Hello and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all of you readers! A new chapter is here and ready to be ready!

Ch.15

The next day came as it always did and Roxas made his way down to the Grey Room. He yawned upon entering, before his eyes fell to where Saix stood. His friend quickly made his way over seconds later.

"Roxas, I'm sorry I was unable to make it yesterday for ice cream. That extra paperwork I mentioned yesterday… I ended up having to fill it out at the last minute," Saix said, starting off the conversation.

"Oh… Yeah I was wondering about that, but everything is okay now?"

Saix nodded. "As far as I know it should be. On a brighter note, I did get the information that you needed about Xion."

Roxas's eyes lit up a little. "And what did you find out?"

"Xion never returned from her mission, I do not know much more than that, sadly."

"She didn't return? Is it just a really long mission then?"

"I do not think so, I believe something must have gone wrong. You do not need to worry though, Roxas. I managed to convince Axel to also let us go out today on a mission to find her."

"Whoa, really? Axel actually said we could?"

"Yeah, so let's get going before he decides to change his mind on us, okay?"

"Right," Roxas said as he went to prepare his stuff for the mission.

Once he was ready he walked back up to Saix. "Where are we going to check though."

"Twilight Town," Saix answered simply.

The two of them walked up to Axel, who gave a quick scowl. "Yeah, whatever. You two get this day to look for Xion, that's it. I honestly could care less, but Xemnas actually wants her back, so you two better do your job and find her."

"Understood," Saxi replied before he left the Grey Room with Roxas.

The two of them entered onto the side street of Twilight Town. Once there Saix looked over the information he had been given. "What we know about Xion's mission was that she was suppose to take out a big Heartless. The only issue is the mission report doesn't specify where the Heartless was spotted."

"I guess that means we need to start looking around?"

"Exactly. Keep an eye out for Heartless, any of them could lead us to the main target."

"Okay, I got it. I hope we can find her soon."

"Agreed."

They made their way around, investigated as much as they could. Though nothing seemed to com up in their search. Eventually they were in the sandlot area where they overheard some kid from Twilight Town talking.

It was not what Saix indeed to do, but they overheard something that he figured may actually be helpful. It was at least something to go off at the start, though Saix remained skeptical. All the children had talked about had been something about strange sounds from somewhere in the tunnels beneath the town.

"Should we really be listening to them?" Roxas asked quietly as they watched the kids walk somewhere else.

"It may seem like we are eavesdropping, but sometimes it is a necessity when needing information," Saix replied. "And with what they said we better investigate."

The two of them started walking towards the tunnels, where the children had said they had been hearing the strange sounds. Roxas cleared his throat once they entered and headed down to look around. "You think it could really be something? Like Xion maybe?"

"Sound can be tricky and with a place like a tunnel, it can easily be warped. We could just be wasting our time, but it is better to at least check."

When they got down there they ended up not finding anything, other than another boy from Twilight Town, who seemed to be doing some investigation of his own. Saix made sure not to talk too much, as they didn't want to be wasting too much time. He didn't seem to suspect the two of them anyways, too caught up in whatever he was doing down there. Either way, there was nothing down there for the two of them as Saix had suspected, so they moved on to check somewhere else in the town.

They walked all over the main area of Twilight Town, searching every nook and cranny that they could, but other than a few small Heartless here and there, they had nothing else. No signs of Xion or a large Heartless anywhere to be found.

Roxas sighed as they made their way around again. It was loud enough that it caught Saix's attention, though he felt like Roxas wasn't meaning for that to happen. Either way he saw that he needed to try and say something to keep Roxas from giving up.

"Twilight Town is a large place with many hidden areas, there is much more to explore, Roxas. Besides we have the entire day to search."

"But, what if we don't find her?"

"We won't let that happen. Our goal is to find her, and I will make sure that we will," Saix replied. "Try to keep your optimism up, Roxas. Understand?"

"I think so," Roxas said before nodding. He was happy that Saix was here to help look for Xion. He knew for a fact he would have been completely lost without him, not knowing where to look or who to listen to.

After they explored some more, they came across the same children before, and once again they overheard some information that they thought could be helpful. Deciding to investigate more about the children, they went to were the kids seemed to have an area that they hung out it.

