Hallom looked down on the two trespassers and thought only one thing: Lionel said no one was to come in here. He reached his katana above his head to attack one of the two, and instantly found himself drenched in water. Just because of instinct, his ears laid back and a small whine uttered from his throat. He quickly shook it off, though, and went to attack again. This time it was a series of sharp musical notes that started poking and prodding him. Like little bugs, he swatted and snapped at them at first, but when one hurt enough to make him yelp, Hallom got serious.

I came running when I heard him yelp, asking, "Are you okay Hallom?" By the time I got there, however, he had gotten rid of all the musical notes and had his katana at Demyx's neck. Right away I saw Roxas standing in the corner with his keyblade, and I ran to him, throwing my arms around him in a huge hug. "Roxas! You have no idea how happy I am to see you!"

He looked almost as frightened as Hallom had been the first time I hugged him, so I stepped away.

Then I noticed he was wearing a black cape like Demyx next to him. "Did you…go back to Organization XIII? Did something go really wrong with Nori?"

Roxas shook his head, but it wasn't a definitive "no." It was more of just a sign of his confusion, just like the way he tried to speak but no words came out.

"Hey…lady," Demyx said, trying to get my attention, "Sora's friend. Some help would be nice."

I looked over to Hallom, who was still pinning Demyx to the wall, and told him, "It's okay."

"Y-you know them?" Hallom asked, slightly moving the katana.

I nodded. "They're okay."

"T-the king, he said…no one's to be here."

"Oh, Lionel," Demyx interrupted, "I work for him."

"Don't worry Hallom, they won't stay. I just need to know what's wrong with Roxas and find out how Nori's doing," I assured.

"Uh…you can't really talk to him right now," Demyx explained. "He's kinda going through a mid-life crisis. I can try to answer all your questions."

Hallom sheathed his katana as I asked, "What happened to him?"

"Vexen killed his memory. He don't remember a thing."

"So he doesn't even know who I am anymore?"

"No," Demyx agreed, "and yeah, he did try to rejoin the Organization, but it was all for show just so he could look for Tia Dalma. It was Sora's idea, and the stupid kid came with him. Nori's still fine, I think, 'cuz I heard the Superior ranting about him the other day."

"Well, Roxas, Tia Dalma's here," I announced.

"We're not here to get her," Demyx insisted. "We're here because he got in trouble for trying to find her, and if we leave this building—with or without her—we'll most likely die."

"Why am I looking for her anyways? It…seems…to be a…problem," Roxas inquired, confused.

Demyx gestured to me because I was the only one who'd know the answer to that, so I answered, "Because she's the queen of the land, and Lionel locked her up here so she couldn't protect her people from him. Nori was looking for her at first, but I guess you offered to help him."

"Well, we should help her then, right?" Roxas decided unsurely, "She…she's the good person."

Demyx looked in shock to Roxas. "You can't even remember who Tia Dalma is, and you're already ready to risk your life for her? Dang that power of good."

Roxas pouted, which made me pout, begging Demyx to help us. Hallom smiled to see the way the two of us were affecting Demyx. He was starting to shift uncomfortably, trying to not give into the pressure. If Roxas could remember, he would have been reminded of when Warren said, Because together, there's a certain element of peer pressure… We could bet each other that the other one wouldn't be able to find Tia Dalma…taunt one another until one of us did something we would get in trouble for—like breaking her out of jail, because Demyx was about to give in.

He tried looking away, but it didn't help. Eventually, he sighed, "Oh, why not. Lionel's been oppressing us, his own people, too."

"Yes!" Roxas and I both exclaimed excitedly, Roxas adding, "So…what do we do?"

"There's no way out of here…believe me, we've tried," I mentioned, gesturing to Hallom.

Demyx smiled like he knew a secret no one else knew of and stated, "Watch this." He pointed next to him, and everyone watched expectantly. Nothing happened, so Demyx threw his hand out to the side. Still nothing happened. He started waving his hands up and down like some Egyptian enchanter, and it still didn't do what he wanted it to do. He even added humming and shouted, "Open…sesame!"

