Chapter two: And I've lost who I am.

The golden glow of the late afternoon shone through the gauze of the curtains, illuminating the hazy silence of the barren room. A table lay near the door, a grey-dusted chair resting haphazardly across its single leg. Colourless scraps of paper stirred on the wall opposite the window, their former companions lying forgotten on the cracked tiles. It was below the cobwebbed glass that she sat, formless drapes billowing around her still form like a pair of aimless wings. Vacant blue eyes stared unseeing towards the floor from under the shadow of her hood, ink-clad arms wrapped tightly around her knees. Her mind picked absently over her memories, submerging itself in the past to distract her from the events of the day, but with little success. Even when she could concentrate on her happier times with Axel and Roxas, it was as if she was a stranger to her innermost thoughts. Cherished friends; afternoons spent laughing; the injustice of her purpose; even the curious memories of another… She considered them all, over and over, feeling only the keen absence of, well, anything really. And yet, she was a nobody of sorts, so why should she have ever had any sense of emotion? Her arms tightened, her gaze dropping and darkening. Why would she even need emotions? She was a forgotten replica, a thing without friends or purpose. A discarded, discordant doll, wishing that she had a proper heart, if only to feel how broken it was possible to be.

A muffled shout from beyond the dusty window shattered the mournful silence, distant voices reverberating through the forgotten room. She shrank away from them, curling in on herself beneath the window and silently pleading for their owners to leave. The noise persisted, however: shouting and cursing and… the sound of combat? Her curiousity piqued, she unfolded from her hunched position and pushed back her hood, rising slightly so as to hear the noise better. Inching towards the glass while staying out of sight, she strained to comprehend the garbled shouting. Twitching aside one of the flowing curtains… she stumbled, dropping back down to the floor. Her face whitened after seeing him, the higher of the muted voices finally registering. His presence unlocked the memories of that morning, allowing them to rush into her mind in an unstoppable tide of cold fragments; a wave of hurt and loneliness rising up and taking her over.

Frowning, he pulled away from her embrace and stood over her. His eyes crinkled, no trace of recognition within their cerulean depths. His voice was cold and unfeeling, his posture wary as he stepped back.

"Who are you?"

She knelt there, staring at him, completely at a loss for words. Her mouth worked soundlessly as she struggled for an explanation, her mind busy supplying her with useless facts and queries:

-Why are we here he's not wearing his coat where'd he get those clothes how are we both alive again oh no did he go back to Sora I felt him return didn't I why are we in Twilight Town Wait… Where's Axel? -

"Axel!"

She blurted out, hope stirring in her chest. The look on Roxas' face changed to one of confusion. He made as if to speak, but Xion continued on with a desperate torrent of words;

"You don't remember me, we were best friends, Naminé said you'd forget me but what about Axel? He's our best friend too, why isn't he here? What hap…" –"STOP!"

Xion jerked beck as if slapped, the echo of Roxas' shout hanging heavy in the air between them. His expression had returned to one of animosity, although there was still some confusion in the furrow of his brow. He dropped his head into his hands grimacing as if in pain. Seconds passed before he allowed his hands to fall away, revealing the complete lack of emotion on his face. They stared at each other for an immeasurable time, the air charged with anticipation. Uneasy in the restless silence, Xion rose to her feet and made as if to walk towards him, but he halted her with a raised palm. Looking away, he began speaking in a flat tone, which gradually filled with anger:

"I have no idea who you are, and I've never even met anyone called Axel. I don't know what kind of trick you're trying to pull here, but my best friends are Hayner, Pence and Olette, not some weirdo in a suspicious coat!

He looked back at her, his expressionless mask slipping and his features contorting with malice as he continued to speak.

"In fact, you're probably just somebody Seifer paid to mess with us and make us look bad. Or maybe you're the one that's been stealing stuff all over town, and now you're trying to… oh, I don't know, get me on your side and then blame me for all the trouble you've been causing!"

