Roxas was frozen the moment he saw the man's face.

He looked just like Sora. How was that even possible? Besides his hair and eye color, everything about his face looked identical to Sora's, even his grin. His outfit also seemed familiar to him, something from Sora's memories, but they were too hazy to tell.

Before Roxas could ask how it was possible, the man spoke before him. "How do I look like Sora you ask? That is a long story, but to keep it short, it is similar to why you look like Ventus," the man began.

Roxas did not respond at first and only stared at the man. "Who are you?" He asked suddenly.

The man laughed. "Name's Vanitas," he replied, "Being of darkness as well as one of the remaining Seekers of Darkness, nice to meet you."

The sarcastic nature of the man startled Roxas. How could this person look just like Sora but be completely opposite of him personality wise? Then again, Roxas wasn't all that much like Ventus, but he still wondered why that was so.

"No…" Roxas muttered, being at a loss for words for the moment. "It doesn't matter now, just… let her go."

"I thought I told you I cannot let that happen," Vanitas replied. "She is a Guardian of Light, and we all know what Xehanort wants done to her."

Roxas turned his head slightly to look down at the girl on the ground, whose breathing he could hear from his position. Her face was still covered by the hood, but he knew she must have been showing some kind of fear on her face from underneath. Knowing this, he quickly brought his keyblade out and pointed it at Vanitas, showing that he was not going to give up.

(Enter the Darkness – Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep) "If you won't let her go," Roxas began, "Then I am just going to have to make you."

Roxas saw Vanitas laugh before the man let out a sinister laugh, and then he brought out his own keyblade. "Then let's get started!"

Before Roxas even had time to prepare for the fight he knew was coming, Vanitas launched himself towards Roxas, almost gliding on the air quickly over to the former nobody. Roxas' eyes widened at the capable speeds Vanitas was able to accomplish, but he tried to take that thought out of his mind and focused on trying to get away from the attack Vanitas was trying to perform on him. Just at the last second, Roxas managed to jump out of the way, which proved to be difficult with how narrow the halls in the tunnel were, but he managed to use every bit of space available to escape his attack. Vanitas landed back on the ground on the place where Roxas once stood, a grin appearing on his face, before he jumped at Roxas again, this time the two locking keyblades with one another, Roxas' steel blue eyes looking into Vanitas' glowing yellow ones.

"I can see why you're a Guardian," Vanitas commented before he jumped back, raising his keyblade as high in the air as he could. "You have the heart to fight a battle you know you won't win!" Vanitas then brought his keyblade back down to his level and pointed it right at Roxas, who just noticed the ball of darkness resting on the tip of his keyblade. Before Roxas could respond, the darkness left the tip of Vanitas' keyblade, going right towards the former nobody. Thankfully, Roxas managed to dodge the attack, rolling out of the way but once he did that, Vanitas quickly charged over to him and knocked the Guardian off his feet, making him land on his back and having the wind knocked out of him for a brief moment.

When Roxas looked back up, he saw Vanitas jumping towards him again, with his keyblade pointed directly at his chest. Just when he was about to bring his keyblade down on him, Roxas managed to roll out of the way, not before he brought his keyblade up and fired a blast of blizzard right at him. This made Vanitas go flying backwards; making him hit the wall on the other side of the hall and land face first on the ground. Vanitas quickly got back up on his hands and knees to wipe his lip before he grinned, and ran towards Roxas again, who was standing back up. The two locked keyblades once more, both of them constantly trying to push the other person down by pressing their keyblade up against their opponent. After a few short moments, Vanitas successfully managed to push Roxas away and attempted to shoot darkness attacks at him, but the Guardian managed to bring his keyblade up to guard the attacks.

"Pathetic," Vanitas muttered, just loud enough for Roxas to hear him. Growling to himself, Roxas ran towards Vanitas while using a fire magic spell, but Vanitas managed to block the attacks. However, Vanitas was so focused on blocking the fire that he didn't even notice Roxas had made it in front of him, and the Guardian brought his keyblade down on Vanitas, hitting him with a combo. Once Roxas was about to finish the combo with another magic attack, Vanitas managed to bring his keyblade up to block the attack. Roxas still came running towards him though, and Vanitas had to bring his keyblade out to counter the attack, blocking it so swiftly that Roxas was shocked he managed to bring it up so fast. After several more attempted attacks, the two's keyblades met once more, and the two were face to face once again.

