Disclaimer: Honest, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Just this story, people, that's all…(And I wish I could say Roxas was mine too.) But I hold myself liable for the town Ecstasy; that was all my idea….

Chain of Hearts, Chapter 7:

The Black District (part 2)

By Nagori Kirashi

Sora watched as heart after heart rose into the sky and disappeared. They had found a back alley that was filled with Shadow Heartless. Tifa had told them that it was because they were attracted to the fear in the town, and this particular area was almost never entered, so it was rich with the emotion that filled the district. Apparently Heartless were just as drawn to the area as Roxas refused to admit he was.

Hayner took a deep breath, then whirled around with his weapon in hand, quickly dicing the next Shadow Heartless in half.

"Way to go, Hayner!" Roxas cheered. He himself whirled his two Keyblades in a quick circle several times, quite like Axel had done with his flame weapons, then to show off his own skill, he spun in a quick circle, tearing the heads off of several Heartless that were approaching him so that they disappeared moments later in a puff of blackness. Sora wondered in awe how he could wield the Keyblades so soon after he had been injured.

"Roxas, you show-off," Tifa remarked, standing next to Sora in the widened alleyway as both watched Roxas and Hayner dominate against the many Heartless. She too wondered how he could fight so well after receiving such a gruesome wound.

"What?" he asked them, shrugging his Keyblades next to him and killing another Heartless, trying to make it look as if he hadn't even noticed he just had.

"Just get over here," Sora said to him, and Roxas finally gave up and went over to join Sora and Tifa while his Keyblades evaporated from his hands.

Hayner, in the meantime, didn't even seem to notice that he now had the area to himself. He practiced several techniques that Tifa had just taught him with perfected accuracy, yet he added his own admiral fervent strategy to it, so that every move was four times more powerful.

Suddenly, deciding he was ready to try it again, Hayner held the almost-luminescent blade in his hand, holding it back in a way that now felt comfortable, then thrust his arm forward and let it fly.

Sora, Tifa, and Roxas all jumped and pressed their backs against the brick wall behind them as far as they possibly could in order to avoid an attack that they were sure was going to hit them. The knife flew through the air, spinning around as it did. As soon as it flew through about four larger Heartless, dooming them for all of eternity, it seemed to bounce off the last Heartless, then began to change direction and return to him.

'Yes, I did it!' Hayner thought proudly, holding his breath as he held his hand out to catch the knife that was moving at an angle towards him. A smile played at his lips, when suddenly he noticed where the knife's path led it before it would come within reach.

Roxas stared at it in shock as he, too, realized it was angling towards him.

Hayner had to act quick, and everything became slower as all he could do was concentrate his thoughts on it.

'Please, please don't hit him…'

Suddenly Hayner was taking a step backwards as the knife landed firmly in his hand, his body catching it as if it were simply another part of him. When he looked at Roxas, staring at him up and down to check him for injuries, he found none.

"Holy shit…" Roxas thought he was going to pass out.

Hayner, whose life had felt over the moment he had seen it was headed strait for Roxas, still half expected the blonde's head to abruptly dismember and fall off, but nothing happened, and the friend from Twilight Town just dropped to the ground in relief. Surprise overtook him as several Shadow Heartless crawled onto his arms and legs, and in seconds they were gone, with Hayner's knife back in his sheath safely.

"Hey, are you okay?" Sora asked Roxas, putting an arm on Roxas' back as his other side leaned forward.

Roxas rubbed his face with both hands as if wiping off sweat, and Tifa noticed his arm twitch, still without causing any reaction of pain. She went over to him.

"Hey, let me see this," she said, touching the cloth strip that was still wrapped several times around his arm.

"Huh?" Roxas asked her, then stood up more straight so he could watch her untie it. He would have stopped her had he felt any pain, but not only did he feel none, he had forgotten about it altogether.

