Authors Note: This chapter was a lot of fun to write, and I hope you all enjoy reading it. :) Please read and review.

Chapter Seventeen: Help from a Friend

I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes, the sound of raindrops beating down against a tiny window high up on the wall of our cell making me feel drowsy. After several minutes I opened my eyes a crack and looked around the room. Vanitas sat a short distance away, staring up at the silvery-gray ceiling. Now Riku somehow, had managed to stay standing leaning against the wall by the cells bars for the past few hours, though I couldn't be exactly sure how much time had past considering the cell didn't have a clock in it.

I let my eyes fall closed again and since there didn't seem to be anything else to do, I tried to count the raindrops falling, however I lost count almost as soon as I had started, so I decided that I was happy just listening to it.

"I've got it!" Vanitas yelled suddenly, snapping me out of a sort of waking doze. I looked at him, he had rose to his feet and was holding a strange device in the palm of his hand.

I got to my feet quickly and peered over his shoulder. Riku was also watching Vanitas from where he stood by the wall.

"What is it?" I asked curiously, squinting at the little device in his hand.

"It's a magical object that allows me to contact a person with a similar object," Vanitas informed me, sounding pleased. "Xehanort's got one just like it."

Before I could say anything to him Riku had snatched the device from Vanitas's hand and stood glaring daggers at him.

"Are you completely crazy?" Riku demanded. "If you tell Xehanort where we are he'll likely kill Xion and me. And though I know that you and I are like worst enemies, do you really want that to happen to her?"

Vanitas just stared at Riku, uncertainty clearly written across his pale face. After several moments Vanitas held out his hand for the device and Riku handed it back to him his expression unreadable. I looked over at Vanitas again.

He would probably contact Xehanort anyway, I thought to myself, even though we were or had been friends I somewhat doubted that he cared that much.

"Fine," Vanitas muttered, returning Riku's glare. He then glanced at me and his expression softened. "Sorry, I guess I hadn't thought about that."

I stared at him, feeling a bit surprised. "Umm, it's okay."

He gave me a half-smile and resumed his position by the wall, tucking the device into his pocket as he did so.

I went and sat down not to far away from him. He had his eyes shut and was sitting perfectly still. I would've thought that he was asleep except for the fact that he had only just sat down.

I looked down at my hands and smiled. It looked like Vanitas still thought of me as a friend. For some reason that made me feel happy, maybe because he still seemed like a friend to me.

I glanced up as on the other side of the room Riku finally sat down as well.

I sat in silence (except for the sound of rain) for quite some time. It was strange but now that I wanted to fall asleep I couldn't. But then everything in life was like that. You could easily do something until you needed or wanted to, or you can remember something until you need to. It was slightly annoying.

"Xion?" Vanitas whispered softly. "Are you still awake?"

I opened my eyes and looked over at him. "Yeah I am. I was just listening to the rain. It sounds nice, doesn't it?"

Vanitas moved over to sit beside me and smiled. "I don't know, for some reason it always irritated me, I'm not sure why. Or maybe I do," Vanitas chuckled. "Back when I was younger, about nine or ten, I used to be terrified of storms, not really of the rain but of the thunder." He grinned. "I'm not anymore obviously."

Vanitas looked up at the ceiling again, he appeared to be deep in thought.

"I suppose thunder would seem pretty scary to someone young, I wouldn't know though since I was never that young. Xehanort told you about what I am right?" I asked him. "What was it like being a kid or having parents Vanitas?"

Vanitas chuckled softly. "I'm afraid that I can't help you much, considering that I didn't exist before the time I was about nine. And I didn't have parents, unless you count Ventus's I guess. And yeah, he did tell me."

I tilted my head out of confusion and frowned. "What?" What did he mean by that? Was he like me, a puppet?

"I'm not exactly a real person, I'm only a part of one," Vanitas told me, his expression darkened. "Have you ever heard of someone named Ventus?"

