A/N: This is still part of my "Unbreakable Chains" challenge, but this chapter is also specifically for the #XionLives challenge on tumblr, celebrating the release of Project Destati's DARKNESS album! If you haven't listened to it, you should totally go do that now instead of reading this fic. It will be worth it.

Also, in case it wasn't obvious, this doesn't really coincide with the new KH3 trailers, whoops *shrug*

Vanitas cursed when Sora's heart-pillar started shaking violently, as if someone was spamming a Quake command. He stood up and brushed himself off despite the fact that there was never any dust in this place.

"What is it this time?" He muttered, glancing over at Ventus, who - as always - was lying unconscious near the edge of the platform. He was still half disappointed at that fact. Stupid. If Vanitas hadn't been able to wake his other half by punching him, slapping him, or drawing on his face with a marker he managed to pull out of Sora's memory, then the pillar shaking wasn't going to make a difference.

"Is Namine screwing with us again?" He glared up into the inky sky, where he could see chains in the distance if he squinted. Sora's memories. It had been a nightmare when she'd first started tearing them apart - broken links raining down everywhere, leaving cracks in the stained glass of Sora's heart pillar. Leaving a lump on Vanitas's head, too. That particular memory had been of Sora, Riku, and Kairi eating ice cream though, so at least he'd been able to use it to summon a bowl of dessert for himself.

But there were no raining memories now - there hadn't been in a long time. Vanitas just saw them drift away from time to time, and more rarely, link back together. He didn't know why. With Sora unconscious, it was difficult to get any idea of what was going on in the outside world. He didn't even know how long it had been, or how much longer it would last. Thinking about it only made him want to stab things, which he couldn't really do here. Not without risking damage to Sora's heart. And the last time he'd broken a heart he was trapped inside, it had nearly killed him.

He sighed heavily, plopping down at the edge of the still-trembling pillar and swinging his legs off the side. Not very safe, but it wasn't like he had much to lose. He'd jumped off this pillar plenty of times before. It hardly even hurt. It wasn't really worth it unless he got really bored, though; all that was down there were the dregs of Sora's memories. All the ones not important enough to be remembered.

Only… that wasn't all that was down there, not now. He could see something in the dim light filtering through the pillar's windows - there was a person down there.

An awake, moving person.

Without thinking, he jumped from the top of the pillar. It felt best to dive head-first, but he did flip at the last second to land on his feet, scattering the broken chain links away.

The black-coated figure screamed. That scream - too high pitched to be a guy. Why was Sora's heart always picking up girls? At least this one was conscious, unlike Kairi had been.

The girl skipped back a few steps, nearly slipping on the clinking chains, and pulled her hood down farther over her face. "You're - who are you? You look like Sora, but… different."

Vanitas had been about to laugh in relief - another living person - but then it turned to a scowl.

"No, I'm not Sora." He had the urge to cover his own face too. He hadn't bothered to wear his mask here, considering there'd never been anyone to see him before. "The name's Vanitas."

He stepped back into his fighting stance and summoned his keyblade.

"Vanitas?" She frowned, not looking intimidated by his weapon. Not that it would be easy to tell underneath her hood. "I never heard of you in Sora's memories."

"Tch. Of course you wouldn't have, I never actually knew the guy. Now, are you going to fight me or what?"

She tilted her head. "Why?"

"Wh-why?" His blade lowered. "What do you mean, why?" He met someone, he fought them. That was just how it worked. Was the first awake person he met in years really going to refuse a battle?

"Well, I… I already died fighting once today. So I guess I don't feel like doing it again."

She made as if to walk away, but Vanitas slid to block her.

"Wait, you can't just leave."

She shrugged. "I don't even know how I got here. I should be gone completely. And I just… I want to be alone right now, okay?"

It was only then that Vanitas realized she wasn't shrugging. Her shoulders were just shaking. And there was something dripping out from beneath her hood…

"You're crying," he realized out loud.