When Tifa pulled off the soft cloth wrap, they could see that almost nothing remained of the deep injury he had just received earlier that day. Roxas looked just as surprised as the rest of them.

"Do you think it has to do with where we're at?" Sora asked, looking at Tifa.

Hayner came over to them, then looked at the healed injury on Roxas' arm as well. Their confused eyes met, and before Roxas realized what was happening, Hayner had made a small cut along Roxas' arm. It wasn't at all deep, but it still drew blood.

"Hey, what the hell was that for?!" he demanded, but Sora quieted him and he looked down.

Even though there was still blood running along the side of his arm where his new cut was, it seemed as if it were already healing. When they stared at it for a long time, they could tell that it was healing at a rate just slow enough to make it look like it weren't moving, so it seemed that one moment they were looking at a long slash and less than a minute later they were staring at a half-healed injury.

"It's already disappearing," Sora said, touching it.

They all looked at eachother with different expressions.

"I don't wanna be the bringer of bad news or anything," Roxas said to them, touching his own arm, "but…is this what we're up against now?"

"Good thing that one is on our side, then," Tifa said, still managing a cheerful tone.

"Wait a minute, we should be going now, shouldn't we?" Sora said to her. "We still have a long ways to go before we find Kairi, I think."

"Well, you still have the other districts to look in," she said to him. "And maybe those enemies in black you're looking for are around here, too."

"Yeah, that's right," Roxas said while deep in thought. "Maybe since this place has emotions, then they'll want to come here. Like maybe they'll be drawn to it."

"I dunno; are you, Roxas?" Sora asked him.

Roxas thought about it for a moment, then finally nodded. "Yeah," he said to them. "This place is pretty neat…Especially this Black District we're in right now. It makes me feel more…"

He stopped, wandering in his own thoughts.

"C'mon," Sora said with a smile. He was getting used to this place already. "Let's just go back; I still haven't seen anyone too dark wandering around here, and I think Hayner is tired anyway."

"How'd I do, then?" Hayner looked up at Tifa with a hopeful gleam in his eye.

"You've really learned a lot about how to communicate with your weapon," she said to him somewhat proudly. "It was obvious when you steered it away from Roxas."

"Huh? That obvious?" he said to her.

"It's something you have to know how to look for." Her expression was calm now as she walked along with the others. Hayner made no reply, just pulled out his knife and looked at it as they continued forth.

Had they turned and glanced behind them, they would have been able to see a figure just entering the street from the other end, looking out at them. His cobalt eyes shone behind his layers of light, messy, salt-bleached hair, and a dark Keyblade of his own called Way to Dawn was held in one hand, almost resembling a bat wing. The figure considered following them as they walked along in a tight group, yet something told him the time wasn't right.

Why he had been drawn to such a dreary place, he knew. That's why he'd set out on his journey in the first place, to get rid of that power that still subsided in part of him.

But here he was again, somehow lured into another black hole.

Finally he sighed, turning his back to the group. There were things he needed to do first, he new, and with the feeling of being left out as a heavy topic on his mind, he set out to find out what.

-,-,-

"Today we visit the District of Roses," Tifa told them. "It's associable with red, and its emotion is passion."

"What kind of passion?" Sora asked her as he sat on the bed once more.

"Any kind you want," she told him. "A lot of people come there either to fight or they come as a couple, either or."

"I don't wanna know," Hayner said, scowling as if disgusted.

Tifa glanced at him, then sort of shook her head, ignoring him. "Sora, you might feel more passionate about saving Kairi while we're there. Hayner, you might feel like a more passionate fighter. And Roxas…"

"Revenge." His answer was simple, yet blank.

Sora glanced at Roxas wearily; he didn't want to end up taking on his equally-matched opponent; there was absolutely no way to guess who would win. If Roxas was set towards revenge, though, then Sora might end up getting taken out on anyway.

"What's with that, then?" Tifa asked Roxas. "I mean, who're you looking for revenge against?"