A wave of numbness, both mental and physical, had spread over Xion. She could only stand and stare at her former best friend, his words hitting her far harder than any blow or spell ever could. She barely registered him turning away after his last accusation, his shoulders slumping as the fire from his rage dissipated. His next few words were quiet, his tone once again emotionless.

"Whatever Seifer told you to say, or… whatever you actually think, I've honestly never met you before in my life. Just… leave me and my friends alone."

He turned back slightly; mouth moving as if to say something else, and Xion stepped forward, her hand unconsciously moving to catch his arm. Her eyes were wide; pleading with him for… she didn't know herself what one thing she could want. Recognition? Understanding? An explanation? They stayed like that for a moment, an achingly familiar scene, but oh so different to the last time they had stood together like this. He looked up into her eyes, his own filling with pity before dropping downwards. He gently pulled his forearm out of her grip, turning for one last time before he walked away, following the path into town.

Xion was left standing below the shadow of the clock tower, her thoughts whirling uncontrollably. She suddenly stumbled backwards into the wall, hand coming up to press against her mouth as the reality of the events slammed into her. Waves of heaviness and apathy attacked her chest in turn, an itchy feeling undulating behind her eyes. Somewhere below the platform, laughter echoed in the sluggish afternoon heat, a painful mockery of their carefree contentment in their usual spot. With that bittersweet memory tearing through her mind, the thought of Roxas' bright, caring smile contrasting the animosity of their arguement, the heaviness in her chest overtook her slight form. She slipped back into a crouch against the wall, her entire body shaking as she grasped desperately for the numb lack of emotion that had previously gripped her. Trembling below the far-reaching light of the setting sun, Xion finally succeeded in immersing herself in the current of emotionless that raged beneath her grief. Standing, she wrapped her arms firmly around her waist and headed into the streets below, the entrance to the tunnels clear in her mind. The sunset glinted briefly off the faint trails that marked her face, before she scrubbed her arm across her eyes and disappeared into the deserted streets.

It had been more than an hour at this point, and Xion was still no closer to finding her friend or any kind of answers. She had left the Station Plaza determined to catch up with Roxas, although she had little idea of what she could say to him once she had accomplished that. As she had walked toward the centre of town, however, the air around her had grown more hostile by the minute. Shell-shocked by her confrontation with Roxas, she hadn't even seen the first few pedestrians, unaware of the suspicious glances and unwelcoming looks that followed her. A passing shove from a blonde teenager, however, caused her to pay proper attention to her surroundings. A sense of hostility filled the now-bustling streets, enough to permeate her self-induced cloud of emotional numbness and allow fear to creep into her mind. Seeing a familiar arch, Xion lowered her head and tried to push towards it, but the crowd surged against her, blocking off the entrance to the distant town plaza. Buffeted further along the streets, the black-clad girl could hear a steadily growing murmur fill the air. Allowing herself to be pushed along by the human tide for a minute, she concentrated on the words: a series of similar phrases, repeated over and over;

"Suspicious…black cloak…thief…shady…"

Panic attempted to join fear in bypassing Xion's emotional barriers, but she shook both from her mind, clinging to apathy and logic. The crowd had grown more active, jostling her between people and steadily further from the town plaza. Eyes searching wildly for an escape route, she focused her gaze on a nearby ledge. Pushed towards a white-haired girl with dead eyes, she ducked away from her and started running, speeding ahead of the rabble. A tanned, muscular boy swung his fist at her; she twisted under it and grabbed his arm in one fluid motion. Jumping, she used the boy's shoulder as a launching pad and leapt for the ledge, catching it with one hand. Her breath came in gulps as she pulled herself onto the rooftop, gut clenching as she glanced over the edge at the expressionless faces of the mob. The murmur had increased to a dull shouting, the noise nearly distracting her from noticing stragglers peeling off towards nearby steps. Ignoring the voices, Xion stood and ran back towards the plaza, quickly leaving the throng of people behind her.

