A.N.) I have a million of things I need to do for school and this site (I still need to give some feedback to a fellow Rokushi writer [hope they'll forgive such a long delay]). I just really wanted to get this one tiny chapter out while I have some kind of groove back.

It's just this chapter and one more, and maybe an epilogue. Actually, I'll probably end up making one so the story can have 14 chapters.

Disclaimer) I do not own Kingdom Hearts. (I've been doing this disclaimer. Always will do it.)

At First Sight

Chapter 12: It's Over

"Light!"

Blast!

"Ugh!"

Sora received another beam of sparkles spinning. Flying backwards, he found himself spinning into a tumble against the brick ground of the Station Plaza. He was quick to stand and position his Kingdom Key to block firaga. Just in time.

"Stay still, Sora!" Roxas roared leaping ahead with the intent to stroke his Oathkeeper into The Keyblade's Chosen's chest.

Sora activated flowmotion, jumping high enough to dodge his Nobody and zoom to the left. "No way! I don't want to risk being a heartless again! Hold on! We'll think of something—!"

Wham!

"Ah!"

Slamming down to the dirt after getting whacked in the shoulder, Sora was left lying with his chest exposed to the spiked blonde standing over him, arranging his Keyblade to jab down.

"You came back before without having your Nobody returning or your Heartless being destroyed! Just do that again!"

"Miracles don't just happen—well… they kinda do…" Sora started weakly while dashing to tuck-and-roll out of Roxas's blast of light. "—But they're suppose to be rare and I don't want to chance it!"

For the first time in a while, Sora was able to stand up and use a curaga without looking out for the blood hunger No. XIII. Kairi, Riku, Lea, and even Seifer, with Keyblade and gun-blade summoned, circled around the raging teenager to help protect Sora.

Lea tried to get a nonfatal strike at Roxas's neck, but the kid was fast when he was determined! "Her body was destroyed! It's not like there'd be any place for her heart to go, Roxas!" he tried to reason.

Roxas either didn't listen or didn't care because he still came at all four of his new opponents with an onslaught of Faith.

"What if Sora goes to sleep and needs both you and her to wake up!" Riku screamed through the high-pitch charge of Roxas's light. "Calm down and think!" The blinding light settled too late for the Keyblade Master to spot and block Roxas's sweeping blow that sent him flying into a stack of heavy boxes.

With Lea and Kairi far and without flowmotion, Roxas took the chance to charge at the open Sora, until Seifer jumped into his path. Roxas aimed for an instant K.O. shot like he had the other times he faced the former leader of his dear Xion, but it seemed Seifer actually could learn from loss. He remembered how to block. The two who fought for the hand of the XIV-th found themselves clashing their weapons together while locked in a heated stare.

"Stop being such a pest!" Roxas snarled with venom blackening his glare.

"Do you think Xion would want to see you like this? Even I never wanted her to see me fight in the streets!"

Swine was right. Roxas knew that Xion would be appalled. He knew the look on his face right then would have frightened her. It tore at him knowing all the negative feelings were bad, but he refused to back down from them. "I just want her," was his answer, pushing his enemy back and attempted to strike him.

He could sense Riku and Lea closing in to double strike him from behind. Letting all the weight in his Keyblade holding hand go to his free one, Roxas instinctively fisted the collar of Seifer's jacket and threw him right into Lea and blasted Riku back with another firaga.

With those three out of the way, Roxas turned back to his Somebody, who was currently trying to finish charging his energy for some kind of attack. Thinking little of how harmful that attack could be, Roxas charged.

"Drift!"

After a zap-ish sound out of the blue, a Zero Graviga spell sent Roxas afloat.

Trapped floating in the air, Roxas looked around. "How…?" he started, trying to convey his shock.

Everything became clear though when Kairi ran into his view. "I won't let you hurt him, Roxas!" she declared, arranging her flowery Keyblade to attack when her magic wore off.

He had no way to get free till then; he was stuck. After a minute like that, everyone had recovered from Roxas's rebellion and all faced him in a neat line. Sora refused to look at him.

When he would eventually get down, they'd all gang up on him.

"What are you guys doing to him?!" called by Hayner as the Twilight Town trio and Seifer's posse emerged from the Station Heights to fall in line. It was bizarre, seeing Hayner's crew running alongside Fuu, Rai, and Vivi and not be threatening each other.

Roxas's gaze was very lucid and lazy. Did they all know the truth?

