Ch.17

Riku and Kairi scrambled back to the house as fast as their legs could carry them. Riku did trail behind at times while still carrying Sora, but he didn't stop once until they were back at the house.

Once inside they placed Sora down on the couch and finally dropped to the floor to catch their breath. Both of them breathed deeply, trying their best to calm their racing hearts from going too much faster.

"Why did we just run?! We should have done something!" Kairi shouted.

"We had no choice!" Riku shouted back. "You saw what Namine did to Sora… whatever it is. Plus there is still the fact that Ansem was in the mansion, if he ended up knowing we were there, we all could have been trapped there."

"But… but Roxas is trapped there."

"But it isn't all of us. We are still here and we can figure out a way to stop all of this… hopefully…"

Kairi choked on a sob before pressing her hands to her face. Her body shaked heavily with each sob that left her. Right away Riku was over there and embracing her, holding her close. He didn't say a word, he only held her close and let her cry out onto his shoulder.

"I'm… I'm scared," Kairi whispered in between raspy breaths. "What's going to happen?"

"What's going to happen is this," Riku said, whispering to her quietly. "We are going to continue to do the research. We will find an answer to all of this, and we are going to free everyone. I know it's risky, but we gotta take this chance. Can't let anything slip away from us."

"Right," Kairi agreed. "But what about…" Kairi turned to look at Sora who still slept quietly. "Sora…"

"I guess we just need to wait and see. We don't know what it is that Namine did, but maybe… maybe he's just sleeping for now."

"I hope…"

"Come on Kairi, let's start doing more research, we don't have time to waste," Riku said as he headed to go and get his laptop.

Kairi stared at Sora for a moment, watching him breathing peacefully. After that she shook her head, trying to refocus herself. She knew that Riku was right and that they had to get to work, but there were still so many questions that she had about the situation. But only time would tell if she were to get any of them actually answered.

Namine sat at the table in her room. She hadn't been out of her room since the event on the lawn of the mansion. Once she had seen Roxas's friends leave, she headed right back, and pleaded that Ansem never noticed.

She hadn't thought to leave her room though. Not yet. She wasn't sure if she was ready to face Roxas again. But she knew that eventually she would have to leave her room, and then she would see him. And then… she wasn't sure what would happen then. But she didn't want to think about it.

Namine stopped pacing. She decided that she would devote her energy to something else while she waited. She sat herself down at her table and pulled over one of her sketchbooks. Right away she flipped open to a fresh new page and began to lightly sketch. She wasn't even sure what she was trying to draw, there were no concrete thoughts in her mind at all to tell her.

Before she knew it, she had created a light outline of a face. No detail was made though on it… it was just that… a blank face. Namine let out a sigh before dropping her pencil and flopped back into her chair.

She let out a long sigh before her thoughts flowed over her again, thinking over every moment that had happened this very night. She wanted to feel bad about it, she wanted to feel remorse for what she had done to Roxas. But as there had always been for nearly her entire light… there was nothing. Just an emptiness inside that was hollow and ached for what could be, but never was able to.

A light knock on her door jumped her away from falling too deeply into her thoughts. "Yes?"

"Namine, it's me," Vanitas's voice came from the other side. "Can I come in?"

"You can," Namine replied.

Vanitas stepped into the room and right away walked over to Namine. He placed a hand on her shoulder, looking over her carefully. "You doing okay?"

"I'm fine… fine as someone without emotions can be," Namine replied softly.

"Hey… that's not like you, Namine." Vanitas pulled up a chair and sat right next to her. "What's on your mind?"

"Roxas… I know if I had emotions I would be worrying what he thinks of me now. I dragged him unwillingly here to be trapped like the rest of us. I don't even know if he resented me in his last moments of still having emotions. I know it was Ansem who made me do it, but I could not oppose him."

Despite the want for emotions again, the lack of said emotions did always make things easier when explaining. WIthout having any fear or anxiety to hold back a person's thoughts, they could easily and freely explain themselves.

"I am sure he doesn't hate you. It's Ansem who is to blame, he is the one who caused all of this Honestly though he could just blame me. It was my fault for going into the mansion in the first place that led Ventus to be traumatized by that and then Roxas was curious or something like that. All just a lot of small connections."

"I guess so… but I am still wondering what he is going to think when he wakes up."

"Well, why don't you go to talk to him?"

"I don't think I want to… not yet at least. He should just have time with his brother or something first before trying to talk to me."

"If that is what you want," Vanitas said before wrapping an arm around Namine, giving her a small side hug. "Don't beat yourself up over it, not that you can do that emotionally anyways, but you know semantics. But hey, everything's going to be okay."

"Will it really?" Namine asked, sounding heavily doubtful.

