Roxas stayed quiet for the remainder of the Gummi Ship ride.

After they managed to escape Xehanort's soldiers on Destiny Islands, Aerith had brought him over to a sitting area not too far away from where Cid was piloting. She was helpful enough to introduce Roxas and Cid, but since the old man was piloting, he really wasn't paying much attention to the introduction. The keyblader and Aerith then took off the Organization coats, and Roxas just found the closest seat and sat down staring at the ground, not knowing what to do.

Destiny Islands was burnt to a crisp because of him. His house, the houses around it, the few trees that managed to survive even after all the chaos Xehanort caused, they were all taken by the fire. Those houses near him where the homes of several refugees who just managed to save enough money to buy the property, they were innocent. They bought a house to try and survive and what does Saix do? Cause a fire that spread before anyone could stop anything.

He just felt so guilty, not just about the fire, but about everything. He believed Aerith now, he was a guardian. If he had known he was a guardian earlier, could all those houses have been spared? If he knew he was a guardian earlier, could the worlds not be in the suffering state they were in now? The dozens of questions gave him a slight migraine, and he wished his mind would stop replaying them like a broken record player in his head.

Why him? Why did he have to be burdened with this? He already looked at the keyblade as a curse, being a Guardian would serve as an even bigger one. Did Aerith really expect him to save them from their suffering? How did she expect him to defeat Xehanort? Even with the other Guardians at his side (if they even found the others) he had the X-Blade. Maybe, just maybe, if Roxas could use Oathkeeper and Oblivion, they could stand a chance. But the problem was he couldn't, and he predicted that it would lead them to their downfall.

Roxas was about to go over more possibilities in his head but someone sat down next to him, making the keyblader look up. He wasn't surprised to see it was Aerith, who was trying to smile once they made eye contact but it was never found on her lips. "I'm sorry about your house." She said with guilt in her voice.

Roxas looked away from her and looked at the ground, unable to look into her green eyes as long as they were filled with guilt. "It's not my house I am upset about, it's the fire that spread and took everything else with it." He folded his hands on his lap. "Those where just innocent refugees houses, who were lucky enough to raise money to buy their own house. That fire took all their hard work away from them."

The former nobody could tell that Aerith felt guilty about everything, and that she probably took full responsibility for the fire. In the short time he knew Aerith; he knew that she was one to feel guilty for everything, even if it was not her fault. But he did not want her to think like that. Saix and his soldiers were the reason the town was burnt to a crisp, not her. She even said that she needed to get him out of there right away; she wanted to leave as soon as possible so something like that wouldn't happen. If anyone where to take the blame and feel guilty for this, it should have been Roxas since he kept asking questions when Aerith was trying to get him out of there.

And he sure did feel guilty.

Aerith looked away from Roxas for a moment, which caught his attention. He looked to see Aerith, with a pensive look on her face, staring at the ground before she looked back up at him. "You know, maybe if you joined us in fighting against Xehanort, we could help those refugees out." She said with a slight smile on her face.

Did she seriously just guilt trap him? No, there was still guilt in her eyes, but it sure seemed like that is what she was attempting to do.

Roxas huffed out a laugh hidden under his breath. "You really want me to join you don't you?" Two could play at this game. Roxas waited for Aerith to nod before he replied. "Well the answer is still no."

Aerith arched an eyebrow. "Suit yourself," she replied. "But whether you like it or not, you are going to have to stay at the Restoration Committee's headquarters until we get Xehanort off your back, so you might as well join."

"I am not joining until I feel like I need to." Roxas replied. Aerith gave him a blank expression before she got up, her hands behind her back.

She only walked a few inches away from Roxas before she continued to speak. "You don't feel like you need to join us now? What about all those people that are suffering? They need to be avenged." She continued to play this game with him, pushing him to join them in their fight, but he was not budging anytime soon.