Pence looked as tense as ever, from Roxas's eyes. Hayner and Fuu argued with those who were fighting him, trying to get answers on what was going on, why they were doing this. Soon enough, all Roxas stared at was a glob of teenagers yelling over one another to the point where no one could make out a sentence; except Pence and Sora, who chose to look to the suspended captive with all their empathy.

Everything was catching up to Roxas. All his anger and frustration, his sadness at all the people and trouble that worked against his and Xion's love where beginning to fully overwhelm him.

He was really tired of this.

And he had his audience.

Finally, he wasn't able to keep his anger from bubbling over.

"…All we wanted… was to be together—without hurting someone else for it! And everyone—EVERYONE had to have some objection—had to make it a fight for us! And even now you all are still doing it! Neither Xion nor I did anything wrong; nevertheless, Seifer, Hayner, and even you to an extent, Sora, make it like we're criminals for how we feel for each other! All of your ridiculousness makes it impossible! So fine! You all win! All of your hate and mistrust and affiliations triumph over our love! Just destroy me already so I can at least try to find her in that prison of Sora's heart! Maybe then we can have a life together—away from you IDIOTS!"

Climaxing from his screams, Roxas fell limp in the drifting, panting heavily, and the moonlight's angle creating a shadow over his face.

Was this over? Had he lost Xion forever?

Kairi's Zero Graviga wore off.

As Roxas fell from the sky to land gracefully of his feet, no one bothered to brace him or herself for battle. They all looked to him; some not understanding completely what was happening, some knowing exactly where they played a part in this.

It tore Lea apart inside to see Roxas so distort, and Xion gone… As much as the man wanted to rip Sora open for her too, he knew he wouldn't. He was useless to save his best friends. It was shame.

Over all else, they knew Roxas was in a lot of pain.

Footsteps and lightly clanking chains came close to Roxas. A warm hand rested on his shoulder. He looked up and saw Sora with his eyes glistening with tears yet to fall. "I'm sorry, Roxas… I was out of it and didn't trust you."

Lea had somehow crept up behind him and affectionately patted his head. "I tried and failed in more ways than one."

"I betrayed one of my best friends…" Fuu muttered softly.

Rai and Vivi patted her back. "We all messed her up, Fuu, y'know?"

Seifer approached Hayner civil and tall. Hayner reflected that as he walked past Olette, who was silently crying, to meet the advance.

Roxas looked past the friends to the two group frontrunners, hopeful for something good. Something that would make his Xion smile if she saw it.

"Have we ever not been rivals? We've known each other a long time, and I don't remember every liking you," Seifer started.

"Well, maybe we've become something more serious than 'rivals' considering we have our friends fighting each other and killing themselves as a result over our own distaste. I don't like it."

Hayner wore a look of true authority and he reached his hand out toward his longtime opponent.

"We may never get along like best buds, but I don't want to live in a war anymore. Being rivals is different from being gang leaders. Want to call it cool?"

Maybe Seifer was learning, Roxas thought, when he saw him unhesitant to meet Hayner's handshake.

"We'll still meet in the Struggle ring…" Hayner began.

"But not in the streets, not at the dispense of our friends," Seifer finished.

Roxas wasn't as happy as he wanted to be at seeing that. If anything, he was bitter that it took the slaying of his true love to finally make them do the right thing.

He still wanted to unlock Sora's heart, not caring too much about what would happen to Sora compared to getting Xion back. He wanted to go find Even or Ansem or Yen Sid or The King and make them tell him how to bring her back. Yet he still didn't want to act negatively.

He just wanted him and Xion to have a chance at a real life together. For them to be live and be happy. Desperate, he looked to the sky no longer obscured by fireworks, found the brightest star, and wished. He hoped for a miracle to make her appear before him, or make him wake up at that park bench or the top of the Clock Tower.

Sad, he was stuck in reality.

All over again, he looked to Sora with a vision of opening him.

Roxas…

Roxas shivered, hearing a beautiful voice in his head. "Xion?" He looked this-way-and-that utterly hysterical, like some fevered madman.

All eyes fell back to Roxas, confused and concerned. Instead of trying to stop him, however, they let him look.

"Xion!"

"He's gone crazy… Completely insane…" Seifer whispered to Riku.

Roxas don't do whatever it is you're planning. I want you to just move on and live your life. We aren't going to have the future we wanted together, but I am here in Sora. You do have me—and Lea—and Sora—and all your other friends. Our one night together was well worth living for and perhaps we can keep going knowing we love each other. Our destinies are entwined… We'll always be connected. Please… give this up.