"Replicas can't cry," she said quietly, tugging on her hood again. "It was nice to meet you, Vanitas."

He just watched in confused silence as she ran off into the distance.

XXX

"Hey," Vanitas said when he finally found the girl again. The memories under his feet had been acting up, floating off into the sky in huge chunks ever since she'd arrived. That made it a bit more difficult than usual to navigate the wasteland around the heart-pillar, but he managed.

"Y-you again?" The girl looked up. Her face was still wet. He should've waited longer; dealing with crying girls was the last thing he wanted to do. But if he waited too long, he was afraid she'd disappear for good.

"What, you expecting someone else?" She sat down beside her and stretched out his legs. This spot was far enough out that there weren't many memories around, so he had plenty of room.

"No…" she mumbled, fiddling with a memory link in her fingers. She didn't offer anything else. Sheesh, was she going to make Vanitas do all the talking? Maybe he should just attack her. Then she would have to fight him. But what if he accidentally killed her, and then she disappeared?

"So… uh… you got a keyblade?" He asked awkwardly. To his surprise, she stretched out a hand, and a silver and gold weapon appeared there.

"...I guess I still do," she said, as if she were just as surprised.

"Looks just like Sora's," Vanitas noted. "Bulky. Blunt. Kinda stupid looking."

The girl frowned. "It looks just like Roxas's, too."

Vanitas didn't particularly care who Roxas was, but he did want to keep the girl from running away again, so he asked, "Who's Roxas?"

"My best friend. Him and Axel both are." Her frown wavered for a moment, but stayed. Vanitas wished she would take off her hood. Was this how he made everyone feel when he had his mask on?

"Friends." He snorted. "Doesn't sound like they helped you out any more than Ventus's helped him."

"Why would you say that?" She replied angrily. He grinned.

"You want to fight me over it?"

She sighed and lowered her keyblade, letting it disappear in a flash of light. "No. Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"I'm the only other person awake here in Sora's heart. You're stuck with me."

He succeeded in getting a frustrated sigh out of her. A verbal fight might not be as good as a physical one, but at least it was something.

"You won't be the only one for long. Roxas will come back soon."

Vanitas scowled as another chunk of memory links started glowing and then floated upwards.

"Why would your friend end up in Sora's heart?"

"Because he's Sora's Nobody."

Nobody? Vanitas didn't know a lot about Nobodies. Xehanort had mentioned them briefly, a long time ago. But didn't you only become a Nobody if you were turned into a…? Oh. Vanitas remembered - that had been the worst day of his not-life. He'd thought Sora was going to go full Heartless, and then who knew what would happen to Ventus and Vanitas's heart? But Kairi had saved him, putting Sora's heart pillar back together before it could crumble all the way into darkness.

"Huh," Vanitas grunted. "Maybe he'll fight me, then."

"Why do you want to fight so badly?" The girl asked, still turning that link over in her fingers, over and over again.

"What else are we supposed to do?" He asked back. Her head tilted.

"You… you're asking that honestly, aren't you?"

"I guess." He shrugged. If she had some other idea of how to pass the time, he wasn't going to complain. Not much, at least.

She laughed, a small chuckle that startled him. He hadn't heard anyone laugh at something he said before. Should he be offended? He put on a scowl just in case.

"I don't really know what people normally do together, other than go to work and eat ice cream. But I guess we don't have either of those things here." She sighed sadly.

"I made ice cream out of one of Sora's memories once," he said. "Tasted just like the real thing. Or at least I think it did. Haven't had the real stuff in a while."

"Out of his memories?" She asked.

"Yeah." He took the link from her hands, feeling what memory it contained. Something about flowers. It was a really faded memory, so it was hard to get much else out of it. Still, he closed his eyes and felt it, until the link had transformed into a small bouquet in his hands.

"Here." He shoved the flowers at her. "Flowers are for girls."