I shook my head no, my bangs momentarily falling into my face.

"Well, basically I'm his dark side. Not a whole person. My purpose is to be mean, evil, dark and help Xehanort obtain Kingdom Hearts," Vanitas told me, severe bitterness in his tone. "So, I'm basically just Xehanort's pet."

"Well you're not," I told him cheerfully.

Vanitas scowled, confusion clouding his gaze. "Not what?"

"You're not evil," I smiled at him. "Now Xehanort on the other hand…"

"Yeah talk about an evil person," Vanitas laughed. "I think he invented it."

I thought back to when I had been helping Xehanort not that long ago, he had fooled me so easily into thinking that he was an okay person but he definitely wasn't. And I was really glad to not be helping him anymore.

"Vanitas?" I began. "If you dislike Xehanort so much, then why are you helping him?" I knew that I had asked him a similar question before, but I didn't think that he had given me a very good answer.

Vanitas's smile slowly faded, replaced by a deep scowl. "I guess it's because I'm afraid not to. My entire life he's always told me that I had to help him, that it was my duty to join back with Ventus and create the key to Kingdom Hearts."

I watched him sadly. "I think you should try to be your own person, live how you want to."

"Do you really think I could?" Vanitas asked, an odd expression on his face that I just couldn't read.

I nodded. "Of course."

Vanitas smiled and raised a gloved hand to stroke my cheek. Surprised I only watched as he then moved closer and kissed me. Before I had time to process it he had jerked back and was staring wide eyed at something over my shoulder. I glanced back over my shoulder to see what he was staring at and let out a small gasp in surprise. A small creature had appeared, it wasn't a heartless but it reminded me of one. It was about as tall as a shadow and it looked like it was a dark bluish color, though I wasn't sure since it was near impossible to make out any color in the cell.

Vanitas got up, stalked over to the creature and struck it down with his Keyblade. He glanced back over at me, his eyes glistening in the darkness. He looked sad. I wanted to say something nice to him, but I really couldn't think of anything to say.

"I—I'm sorry. Thank you, Xion," Vanitas told me as he passed by me to the other side of the cell. I opened my mouth to say something to him but he was already on the other side of the cell and I still had absolutely no idea what to say, so I decided against it.

I felt so confused about Vanitas; did he really feel that way about me? And…did I feel that way about him at all? I wasn't sure. I mean I definitely considered him a really good friend of mine, but did I feel that way about him? I sighed, leaned back against the wall, closed my eyes and listened to the steady sound of the rain falling once more.

…

Sometime later that night I awoke to the sound of soft footfalls, they were only just audible over the sound of the rain that was still falling outside the window. I leaned forward and peered around the cell; both Riku and Vanitas were still sleeping. I frowned and tried to see through the bars in the dim light. Just beyond them I could barely make out a shadowy figure.

I stood up and slowly made my way over to the bars. It was Axel. Upon seeing me he grinned.

"Hey there…Xion," Axel said leaning forward and peering at me through the bars, hands on his hips. "How have you been?"

He remembered me! I couldn't believe it! I grinned back.

"Axel you remember me," I told him happily. "I've been okay, what about you?"

"Oh, I've been managing," Axel replied. "So, you're trying to stop Xemnas right?"

I shook my head no, my bangs falling into my face. "No, we're trying to stop Xehanort actually, his sort of Somebody." I drew in a breath realizing that I probably shouldn't have told him that.

"Well, I'm not too pleased with Xemnas at the moment and seeing as how you're one of my best friends I think I'll help you for awhile," Axel told me holding up a key. "And I think I'll start with letting you and your friends out."

Axel bent down and unlocked the cell door. He then swung it open.

"Really?" I smiled happily at him. "Thank you so much!"

"You're very welcome," Axel replied.

"What's going on?" Riku asked coming to stand beside me. He was eyeing Axel suspiciously. "What do you want?"

Vanitas stirred a short distance away but didn't wake up.