After a couple seconds, I curiously wondered, "What are you doing?"

"Crap," he muttered to himself, snapping his fingers, "now I remember we can't make portals here. Of course, that would make things too easy." Looking up at me and slumping to the floor, he commented, "Well then, I'm outta ideas. Seems, we'll just be stuck here with you."

Demyx didn't move from that position for a very long time. Even when Hallom appeared with the allotted food for three, and we divided in five equal parts, Roxas had to come get Demyx's share for him. Roxas slid back to the floor, handing one of his two bowls of grub to Demyx.

Reluctantly accepting the bowl, Demyx mumbled, "I don't know why I stood up for you. I never really have before."

"I think," Roxas replied encouragingly, "it's because Axel wasn't anymore, and you felt bad that my friend left me."

"Zexion was right to say you memorize us quickly…but I can't feel bad; we don't have hearts." Demyx said that last part in rote, almost as if he didn't really believe it, but had been told so many times, it had to be true.

"W-we don't?" Roxas questioned, holding his hand over his chest, stunned.

Demyx didn't really answer. Instead, he took a bite of the soup and then noticed something strange on the floor. When Roxas sat down, one of his shoes had fallen halfway off, and neither of them had noticed until then, but a picture was hanging out the back.

Pointing to it, Demyx asked, "What's that?"

Roxas reached toward it in surprise, and examined the picture before shrugging. "I dunno. Me," he replied, referring to the middle person. Then, he turned the picture over to the back and read, "Nori and Warren…call us, and a smiley face."

Demyx grabbed the picture from Roxas and laughed slightly. "Them? You're looking for them. Call them, I'm sure they'll help."

"Call them what?"

"With a phone, y'know?"

"I don't…have one of those. I don't think—"

"I don't think they would have asked you to call them if you didn't Roxas."

Roxas felt around and found the pockets in his cloak. Pulling everything out of them, he found five things. Immediately he tossed two to the side, saying, "Not dirty tissue…One of those things those people were shooting at us," he threw away a poison dart. Then, he picked up a strange, blue stone, looked through it, and asked, "Is this a phone?"

"Uh…no," Demyx answered, trying to not make fun of Roxas.

"This then?" Roxas concluded, holding up the last object, which was Sora's red video phone.

"Yeah," Demyx agreed. "Now look for Nori's name in this list," he explained, pushing one button to get Roxas to the contacts list.

At first, Roxas was very slow at pushing the buttons, so it took him a very long time to find the name, but when he finally did, he inquired, "So I push…call?"

Demyx nodded once.

Obediently, Roxas pushed the button. The phone made a ringing sound two times and then the boy from the picture appeared on the screen greeting, "Yo, Roxas, wuz uh?"

Roxas went back to shaking his head in his confused, "aren't I supposed to remember you?" kind of way. Again, he tried to speak but no words came out. He just sat there, stuttering over the word "hello."

Concerned, Nori questioned, "Roxas…are you okay?"

Actually meaning "no" this time, Roxas continued shaking his head but still said nothing.

"Roxas, do you need us to come get you? Is something not right?"

After it had been almost a whole minute of no conversation, Demyx heard a noise in the other room of the shack. Someone had shown up. Urgently, he grabbed the phone and said bluntly, "Hey, Nori right? Sorry to interrupt that lovely conversation, but we've run out of time. Yes, Roxas needs you to come get him. Yes, we do happen to know exactly where Tia Dalma is, and we're sending you her coordinates right now. Hang up when you get them." Then, he stuffed the phone back in Roxas's pocket.

Nori stumbled excitedly out of the shower and pulled on his pants without drying off, and without clean underwear. Then, he threw on a baseball cap backwards that Nehemiah had been trying to get him to take out of the bathroom for a week, and ran into the living room topless. He went straight to the map on the kitchen counter and marked an 'X' slightly to the left of the city Warren used to live in.

