a hug. I shuddered and found I could no longer hold in my tears, which poured out as I wrapped my arms around him.

I was ready to try again in telling Xigbar about Xemnas's conversation with me the night before. "Xigbar, there was something Xemnas said to me last night. Something that scares me more than any punishment he's ever given me."

I could feel Xigbar tense ever so slightly. "Oh yeah? What's that?" He tried to sound casual, but I could tell he was listening intently.

"He said that he wanted to, I don't know, fill the void that my dad left behind or something like that. Like he wanted to replace my father."

Xigbar pulled away from me suddenly. "He said that?"

I wiped the tears out of my eyes and looked to find Xigbar's eye staring at me with an intensity I rarely saw in him. "Yes. I wouldn't lie about that. I don't think I would need to. Surely you've noticed Xemnas's fixation on me. He almost seems obsessed."

"Well, sure, but I didn't think..." Xigbar trailed off before continuing. "Alright. I'll see what I can do to talk some sense into him. In the meantime, you need to behave so we don't get into another mess. Think you can do that?"

I paused before agreeing. "Yeah."

Xigbar's smug grin was back on his face. "Attagirl. How about we forget all that for now and try to salvage what's left of this vacation day?"

I managed a small smile and nodded before we set off to walk around town.