"I'd like to believe it after all that has happened so far. There still could be hope."

"Roxas's friends… they made it away safely… Maybe they could still do something about this," Namine thought to herself. She thought about telling Vanitas this, but she knew that Ansem had ears everywhere. In fact he probably already knew that Roxas's friends escaped but now he was waiting for the perfect moment.

"I think I am going to stay here for now. Maybe work on some drawings. If Roxas wakes up… and he wants to talk to me… let him know where I am, okay?" Namine asked as she looked over towards Vanitas.

"Sure thing, but right now I think you need the company. So who were you thinking of drawing?" Vanitas gestured to the drawing that was in front of Namine.

"I don't know… nothing is really coming to mind." Namine traced her fingers over the paper, letting her thoughts wander, trying to figure out who she could draw.

"Well hey, you could draw me again," Vanitas said before grinning.

"But I've drawn you so many times!" Namine exclaimed, trying to sound over dramatic. "I've already mastered how you draw your spiky mess of hair."

"Ha, that is true. But hm… what about drawing Roxas?"

"Ah… I don't know…"

"You can't keep going on and avoiding him. He is stuck here like the rest of us and that means at some point you will have to talk to him," Vanitas replied.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Both Namine and Vanitas looked over there before Namine asked who was there.

"It's me," Lea's voice came from the other side. "We need you guys. Something is off about Roxas."

"Huh?" Namine stood up quickly, nearly knocking her chair to the ground. "Something's… off?"

"Yeah," Lea said as he opened the door slightly. "I can't explain it, just come on!"

The three of them headed down the hall to the room that Roxas was in. When they entered inside, Isa and Ventus were still there, with Ventus by the bedside. Roxa was sitting up in the bed, but there was clearly something wrong about the way he looked.

Namine approached slowly and she started to get the bigger picture. Roxas was sitting up and he was awake, but there was a foggy look in his eyes. Hazy and distant he wasn't actually focusing on anything or anyone.

"R-Roxas?" Namine asked softly.

Roxas slowly turned his head towards her, his eyes stuff far from focused. He blinked a few times, but never spoke a word.

Ventus sighed. "That's all he has been doing since he woke up. He turns to the source of the sound and just stares… do you know what's wrong with him?"

"I don't know… never seen something like this before," Namine replied as she closed her eyes. She raised one hand out towards Roxas and focused on her magic. She wasn't too sure if it would give her a concrete answer, but she searched for what she could.

After a bit of deep thinking, she actually came across something that could prove to be some form of answer. "I think I understand…"

Namine turned to face the entire group that was in the room. "Roxas… he was under the trance I had put him in to bring him to the mansion. But… I never brought him out of the trance when Ansem… you know…"

"So what you're saying is, he is still in that trace?" Lea asked. "Like he is just some kind of zombie right now?"

"Basically… I guess you could phrase it that way…" Namine said before lowering her head. "I'm sorry…"

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up she saw that it was actually Ventus. "You don't gotta be sorry. But… is there anything you can do about it?"

"I don't know… this has never happened before. But… I can try."

Namine looked to Roxas again, who still was staring at her with his hazy eyes. She reached forward and placed a hand on top of his forehead. A small bit of magic flowed around her hand and then around Roxas's head. In the next moment he closed her eyes and fell back to the bed.

"He is probably going to sleep for a bit longer than usual now… but hopefully when he wakes up he should be out of that trance… if not I can try something else."

"Thanks Namine," Ventus replied as he pulled the covers over Roxas to cover him better. After that he looked around to everyone else that was standing in the room. "You think I could just have some time alone with Roxas? Just to be by him and stuff even if he is still sleeping."

Isa nodded and left without a word, and Lea quickly followed after him. Vanitas walked over to Namine as she slowly stood up from the bed. "Wanna go for a walk around the mansion? Maybe it will help you clear your head."

"Sure," Namine agreed. She gave one last look to Roxas, who looked to be peacefully sleeping at least. She sighed to herself before heading out of the room with Vanitas, off to walk through the mansion. Though even with walking around she knew that she couldn't shake off the many thoughts that spun around in her mind. There were still too many loose ends that didn't have a solution yet and she just couldn't stop thinking about them.

All she had left was to hope that maybe Roxas had something before he was brought her, or maybe… just maybe his friends could figure something out. She had no idea exactly what he had been doing with them or what why had been looking up, but she could only keep on hoping that there would be answers. Hoping and pleading that all of this wouldn't be for nothing. That was all she had left that she could do.

Wow, I finally updated this? I actually managed to get over the writer's block? I did! So sorry for the wait, but here it is! I am trying my best to get back to this story so thank you all for sticking around!