Roxas did not argue with her at first, since she did make a valid point. But the thing was Roxas hadn't really witnessed what Xehanort is capable of first hand. Yes, he was the reason Sora and the others were dead and he was in Sora at the time, but it was so blurry that Roxas didn't even get to see who it was that killed him; all he saw was a grey and black keyblade. People were suffering, yes, but Xehanort hadn't done anything that affected him horribly yet. Was Axel's murder close? Yes, but it still wasn't enough.

"Until Xehanort gives me a good reason to avenge them, I am not going to go and fight him." He replied to her, sitting back further in his seat as he said so. Aerith looked back slightly when he said this, and Roxas noticed in her face that she was not going to continue fighting back anymore.

It was only a few seconds later when the two felt the Gummi Ship go forward slightly. Immediately, Roxas shot up, not knowing what that could have been, but Cid's voice stopped him. "Lady and Gent, I am happy to announce that we have arrived at are destination." He said, making his appearance known when he stepped out of the pilot area, walking towards the exit.

Not believing him for a moment, Roxas looked out the window. It was weird, it was so dark outside that he didn't even notice they had exited space; they have been flying for several hours.

"We better leave quickly; Xehanort's soldiers should be switching shifts right now, so no one will be on the streets for a few minutes." Aerith said as she grabbed her Organization coat and opened the hatch, followed closely by Cid, who had his own coat. Roxas, knowing that they were playing it better safe than sorry, also grabbed his coat and put it on.

The three then stepped out into the darkness of the night, with only the several stars and dim lights of the town to guide them. Roxas noticed that they had landed in the area outside of the town, which was now a barren wasteland. He saw several other Gummi Ships (under Xehanort's command) lined up in the distance, but there were no lights, giving the indication that no one was there. That is when he made the realization. "Hey, aren't we supposed to hide this? I mean, won't Saix and his soldiers recognize—"

Before Roxas could continue, the Gummi Ship that he had flown in a mere few moments ago vanished before his eyes. This took him heavily by surprise, and he turned to Aerith and Cid for answers. "Invisibility gummi, one of my personal favorites, too bad it's one of the rare ones." Cid said, throwing his hood up with Aerith doing the same. "Now come on, if we want to get to the house without being seen we better skedaddle."

Not wanting something like that to happen, Roxas quickly threw up his hood and followed the others. It did not take long for them to arrive in the town, which, to Roxas, did not look much different from the barren wasteland they were just in. Many of the houses and shops were boarded up and falling apart, with only a handful of ones still open, but even those weren't in the best of conditions. As they walked through the streets, Roxas looked down several of the allies, which had at the most two dozen people either trying to sleep, cuddling together by a fire in a trash can, or digging through the trash bins of places that were still open.

It made Roxas sad really. He thought Destiny Islands was bad, but it was not as bad as this. The refugees on Destiny Islands had just enough money to get out of this world, but these people weren't as lucky. They were in poverty, having no money to get out of here or to even survive.

Not being able to look at the saddened people any longer, Roxas only continued to trail behind Aerith and Cid, who had just arrived at their house. Roxas remembered this house from Sora's memories; it belonged to the wizard, Merlin. However, Roxas could tell that he no longer lived here due to the lack of magic in the air, though he wondered where he was, or even if he was still alive.

Cid was the one to open the door, allowing Aerith to enter inside first. Roxas was about to wait for Cid to go inside next, but the old man motioned for him to go inside quickly, so he did not argue. Cid trailed closely behind Roxas, shutting and locking the door behind him.

Despite most of the world having a dark, empty feeling to it, this house was the one and only place that made Roxas feel welcome in this town. It looked practically the same from what he remembered from Sora's memories, but instead of there being a computer right when you walked in, there was a brick fireplace. Normally, Roxas would feel welcomed by its heat and feeling of home, but after the events that just took place on Destiny Islands, it felt like the exact opposite.

"All righty then," Roxas heard Cid say. "Looks like we're safe, no reason to wear the coats anymore."