His answer was straightforward, and they could tell it by the way he expressed it, both in his voice and in his physical actions.

"All of them," Roxas said. "For taking Naminé and for the way they used me an' Sora like they did."

"I guess that's reasonable," she said while opening the door of their Hotel room and leading them out.

While they were walking outside, they had the impression that it should be daylight outside, yet despite the activeness of the people around them dressed in dark clothing, they were still buried in a world darker than night itself.

At last Tifa led them to a pair of intricately-carved oaken doors, engraved in a way that seemed to resemble fire. At the same time, its pattern was an equally distinct formation of sharp-edged flowers with tempting two-dimensional thorns that lined the edge of the carving. The flames seemed to be based roughly off the shape of the flowers, almost giving the flowers a carved glowing appearance at the same time.

"Here we are," Tifa said at last. She pulled open the two large doors with an extended effort, still making sure she was the first one to enter the next part of the city.

Though Tifa's eyes adjusted quite quickly so that she stood un-phased while the others entered, Sora, Roxas, and Hayner were all covering their eyes from the sudden brightness of the place they walked into. Everything there, like the previous districts, basically resembled a red Traverse Town—though the others hadn't exactly been red. The brick street, along with many other things such as the roofs, were mostly brown, yet other than that everything was a rainbow of different crimsons and reds. Even the sky was dyed scarlet as if the sun were just setting.

It turned out that their female acquaintance had been correct, too; Sora and Hayner could feel adrenaline pulsing inside them as they looked around. Suddenly they had the urge to fight someone, yet neither felt the urge yet to show it.

"I think you guys should look around the town a bit more," Tifa told them. "I'm not much for this district, but I think we might be right about someone without a heart wanting to come to a place like this. Who knows, you might actually run into one."

"I think it's more like they run into us," Roxas commented in what almost sounded like a nervous voice. However, he was feeling quite the opposite of nervous…More than Sora or Hayner, more than even Tifa herself, he felt different.

Roxas felt nearly like killing someone. The image of someone with hair as red as their surroundings appeared in front of him, and his eyes watered with restraint from not leaping forward and attacking the false illusion. He considered leaving with Tifa and going back to the Black District, which felt much safer to him.

'Does that mean I really do belong in the dark…?" Roxas thought to himself as he forced in his sudden feelings. All of a sudden Roxas became so curious as to why he felt any emotions whatsoever in these districts but not the rest that he forgot all about where they were, lost in distracting thought.

"So you're going back?" Sora asked Tifa finally.

"Yeah," she sighed, looking at them all with a remarkably blank expression. "I don't like the feeling this place gives me. I'll be back at the Hotel when you guys are done looking around."

With that final statement, Tifa left them, and the three continued forward in the strange scarlet world they were now in.

"Is this really all the same town?" Hayner asked Sora, who nodded with a tense expression. Sora was looking ahead almost longingly, preparing to bolt into a run, it seemed. His right hand twitched, ready to wield the Keyblade at no warning and break through a thousand brick walls if someone told him Kairi were on the other side.

Finally Hayner turned, a grin on his face as he leapt in front of them.

"Okay, who wants to go?" He challenged them. "For fun, or whatever. Man, I am so pumped right now!"

Sora and Roxas looked at eachother strangely.

"Why don't you save it, Hayner?" Sora asked him, finally managing a smile. "You…might need it later."

"Yeah, then let's hurry!" Hayner continued to clench his fists as he punched the air straight above him in excitement. "If I don't get some of this out, I think I'm gonna destroy this place!"

'Me too,' Roxas thought, but he kept the much more grave comment to himself. They walked along, and they couldn't help but notice the occasional fights breaking out between people dressed with clothing from different districts.

