This chapter and the last one were originally going to be one chapter, but I felt like it went on a little too long so I split them up; though that does mean this one is a little bit short.

By the way, we're about halfway through Twilight Town as of chapter 5.

Chapter 6: The Boy with Blue Eyes

"Xion…" Someone was nudging her shoulder, but the voice was far away. Xion mumbled incomprehensibly and pushed the offending hand away. "Xion, wake up."

"She really is your Replica. You're both lazy bums!"

"Give us a break, Kairi!"

"Xion, you gotta see this." The person was back and breaking her out of her beloved sleep. Xion curled her arms and legs up tightly, forming her body into a cozy little ball, and grunted as she shrugged to get rid of the hand on her shoulder.

"Five more minutes, Sora…" she mumbled, only half-awake.

"Who?"

That wasn't the voice she had been expecting. But she wasn't sure whose voice she had been expecting, really. Xion's eyes fluttered open in an unfamiliar location, with indigo walls and blue cushioned seats. Where was she? Oh, that's right—the train up to the mountains. How long had she been asleep? Too tired to turn her head, Xion opted to just look around in the area immediately in front of her. Olette sat across from her and was reading a book, while Hayner was snoring loudly and Pence was on his knees looking out the window behind their seat.

As for Roxas, if Xion remembered right he had been sitting next to her. But she was too comfortable to move her head and find him. A giggle from Olette caught Xion's attention, and she looked over to see the brunette glancing at her from behind her book.

"What?" Xion asked while stifling a yawn.

"Nothing," Olette replied, turning to the next page.

Xion shrugged and closed her eyes, trying to get some more rest before they arrived. "Where did Roxas go?"

"I never left." Roxas's voice was close by and he sounded like he was trying not to laugh. Xion's eyes snapped open and she tilted her head back to see Roxas smiling down at her.

Oh.

She wasn't sleeping on the seat cushion at all.

Xion pulled her head away from Roxas's shoulder and sat up straight. Across the aisle Olette was trying and failing to hide her laughter. "S-Sorry about that, Roxas."

Roxas shook his head and smiled. "Really, I didn't mind."

"Then why were you trying to wake me up if it wasn't to have me move?"

Roxas pointed past her, out the window. "That's why."

The train was chugging along slowly because of the snow, which meant that the scenery wasn't flying by in a blur. The mountain hills were coated in silver and white—a field of perfect, untouched snow as far as the eye could see. The pine trees making up the forest around them had layers of white on them and little frozen dew drops hanging off that sparkled in the sunlight. A thin stream snaked its way through the snow parallel to the train tracks, most of it frozen over save for the crack in the middle.

As the train continued along, the stream expanded to a frozen lake. A large deer was struggling across it, trying to reach its food or something in the middle, while two brown bears were trekking through the snow. The little one appeared to be annoying the large one, jumping around him constantly while the bigger bear kept looking on ahead.

"It's so pretty out here…" Xion turned to Roxas and smiled genuinely. "Thanks for waking me up for this, Roxas." Her friend smiled back, then turned away when Olette giggled again.

Pence turned around and sat down properly, gazing with approval at the camera in his hands. He must have gotten some nice pictures. Well, at least he'd be happy with his Christmas present. "So, what's the plan when we arrive?" he asked.

Olette marked her place in the book and closed it, placing it in her lap before speaking. "Well we have to check in first. Hayner got us reservations, I think."

"Hayner did?" Xion turned to look at the blond boy, who was rubbing his eyes sleepily. It seemed like the conversation had woken him up.

"Yeah," Hayner said with a nod. "My old man owed me some munny so I asked him to set up the rooms to make things even."

Wow. Just how much munny was he owed? "I feel bad just having you and Roxas pay for everything."

"Well, we can't afford all of it. Anything you want once we get there you're gonna have to pay for yourself."

"I'd like to try snowboarding once we're all settled in," Roxas said while looking at the mountains out the window. "It can't be that different from skateboarding, right?"