Saix found it amusing that the children would speak aloud about such a place that seemed like a secret to everyone else, but then again he remembered he was like that as a child. Faint memories danced around in his head as he headed to the side street with Roxas. He remembered the years when he was young and held secret meetings with Lea. How they thought they were so secretive in the areas they hid. Now that he was older, he was sure that someone must have seen them overheard at some point.

Either way the information they heard lead them back to the boy they had met in the tunnels, who's name was Pence. Though Saix still wasn't too keen on talking, he had the feeling that this kid would know something, since he did explain he liked to investigate the town.

Once Pence left the area, Roxas looked to Saix. "You really think anything he said was helpful? It didn't really sound like it to me."

"Think carefully Roxas," Saix instructed. "He talked about something that was in the woods outside of town. We have only been looking in town. We didn't even consider outside of it. Heartless do not always have to be in a populated area, some of them prefer to be hidden away where not many people will find them."

"So you think it could be Xion's target?"

"We won't know until we try."

Picking up their pace the two of them headed into the woods that were just outside of Twilight Town. Saix put a finger to his mouth as he glance dot Roxas. Quietly the two of them moved forward, noticing that there was a tree that was losing an awful lot of leaves opposed to others.

Before they could get too close, something moved in the trees to the ground, causing the two of them to stagger back slightly. Despite feeling like there was something there, it was nearly impossible to see. Only faint reflections of light gave away that there was in fact something in front of them, and now that something was moving further up into the forest.

"Quickly! We need to make sure it doesn't escape!" Saix said as he summoned his claymore and ran ahead.

"Right!" Roxas shouted as he followed.

They chased it all the way up to the front gate of the old mansion. Now cornered the invisible creature came into sight, and then it all made sense. It was in fact a Heartless, but it looked very much like a lizard or some other type of reptile.

"Of course," Saix muttered. "It has a camouflage. This is most likely why Xion wasn't able to defeat it."

"You think so? Does that mean Xion is still out there looking for it?"

"Most likely, but now we have an extra task on our hands. Take out the target Heartless before it decides to hide again," Saix said before lunging forward to strike at the Heartless.

They began to fight the Heartless, which proved to be a little harder than originally expected. Occasionally the Heartless did use its camouflage to hide from them, but rather than running it instead snuck up to attack.

Saix was sure that it wouldn't take much longer, but then he caught something in the corner of his eye. Something was running out from a section of the forest. It was a blur of black and it was running right towards the Heartless.

Before Saix xould take a moment to really focus, Roxas shouted aloud. "Xion!"

Saix eyes widened. He could see it was in fact Xion, and she was trying to get near the Heartless. But… she had no weapon in her hand! "Just what is she thinking?"

Unfortunately Xion stopped to turn to see them. In her surprise the Heartless prepared another attack from behind her. Saix knew he would have to move fast if he wanted to prevent anything from happening.

Without missing a beat he sped to her side and swung the claymore up into a defensive position. The tongue of the Heartless clashed against the claymore and then ti backed up, not looking happy that the attack had been stopped.

"Get to a safe spot away from the Heartless," Saix instructed to Xion without even giving a glance to her. "Wait until we are done with it."

He didn't even wait for Xion to give an answer before he went back to attacking the Heartless. Roxas came seconds later delivering several more blows. It only took a few more minutes before the Heartless collapsed and was defeated.

Now that it was over, Roxas ran over to Xion, who had thankfully listened to Saix and moved out of the way. "Xion! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine…" Xion answered softly. "Thank you for coming. It's just…"

"Hold your thoughts for now Xion," Saix said, looking at the hooded member. "Let's move to someplace better to talk."

"To the clock tower for ice cream!" Roxas said, beaming happily.

When they got up to the clock tower, Saix let Roxas and Xion sit down first before he handed them the ice cream. When he gave one to Xion, she thanked him quietly but made no attempt to give any eye contact.

Saix then proceeded to take his seat and eat his ice cream like normal. No coversation started up, but it was what he expected… mostly. When he was here with Roxas they would talk when they wanted to. They didn't have to have a long and deep coversation, and usually they didn't Something short and simple had always been enough for them.

But now that Xion was here… the silence felt off, and she sat there, not wanting to look at either of them. She only stared down at her ice cream, watching it slowly melt.