"I won't, Xion! I can't!" he cried, jumping to Sora, but instead of attacking, Roxas hugged his Other tight. It was probably the closest he'd ever get to Xion again.

"This is getting really weird…" Seifer continued to talk.

It may be lonely till then… But someday… One day… I'll be with you again somewhere…

"It's not right…" Roxas sobbed on Sora's shoulder.

I know… Please don't be sad anymore…

"We're apart. I don't think the pain will ever stop."

"What is going on…?" Seifer kept talking.

"I don't know… I want to help you save her, Roxas. I just can't think of a foolproof way how…" Sora whispered, crying himself. It was grief, a huge, throbbing ache in the head and heart. Roxas was feeling so strongly, Sora was feeling it too. He knew this heartbreak. It was the same agony Roxas had been forced to deal with plenty in his existence. He'd felt it himself at some points in his journeys thinking he'd never see Kairi and Riku again.

No one moved. Time went on with only the sound of Roxas's muffled weeping cracking through the cold winter breezes.

This is it. It's over.

Like a callous divorce, Xion's voice stopped calling to him. The inviting ocean in his heart, once healthy and pleasant, was now frozen. His very soul was turning bleak and foggy.

The End. For Xion and I.

Soft sandals upcoming interrupted the requiem. Sora and Roxas parted to look with the rest at the approaching Nobody of Kairi, Naminé. She was smiling, swaying the sketchbook in her neat hands; one side of her hair had a long twirling ribbon to compliment her ivory dress.

"At least someone's happy…" Hayner grunted.

"Where have you been?" Kairi called to her.

Naminé nodded to them in polite greeting, but continued her path to be face to face with Roxas and Sora.

"You can't give up now. Roxas, Sora, have you both forgotten that nothing is hopeless," she giggled, consoling them with a relaxing tone. "There will always be a light in the darkest of times."

Roxas looked down, listened, but found it hard to believe.

Lea patted his shoulder sympathetically, hating the look of a dying puppy on his buddy's face. Even if he too had lost all hope.

"Really? How?!"

Sora grinned at the possibility of getting a happy ending out of tonight. The Keyblade's Chosen Wielder looked so enthusiastic. His very stance indicated he was ready to run anywhere he'd need to go.

Naminé stared directly at Roxas, praying her voice would reach his heart somehow. "Think. Xion is all-alone in Sora's heart with conflicting memories and hurts of tonight and past tormenting her for what will go on as long as Sora walks. She'd never want you to risk your life that she had feared was lost not even an hour ago—making the decision to convince you to go on with her suffering in silence all too easily. Of course she'd do that! She did it before."

She always was out to protect me. Worry about me. Just like I was with her… Except I'm bad at it apparently.

"Although, that time, Sora was at stake, and now, I can make it so that he's not. His heart is a very unique one. I was born from Kairi's heart but I came from Sora's body and soul, therefore, in a strong theory, I can make it so you can unlock and dive into Sora's heart without fragmenting to his memories, or risking his heart leaving his body or becoming damaged."

"Great! Let's do this!" Sora cheered nodded. He turned to his Nobody with the Goofy-esque, dork grin on his face. The former Organization member had a glimmer of faith being overshadowed by fear of failure and disappointment, and Sora would have none of that.

All Sora had to do was be a good friend, and good brother, and tell Roxas exactly what he needed to hear. "She needs you, Roxas. C'mon, let's go save Xion! I never got to formally meet her!"

"I don't like all this uncertainty…" Olette huffed ripping a paper into as many little bits as she could, just to calm her nerves.

She, Hayner, Pence, Seifer, Fuu, Rai, and Vivi were told to stay in the Library of the Old Mansion while Roxas, Lea, Sora, Naminé, Riku, and Kairi went to the Pod Room. As a precaution for Sora's sake, Naminé thought it best that she put Sora to sleep in the crystal pod again before she'd make the opening for Roxas to enter Sora's heart humanely.

Hayner bobbed his knees up and down from one of the Library's rolling ladders he was sitting on. Everything that was explained to him on what had happened tonight made him think about many things concerning love one way of another. He wondered if his crew and Seifer's could handle the responsibility of maintaining peace amongst themselves. Just how much of what happened to Roxas and Xion was his fault? How would he make it up to them, Pence, and Olette? Speaking of Olette…

"Hey Olette!" he called her attention from her futile stress exercise.