After a nonstop dash through the rooftops and quieter streets, Xion found herself in an eerily deserted area of scattered shops and circular paths: Twilight Town's plaza. She had circled it twice, finding it to be utterly devoid of people or noise. It came as a shock, so, when she circled around one of the cylindrical stalls and knocked into a tall figure with a black hat. They both cried out in surprise and backed away from each other, the young man quickly halting and looking Xion up and down. He was blonde, with a scarred cheek and wearing a blue and white coat over dark baggy trousers.

"Hey, you OK?"

He began, clearly taking in her defensive stance and lack of breath. Xion didn't answer him, the actions of the crowd still fresh in her mind.

"Just, y'know, I've gotta know if stuff's happening in my town that I should hear about? Suspicious stuff, shady people… black coats…"

His expression and tone faded away as he spoke, the nuance of his voice melting into a monotone and his eyes deadening. Xion didn't stick around to see what happened next; already running as soon as he mentioned her coat. She hared across the plaza, thinking of the deserted underground concourse, when an irregularity in the plaster of the walls caused her to skid to a halt. She could see the dark forest beyond the break, and suddenly thought of the mansion hidden in the woods. Memories of Naminé, DiZ and Riku flashed through her mind, interspersed with a merciless inferno and a determined vow, before she quashed the thoughts with undeniable logic: few people visited the mansion, fewer still actually entering it. It would be somewhere quiet and vaguely safe for her to actually consider the events of the morning, and try to somehow make sense of the inexplicable happenings. The distant sound of voices finalized her decision, and she passed from the empty silence of the sunlit streets to the calmness of the leaf-dappled forest beyond without another thought.

Lying on the floor below the window, Xion finally shook herself from the grip of the memory, although the heavy feeling once again gripped her chest. She had no time to attempt to numb her fledgling emotions, however, as something dark roared over her in a wave of heat and glass shards, crashing into the wall across from her prone form. Uncurling slightly from her fetal position, Xion risked a look at the missile… that had just set the toppled furniture aflame in a dark blaze. Instinctively, she shot her hand out to call to her weapon, but cringed away at the last second as she remembered something. Springing to her feet, she dashed for the door, determined to escape from the rapidly spreading flames. She was just reaching for the door handle when a second roar came from behind her, a wave of fire snaking around to block the exit, almost as if it had sensed her intentions. The memories that assaulted her with the heat and sound were bright and blurry, spiked and sharpened with yet more pain;

"Stuck with the icky jobs…always be there to bring you back!...Xion!"

She stumbled back, spinning as she tried to force down the panic and pain and memories. There was another gust behind her, and she simultaneously stumbled back and turned to face it, lifting her arm to block it and scrunching her eyes shut in preparation for the flames… that never arrived.

There was a bright flash, shining through her closed eyes, and the roaring of the flames abated somewhat. Opening her eyes, she saw the shadowy inferno shying away from her raised arm, the dark colour of the flames lightening to a dull red. A slight glow caught her gaze and she yelped, bringing her hand towards her face. Her fingers and palm were surrounded with a faint aura of light, which faded away even as she stared at it, eyes wide and mouth agape.

Robbed of its dark aura, the inferno abated into weak flames, their bright tongues searching weakly for fuel. Xion barely noticed the fire dying away, her mind helplessly attempting to make sense of the latest event. She was somehow alive again, Roxas didn't recognise her, and now she was using light magic without a keyblade? The attack itself was also confusing: the fire seeming somehow sentient? And it couldn't have been Dark Firagra, not with the way it had transformed back into a normal blaze. She walked past the window, eyes fixed on the charred door, until a loud cry shook her from her whirling thoughts. She snapped her head around to look down on the gates and the courtyard below, having forgotten the original cause of her panic. Two figures moved in a deadly waltz below her; the larger swinging heavy blows to contest the swift lunges of his opponent. The smaller fighter evaded him with silver parries, flashing guards and stifled cries… Roxas was on the defensive, and losing ground fast. Her mind made up in an instant, Xion dashed once again for the stairs.