"Tia Dalma's there," he announced, "and Roxas needs out. We'll have to split in two groups. The group going to the Castle That Never Was can follow the road, so Dusty will have to accompany them—since she's the only one who's figured it out—but the other group will have to face the real horrors of the forest—which means Nehemiah should probably go with them since he seems to not have any particular strengths or weaknesses. I want to get Roxas because something's really wrong with him."

"I'm coming with you," Warren insisted.

"NO!" Nori countered. "You can't go in the forest, you'll kill someone. That darkness—"

"I'm the reason Roxas left, remember? I couldn't possibly stay here and wait, not now that you've told me he's in trouble."

"I understand, I really do. But I can't take you with me. There's no way you could withstand the dark side of your heart. That's your weakness you know, and the forest knows how to use that against you."

"And your weakness is your ability to say no," Warren noted.

A couple seconds later, Nori sighed, "Only if Kairi comes with us too. She's the only one who's ever been able to keep you slightly under control, and Naminé is the only one who can get into the castle."

"Um…Nori," Chiyo pointed out quietly, "the twins came down with a horrible case of the flu this morning. They won't be able to get out of bed."

Nori frowned, asking himself why the plan had to already be falling to pieces from the beginning, but then turned to Warren and repeated, "No. You're not coming with me. Vash, come to the castle…"

Vash shook his head slightly, "Sorry kid, I've got to get back to Japan and fix up that hiding place we talked about for Tia once you get her back. You'll have to choose someone else."

Confused, and out of ideas, Nori looked to Chiyo for ideas. She just shrugged and responded, "You know who wants to go with you."

Turning to Warren, Nori explained, "You have no idea how much I want you to go with me, but you can't. It's not safe…you know that. I can't keep you from hurting yourself."

"Ah, but you don't know where the invisible road starts. Only I know that," Warren pointed out with satisfaction. He knew he'd won.

Demyx had been correct in thinking the noise in the other room was someone new. A couple seconds later the newcomer pushed past me into their room. It brought Roxas out of his petrified, I can't remember Nori, daze, and both exiles looked up at the intruder. The person had come for them, and Demyx knew it. Roxas, on the other hand, didn't. He just looked down at himself and Demyx and then back to the new figure. All three were wearing the same cloak, so they were friends, right?

"Yo bud, wuz up?" Roxas greeted, copying the way Nori had started the phone call.

The blonde female raised one eyebrow at Roxas and then turned her attention to Demyx, nodding her head in recognition as she simply stated his name.

Demyx returned the gesture, responding, "Larxene."

Referring to Roxas, Larxene mentioned, "He's lost more than I imagined."

"So you didn't actually believe them when they told you he'd forgotten everything?"

"You know how Vexen has been known to exaggerate in the stories he tells."

"Well enough of this then," Demyx decided. "What are you here for, so I can give it to you and you can leave?"

Larxene clicked her tongue. "Sadly, it won't work that way. You know the rules. One can take no shelter on the Island."

"Oh, I always thought those were things you couldn't bring," Demyx noted in realization. He stood up, agreeing, "In that case, we'll just leave."

"Not so fast," Larxene said, stopping Demyx in his tracks. "The phone."

"What phone?" Demyx inquired slowly, trying to sound like he was certain they didn't have one.

"I've played against you enough times to call your bluff Number IX. Hand over the phone."

"I don't have one," Demyx insisted.

"I have one!" Roxas added excitedly, taking it out of his pocket and holding it out for Larxene to see. "Why? Do you want to call someone?"

Demyx sighed as Larxene took the phone from Roxas's hand, once again thinking, Dang that power of good. He's like Sora now, doesn't doubt anybody.

"You sent your coordinates to that Nori kid?" Larxene realized as she flipped through call history.

"No? What?" Demyx replied, looking over her shoulder as if he didn't expect it.

"Yup," Roxas answered naively.

It took Demyx a second to come up with an explanation for that, but soon he answered, "Oh, that…It was an accident. Nori called Roxas, and he couldn't remember how to answer the phone, so he just started pressing buttons, and that happened, and then he hung up. Nori probably doesn't even know he got it."