Just then, the spiky haired blonde turned as he noticed a set of two tall doors. Every doorway had an arch above it that they opened beneath to divide the sky's stages, and this door's arch was like woven icicles. The doors themselves were much smaller than the others he had seen, but by the way they stood out so strongly, he was sure it was an entryway leading to another district. Roxas turned to the others, knowing quite well that if he didn't leave soon, he might be the last one standing. Pointing at the door, he said to Sora, "Hey, look; wonder what's over there?"
"Hey, maybe we shouldn't go there unless Tifa's said it's okay—hey, wait for me!" Sora yelled as he ran to catch up with Hayner and Roxas.

Right outside the door, however, Hayner stepped in front of the group, looked at Roxas daringly and said, "Wait, first let's go, just you and me. One on one; if you can handle it, you loser."

Seconds later, Hayner was on the ground, wiping a streak of blood from his nose as Roxas threw open the doors angrily. Sora bent down next to Hayner, helping him up, and lowering his voice, Sora said to Hayner, "Um, I think you picked the wrong guy to challenge just now."

"No, really?" Hayner asked with heavy sarcasm in his voice.

"Hey, look at this!"

The other two turned to look at what Roxas was looking at. It was the strangest place they had seen yet in those last few days since they'd landed there, and they suddenly doubted it was even a district.

"Wow," Hayner said, coming over. All he could see was blue crystal, but this time it really did appear to be ice. "What is it?" Besides blue crystal, they could see black clouds in the distance in every direction, or as far as they could tell from where they were standing, anyway. It looked as if the door was at the top of a curving fissure, and walls of jagged glaciers and ice made up walls in some places. Not a single sign of life was visible. It felt more like looking into a vision or a picture.

Sora took a step forward, holding a hand in front of him as he said, "I don't know…"

Then he stopped. He was touching brick.

"Guys…?" Sora turned, and both were staring at the wall now in front of them. "What happened to that door there just now?"

Roxas shook his head blankly. He had no idea either. "It was there a second ago, I saw it too, but it just…disappeared…like some kind of illusion."

The word "illusion" seemed to ring a bell among a few of them, and all three followed eachother's examples and began to scan the area lightly for some sign of an Organization XIII member that might have been the cause of the strange door.

But before they had a chance to search the area much more, a churning portal of blackness formed nearby, and they watched with stunned expressions as Axel stepped out with Kairi.

"Sora!" she gasped, tearing away from Axel as he released her. She ran over to Sora, and both hugged thankfully.

"Keep her safe," Axel said to them. "They were keeping her in the…keeping her somewhere, and if it weren't for me, they probably would have come back for her by now. I'm sure you guys'll be able to keep her safe, right?"

Roxas didn't say anything, only looked at Axel firmly. All the stray emotion of fury that had been pulsing through him moments ago was now gone, as if Axel's mere presence had somehow drained it from the atmosphere.

As Axel turned, he looked at Roxas in particular and said, "Now this is the last time I can help. If you want Naminé, I can't get to her myself any more than you can right now, so I'm afraid you're just going to have to talk to Saïx about that one."

Just as he turned to leave, Roxas took a strong step forward and yelled, "So why help us now, then?"

It took a moment before the Eighth member would even turn his head enough to look at Roxas.

"I told you, I'm doing all that I can," Axel said to him calmly over his shoulder, then was gone.

Roxas turned with tight lips away from the spot Axel had last been, then saw that Kairi was nearly crying into Sora's arms. His face softened immensely, as did Hayner's.

"Let's go back, okay?" Hayner said, tugging lightly on Sora's sleeve.

"No, she won't like it there," Sora said to them over Kairi's shoulder. "I'm going to take her over to the Ecstasy District by cutting through whatever the next ones are, and you guys can go tell Tifa we'll probably be at the Hotel, or maybe the park, if they have one."

"I'm pretty sure they do," Roxas said, already turning. "See you soon?"

"You bet," Sora said, managing a small smile.

So together, Hayner and Roxas turned their backs to the two still holding eachother and began back towards the Black District.