"Hey, eat up. It's going to melt otherwise," Roxas said once he took noticed Xion's quietness.

"I know…"

"Well, don't you wanna eat it?" Roxa then asked. "I thought that was what we were all going to do, remember?"

Xion didn't answer and continued to stare at her melting ice cream.

"Roxas," Saix said, clearing his throat. "If Xion doesn't want to talk, you don't push her to do so."

"But I'm just wondering," Roxas replied.

"I know Roxas, but you need to not over do it." Saix then looked over at Xion. "I know you probably have been through a lot Xion, and we are here for you if you need us. But if you aren't ready to talk about it, I completely understand."

Roxas stared at Saix and then to Xion. "Ah, I think I get it. Saix is right though, we are here for you. Just let us know, um, whenever you want that is."

"Thanks…" Xion said, coming out barely louder than a whisper. "I guess… I could talk about it…"

"While I will not push you to talk, it can be beneficial to get things off your chest. Talking things through can be enough to help," Saix said, continuingly to speak softly and calmly.

Xion breathed in deeply. She held her breath for a moment before exhaling. "I… I can't use the keyblade anymore. And without it… I can't do my job."

Saix stared long and hard as he processed the information that Xion had said. It only took him a few seconds before things began to click together. "Ah… now it makes sense…"

Though Saix could tell the subject was sensitive, he did want to talk to Xion about it. He had explained to her that she should talk it out after all, so he knew what he had to do. "And that is why I assume you haven't returned yet?"

"Yes… I need the keyblade to defeat the Heartless. Without it, the hearts just get released and find their way into other Heartless. I swat them in one place and they just pop up in another. I'm supposed to be collecting hearts. Those are my orders. Without the Keyblade… I'm useless."

Xion shudders slightly before she continued to say more. "And I can't go back… Axel… he wouldn't be happy if I returned not being able to use the keyblade… he probably already is angry for me not completing my mission."

"Oh…" Roxas said. "Yeah… Axel hasn't sounded too happy that you haven't come back yet."

Saix watched the expression of the two children. A gloomy and worrisome look filled their eyes while dwelling on the thought of Axel… and what he could do upon Xion returning. With Axel's unfortunate, somewhat sadistic tendencies, Saix could only imagine what would happen if Xion headed back and informed Axel of the truth. Though… honestly he would rather not try and think about that.

"Is there anything we can do?" Roxas asked.

Saix pulled himself from his thoughts and saw that Roxas was looking at him. He was looking at him for an answer to a rather hard situation. Saix breathed out slowly, taking in all the new thoughts now entering his mind.

"He wants me to find a way to help, I understand that I am the only one here, but I don't know if I would be able to give something good enough…" Saix sighed again as he tried to think about what he was going to say. He knew there had to be some answers, some solutions, but he just couldn't figure it out.

"I'm afraid I am not too sure what can be done," Saix replied quietly. "This is a situation that I am not too familiar with. I'm sorry."

"But we can't just go back, we can't let Axel hurt Xion. Or at least I won't let him."

"No, I do agree we cannot go back empty handed," Saix said.

He wanted to say that he would try talking to Axel, try to talk to him to make sure that he wouldn't do anything too rash. Though he knew already that was too far out of the question at this point. There was hardly any way to truly reason with Axel and Saix actually still found himself surprised that he convinced him to go out on his mission with Roxas.

But that still left what he could do to for helping them. He did want to help Xion. Despite just meeting her, he could tell that she meant well and wanted to try her best. Plus Roxas had made friends with her, he had progressed enough to do this all on his own and it did thoroughly impress Saix. He wanted to learn more about the two of them, being two young keyblade wielders in the Organization, but it wouldn't happen if they couldn't find an answer to all of this.

"Hmm…" Saix hummed as he continued to ponder. "There must be someway around this. What possible way could there be though for her to get the keyblade back, or possible find a way to convince Axel that she still… hold on."

Saix straighten up as he faced the two of them. "I do have an idea, though I am not sure how well it would work. But there is no harm in trying, at least I hope there won't be."

"Well what it is?" Roxas asked quickly.

"Patience Roxas, let me finish," Saix said, trying not to smile at the sudden energy that Roxas had towards an idea he had no context about. "The idea is simple enough for the two of you and I feel that you could pull it off that not even Axel would catch on."