She'd checked her panels at one point in the afternoon, disinterestedly eying her empty slots before staring at nothing once more. She cursed her indifference now, as she clattered down the stairs; she had no potions, ethers, or elixirs, and nothing but her most basic commands equipped. Even then, there was little she could do without her keyblade, and she flat-out refused to put him in danger again. Reaching the front entrance, she shouldered open the heavy doors and slipped out into the courtyard, judging the fight with one quick glance before running for the gate.

Roxas was nearly on his knees by now, crouching by the left wall as he desperately fended off his lumbering opponent's punches. He had summoned his keyblade, occasionally countering or parrying an attack, but his fighting held none of the power and technique that Xion remembered from their days in the Organisation. He wasn't really doing much more than wildly swinging the blade back and forth, luck more than anything allowing him to deflect the wild attacks aimed his way. Mentally skimming over her panels, Xion thrust her hand out towards Roxas' assailant, crying out;

"Hey! Blizzard!"

A miniscule ball of ice hit the juggernaut on the shoulder, and Xion froze as he ceased his attack on her former best friend. Apparently Roxas wasn't the only one to have lost his previous levels of ability: the ice was malformed and slushy, and her stamina was already flagging from that small spell alone. The magic had done its job, however, as Roxas' opponent had turned to face her, ignoring her friend in the process.

"Wha!", he griped, surprise lining his sunken eyes and heavy scowl,

"Thought youse Organisation bozos were out of it! Oh well, get in line, girly, cause Petey's gotta bone to pick with this here… Whu?"

Taking advantage of her distraction, Roxas had moved away from the wall, and out of the range of Pete's fists. Eyes flickering between the two, he came to a decision and rushed the brawler, jabbing his keyblade at his knees and shoving his shoulder into his impressive gut, knocking the villain backwards into the wall.

Flailing his arms, Pete went down with an enraged bellow. Roxas crossed to stand beside Xion, glaring at her before moving instinctively into his low-balanced guard position. Speaking through gritted teeth, he addressed the downed cat.

"Look. I don't know anything about a machine or a 'datascape', I don't know anyone else with something like this -he hefted his keyblade into the air- and I'm really sick of people treating me like I'm someone else!"

Xion flinched at his last statement, but stood quietly beside him otherwise, already focusing her remaining energy on casting one of her more powerful commands.

Pete had stood up by now, and was openly snarling at the pair.

"Uh huh? Well, I'm really sick of youse key brats and Xehanort wannabes getting in my way. MOVE IT!"

A wave of bombs flew towards them, Pete following the attack at a charge. Xion's hastily cast Thundara took out two of the missiles, Roxas deflecting a third, but the remainder exploded before the two could react. Xion groaned slightly, thrown backwards by the blast, before scrambling to her feet in a cloud of choking smog. She could vaguely see Roxas doing the same thing a little distance away, before something blasted into them with enough concussive force to send them flying back into the opposite wall.

Silver starbursts glimmered behind closed eyes, a faint sensation tugging at the back of her mind before dissipating as she woke properly. And then the pain hit her. A stream of vulgarities rushed through her mind as sharp pains raced along her back, limbs and head. Looking up, her pain was quickly forgotten at the sight of Pete holding Roxas aloft; one hand bunched in the front of his shirt, the other stretched out as lightning gathered in his palm. Her breath stopped, her mind suddenly knife-sharp with purpose as she glimpsed silver and gold glinting in the yellow grass beside the two figures. The world slowed to a standstill as she somehow went from lying on the ground to a dash, the tilting and blurring of her field of vision little more than a minor distraction as she ran towards her goal. Pete's crackling fist moved at a snail's pace, his head turning towards her and his expression changing at a comically slow rate. She crouched, gloved fingers closed around the knurled black hilt, her vision focusing as she sprang upwards and swung the weapon towards the lightning held in Pete's fist. For an instant, they were frozen; Roxas hanging limply in the villain's grip, Xion's form almost touching his as she blocked the movement of Pete's hand with her borrowed weapon. And then the world rocketed back to its normal speed.