Xion laughed. "You said the same thing about surfing, and you remember how that turned out."

"The wave snuck up on me!" Everyone laughed at that, even Roxas, and during their laughter the train ended up pulling up to their stop. Pulling their coats on and gathering their bags, the group departed from the train. It wasn't a train station so much as a little wooden platform in the mountains, with a path of shoveled-away snow leading from it and up a hill to the ski lodge. As they walked the path Xion looked down to her right, where Twilight Town was just barely visible in the distance at the foot of a separate mountain.

The lodge was only two floors high but it was rather wide, taking up a good sized section of the cliff it sat on. It was made mostly of stone bricks, with wood for support and decoration. Artificial snow and icicles completed the appearance, giving it a cold feeling even on days it wasn't particularly snowy. Not that they had to worry about that today, though. They weren't the only ones there, either; visitors in parties of all sizes were walking up and down the snowy hills, or sitting inside the lobby Xion could see through the window.

Xion opened the glass doors and was met with heat from a fireplace. As the five of them entered, the first word that came to her mind to describe the lodge's lobby was 'cozy.' The inside walls were long wooden planks, reaching from the floor to the ceiling. All except for one wall, that is—the wall opposite the front door, which faced the cliff, was made completely out of glass. A door much like the one they had entered led out onto a wooden balcony that hung over the cliff. A fire was going in the corner of the room, surrounded by a few chairs and couches with a television mounted on the wall playing the news at low volume. A couple was sitting at a table and playing cards.

Hayner walked up to the check-in counter. The blond man standing at it, whose nametag identified him as Rin, was smiling brightly as Xion and her friends approached. "Hey, we've got a reservation for five students." Hayner pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket, which Rin took and checked.

"Ah, yes. I've been waiting for you." Xion couldn't place Rin's accent, but it sounded exotic. "An overnight stay, correct? Two rooms on the second floor are prepared for you and your friends already. Winter sports rentals are located around the side of the building." Rin reached below the desk and brought out two keys.

"Great." Hayner took the keys and handed one to Olette. "A room for us guys and a room for you girls."

Xion shook her head in disbelief. "Seriously, just how muchdid your dad owe you?"

"I dunno." Hayner shrugged. Come to think of it, Xion didn't really know a lot about Hayner's parents at all. Or any of her friends' except Roxas. And even then, she couldn't remember the last time she had actually seen his parents either. "Anyway, come on guys. I wanna get out on the slopes!"

"Already?" Olette shifted her bag from one shoulder to the other. "Don't you want to at least spend some time inside first? It's really nice in here."

"I can't sit around!"

"You can at least wait until we get ready." Olette took Xion's hand. "Come on, Xion. Let's go see what the room's like." With a nod, the two of them hurried up the polished wood staircase.

Xion could hear Hayner grumbling behind them, "But girls take forever to get ready!" She spared a glance over her shoulder to see Roxas trying to calm Hayner, while Pence had gone out onto the balcony and was taking pictures.

"Has Hayner always been like this?" Xion asked as she caught up to Olette.

The other girl shrugged and put the key into the lock. "You've known him longer than I have, haven't you?"

Xion frowned as Olette opened the door and walked into the room. Had she? Huh.

Their room was, in contrast to the lobby, about as typical of a hotel room as you could get: a small bathroom immediately to her right, two beds, a TV, and a window looking out on the snow. Nothing fancy, which Xion supposed was how Hayner had been able to afford it after all. Still, that was fine. They were only going to be spending one night here anyway. Xion set her backpack down on one of the beds and looked out the window. She could see Hayner dragging Roxas and Pence out into the snow down below.

"Xion, I've been meaning to ask you something." Olette stepped up next to Xion and spoke as she looked out the window too. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Right now she was, at least.

Olette intertwined her fingers together nervously. "You've been acting strangely distant lately, and seeing things that aren't there—like when we were at the mall and you saw a boy I didn't see." Olette looked at her, but Xion was silent and turned her head to avoid Olette's gaze. "Who is Sora?"