"Wait, what?" Vanitas suddenly said, pushing Roxas back as far as he could with his keyblade. Once Roxas regained his footing, he looked to Vanitas, who had lowered his keyblade and now had one hand on his ear, as if he was listening to something, or someone. "Are you kidding me? I was kind of in the middle of a battle here!"

At that moment, Roxas knew Vanitas must have had an earpiece in and was talking to someone on the other end. By the tone of his voice, Roxas could tell that whoever was on the other line was not making Vanitas happy. The Guardian knew that this was the perfect time to attack while he was preoccupied, but before Roxas could make a move, Vanitas' sigh stopped him.

"Ug, fine," he said before he removed his hand from his ear and unsummoned his keyblade. Then, before Roxas could question his actions, Vanitas summoned a Corridor of Darkness. "You're lucky, the boss called, wants me to return to the castle for some reason."

"What and you're just going to leave two Guardians here alone? You do realize this is our chance to escape, right? I thought you had to kill us," Roxas questioned sarcastically.

"What do you think I was trying to tell him?" Vanitas spat. "I knew Xehanort hiring him was a bad idea from the start, but no one ever listens to the one who failed the attempt at forging the X-Blade for the first time."

So Xehanort wasn't the person on the other line then, interesting. When he first heard Vanitas use the term boss, he thought he knew it was Xehanort, but apparently not. But if Xehanort wasn't on the other line, then who was?

"Whatever, I don't have time for this," Vanitas waved Roxas off. "Just enjoy your time to escape now; because next time our destiny's cross paths, it won't be as easy Ventus."

And, as quickly as he arrived, Vanitas walked through the Corridor of Darkness and left. And, before he even had time to think about if he should follow him, Roxas saw the portal close, taking Vanitas with it. (End Enter the Darkness)

What the hell was that about?

Roxas wished that he could remember Sora's memories clearly, because if he did, all these unanswered questions could have answers to them by now. He knew who Ventus was; he was the boy that looked like him, but why did Vanitas question who's nobody he was? It had to be Sora, that is who he always believed it to be, or was he? Not only that, but why did Vanitas look so much like Sora? Was there an unanswered connection or was it answered because he didn't remember Sora's memories clearly?

Roxas did not have time to think about that though and he turned to the girl, who almost had her arm unfreezed from the wall but was still having some trouble. Acting carefully, Roxas summoned a small fire on the tip of his keyblade and shot it at the ice, melting it instantly. But before she even had time to thank him, Roxas helped her up, held onto her hand, and made a run for it down the hall, bringing her with him.

It seemed like forever, but after several minutes, Roxas saw the light at the end of the tunnel, literally. Taking in a sigh of relief, he ran out into the light with the girl, bringing the fresh air into his lungs. They were in the area right in front of the Clock Tower and, thankfully, there were none of Xehanort's soldiers around here, not yet at least. "Come on," he told her. "They can get here any minute and we need to get back to the Gummi Ship with Cloud and Tifa if we want to stand a chance. We need to find them first, but if we're lucky they might still be—"

"Roxas."

Her voice sounded so familiar to him but he couldn't put his finger on where he had heard it before. Maybe it was just the fact that she cut him off so suddenly that it just sounded familiar to him. Despite the fact though, he turned to face her, only to be greeted by the hood that still covered her face. He didn't need to look at it long however, because, slowly, she put her hands on her hood and pulled off, revealing her blue eyes and short, jet black hair. She smiled upon making eye contact with Roxas. "It's great to see you again," she commented.

Roxas arched an eyebrow at her. "Again?" He asked.

Immediately, the smile from her face faded, but she looked as if she was expecting it. He could have sworn she muttered something, but it was too quiet to hear. "Never mind," she said sullenly. Before Roxas could question her sudden change in character, she held her hand out to him. "I'm Xion."

Looking at her gloved hand carefully, Roxas slowly brought his hand out and shook it in reply. "Roxas."

She grinned at the sound of his name, even though she already knew it before he even took his hood off in the tunnel. "Thanks for helping me." She said.

Roxas did not say anything at first, and only stared into her so familiar blue eyes. "Don't thank me yet, we still need to get out of here," he replied. "If we head down over this way we should run into Cloud and Tifa eventually…"

He trailed off suddenly when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye; it's blue and yellow body making its presence visible. It couldn't be what he thought it was, could it? Slowly, he turned his body to see it fully and, even thought it was right in front of him, he still could not believe it was what he thought it was. He didn't even pay attention to Xion and only walked towards the object, but it took looking at it close up for him to finally accept the truth of what it was.