One of the knives that Larxene customarily held between her fingers, instantly extended itself toward the side of Demyx's bottom jaw and the air seemed to fill with an impeding thunderstorm as she demanded, "Then why did the conversation last a minute? Have you turned against us too?" She threw Demyx to the floor, a bolt of lightning in the very room—which somehow caused no damage—adding to the fury of her demand.

I let out a small whimper in fear from the doorway as Hallom prepared himself to fight for the people aiding in his escape, but, as usual, Tia Dalma did her part in keeping us well away from the danger. As well as she could, she ushered us away like chicks from an approaching hawk, leaving Demyx and half of Roxas to fend for themselves against the ferocious rage of betrayal.

Roxas hurriedly climbed to his feet, forming both of his keyblades at once to defend himself commenting, "I thought you were our friend."

"There was a time that I didn't hate you like I do now," she responded as her other five knives appeared between the rest of her fingers, and the thickening storm hastened the coming of night.

Demyx also stood up, creating his Sitar as he noted, "So you're the one who sent those Heartless after us."

"Well, it wasn't my fault you were standing in their way; though, I didn't expect either of you to put up quite so much of a fight. For having forgotten everything, Roxas, you certainly did learn how to fight quickly, but you'll never be able to defeat me…ever…again." Larxene laughed as she took a swipe at him.

Frightened, Roxas held the darker keyblade in front of his face to block the blow, noticing the wrong part of the sentence, and stating with a smile, "So I've beat you once before? You just doubled my confidence." Then, he looked at the dark keyblade and announced, "I, Roxas Something-or-Other, henceforward call you Oblivion. Now, obliterate!"

He slashed back at Larxene, and she easily dodged it. He attacked a few more times—all easily evaded by Larxene—until he finally hit her once by throwing the keyblade at her. Feigning pain and anger at the same time, she grr-ed and flung a bolt of lightning at Roxas. He called his keyblade back to deflect it, or would have if it had been deflectable. Turns out, the lightning hit the keyblade Oblivion and flowed without resistance into his arms. Roxas fell to his knees, clutching his gut, as the keyblade dissipated.

Larxene prepared to strike again at the now weakened Roxas, but Demyx suddenly split into his twenty varieties, forming a protective circle around Roxas. "Of course he can't beat you; he could hardly hold his own against the Heartless!" All twenty of them exclaimed.

Annoyed, Larxene put one hand on her hip and complained, "This game is so old Demyx. You know I can find you." She started walking around the circle, examining each copy. "Don't make me search."

All the clones faded back into one across the circle from her, and the real Demyx pointed to her saying, "Then fight me and not him."

Larxene smiled. "With pleasure."

Demyx made the first attack, sending out a series of attack bubbles and making a geyser shoot out of the ground. Larxene jumped to the side without difficulty, slicing through the bubbles with her kunai.

As all the water congregated between the two of them, Larxene laughed slightly. "That wasn't your brightest idea. I control electricity…your water would serve as a wonderful amplification to my powers."

Slightly concerned and really confused, Demyx looked at the puddle of water as the entire room filled with electrical charges. A couple minutes later, Larxene left the room, fully satisfied with the job she had done. After all, she hadn't been instructed to kill them quickly. Nothing prevented her from finishing the job some other time. For the moment, she knew they were bloodied and bruised enough to stay away from the prison shack. Plus, there was something significantly more urgent to tend to.

Pulling out Roxas's red video phone, she called the castle and relayed the message. Nori and his friends knew where Tia Dalma was and would soon be coming after her. Xigbar said he'd get right on it and sent Lexaeus with Marluxia to take care of it. Unfortunately, by the time they'd portaled into Sora's house—now Nehemiah's by default since Sora was dead—the heros had already left. The two Nobodies ransacked the place, left a small pot of carnations as an indication of who did it—Marluxia's idea, of course—and hurried to follow them towards the forest.