Xion felt her face pale.

"W-We're back!"

"You're home."

Bright eyes shined as he turned around and smiled at her, holding his hand out to help her up to her feet. Despite the saltwater coating her body, she was just as happy as him. "And you're home, too, Xion."

"Where did you hear that name?"

"On the train. When you woke up, you called Roxas 'Sora'."

"…Did I?" Yeah, she remembered. She had. It was after that dream of the beach. "…I don't know who Sora is. At least, I don't think I do."

Xion felt Olette's eyes drill holes into the back of her head, but eventually the brunette relented and sighed. "Well, let's worry about it later. Maybe you just need some time to get away from it all, which today and tomorrow are perfect for."

Xion turned to Olette and smiled. "Yeah. Now let's go before Hayner kills the others."

x-x-x

"I don't know about this anymore."

A short time later Xion stood next to Roxas at the top of a slope, gripping a rented snowboard tightly in her hands. The drop in front of them, despite assurances to the contrary, seemed impossibly steep. Xion took a cautious step backwards into the snow and glanced at her best friend. Roxas seemed nervous too, but when he noticed Xion looking at him he grinned and put his own board down in the snow.

"Come on, it's just like skateboarding only cold." Xion opened her mouth to retort, but Roxas quickly added, "Don't bring up the surfing incident."

Xion giggled. "Fine, I won't." She put her own board in the snow but didn't get ready like Roxas did. Seriously, she was starting to feel nauseous looking down at the mountain like this. Which was weird considering she looked down mountains every day, since Twilight Town was built on one. Maybe it was simply a fear of the unknown.

"Ready?" Roxas asked.

"I'm not so sure."

Xion felt him push a hand against her back. "What? I didn't quite catch that!"

"Roxas!" Xion shouted as he pushed her down the slope. Despite her surprise she caught her balance quickly enough, and boyish laughter caught up to her as Roxas appeared beside her on his board. "I'm going to kill you!"

"You have to catch me first!" Roxas called as he gained the lead. "See you at the bottom!"

Trees flew by her in a blur. Spots of color stood out amongst the snow as she continued down the mountain, which Xion figured must have been others skiing or snowboarding down. Yeah, that one in the green coat was definitely Hayner—or was it? For all she knew it could have been a small tree. He was certainly thin enough to be mistaken for one.

Xion's eyes widened at a snowdrift in front of her and she lurched left to avoid it. Unfortunately at the speed she was moving she couldn't quite get away from it in time, and as she turned away the back side of the board got caught in the snowdrift. Xion was flung face-first into the snow. She pushed herself up, wiping the flakes off her face and spitting half-solid water out of her mouth. Further down the slope she saw a mess of blond hair come to a stop as Roxas looked up at her.

"Are you okay?" His voice was muffled by the mountain winds.

"Only my pride's hurt," Xion called back to him. She climbed back onto the board and rode down to him quickly. Roxas's eyes widened as she rapidly approached, seemingly realizing what she was planning. He spun around and tried to flee, but Xion jumped up and wrapped her arms around him, tackling him into the snow. "Take that!"

"What's the big idea?" Roxas asked through laughter, pushing her off of him.

"That's for pushing me when I wasn't ready." Xion grabbed Roxas's arms and pinned him to the ground. "Say you're sorry," she said through a smile.

"Sorry you're a sore loser," Roxas said. She punched him in the shoulder with a laugh. Roxas sat up, grabbed her arms, and spun them so now he was pinning her. "Looks like I win." Then he grew strangely quiet, his eyes looking downcast.

"…Roxas, are you okay?"

"Actually…" Roxas took in a deep breath and relaxed his grip on her arms. "There is something I've been meaning to ask you." He rubbed the back of his head and looked away, frowning awkwardly. "Xion, we've been friends a long time, and I guess… Would you like to, um...with me…" He grimaced. "Never mind."