It was Hayner's struggle bat.

Roxas froze at the sight of it. Even though he was only friends with the fake Hayner, he knew one thing was for sure: Hayner never left his struggle bat alone. Normally, he would carry it around with him, hung over his shoulder just in case Seifer walked passed them, gloating to the bully. He would never let it just leave it on the ground, it was practically a trophy to him. Seeing it on the ground was something Roxas never hoped to see. That, and the fact that it was there couldn't mean good news for Pence and Olette either.

Before he attempted to pick it up, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He didn't even need to look up to know who it was. "I'm sorry," Xion's voice said, her hand instantly gripping tighter on Roxas' shoulder. Without her noticing, a silent tear fell from his eye.

Why was he even crying? Roxas knew the moment he got caught up with the Restoration Committee that he was going to lose people he cared about, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. So why was he crying over people that technically didn't even know who he was? He thought he had learned to accept that people were going to die during his journey, but apparently he didn't. Stop your acting stupid, he continued to say to himself over and over again in his mind until the single tear vanished from his cheek.

Once he was sure that Xion would not notice his tears, Roxas removed her hand from his shoulder and stood back up. "It's fine," he said bluntly. "It doesn't even matter anymore; we just need to find Cloud and Tifa."

Something deep inside Roxas told him that there was no way Xion believed his words. He might have only known her for a few moments, but he could tell that's how she was. In a way, Xion reminded Roxas of Kairi: both of them being innocent, caring for people they hardly knew, even the fact that they could both fight well if they were given the chance. In fact, if Vanitas didn't use the blizzard attack on her, Roxas knew Xion probably could have handled him herself. Vanitas was just playing hard to get, but if he wasn't, she would have been fine.

"Thankfully, you don't need to look far," a voice said behind them. Upon hearing it, Roxas and Xion both turned to see Cloud and Tifa walking towards them. Roxas somehow knew that things were not going to go well with Cloud and Tifa, especially since Tifa looked just about ready to kill him.

"Are you an idiot?" She spat at him. Saw that one coming. "You can't just run off like that and expect everything to turn out fine!"

Roxas shook his head. "But it did this time, didn't it?" He retorted. "Look, I'm alright, she is alright, everything is fine!"

"But it could have easily made a turn for the worst!" Tifa yelled back before she placed her hand on her forehead. "Whatever, I shouldn't be stressing about this, what I should be stressing about is getting you two back to the ship safely because even though you never listen, you are still the worlds' last hope."

"As much as I agree with Tifa…" Cloud trailed off, inhaling deeply before continued. "He did successfully find the other Guardian; we have to be thankful for that." He then turned to Xion. "Now, what's your name again?"

"Xion," she replied with a smile. It was an amazing sight to see for Roxas, since she looked like Kairi, in a way, she looked like Namine too and seeing her smile again… It was heartwarming.

"Well, thankfully we cleared out most of the soldiers that were in the area we were last in, which was most of the fleet, but there are still some sneaking around here. If we are lucky, we should be able to get to the woods by heading back to that area through the tunnels."

"Actually, I don't think we need to worry about the soldiers anymore," Roxas said, leaving confused faces upon Cloud and Tifa. "I managed to fight the leader of the group, or at least I think he was. He said he was one of the Seekers of Darkness and he left suddenly, so I am guessing that since he left, the others must have left too, or at least most of them."

Cloud looked at Roxas with a squinted eye, studying the Guardian's face after he said those words before he spoke himself. "Seems logical," he said, placing his hand on his chin as if he was thinking. "If you believe that so well, then we can just take the way we just came from back to the main part of town. If we see anymore of Xehanort's soldiers along the way, we'll take them out; they shouldn't be that much of a hassle if there are only two or three in a group."

Roxas nodded before he turned to Xion. "You're okay to fight if we have to, right?" He asked her.

She nodded. "Still is a little cold but I can handle myself," she replied. Yup, she was definitely just like Kairi.

And as soon as she said those words, the three headed out back to the hole in the wall. Thankfully, Roxas' prediction was right and only a few stray soldiers remained in town, which Cloud and Tifa cleared out so quick that Roxas and Xion didn't even get the chance to summon their weapons before they were gone. Then, after just a few short minutes, they made it back to the ship, introducing Xion to the rest of the group before they took off, back to Radiant Garden.