-,-,-

Sora and Kairi were walking together through a well-shaded area, and the sun shone cheerfully through the tops of the evergreen and emerald treetops. A small, sparkling stream ran through the middle of the park, and as Sora listened to Kairi's story, they walked over the small brick bridge that crossed over it. Even Kairi felt she could have leapt over the stream it looked so narrow, yet the bridge seemed so pleasant and romantic, with golden and ruby fish swimming along its shallow depths, occasionally bobbing towards the top to kiss the clear surface.

As they continued along into the park, they found a particular swing-set with a set of swings that looked perfect for them, and both sat down, still shaded.

"I really like this place," Kairi said with a smile. Sora smiled back, and Kairi giggled when a pinkish leaf from the blossoming tree nearby brushed her nose before drifting down and resting on her lap.

"You really went through a lot," Sora said, almost regretful to change the subject. "I wish I had been there instead of you."
"Silly, you already have been!" Kairi tilted her head at him, her way of telling him she meant what she said. Suddenly, to Sora's surprise, she asked, "Are you and Axel friends?"
"I…don't know," he replied, scratching his head. "I guess you could say that."

"That's good!" She smiled at him again, then pushed off the ground with her feet so her swing began to move. The petal on her lap drifted to the ground unnoticed, where it lay among others like it. "And about what he told me, do you think that's how Roxas came back?"

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully while looking in the distance and studying nothing in particular. "That must be it," he replied to her. Sora was amazed at how fast she had gotten over her experience, but he also knew she had been through worse and come out just fine; Kairi was like that. She really did have a strong heart. "I just hope that isn't enough to make him want to join the Organization again."

"Oh, he won't, I know he wont!" Kairi declared a little too quickly. Then she was quiet, but before she knew it, the chipper mood that drifted like a pleasant fragrance around the area retook her mood and she began to sing quietly.

Sora sighed, then smiled over at Kairi.

"I'm so glad that you're back," he told her.

"Yeah," she agreed. "By the way, Sora, this time…Can I help, too? While you look for the others?"

"Sure," he said quietly, and as they sat on their swings together, smiling, they both gently grabbed onto eachother's hand and linked their fingers together. Sora added with a laugh, "But I'm not sure how much help you'll be."

"That's alright," Kairi said, laughing right back. "As long as we're together."

"Yeah," Sora said. "Just like we promised."

-,-,-

"Why did you do that?" Xaldin demanded Axel.

"Do what?" Axel replied casually. They were standing in one of the many shadowed streets in the World That Never Was, where legions of high-ranking Nobodies were now being gathered to take back their castle. Axel had come back to help look over the gathering creatures, like a shepherd herding flocks of sheep. Xaldin was there as well, along with Lexaeus, Vexen, and Saïx himself as he barked out occasional orders to one of them. The entire world was darker than it had once been, if even possible, now that it lacked the one source of light it once bore before Sora had destroyed it.

"You fool. What good will giving Kairi to those boys do you?" the long-haired member said to Axel. "We needed her more than they did; all she'll do is hold them up."

"So shouldn't you be glad, then?" Axel asked contentedly. "Not to mention they're still after Naminé; as long as we have her, they'll still be coming."

"You're holding us up," Xaldin declared. "The longer they take—"

"The more ready for them we'll be," cut in the red-head.

Xaldin glared.

"I don't believe for one minute you weren't helping them," he said darkly, kicking a slow-moving Dusk that was near his feet and sending it off in a helpless, wriggling frenzy. "But if you want Kairi with them when we destroy them, then that's your choice; obviously I don't care."

"So stop acting like it," Axel shot.

Vexen came closer to them, and with his own sturdy shield and a current of smaller Nobodies still separating them, he said slyly, "Xaldin's right. You're making our new Superior furious. You should be quite glad he needs you, or I have no doubt that you would be dead by now, with your foolish behavior."

"Probably would be," the pyromaniac said as if not caring. Deep down, however, he knew Vexen was probably right.