Just to be sure Cid was not lying; Roxas looked to Aerith, who began taking off her coat to reveal her blue and white dress underneath. The former nobody then quickly slipped out of his coat and held it in his hand.

"Wait a second, this is your headquarters?" Roxas asked the two.

Cid was the first to speak up, who had also gotten out of his coat to reveal his clothing underneath, which was the same from Sora's memories. "Yeah, what's the problem with it kid?" He asked.

"I… Nothing." To be honest, Cid kind of scared Roxas, which caused him to have trouble finding words. "I just… thought there would be more."

"Come on! You really think we can have a huge headquarters with Xehanort's soldiers patrolling the town twenty-four-seven?" The old man asked the keyblader.

Roxas stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I don't know." He replied bluntly.

"You want to know a lesson I learned when I was young Roxas?" Aerith asked him, whom he gave her his full attention to. "Things aren't always as they seem at first glance."

"What does that have to do with—"

Roxas stopped himself when he saw Aerith walk towards the left side of the fireplace. He knew she was up to something, but he admitted that he did not expect Aerith to go to one brick that was sticking out more than the others and push it, which caused a light rumbling in the house. Then, right before his eyes, Roxas saw the fire that was once in the fireplace vanish and the whole fireplace split in two, opening up a secret staircase that traveled downward on the other side. Aerith motioned for Roxas to go first, which he carefully did, and he began to walk down the stairs. At the end of the staircase, there was a huge door, which had a lock on it with several buttons with numbers on it. Cid was the one to step forward and type in the code, which Roxas noticed was 32702.

When the door opened, Roxas found himself shocked and surprised. On the other side of the door, there was a huge, huge room made of strong, metal walls and flooring. In this room, there were several dozens of computer monitors, each with a person Roxas did not recognize in a black uniform working and typing on it. On the farthest side of the room, there was a huge television monitor, which currently was off, but the size of it is what caught Roxas's attention. But one of the things that really shocked Roxas was that there were more doors, which meant to him there were more rooms, which he predicted where for a number of reasons: healing room, interrogation room, bedrooms for the people that lived here, and several other possibilities.

"Woah," was all he could say, since he was in too much of a state of awe to say anything else. He heard Cid snort behind him at his comment, while Aerith remained silent, but the keyblader could only imagine how much she was grinning right now.

"Aerith! Cid!" Roxas heard towards his left. When he turned to the sound of the noise, he saw a young girl, who couldn't be more than twenty running towards the three. Her short, black hair bounced as she ran, and she was wearing the same thing mostly everyone else was wearing here: a black body suit with long sleeves. Roxas knew for sure at that moment that it was the uniform, but hers was different from the others. The other people working here did not have the strange crown shaped symbol on the shoulder area.

Roxas recognized her shortly after he noticed this. Her name was Yuffie, one of the other members of the Restoration Committee.

Yuffie held her arms out when she got closer to the three, expecting a hug of some kind. Aerith was the one to walk forward and hug Yuffie for a short amount of time. "I was so worried!" The two ceased hugging as she continued. "I thought Xehanort might have gotten there first, or worse!"

"We're fine; you had no reason to worry." Aerith replied. Roxas wished he could smile, since Aerith clearly was the 'big sister figure' to Yuffie, and he thought it was sweet, but smiling was something that did not come easily to him.

"But still! You have to warn me next…" Yuffie trailed off because she looked over Aerith's shoulder, making eye contact with Roxas. At first, he thought that Yuffie would just stand there; awestruck that he was actually standing right in front of her, but what she did was the exact opposite. "Oh my gosh!" She ran over to Roxas, wrapping her arms around his neck in a strangling hug, cutting off his air. "It's you, it's you, it's you, I knew you would come! I knew you would join us in our fight!"

Roxas wanted to speak up, but he had no breath to do so. Thankfully, Cid noticed this and pulled her off Roxas. "Chillax, do you want to kill him?" He said in a passive tone.