A few things happened at once. Pete jerked back with a cry, dropping Roxas in his panic. The lightning attack met the teeth of the keyblade, silver lit by jagged phosphorescence before the electricity was blasted back towards Pete with a flash. His portly form seized as the energy hit it, his eyes promptly rolling back and his body crashing to the ground. Roxas had let out a yell as he hit the battle-scorched earth, his head shooting up and his gaze locking on the keyblade held in Xion's hand. The young woman herself had stumbled back after Pete's attack had backfired, the keyblade held before her in an instinctive guard pose. She let it fall to her side now, the threat lying unconscious (occasionally twitching), and turned her head to meet her fellow keyblader's gaze. She opened her mouth to speak, apologies and explanations already preparing themselves in her mind, but all that emerged was an airless croak, and she dropped like a puppet with severed strings.

She was dimly aware that she was curled on the ground, Roxas' keyblade clutched in her outstretched right hand, and that all she could feel was pain. The injuries from her fight, the emotional wounds from that morning: both shriveled in insignificance to the agony that overtook her now. It was concentrated in her chest, her left hand pressed against the origin of the suffering as both her vision and ability to breathe came and went in waves. There was a humming in her ears, but she was vaguely aware of a faint noise to her right, which slowly separated into undecipherable speech. Her right arm was yanked back, the fuzzy conversation trailing off into a wordless yell. She was suddenly screeching back as the pain increased to an unbearable level, the stabbing in her chest nearly rendering her unconscious before disappearing completely. She was left gasping, chest heaving as her eyes shot open and she jolted upwards, the sudden lack of sensation shocking her into action. The white noise in her head had disappeared with the pain, the mysterious voice also absent. She strained her eyes to make sense of the blurry mess of colours that greeted her: shadowed hues of green and brown dotted with brighter reds and yellows. Blinking, she managed to concentrate on a pale spot directly in front of her and it sharpened, becoming a blonde boy with a pale, shocked face, a silver weapon held beside him as he knelt before her. Confused, she shifted her gaze to the keyblade, and then twisted slightly to the left, raising her hand to eye level in order to study the object held tightly in her grasp. Silver hilt and teeth, squared golden hand guard, a familiar chain and charm. She held a keyblade, completely identical to the one in the grasp of the teenager before her.

Speechless, she looked back up at him, shock and confusion reflected back at her. There was a low groan behind Roxas and both stiffened, eyes widening as they leapt to their feet. Pete had rolled onto his front, a snarl obvious on his face. Seeing Xion's expression, Roxas swiftly turned to face the villain… the world spun with him. Scenery blurring, ground tipping, a high-pitched whine filling the air… Pete stumbled back, hands clapped over his ears, before he too blurred, and then disappeared. Roxas' head whipped back around so that he could face Xion, who found herself unable to move. They stood motionless for an endless instant, the world dipping and twisting around them. Blue locked on blue, a momentary oasis in the hazy storm around them, and then he too was gone. The clearing snapped back to normal, both Roxas and their opponent conspicuously absent. Xion slumped back, keyblade automatically dismissed and eyes wide, as whatever spell had held her still dissipated. Her breath caught as she stared at the space where Roxas had been. The grass around her was pristine, the scorch marks gone from the walls. A light breeze whispered through the trees, birdsong the only sound in the calm of the afternoon. Xion slowly rotated, flinching as her injuries suddenly reminded her of their presence. Her thoughts were sluggish, shocked into inaction for the first time that day, save for one.

"What the hell is happening here?"

Yeah, so… hi? Ok, first off, I'm genuinely sorry for the wait. Next, I can swear here and now that I'm not going to abandon this story – I actually have the entire tale summarized and planned out. It's just that I'm something of a procrastinator, and summer honestly wasn't the best time for me to begin a multichapter project. I'm back at collage now, so updates are gonna be much more regular!

Thanks to any and all reviews, faves and alerts, they are truly appreciated. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, see you soon with Roxas' thoughts on the situation (and an explanation for at least one of the crazy things that happened here)!

-Arrow out-