At least he hoped dearly that Axel wouldn't.

"What I have is this… you must work together on missions. Staying side by side and see if that could help get the keyblade back to you, Xion. Though for you Roxas, this would mean that you would need to collect double the amount of hearts you normally would so it would seem like you two are just casually working together."

"But… how we are going to get Axel to let us do that?" Xion asked in a quiet voice. It was clear that she didn't have much confidence in the idea Saix had proposed. "He doesn't seem super willing to listen to others on what they want to do…"

"That is true…" Saix said, reconsidering the plan. "But this is the only way that I can see working without Axel finding out. I… I can try to talk to him and see if I can convince him. If I try, I am sure I can figure out a way to word it so he will let you two stick together."

"All right! Then it sounds good!" Roxas said, starting to sound more cheerful than before.

"But, are you sure Roxas? Having to do twice the amount of work because of me?"

"It's fine!" Roxas said quickly. "I want to help you Xion with this and find a way for you to use the keyblade again."

"But… if Axel finds out what we would be doing… wouldn't he be angry? What if he…"

"Xion," Saix interjected. "I understand your fear and worries about the situation, but I promise that I will do what ever I can to make sure that Axel doesn't find out about this. You don't have to worry, okay?"

Xion sighed, letting out a long breath. She stared over at him and then to her ice cream. "Thank you Saix…"

"It's all right, Xion. When put into tough situations, friends need to help each other out as much as they can."

Saix was just saying it to try and ease her tension, but when he did say it, he felt something. Not truly feeling, but more of something in the back of his mind was poking around. Why was his mind making him feel or think this after he say it? He couldn't figure it out. Either way he tried to shove it away and went back to taking a bit of his ice cream.

"Oh… So we can… I can be your friend, Saix?"

Saix stopped eating his ice cream, still staring down at it. He knew that Roxas had wanted the three of them to be friends, but the thought had slipped his mind until now. But he never was going to disregard the thought, he wanted to make sure Roxas felt happy, or felt it was much as Nobody could imagine it.

Saix nodded after a moment. "Yes, that's perfectly fine with me."

"Thank you again, Saix," Xion said, sounding much happier than before. "And thank you too Roxas. Thank you both."

Saix turned to tell her that she was welcome when he stopped and started instead. What he saw wasn't what he was expecting at all. "When did she… take off her hood. Must have been when I looked away… but her appearance… intriguing."

Saix finally cleared his throat. "No need to thank me, just make sure to eat your ice cream before it melts any further."

Roxas's Diary Entry: Day 74

Today my job was to go with Saix to look for Xion. He managed to find out that she had gone missing on her mission, but we managed to find her.

We finally got to have ice cream together, and it was nice. I'm glad we finally got to sit up there together and talk, but Xion can't seem to use her keyblade anymore. Saix had an idea though how to work things out without Axel finding out. Xion and I will go on missions together until she can use to the keyblade again… I just hope Axel doesn't find out. But Saix said he would do what he could to make sure that doesn't happen.

Secret Report: Saix

There are many things I have questioned before, but I choose not to truly think about them because I didn't see much of a reason to do so. Xion was one of them. Roxas seemed rather, as I could say, excited for me meet her and have the three of us go to the clock tower. I tried to think on Xion before hand, but there was never much to go on considering how quiet she was at the start. She was like Roxas, but perhaps in need of more help. But now, it seems both of them have improved a lot since the early days since they joined.

Today during our talk, Xion took her hood off and I was able to finally see her face. Perfectly normal appearance with nothing to hide, but the only thing is… she bares a rather similar appearance to Namine. Not down to the dot, but the same color of eyes and face, but hair and color are completely different. Still… quite puzzling and it makes me wonder…

Though on another note, now that I have helped the two come up with a plan… I need to find a plan for myself to convince Axel of it. I know it will be hard, but there has to be a way to do it. When the three of us got back Axel was waiting for us… wanted to talk to Xion alone. I wanted to oppose it and tell him right then and there, but he seemed to not even care to listen. I can only hope he talked and nothing further… I hope Xion is all right. Maybe I should have tried to do more… maybe for next time.

And that ends another ramblings chapter, hope you all enjoyed! Be sure to let me know if you have any comments or thoughts, I loved to hear them!