…

Xion rubbed her hands against her arms, trying to get used to the Restoration Committee uniform as she looked around their base. Thankfully, once the group landed back in Radiant Garden, they had no problem with sneaking back through several alleyways in their Organization coats. When they made it back to the base, a young woman named Yuffie gave her a room and a uniform, which she changed into right away. Then, since it was only about midday, Xion came back out of her room to the main room of the base and just looked around in awe. It was amazing, she admitted, that they could hide something like this from Xehanort for so long.

It only took a few short minutes of her standing in the room before she felt the presences of someone approaching. Turning her head, Xion looked to see a young woman, wearing the same uniform she was but she wore a red scarf around her neck. "Hello," she said with a smile, "Xion right?"

Well the word got around about me fast… She thought. "That's me," Xion replied, pointing a finger to herself.

The other woman held out a hand, which Xion took instantly. "I'm Aerith," she said. "It's nice to meet you. We have been trying to find these new Guardians ever since we knew about their existence, so it's finally nice to meet another one of you."

"Nice to meet you too," Xion continued the conversation. Before she could attempt to say anything else Aerith leaned in towards her, studying Xion's face carefully. Taken aback by this, Xion's eyes widened until Aerith returned to her normal position.

"That's funny," she said. "Ansem the Wise talked about you like you were some kind of monster, but I don't see that at all."

"Ansem the Wise?" Xion asked shocked. "How do you remember hearing about me? No one was supposed to remember me after I was defeated a few years ago."

"Oh, he never mentioned you to me actually," Aerith explained. "You see, since Ansem and some of his workers lived in the Castle here when Xehanort took over, Xehanort threw them in the dungeon. But before he was taken as prisoner, Ansem managed to transport some of his journals to us. Many of these journals had magic seals on them, so even when you ceased to exist, the writings about you didn't fade. He talked about you a lot, and that was how we found out about you and the new Guardians."

Xion looked away from her. "So you only know about me because you read about me in his journals, not because people are actually remembering who I am?"

Aerith nodded.

Deep down inside, Xion was actually hoping that people actually were starting to remember her. Back when they were in Twilight Town, when Roxas said he didn't remember who she was, she was heartbroken. For a brief moment, Xion thought that Aerith actually was remembering something Ansem told her, but Aerith didn't even know Xion existed until she read the journals. She sighed; obviously getting people to remember her wasn't going to be easy.

"Surprised that old coot even wrote about me," she laughed. "That guy couldn't stand me."

"He was troubled by his own darkness for a long time, but he has changed, believe me, I just hope that he is still alright in Xehanort's prison." Aerith was quite for some time before she looked at Xion again. "Did you know any of them?"

"Any of who?"

"The Guardians of Light, the old ones, that…" Aerith couldn't continue her sentence, but Xion knew what she was trying to talk about.

"Axel—or Lea, was actually one of my closet friends," she began. "But, even if he was alive, he probably wouldn't even remember me…" She stopped herself before she talked about him. "And, I knew Riku. I spent a few days with him, he tried pressuring me into helping revive Sora's memories, and I was mad about it. But I know he only meant it for the best of things. I looked to him as a friend but I never knew if he looked at me the same way."

Aerith smiled, noticing Xion's sadness. "I am sure he looked at you the same way," she told her.

I sure hope so, was Xion's last thought before her and Aerith ceased talking for a long time.

…

Roxas hated explaining things, always worrying that he would leave something important out of the explanation, but since Cloud and Tifa insisted it, Roxas was forced to explain everything that happened in Twilight Town to Leon. He tried to go over every detail, not leaving out a single event that happened while there. Once he was finished, he took in a much needed breath, waiting for a response from Leon, who placed a finger on his chin.

"So they sent Vanitas out to try and capture Xion, but one of the other Seekers of Darkness commanded him to leave…" Leon repeated to himself.

"That person could be anyone really," Tifa said, who was standing on the other side of the room along with Cloud. "Vanitas was in one of the higher rankings of the Organization, but since most of the weaker ones were killed off by the original Guardians, he made his way down to the bottom of the barrel."

"His failure in forging the X-Blade for the first time never was exactly forgiven," Cloud added.