"Ugh." Axel shook his head. "I try to help and all anyone does is accuse me of doing something bad," Axel muttered under his breath. "I'm letting you guys out."

Riku raised an eyebrow, he looked doubtful. "Really?"

Axel nodded. "You better hurry before someone decides to get up and check on you."

I started to walk over to Vanitas but Riku caught my arm. I frowned at him.

"Are you sure we should bring him with us?" Riku asked me.

"Of course! Xemnas will be really angry if he's the only one left here," I told him. "Besides I—I think he might help us now."

Riku still looked doubtful but he released my arm anyway.

I knelt down next to Vanitas and shook his shoulder gently. He opened his eyes and sat up, looking slightly confused.

"Xion?" he asked confusedly.

"Axel's letting us out," Riku told him before I could. "If you want to get out then hurry up."

Vanitas stood up; he no longer looked very confused, he stalked passed Riku and left the cell. For a moment I wondered if he was going to keep walking and go his own way (probably back to help Xehanort) but he halted a short distance down the hallway.

I got to my feet and left out of the cell as well, Riku right behind me. Once Riku was out of the cell Axel swung the door shut again. He then looked at me.

"So where are we off to?" Axel inquired.

I blinked surprised and not for the first time or even the second that day. "You're going to come with us?"

Axel shrugged. "Sure, why not. Besides they're gonna know that I helped you, so if I stay it'll be Dusk city for me."

"Maybe we should focus on getting out of here," Vanitas suggested, his arms crossed. "If we open a portal in here the Organization will be able to follow us easily."

Axel nodded. "Good point. All right, follow me."

Axel took the lead as we walked up the stairs leading out of the dungeons. Unlike many other dungeons the ones in The Castle that Never Was were above the ground and in almost every cell there was a small window. Usually you could see Kingdom Hearts out of all of the windows aligning one line of cells, but since it was raining all you could see was raindrops streaming down the window panes.

Without speaking we all made our way through the large castle as silently as we could with all of our shoes echoing loudly throughout the empty hallways. It was hard to walk quietly and fast at the same time when every single one of us (except for Riku) was wearing boots.

Finally, after what seemed like ages we made it out of the castle. Outside the rain was still coming down in thick sheets. I shivered, the cool rain combined with cold wind made it feel pretty chilly outside.

Vanitas began walking down the street purposefully gesturing for us to follow. I did with Riku and Axel right behind me.

Vanitas finally came to halt a few streets from the castle and turned to face us.

"This should be far enough away," he told the three of us. "What world or time are we headed to?"

Riku stepped forward so that he was standing beside me instead of behind. "I think we should leave this time period, if we don't want them following us."

"Good idea," Vanitas agreed. "Backward or forward?"

"How about back in time," Riku suggested. "I don't really want to go to the future."

Axel frowned and came up to stand on my other side. "Wait, we're going through time?"

Vanitas smirked and nodded. "Yeah, are you still coming with us?"

"Sure, sounds like fun," Axel said.

Vanitas shook his head and opened up a time portal. "Whatever, who'd like to go first?"

I glanced at Riku; he looked slightly hesitant so I stepped forward so that I was now standing right in front of the portal and then turned back to look at my three companions.

"I'll go," I offered, trying to brace myself against the portal. I nearly jumped as Vanitas placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I promise that it's not leading to Xehanort," Vanitas told me, and he really looked like he was telling the truth. "Oh and you might want to try keeping your eyes open and focusing on one thing like say a design on your sleeve for example. It should keep you from feeling quite as dizzy."

"Thanks," I replied, smiling up at him. I sure hoped that it would make it easier.

Vanitas grinned back and took his hand off of my shoulder. I quickly looked away remembering the events that had taken place earlier. I still felt beyond confused about my feelings on all of that.

"Well, shouldn't we get going then?" Axel asked after a moment.

I looked his way and nodded. "Right." I turned back to face the portal, drew in a deep breath and stepped inside.