Xaldin stepped closer and, still glaring, he said to him, "You just watch it. You're not Xemnas, you're not Saïx; hell, you're nobody. Even among us. One false move and you can bet that not even Saïx will care what we do to you."

Axel only nodded.

"Xaldin!" Saïx yelled sharply from almost fifty feet away. "Check on that girl, will you? And give her this."

A slender Dusk with a folded piece of paper tied to its neck reeled through the air, and Xaldin snatched it from its neck as it wavered by.

"My pleasure," Xaldin replied after taking it, then added quietly while looking at Axel, "and I'll be damned if he ever lets you check on her."

With that, the gruff member disappeared from the scene with a sinister grin that made even Axel uncomfortable. Finally, Vexen gave Axel a look of his own, then turned away once more.

"We'll see about that," Axel said to himself, then turned as well to watch the growing crowd of Nobodies filling the blackened streets.

-,-,-

After Tifa, Roxas, and Hayner had all finally gotten to the Hotel in the Ecstasy District, they had asked the cheerful clerk if anyone named "Sora" or "Kairi" had checked in.

Apparently they had not.

"What's taking them so long?" Hayner complained as they sat in the lobby.

"Aw, what's th' matter, Hayner, jealous of what Sora might be doing right now?" Roxas teased. Finally the good cheer of the town around him was actually beginning to affect him. Maybe that was just him feeling some of Sora's emotions, wherever he was.

"Am not!" Hayner defended himself, then laughed almost randomly. He and Roxas got into a game of Who's-The-Last-One-To-Get-Punched-On-The-Arm as they sat next to eachother and waited, and Tifa just sat with her legs crossed several chairs away in the lobby while sipping from a cup of coffee and reading the Daily Monochrome.

At last Sora and Kairi came in, both holding hands. Sora looked somewhat dazed.

Hayner instantly began to point and tease Sora, who had not seen them sitting there.

"Hey, Sora, who's the pimp now?" he mocked, not meaning anything too personal. Roxas finished up their game by punching Hayner so hard on the arm that he shut up.

Sora was already bright red.

"I-it wasn't like that!" He swore, then let go of Kairi's hand after realizing he was still holding it. Kairi giggled.

"You guys, leave poor Sora alone," Tifa said while holding her cup of coffee up to her mouth, watching the scene over the top of her paper. "Why don't we just go up to our Hotel room already? Seeing as you've been so intent on leaving for the last day and a half, maybe we should start setting up plans."

"Like what?" Sora asked her, turning. His face was no longer as red, but hints of it still remained.

"Well," she said, setting down her coffee, "I don't think everyone is going to fit into your Gummi Ship, unless Cid made it more special than I thought. So I was thinking that Kairi could come back to the Radiant Garden with me when Leon comes to pick me up."

"Oh, yeah," Sora said, realizing Tifa was right. He hung his head as he answered, so Kairi looked up at him and touched his opposite cheek so he would turn and look at her.

"Don't worry, I'll be waiting for you, just like before," she said to him sincerely. Her look filled Sora with courage. "And don't forget to remind Riku to come home, too."

"Hey, that's right!" Sora had forgotten how much more likely their paths were to cross now that he was back on his own journey. "You can bet I will!"

"Yay!" Kairi said, hugging him excitedly. "Oh, Sora, I'm so proud; I can't wait until you get back so you can tell me all about it!"

Sora's face began to fill with color again, and the others including Kairi laughed.

Yet they weren't laughing at him, and he knew it.

-,-,-

Naminé backed away towards the corner, grasping her sketchbook as she did. Xaldin was now approaching her from the other side of the room, and soon enough he had her pinned by her shoulders against the wall.

"I heard that you're a stubborn one," he said to her as she gazed back up at him in fear. "But I'm nice, so I'll give you one chance to do it on your own, after you hear what I have to say."