Xion could feel her cheeks heating up. "Roxas, it sounds to me like-"

Roxas cut her off. "Hey, do you want to build a snowman? We promised that day in the forest, remember?"

Xion frowned. Obviously that wasn't what he was originally going to ask, but still she climbed up to her feet. "Yeah, we did. I'd love to."

Roxas picked up a handful of snow as he stood up too. "I haven't done this in years, where do we start?"

"Here, like this." Xion took the snow from his hand and rolled it up into a ball. She swept away a section of snow from the ground and planted the ball on the grass beneath it. Following Xion's lead, Roxas picked up more snow and made a smaller ball. Awkward laughter rose from both teens as they continued working on the snowman. They were both clearly out of practice, because it was far from the best one they had ever seen. The head was much more of an oval than the two snowballs beneath it, with a strange pear-shape effect going on near the top. It was short, too; they had underestimated how much snow they'd need. Still, despite that they had fun working on it. Xion enjoyed feeling like a little kid playing in the snow again.

"It's…something else, alright," Roxas said with a chuckle as he admired their work.

"He needs a nose," Xion said thoughtfully. The head looked weird without a carrot sticking out of it.

"I don't have anything on me." Roxas said as he walked over to the edge of the nearby forest and picked two twigs off from the ground. He returned to stick them into the side of the snowman.

Xion blinked. With that and the rocks she was adding on front, this snowman looked oddly familiar to her. She could almost swear she had seen it somewhere before. "Olaf?" The word came unbidden from her mouth.

"Huh?"

"N-Nothing. Not sure where that came from." A chill wind blew and Xion hugged herself, shivering. She looked up to see the orange sky was turning purple as the sun began to set below the horizon. Roxas stepped up next to her and Xion found herself shuffling a little closer to him. "I know we've seen a lot of sunsets, but today's puts them all to shame." She smiled as the last bit of light gave way to darkness. "If only things could stay like this forever..."

They stood there for a good while longer before Roxas put a hand on Xion's shoulder. "Hey, it's getting late. Let's head back."

"Yeah." All good things must come to an end.

x-x-x

The lobby was drowned in laughter as Xion and Roxas listened to Pence's story about what he, Hayner, and Olette had been doing while the two of them were on the slope. "And then Hayner falls down right on top of her, in the middle of the crowd!" Xion broke out laughing again at her friends' bright red faces.

"Sounds like you guys had fun today," a familiar voice said. Xion turned to the table where that couple from before was still playing cards. Her eyes widened in recognition of Terra Branford. How had she not noticed her there before? Sitting across from Terra was a man with long silver hair and wearing a black and yellow coat.

"Terra! When did you get here?"

"Last night," she said with a smile. "I didn't expect to see you kids here, though." The man across from her coughed to bring attention to himself and Terra chuckled. "Oh, this is my friend-"

"Ohmigosh, it's Setzer!" Olette practically screamed and jumped up from her seat. Xion had heard that name before, but where?

"Setzer?" Hayner looked at him with wide eyes. "As in Setzer Gabbiani, the Struggle champ?"

"I see my reputation precedes me," Setzer said while flashing a toothy smile. "Was that Struggle match really so amazing?"

"Absolutely!"

While Hayner and Olette proceeded to freak out at Setzer, Xion turned to Roxas and asked quietly, "Who?"

Roxas stared at her in shock before a solemn look crossed his face. "It was during last summer's Struggle, when you were asleep. Setzer won the final match in ten seconds flat."

Setzer must have heard their conversation, because he turned to face Xion. "My opponent's life was a chip in my pile, and it was time to ante up." Xion stared at the man with interest. Olette never really cared for Struggle beyond cheering her friends on, but Xion could see what she was so excited about. He was certainly a handsome man, though something about him looked cold. He only seemed open when looking at Terra.

Speaking of the older woman, Xion needed to talk to her. She walked over to the blonde, who motioned for her to pull up a chair and sit down. "What is it, Xion?"