Meanwhile, back in the castle, Zexion had once again hi-jacked Vexen in the hallway for a new memory experiment. As they walked, he explained his theory on why Roxas had actually started to regain his memory during the procedure. "You see the idea came to me while I was reading the Book of Roxas, the section where he actually lost his memory. One night his friends Hayner, Pence, and Olette had come to visit. The next morning, they were the first things he saw, and he had no clue who they were. It suffices to say that: they were the last thing he forgot and the first thing he remembered…on the border, so to speak. Coupled with a dangerous threat, I believe those two things can bring any memory back."

After listening intently to the whole explanation, Vexen nodded and asked, "And you say you have the perfect test subject?"

"I do," Zexion assured, opening a portal and gesturing that Vexen go through first.

They came out the other side, once again in Wesley's dark cell. Vexen was surprised at first, but Zexion clarified, "He's missing two years of his life. At least, that's what that replacement Katex told me."

"Well, I hate to spoil the fun," Vexen mentioned, "since I don't think I've ever seen you enjoy yourself quite so much, but…"

"What?" Zexion questioned.

"He's dead."

"What? Who killed him?"

"Am I supposed to ask him that?" Vexen inquired sarcastically.

After a second, Zexion suggested, "Then, I guess that only leaves us one option."

"What would that be?"

"Miracle Max."

"Miracle Max? You mean that old geezer from the Princess Bride?"

"Yes, that one," Zexion agreed. "He saved Wesley's life once before."

"Uh…" Vexen tried to figure out how to explain. "I believe that was a different Wesley…in fact, a West-ly, who was quite a bit older."

"Well, nonetheless, he's proven he can bring people back from the dead. Isn't it worth a try?"

Vexen didn't know what to say, but eventually he shrugged and replied, "Why not?"

So they dragged Wesley down to a land called Pomisco where this Miracle Max lived and knocked on his door. Max opened a small window in the door to his shack and called out, "What do you want?" before he looked and saw who it was at his door. When he noticed the two cloaked men, he commented, "Oh, you're the king's men? In that case, bug off, and take your stupid taxes with you!" Then, he threw a small bag of money at them and shut the window again.

Cautiously, Vexen knocked again, and Max threw the window open demanding, "What?!"

They stood Wesley up between the two of them as Vexen explained, "We've got a dead guy for you."

"Oh, in that case, let's take a look at him."

He opened the door and directed the two Nobodies to lay Wesley on the kitchen table. He examined Wesley, moving the head back and forth quickly and picking up the hands just to drop them again. After pounding him once on the stomach, Max decided, "He's only slightly dead. It should be easy to fix. How much can you pay me?"

Both Zexion and Vexen emptied their pockets and managed to scrounge together hardly anything. "Three munny."

"Three munny? I used to charge that just to diagnose the patient."

"What could you possibly say? They're all dead," Zexion pointed out.

Max responded, "There's a big difference between slightly dead, as this boy is, partly dead, mostly dead, and all dead. This I can still salvage…if you have the correct payment."

Zexion and Vexen looked at each other, asking the other if they should, and Vexen decided to toss the tax money back to Max. Max looked at it for a while, and then agreed, "This will work. Now, it's simply a matter of pumping the air back into his lungs." He grabbed some strange tool that looked like it might clean a chimney, stuck it inside Wesley's mouth and started filling his lungs with air.

As he worked along, he curiously wondered, "Anyway, what do the two of you want with this kid?"

Vexen growled like he might shout out, "Mind your own business!"

However, Zexion saved him, answering, "Revenge, plus a little experimentation for the sake of scientific development."

"Right, sorry I asked," Max noted. "Normally I wouldn't do a miracle for the likes of you, but the payment's right. Just be glad that witch isn't home right now."

"I'm not a witch Maxwell!" A crackly voice screamed from another room, "I'm your wife!"

Max ran off to take care of her, and as soon as he was gone, Wesley began coughing uncontrollably. Zexion and Vexen exchanged a glance. Had it really worked? After several seconds, Wesley leaned his head back down on the table, breathing sporadically as his eyes slowly opened.

In an almost disappointed way, he stumbled out, "God, I'm not dead yet?"