"Right, I'm so sorry!" She apologized eagerly. "I was just so excited and when I get excited, I just go bananas, you know what I mean?"

Yuffie's personality was something Roxas had not seen in a long time. No one was really the same since Xehanort took over, but she was surprising since most of her peppy personality still was with her.

"I see you succeeded with your mission, Aerith." A deep voice said coming from the direction Yuffie just came from. Roxas looked up to see a tall man walking towards them with his hands behind his back. He had medium length hair with bangs that looked like they were styled to hide the scar that ran across his face, but they were not doing a very good job at hiding it. He wore the same uniform Yuffie did but styled for a male that was sleeveless with a black vest over it and he had a necklace with a lion on it hanging from his neck. Roxas knew who he was the moment he saw the scar, Leon, the leader of the Restoration Committee.

When he approached them, Aerith giggled. "Well, did you expect anything less from me Squall?" She joked.

Leon/Squall (or whatever his name was) grinned the slightest when she said this. "I admit I didn't, excellent work." He replied.

"Ah yah know, I drove her there and back." Cid interrupted, trying to gain the praise that Aerith had just received. Leon glared at Cid as if he was silently saying really? Cid stared back at him with a glare, but he knew it was no use. "Never mind, I'm just going to get back to my computer."

When Cid left the group, Roxas's eyes followed him, and he saw the old man take a seat at the biggest computer near the furthest wall.

"It is an honor to meet you Roxas." Leon said in his emotionless voice. "I am glad you decided to join us here."

Roxas did not know how to react to that since he was unsure if Leon meant just come here to Hollow Bastion, or if he meant that he actually joined the Restoration Committee, which he didn't. However, Aerith answered the question for him. "He is unsure whether or not he wants to join the Restoration Committee yet." She spoke up.

"WHAT?!" Yuffie hollered loudly, which caused everyone in the room to turn to her direction. "What do you mean you didn't join us? What's not to love about this group?"

The keyblader noticed Leon glare at Yuffie, and Roxas knew that Leon was hoping Yuffie would look at him and it would get her to shut up. But Yuffie didn't look to him and only continued rambling to Roxas, which Aerith then took charge of. "Yuffie, why don't you go see where Stitch went to?"

Yuffie's mood changed in the blink of an eye. "Great idea!" She leaped for joy before she jumped off. Once she was gone, Roxas laughed to himself, finding it hilarious at just how short Yuffie's attention span was.

Once she was gone, Leon turned to Aerith. "Why don't you go change into your uniform? I would like to speak alone with him." He said, acting as if Roxas was not even there.

Aerith laughed. "Of course, I needed to get out of this thing anyway; I haven't worn it in forever and forgot how much I hated it." She joked.

Leon grinned as Aerith walked away. Roxas could not understand why or how, but there was some kind of relationship going on between the two, whether they were just flirting with one another or if they were actually a couple, there was something going on.

"So is it true that you did not yet decide if you are going to join us?" Leon asked, snapping Roxas back into reality. The keyblader didn't know it yet, but he was more afraid of Leon then he was of Cid.

"Well… Yeah." Roxas was still having trouble finding his words, but he managed to find enough to speak to Leon. "It's just I want to have a good reason to join you guys. Not to say that Xehanort ruining the worlds was a good reason, but until he does something that gives me a personal really good reason, I am not joining."

At first, Roxas thought Leon was going to punch him in the face as hard as he could for not joining them, but nothing came. Leon only stood there, staring at Roxas with his dangerous blue eyes. "While I disagree with your reasoning, I am not going to argue with your decision." Leon said emotionlessly. "Hopefully, you will change your mind."

"Change my mind?" Roxas asked. "You guys are secretly trying to find the new Guardians of Light in an attempt to overthrow Xehanort, a plan like that will get all of you killed." He paused, making sure that Leon was not going to tackle him for saying that, and then continued. "All it takes is one slip up, and Xehanort finds you, and he will kill all of you for doing this."