She opened her mouth to protest, but he shook her slightly and she stopped. Finally he let go, and she stood glowering at him with her chin lowered beneath the level of her shoulders while backed into the corner as far as possible. She looked like a cat that feared its life and would tear off the face of anyone who dared even touch it.

"I'm sure you know what's going to happen to Roxas if he doesn't join us, right?" Xaldin asked her. His thick brows and equally thick dreadlocks and sideburns helped to bring out his inner dark traits in his appearance as well as his actions. She shuddered at the thought of Roxas being caught in the hands of a person like this. "So it's do or die," he finished.

Naminé continued to listen.

"Okay, Saïx wanted me to tell you this, but you're literate, you can read." He shoved a piece of paper into her hands, and she nearly dropped her sketchbook in the process. "Now memorize it. And if you don't listen, then don't think you can use your little talents to hide Roxas from us, 'cause we already know where he is."

"You…do?" Naminé asked, half hopeful and half dreadingly.

He turned away partly, laughing a deep, cold laugh to himself. "Like we wouldn't. He's still one of us. Especially after you finish what's on that paper."

Still laughing and ignoring what he could instinctively tell was a glare boring into the back of his head, Xaldin disappeared from the room in a swirl of black and cerulean color.

Naminé looked down at the paper that told her what to do. They were incredibly detailed instructions for what to draw, and it was quite obvious they took into account her talent of using pictures to warp someone's memory.

They were using her to pit Roxas against Sora.

-,-,-

The group was sitting in the Hotel room from before in the Ecstasy District, and Roxas was sitting on the chair next to the same dresser he had left his flower on. Whether by some miracle or by the amount of faith and attention that Roxas had put into it, the sweet yellow flower that he had left there was now gorgeously in bloom. Not a single dead petal remained on its perfect surface.

Now, however, he was paying no attention to the flower as he sat deep in his own thoughts about what Kairi had just repeated to them all after telling Sora earlier.

This did explain a lot…

Suddenly he sat upright. A sort of image was appearing in his mind. He sat back, forcing himself to relax, then shut his eyes and concentrated on the image with all his might.

For a second, he thought he saw a tear streak across the image itself, but he forgot about it before it had even processed through his conscious thoughts. What bothered him was what was starting to form in his head. A lost memory, perhaps?

A terrible one at that. And as his mind filled in the blanks, it was all becoming clear to him again.

-,-,-

"Hey, guys," Roxas said, running over to him with a huge smile on his face. The sandy beach on their island was warm from the sun smiling upon it all day, though the sun was already beginning to sink lower in the sky, hidden by the teal clouds of an approaching tropical storm in the horizon. Roxas was barefoot at the moment.

Kairi, Sora, and Riku were all sitting on the dock together, and Roxas took the more fun shortcut of running through the water before climbing up onto the dock and sitting there with them. He had to sit on the dock behind them because the dock was too small for him to take a place right next to them. Once up there, he turned to Sora, who looked unusually distant, and said, "What do you want to do? We're all just sitting around; why not play a game?"
Sora muttered something in response.

"What's wrong?" Roxas asked innocently. He let one foot hang off of the dock while the other was tucked beneath him, and he could just feel the warm clean waves tickling the tips of his feet.

"Why do you care if we're bored, you're just a Nobody." Sora shook his head and turned away, moving closer to Kairi and Riku. They formed a kind of wall with their backs, all sitting back and staring into the horizon calmly. There was no room left for Roxas.

He was beginning to feel hurt.

"Guys, c'mon, d'you think you can still make room for me? Sora?" He touched Sora's shoulder. He didn't turn.

"Kairi?" Roxas said her name next, but she only looked over her shoulder at him with a sad, regretful expression before turning her back to him again.

"…Riku?" The blonde said the last name more quietly, as if he were losing hope.

"Go away, you Nobody." Sora shot Roxas a look over his shoulder that made Roxas feel as if he had just been tread upon and left to lie in the dirt. Riku turned and said something to Sora, glanced wearily at Roxas, then looked away again.