"Yeah?" she acknowledged, looking directly to him from her paper.

"Thanks for patching me up."

She smiled, and nodded. "Anytime."

Fuu casually strolled along the large shelves of books upon even more books. She never wanted to have to read any of them. Ever. Book made her angry. Or maybe it was just the situation as a whole that was dragging her. She broke Xion's trust and didn't help her where it counted; even now she'd yet to tell Seifer and the others exactly how long she knew about Xion's love affair. "Coward…" she sighed. And even now, Xion was in trouble and she was forced to sit on the sidelines while Roxas would be the one to rescue her and probably sweep her away from Twilight Town to the Destiny Islands. Not only was Fuu useless to her at this point but also destined to be become insignificant to her too. "Pathetic…"

She felt someone wrap an arm around her shoulders in some kind of half-hug. It surprised her that anyone would dare, but when she looked to see who was comforting her it made perfect sense. Pence was too naïve to remember she could beat the stuffing out of him.

"You doing okay, Fuu?" he calmly asked, smiling a little.

"Why? The 'feud'…"

"I guess seeing you so broken up help remind me you weren't just some lackey. And now that the 'feud' is over, we can be friends if you want."

Another male friend? Didn't she already have enough of those? Fuu considered telling him gently to go, but he was genuine and simple and nice, and she liked that.

From the other side of the room, Seifer, Rai, and Vivi watched their female friend and the best friend of Hayner.

"Do I have to go fight Pence now too?" he grumbled.

Rai and Vivi were quick to glare warnings at him.

"I was kidding! But in my defense, it would at least bring some entertainment till we find out if that chicken wuss has what it takes to fix our mistakes."

"Are you sure about this, Naminé?" Riku asked, trying not to show how nervous he was.

The Nobody of Kairi and the Keyblade Master stood right in front of the crystal pod that would house Sora till he was in a deep enough sleep for her to make the path for Roxas to jump in. The bleach blonde kneaded her fingers to the corners of her art book knowing it was also time to share.

"I'm pretty sure."

Sora and Kairi were talking in private off to the side while Lea was mentally prepping Roxas to be ready for anything and expect the worst kind of trouble. "You can't let whatever's ahead trip you up," he'd tell the XIII-th, who was eagerly adjusting his hold on his Oathkeeper with the occasional twirl. "Keep your eyes on the prize."

In due time, everyone gathered back to Naminé.

Sora rang the bell. "Let's do this!"

"Xion…" Roxas murmured to himself like some kind of rhythm.

"Before you go," Naminé started. She opened up her sketchbook and showed the picture she drew to everyone.

It was a colorful sketch of Xion and Roxas together on the beach shore, holding hands, smiling at each other. Their clothes were the same they were wearing tonight except Xion no longer had her feather cloche hat. Roxas wondered why Naminé left that out. And another strange thing stuck out to The Key of Destiny: a white ribbon tied his and Xion's hands together.

"Let your heart be your guide."

Everyone was at an understanding. Sora entered the pod without looking back. As the doors closed, Roxas twiddled with his Keyblade some more. Kairi and Riku watched with unease as Sora drifted to sleep.

Naminé concentrated and drew in a sketch; Roxas never did quite understand how her powers worked precisely, but whatever worked. Oh well.

"He's ready. You can go now, Roxas," Naminé said quietly. At her will, the crystal pod opened enough for Sora to be reachable.

Not wasting a second, Roxas pointed his Keyblade to the heart of Sora. A string of light traveled from Point A to Point B, and before he knew it, Roxas was transported through sparks of light, falling into a dark void, and at nearing the end of his fall he saw a familiar landmark.

Sora's Station of Awakening.

A.N.) Phew! I re-watched the games (paying special close attention to Chain of Memories, Birth By Sleep and Dream Drop Distance), read so much Kingdom Heart wiki, and looked at all angles I could think of to make sure this method was plausible. I hope this didn't disappoint anyone.

I can't believe it! We're almost done, everyone! One more chapter to go! (If you actually want to see the ending, pray with me that life and loss of inspiration don't make it so that I don't update the last chapter [beside a possible epilogue] in… let's say 4 years. That actually happened with one of my stories and it's still not finished! Sigh. I disappoint myself when I think of that.)

Remember to review and let me know how you're feeling!

Good day, Sirs and Madames!