Leon's slight death glare sent the slightest shiver down Roxas's spine. "The worlds have been in chaos ever since Xehanort won the battle against the lights; we want that to change. By gathering new Guardians, we might actually have a chance of freeing the worlds from this torment. Yes, we are risking our lives doing this, but if we succeed, we can defeat Xehanort. A lot of people would think of that as the worlds' best chance."

Roxas snorted. "I'm thinking you guys are insane if you want to know what I'm thinking."

The words slipped out of Roxas's mouth so quick that he didn't even have time to think about if it was the right thing to say or not. The glare Leon sent Roxas made the keyblade believe that he was going to throw his head through the ceiling. But Leon did something that Roxas was not expecting; he held his hand out to the keyblader, willing to shake it. Roxas was cautious at first, but he eventually took Leon's hand in his and shook it.

"You have fire, that's something we need if we want to have a chance of defeating Xehanort." He said simply.

To Roxas, this man was about as confusing as Demyx was. "I never said I would help you defeat Xehanort." He retorted, beginning to get aggravated.

"Yes, but whether you like it or not, you have to stay here if you want to live. Hopefully, your time here will change that opinion." Leon continued.

Roxas clenched his fists together. He wished he could summon Oathkeeper and Oblivion so he could duel wield the heck out of him, but before he could even attempt to summon both blades (again) a voice behind him stopped them. "Looks like you two got acquainted." Aerith said.

The keyblader turned to face Aerith, since she was really the only one she could stand in this place, and her sight would calm him. She no longer wore the blue and white dress, but instead a black body suit similar to Yuffie's with long sleeves. Like Yuffie, she had high black boots built for combat and fingerless gloves. The only obvious difference from Yuffie, or anyone else's uniform for that matter, was that she wore a bright, red scarf around her neck that matched her bow in her braid. She wore it proudly, loped twice around her neck with the two ends still long enough to dangle pass her breasts.

"I suppose you can say that." Leon said sarcastically. Roxas hid his face full of rage the best he could when he said that. "But it does not matter, it is late, perhaps now would be a good time to show him to his room."

"Of course," Aerith said smiling as she took her hand and motioned Roxas to follow her, which he did immediately. As long as it meant staying away from Leon, he was perfectly fine with it.

Following Aerith, the young woman took him to one of the closest doors from where they were just standing that lead them into a long hallway. The hallway had multiple doors on each side with numbers on them, which Roxas figured were other rooms. Besides that though, there was nothing else to this area, it was just in the same style as the rest of this underground base.

Since the hallway was ridiculously long, Roxas figured that it would be more bearable if he stared a conversation with Aerith. At first, he did not know what to say to her, and the idea of the uniforms came to his mind for some reason. "So what, you guys have to look nice in a uniform to 'defeat' Xehanort?" He asked

Aerith smiled at his comment. "No, we are required to wear the uniform since, if for whatever reason, we need to go out on an emergency mission, these are easy to move around in and will help us blend in with the shadows along with the Organization coat."

"Yeah, you're going to be hiding well in the shadows with that bright red scarf around your neck." He said.

Aerith squinted her eyes at the former nobody. "I know, it is kind of obvious, but it can stay hidden under the Organization coat." She paused. "Besides, I really can't find myself ever taking this off, it was a gift from Leon, so I have to wear it to show him that I really love it. It's kind of symbolic in a way."

"Wow, the guy actually has a soft side? That's the plot twist of the night." Roxas rolled his eyes. "What, are you two like… in a relationship with him?"

Roxas was half hoping that Aerith would say no, but he knew it wasn't going to come. The way they acted around each other, it was weird, but you could tell there was something going on between them. The thing was though that Roxas just couldn't see sweet and sincere Aerith and grumpy Leon together.

