"Who am I?" Xion repeated, swallowing nervously. "I'm just a traveller. But you haven't even told us your names."
"Oh! Sorry, I'm Sora. and these two are Donald and Goofy."
Xion saw the strange dog thing sleeping beside Donald. Funny, she hadn't even notices him coming back with Sora.
"Tell me about your friend," she said, turning back to the brown-haired boy. "The one who looks so much like me."
"Who, Kairi?" he asked. His face changed slightly when he said her name, but Xion wasn't certain what it meant. This was one of the first times she had spoken to a Somebody. "Kairi is my friend from the island where we used to play. She's smart, and she's funny, although she can be pretty bossy sometimes. I'm trying to find a way to get back to her."
"Is she important to you?" Xion curled her legs up to her chest, watching Sora's expressions.
"Yes," the boy responded, staring down at his hands. "Very." There was a pause, but then he leaned backwards on his elbows, his eyes moving to the dark sky. "But I can't get back to the island until I find Riku. Kairi would be really angry if I came back without him."
"Are all three of you friends?"
"Yup! Best friends!"
Just like Roxas, Axel, and I, Xion thought, smiling slightly. Being with Sora felt like being with a brother: familiar, comfortable. And yet she kept looking for pieces of Roxas in him, similarities.
"What are you travelling for? Why were you attacked?" Sora inquired, turning his innocent blue eyes on her. Xion froze. What was she supposed to say? She wasn't good at this subterfuge thing! But her silence seemed to be an answer of it's own, and Sora nodded, looking away.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," he assured her. "Everybody's got secrets, right?"
"I - It's not that!" she spluttered. "It's just that I don't know the details of it. My companion does, but she's still healing, and in the morning we can -"
Sora picked up a stick and threw it at her. She stopped talking to duck in surprise.
"It's fine!" Sora laughed. "You should get some sleep. You've been travelling for a while, right? Don't worry, I'll take first watch."
Xion couldn't help but smile. It already felt like they were friends.
"Okay," she replied, lying down on the ground next to Xandra. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but after a minute she peeked between her lashes up at Sora.
He was looking into the fire, seemingly transfixed by the dancing flames, grinning like a fool. Xion almost snorted out loud, but covered it up with a fake snore. What a kid he was! He gets amused that easily...
She squinted at him, her humour fading. What am I in reference to Sora and Roxas anyway? she wondered. Roxas and Sora are sort of the same person, but not really, so they're sort of like brothers. I was created to clone Roxas's powers, but I got my own personality and identity, and I'm a girl, both physically and mentally. Just like Sora has Kairi, have I become Roxas's Kairi? Is that why we look alike?
She closed her eyes again, silencing her thoughts. It was pointless to speculate. All she knew was what she felt-and the fact that she could feel things. Xion clung onto that, and slowly drifted into sleep.
"What? You can't!"
Xion opened her eyes, sitting up and blinking slowly, until the scene in front of her registered. She flew to her feet, mouth open in astonishment as she stared at Xandra and Sora, who were obviously in the middle of a heated argument. Donald and Goofy stood a little bit away, watching nervously.
"I've just told you that you can't go there!" Xandra yelled, stabbing a finger at Sora. "We travelled here specifically to warn you to stay away from the castle that's coming up! The guys in there are bad news! They attacked us! They are a lot worse than those sock puppets you're used to fighting."
Sock puppets? Xion thought in bewilderment.
"But why would they hurt me?" Sora shouted. "The only reason they'd do that is if I'm their enemy, and if I'm their enemy, they're my enemy. What if Riku's there? We've been wandering around this landscape for a day and this is the first we've heard of any sort of place. That's probably where Riku is being held captive!"
"Your logic stinks!" Xandra retorted. "Your friend Riku can probably take care of himself, but you have no idea what they can do to you in that castle. Why can't you trust us?"
Xion didn't think she had made any noise, but suddenly they both looked over at her. Shame passed over Sora's eyes and he looked away, as if embarrassed that she had seen him fighting with Xandra.
"Sure, I trust you guys," Sora responded, flashing a sudden grin. He folded his arms behind his head and glanced back at Donald and Goofy. "Mistrusting your friends is wrong, right guys?"
"Well, if we're your friends, then listen to us and don't go there," Xion said quietly, stepping forward to draw level with Xandra. "You don't know how important this is."
Sora dropped his arms and hung his head. "Sorry," he replied. "But I can't do that." He bounded past the two girls, beckoning for Donald and Goofy to follow him. "How could I face Kairi if I didn't try to search for Riku everywhere?"
The three of them ran up the hill, pausing once at the top to look back, the morning sun shining around them.
"Bye, Xion!" Sora called, waving. "Bye, Xandra! Thanks for trying to warn us. I know we'll see each other again!"
Then he turned and started heading down the other side of the hill.
"Wait-" Xion began, starting forward. To her surprise, Xandra stopped her, placing her hand on her shoulder.
"We can't change their minds now," Xandra said softly. Her face had gone back to the usual emotionless Nobody one. "In fact, we've made it worse by telling them about the castle."
"Then what-" Xion's sentence was broken off as the hand on her shoulder tightened, and then she was suddenly thrown sideways into a dark corridor. Xandra jumped in after her and the darkness twisted around them. Xion felt herself falling backwards, whirling around and around, feeling a strange sense of time passage.
Then suddenly she was spit out onto grass, whacking her chin against the damp ground. She glanced up and instantly recognized the same landscape around her. They were in the exact same place! Except...the sky was darker, and there was no sign of a firepit or them having been there at all.
"We're back at the beginning," Xandra said, pulling Xion to her feet. "Where we started from before. And look." She pointed and Xion saw three figures making their way towards them. Sora, Donald, and Goofy. "There they come."
"What are we going to do differently this time?" Xion asked.
Xandra smirked.
"Time to persuade him to stay away from that castle in a different way."
With a flash, her sword appeared in her hand. She gripped it tightly and, letting out a scream of attack, ran straight towards Sora.