"Well whoever that person on the other line was must have had a good reason for him to return to the Castle without completing his mission." Leon said. "Xehanort must be planning something, and he needs the remaining Seekers of Darkness to do it."

"Speaking of Vanitas," Roxas cut in. "What did he mean when he asked me who's nobody I was? I am Sora's, right?"

Silence.

"Right?" Roxas repeated. "Please tell me even you guys don't know!"

"You are both," Tifa said suddenly. "Or, at least that is what Ansem the Wise believed."

"What are you talking about?" Roxas questioned.

"Ansem explained it like this," Leon began. "Ventus, the one who looks like you, was in Sora's heart when you were created, so you gained his appearance. But since he only had half a heart at the time, you are still Sora's nobody. But Ventus' half a heart went into you, so at the same time, you were Sora and Ventus' nobody."

Roxas folded his arms. "I guess that makes sense."

"Also explains why you can use two keyblades," Cloud added.

"Explains why used to be able to use two keyblades," Roxas replied. "Believe me, I have tried, I just can't do it. Whenever I try to summon both, all that comes in my hand is Kingdom Key."

The other three were quiet when Roxas said these words. Tifa then looked to Cloud and Leon. "Was Ansem's theory right?" She asked them.

"What are you talking about now?" Roxas asked.

Leon looked directly at Roxas. "Ansem theorized that this might happen. To explain it simply, even though you did develop your own heart, the only reason why you could wield two keyblades was because Ventus and Sora both could use one. But now that they are both gone, their light found its way into you, still giving you the ability to wield two keyblades…"

"Unless," Cloud continued. "Their light doesn't allow it."

Roxas was beyond confused now. "What?"

"Look, Roxas," Tifa continued for the other two. "No one can take away the ability to wield the keyblade, it just isn't possible. You still can summon two keyblades, but Sora and Ventus' light will not allow you to for some reason."

"And what reason is that?" Roxas questioned. 'What do I have to do to make Sora and Ven's light allow me to use two keyblades? What am I doing that is so bad that they don't except it?!"

"We don't know," Cloud said. "We don't even know if Ansem's theory about you being able to wield two keyblades is correct. We are just going off these theories because it is the only thing we have to go off of."

Roxas face palmed himself, completely confused. "Well what other theories does Ansem have?"

"About you being to wield two keyblades… none." Tifa said. "However, he did theorize who the other Guardians of Light could be, two of his predictions were you and Xion. He only managed to write down three possibilities, so that checks off two, but the last name he wrote down is something you might enjoy."

"And what is that?" He asked.

"Look at the evidence," Cloud began. "Kairi could use a keyblade, which could only mean her nobody could use one too, right? Kairi was one of the Guardians killed, so that means her nobody was released."

Roxas froze at the realization they just opened up to him.

"Wait, you're saying that… That she…?"

Before anyone could say anything else, Leon pulled out one of the journals, Ansem the Wise's journal, and showed him the page with the list of names of possible new Guardians of Light. His and Xion's name were already crossed off, but there was one name that still remained:

Namine.

"If you close your eyes

Does it almost feel like nothing change at all?

And if you close your eyes

Does it almost feel like you've been here before?"

~Pompeii by Bastille

Sorry it took such a long time for me to update! Between finals, Christmas (Happy late holidays though!), and a bunch of other stuff I barely had any time to write!

But on the bright side, a lot of things happen in my absence! To start, they released a new KH 2.5 HD remix trailer and it looked BEAUTIFUL! My friend got me a Loki hoodie I have been DYING to have too! And I made it to 170+ favorite author's lists! (Can we make it to 200?)

ALSO THEY RELEASED A NEW HTTYD2 TRAILER AND OMG HICCUP! (faints)

Sigh... But some not good things also happened in my absence unfortunately... If you are wondering, my PS3 ran out of memory so I have to delete a ton of memory so I can play 2.5 and FFX when they come out... But they will be worth it so why am I even complaining?

So hopefully, now that I am on winter break, I should have more time to write and stuff. However, I am about ready to enter production of another story for the Reconnect Series (Divinity fans rejoice!). I do not know if I am going to release it soon though, since every time I have tried to work on two stories at the same time it never really worked out, but I am willing to try again. I am still debating though.

Also, I have a secret project I am working on for you guys... However, you will have to wait until Divinity II is released for more information!

So please R&R and look out for the next chapter!

SHADOWS ASSEMBLE!