"I guess you can say that." She said, which made Roxas sick to his stomach. "You see, I was in a relationship before, but he…" She stopped dead in her tracks, which made Roxas stop as well. He immediately regretted asking Aerith about relationships since she seemed to be getting so choked up over this.

"Sorry, you don't need to explain." Roxas said, hoping that he didn't just ruin only the slight friendship he made here so far.

Aerith wiped her eyes from the tear that was forming in them. "No, I'm fine really." She said, seeming to go back into her bubbly self. The two resumed walking. "As I was saying, he… is no longer with us. For a long time, I didn't want to talk to anyone and I never wanted to form a relationship with anyone else ever again in fear that they would be taken away from me like he was. But Leon taught me how to love again."

Roxas did not know how to respond to that but thankfully he didn't have to since Aerith stopped. "Here's your room." She said, pointing to the marked door with the Roman numeral number XIII on it. How ironic.

Roxas stepped forward and opened the door, with Aerith trailing directly behind him. The room was small, having enough room for a king-sized bed and some walking space, but besides that, nothing else. The walls and floor had the same metallic look to it as the rest of the underground base did. It only had one light in the room, which made it seem very dark, but Roxas noticed that there was another light on the furthest wall from him that was not on. He figured that it was for emergencies and would cause a siren.

"I managed to get you a bigger room then the others." She explained. This was one of the bigger rooms? "I also made sure to hang up some clothes in the closet for you."

Roxas didn't even notice there was a closet until she mentioned it. Wanting to know what clothing was in them, he walked over to the closet, opening it to reveal the clothing inside. The sight made him look at it emotionlessly: it was the uniform that the males wore here, just like the one Leon wore.

The keyblader turned to Aerith, giving her a look that said really? "Don't look at me like that, it's the only thing we have available to wear, so even though you have not joined us yet, you are going to have to deal with it." She said.

Roxas sighed and shut the closet door. "Thanks." He said in reply.

"You're welcome." She said before she looked at her wrist. "Well, it's getting late, so I'll see you tomorrow. If you need anything, I'm in room seven."

And with that she left, leaving Roxas alone in the room. It was funny, being alone in here almost made him feel like he was back at his home in Destiny Islands, but he was quickly reminded that it no longer existed anymore.

Yawning, Roxas decided to kick off his shoes and lie down in his bed, waiting for sleep to come to him.

"Save your tears cause I'll come back

I could hear that you whispered as you walked through that door.

But still I swore to hide the pain when I turn back the pages.

Shouting might have been the answer

What if I cried my eyes out and begged you not to depart?

But now I'm not afraid to say what saved my heart..."

~A 1000 Words by Noriko Matsueda & Takahito Eguchi (I think I spelled those right...)

Seriously, you guys are just overwhelming me with support for this story. There were 19 reviews on the last chapter, which is tie with my most reviewed chapter ever. This is just awesome. Thanks so much :)

If you guys want a better visual for the underground base, I recommend picturing it like the Helicarrier from The Avengers (with no windows of course). The uniforms the group is seen wearing is also very similar to those in the Avengers, but with the KH logo on the shoulder instead of the shield logo. For the girls, imagine Black Widow's uniform and for the boys, imagine Hawkeye's uniform but in all black.

And yes, Aerith's red scarf was something I borrowed from Mikasa from Attack on Titan. Between her, Eren, and Levi, she is one of my favorite characters so I just threw that out because of it.

I took the time to add several little Easter eggs in this chapter. Anyone who finds them gets bonus points!

Oh, and for all of you who know of my Marvel/Loki obsession, I absolutely loved Thor: The Dark World. Loki literally stole the show with this and that made it for me. My only complaints were the villain being sucky and it was predicable. But besides that, I loved it (especially the ending) even though it punched me in the feels repeatedly so bad that I was crying at certain points... But yeah, you guys definitely should go see it! (definitely better then IM3 in my opinion)

So that is really all I have to say so please R&R and look out for the next chapter!