"Thanks?" She laughed again, accepting the small blue blossoms. "Wait… I remember these. One of the Dusks left them at the castle before. Luxord told me they were called... forget-me-nots. Hah…"

Her hands trembled. A small drop of water dotted the blue petals.

"For someone who says they can't cry, you cry a lot," Vanitas said.

"I guess… I'm lucky then." She wiped her eyes - or at least wiped something under her hood.

"You've got a pretty twisted idea of luck."

"Well, when you weren't supposed to exist, I'm just lucky to be here at all." She smiled a little.

"Not supposed to exist, huh?" He leaned back on his hands. "I know a thing or two about that."

"You do?"

He nodded. "Xehanort pulled me out of Ventus so I could forge the X-Blade." He drew an 'X' in the air with his finger, in case she'd never heard of it. "But I was never supposed to be my own person, and he never let me forget it."

He wished he could find one of Sora's memories of Ansem - the closest thing he'd know to Xehanort - and choke the life out of him. But pulling actual people out of memories was beyond Vanitas's abilities.

"Xemnas created me," the girl said. "Him and some other Nobodies on Organization XIII did. I was a replica made of Sora's memories, meant to copy his keyblade."

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. "Keyblade, or X-blade?"

The girl frowned. "There's a difference?"

"'Key' as in the letter 'ex.'" When she didn't respond, he just said "Nevermind. Probably just a regular keyblade, then."

"Oh." She grew silent for a while, then finally said, "I'm sorry. About what happened to you."

She was… what? He stared at her. Sorry? Was she… pitying him?

"Don't be. I'm fine." He shrugged, then stood up. "We should get back to the pillar. It's not safe to stay down here for too long."

"Why not?" She asked, though she stood too. She still clutched the flowers tightly between her hands.

He gestured to the scattered links that lined the hard ground. "This is where forgotten memories go. Stay down here too long, and you'll be forgotten too." He never really worried about it himself - there wasn't anyone he wanted to remember him, anyway. In fact, he'd be better off if no one remembered him when he got out of this place. But this girl - she said she had friends. She probably cared about stuff like that.

"Then you mean… there's a chance I won't be forgotten?" She asked hopefully.

"What, you expecting everyone to forget about you?"

"Well… yes."

He led her back towards the pillar, kicking chain links out of the way as they went. "If your friends are anything like Ventus's, I doubt they'll give you up that easy," he replied, a little bitterly.

"Did… did your friends forget about you?" She asked. He laughed.

"Hard for them to forget you if you don't have any in the first place."

She stopped. "You mean… you didn't have anyone?"

"No one," he snapped, then shook his head. It wasn't like it mattered. Friends were for people of the light, like Ventus, and this girl. Despite her black coat, he could tell she was bright on the inside.

"Do you think… I could be your friend, then? If we're both going to be here for a while…"

He blinked. She was offering… to be his friend? Okay, despite her light, she obviously wasn't very bright, or she'd know better than to want to be friends with him, of all people. But… he imagined the look on Ventus's face when he finally woke up, and he found out that Vanitas had a friend too. It would be priceless.

"Sure, why not." Vanitas shrugged. "Just don't expect me to make you feel better if you're crying, okay?"

She laughed. "That's okay. I don't think Roxas or Axel would have known what to do about that either."

Then, to his surprise, she reached up and lowered her hood, revealing short black hair and blue eyes. Those eyes looked just like Ventus's, and that hair was just as dark as his own. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but it wasn't that.

"I never introduced myself, did I?" She asked with a smile. He shook himself a little when he realized he'd been staring. "My name's Xion."

"Xion," he repeated, then paused, as if something were going to happen. "Is that it? Are we friends now?"

"Um… I think we have to eat ice cream first." She frowned thoughtfully. That made sense; there had to be something more to making a friend then just saying the words. Any idiot could do that.

"I'll find us some. But we need to get to the pillar first."

"Right." She nodded.