"I just wanted to thank you for stopping that fight the other day."

"Fight?"

"Don't be modest, Terra. You really helped us out before things got violent with Seifer's gang."

Terra shook her head. "Xion, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anyone named Seifer."

Despite the fireplace nearby them, Xion suddenly felt ice cold. Faces were looking at her with confusion and worry, and Xion brought a hand up to her head. "It's just like with Vivi…"

"Come again?" Setzer asked.

"Nothing. I…I need to be alone right now." Xion stood up so quickly she nearly knocked over her chair. She moved without looking at anyone, passing by her concerned friends and out the backdoor. The air of a cold winter night met her as she leaned against the wooden railings of the balcony. Now Seifer was forgotten alongside Vivi. Fuu and Rai probably were as well. Who would disappear next? Or had they really never existed? "What is wrong with me?"

"Nothing is."

Xion crossed her arms on the railing and buried her face in them. "Leave me alone, Roxas. I don't want this right now."

"Sorry, not him." Xion spun around, eyeing the boy standing in the shadows carefully. Blue eyes, brown hair, black clothes—suddenly it all came flashing back to her, every time she had seen him in the last week.

Xion stumbled backwards, gripping her head and clenching her eyes shut. "Are you…Sora?"

The boy's face beamed. "Do you remember now?!"

"I don't…think so? Obviously we've met, but…"

Sora sighed and walked up next to her, leaning against the railing. "I see…"

"Who are you really?"

"I can't tell you a lot. Braig's watching us."

"Braig?" Sora smiled softly and shook his head. Xion groaned in exasperation. "Well, what can you tell me?"

"We're all waiting for you to come home."

"Home?"

"Xion… Do you remember your true identity?"

Xion narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm Xion."

"No, that's not what I mean. Xion, listen. Four months ago you woke up here, right? But think hard: what about before that? Xion, this whole town is-" Sora's voice was cut off and he was standing frozen solid. Xion waved a hand in front of him but he didn't react—didn't even move his eyes.

"What? Hey..." Xion leaned in closer, investigating the boy. He was like a statue.

Then he started fading.

x-x-x

After Terra and Setzer left the lobby, Roxas sighed and looked at Xion standing alone out on the balcony. He stared down at his hands with a grimace.

"You okay?" Olette asked next to him through a bite of ice cream. "Your ice cream's melting."

Roxas looked at the bowl sitting on the table in front of him and pushed it away. "Hey, Olette…can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

Roxas shook his head and groaned again. "What do you think Xion would like for Christmas?" He sounded so stupid right now.

Olette pursed her lips and tapped her spoon against her bowl in thought. "I think that's something you'll need to ask her yourself, Roxas."

"Yeah, I guess…"

"And besides, isn't there something else you want to ask her too?" Olette winked and Roxas was sure his face turned red. "The two of you aren't very good at hiding it."

"I…" Roxas shook his head and stood up. "Yeah, you're right. I'll be right back." He turned to the glass wall, intending to talk to Xion, but stopped. She was talking to someone he didn't recognize, a boy. Who was that? Wait… Blue eyes and dressed in black. The boy from the rumors?

Roxas felt his fist clench tightly. Ever since the rumors started up, Xion seemed to be more depressed. Who was this kid and what did he want with her?

x-x-x

His vision was flooded with blue.

"What happened?" Sora asked, suddenly finding himself in the System Sector. "I was just with Xion a moment ago."

"Braig found you and froze the program," Tron said. "I pulled you out of there before anything could happen."

"Xion… I didn't get a chance to tell her anything!"

"Don't worry, you will soon. I need a little time to set up a program to prevent Braig and Vanitas from finding you, but then you'll have all the time in the world." Tron paused in thought and walked over to Sora, embracing him in a tight hug. Sora stared awkwardly at the older man.

"Um..."

"You'll see her real soon. Just be patient."