They jogged the rest of the way there, with Xion clinging to the forget-me-nots the whole way. Vanitas wasn't sure why she bothered; they'd turn back into memories eventually.

Chains of memories peeled up from the ground in front of them; they jumped over and dodged around them. Namine must be doing some serious work today.

When they were almost to the pillar - only a few yards away - the chains did something different. Instead of just falling up into the sky, two strands of them whipped out and formed an X in front of Xion.

"What the-" Vanitas spun, rolled his eyes, and jogged back to her. "Come on, you lousy memories. Out of our way."

He summoned his keyblade to slice through them - they were just brittle, forgotten things, after all - but his blow bounced off as if the chains had welded together.

"No," Xion whispered. She tried to dodge around the chains, under them, over them, but no matter which way she tried to move forward, they twisted to block her.

"What are you standing around for? Help me smash these things!" He kept hacking at the memories, but they still stubbornly refused to budge.

"No." She shook her head. He noticed that her eyes were getting wet, again. "It's not going to be that simple…"

"Why not?" He demanded. Smashing things was his favorite way of solving problems; he would make it that simple.

"I can't be remembered. Namine warned me. I chose to go away, even knowing that." She pressed one hand to the chains; the other clutched the flowers to her chest. "Go on, Vanitas. I'll be alright."

He stared at her, his keyblade drooping to his side. "You're kidding. You're giving up? Just like that?"

She forced a smile. "It's taken me a long time to decide this. I know what I'm doing."

"Fine," he said, surprising her. He dismissed his keyblade and wandered around the chains; they didn't do anything to stop him. "Let all those losers out there forget about us. What's it matter?"

"You - no, Vanitas. You need to go back," she insisted.

"What? So all my non-existent friends can remember me?" He snorted. "I'm staying down here. I got bored of hanging out on top of Sora's heart, anyway." Sure, Ventus was still up there… but Vanitas needed to let go of the hope that his other half would wake up any time soon. Besides, if he did wake up, Vanitas was sure he would know it. And maybe, if he was lucky, Ventus actually wouldn't remember him.

"But…"

"What, you want to get rid of me already?" He smirked. "You can always fight me if you want to try."

She rolled her eyes. "I told you, I'm not going to fight you."

"If you say so." He shrugged and knelt down on the ground, hands searching through the debris of chain links.

"What are you looking for?" Xion asked.

"You'll see." He found it a second later - the memory he was searching for. One that would work, anyway. He drew on its power and ended up with two sticks of ice cream, one yellow, one orange. "Here. Since this is what friends do, apparently."

She blinked before accepting the ice cream. "I've never seen one like this before."

"Just eat it." He said, biting into his own - he'd kept the yellow one for himself. It tasted like pineapple. He would've rather had strawberry, but it would do.

She took a tentative bite. "It's sweet. But not salty."

"Salty?" Vanitas made a face. "Why would ice cream be salty?"

Xion's jaw dropped.

"You mean you've never had sea-salt ice cream?" Judging from her face, that could've been the eighth deadly sin.

"...No," he said carefully. Was sea-salt ice cream the specific kind required by friendships? He wouldn't know. But if Ventus did wake up, and he found out that Vanitas had ruined his only friendship by eating the wrong type of ice cream, he would never live it down.

"We have to find some!" Xion leapt up; her orange ice cream dripped on the front of her coat. "Come on, Vanitas! If we both look together, I'm sure we can find it!"

"Unless Sora's never had it, either," he pointed out, but she didn't seem to notice. She grabbed his hand to drag him off, but he froze.

Someone was touching him. He instinctively expected it to hurt, but it didn't. Her hand was really cold, though.

"...Vanitas?" She asked. He shook his head.

"Sure. Sea-salt. Whatever."

He followed after her, still finishing off the last of his current ice cream. She didn't let go of his hand the whole time, almost like she was just as starved for physical contact as he was. In spite of himself, he smiled.

If she was the one she he was stuck with, it might not be so bad.