Roxas sat quietly for a moment as his three best friends kept their backs to him. When he asked, "Guys?" again, it was Sora who turned to deliver the final blow to Roxas' pride.

"You're different from us. How could you ever fit in?" Sora almost sneered it, and the expression on his face looked like he were about to smack Roxas if he didn't go away. "Just leave us be…You're nobody to us. That's what you are, isn't it?"

Roxas' mouth dropped open. He could remember what it was like to have a heart, and he still felt as if he had shared one with Sora, actually feeling Sora's heart race at times of great excitement or feeling it break when either was sad…Until now.

Now they could never be the same, and succumbing to Sora's harsh will, Roxas slid off the dock with weak legs and waded through what now felt like freezing water, off to sit somewhere else on the island by himself.

-,-,-

"Roxas?" Sora asked. He could tell that his other side was deeply upset. He could vaguely see the image of them together on the island together, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what Roxas could be remembering that would upset him so. "Are you okay?"

Roxas made no reply. His breath was slightly shaky as he raised his head only enough to glare with all his might at Sora, who thought he noticed tears in Roxas' eyes. His teeth were clenched and his upper lip quivered slightly, while his knuckles were white from clenching the armrests too tightly.

What Roxas had remembered was something he feared daily, the dreaded recollection of what he and the tainted, unworthy flower had in common.

"I remember," he told Sora quietly. "I remember what you said to me. You…traitor."

Tifa, Kairi, and Hayner heard and saw nothing; they were on the opposite end of the room, overtaken by the cheerful mood of the town they were in. Sora and Roxas heard one of them laugh, but it was distant, an eerie echo from another dimension.

"What're you talking about?" Sora asked quietly.

"What you said to me on the Island!" Roxas yelled, causing the others in the room to cut off in mid-laughter to turn and stare at him.

Sora took a step backwards.

Something was coming back to him, now, too…He'd had this experience before, what was it? Was he starting to remember the same memory as Roxas, on the island?

He turned away from them all, bowing his head and rubbing his temples as he paced slowly away, trying to remember.

That was right, he remembered now. Small fragments of it were missing, yet the more he strained his mind, the more it sorted itself out.

-,-,-

The island was cool as the sun began to set. Palm trees cast shadows that were three times their height, and Sora was exploring the place he knew so well already when he saw Roxas walking along the edge of the beach with his shoes off.

"Hey, Roxas," Sora said, going over to him. Kairi was nearby on the beach, also barefooted while sitting and talking to Naminé calmly about something. Both were content and distant, facing what direction the sun would have been in had it not already fallen behind the clouds heading their way, carried along by a warm breeze.

"Sora," Roxas said in reply, turning his head away as he drew closer. The warm, fresh breeze blew across Sora's face softly as he jogged into it, and though the sun was hidden, he could still feel the warmth of it on his skin.

Finally he was standing next to Roxas, and the smile on his face faded as he asked, "Roxas, is there something wrong?"

"It's just…" Roxas looked up at Sora, an almost hateful expression on his face. Finally he said, "You're just so selfish. I can't stand it sometimes."

"…What?" Sora asked, now confused and quite stunned. A guilty expression crossed over his face as he waited for Roxas to explain, and another warm breeze tickled the bangs on his forehead.

"All you care about is Kairi and Riku. Before I came back, you didn't care at all that I had disappeared, did you?"

Sora became slightly flushed with speechless embarrassment. "That's not true, I—!"

"Selfish," Roxas said, turning. For a moment, Kairi looked up and Naminé paused in mid-sentence to listen to them, and Roxas turned and asked, "Really, Sora, what's so much more special about them? I've always been a part of you, yet you didn't say a word to me the first time we actually talked face-to-face. Did you?"

Sora opened his mouth and began hesitantly, "Well, I mean I…"

"I didn't think so." Roxas turned his back to Sora, putting his hands in his pocket as he began to walk the other way.

"…Wait, Roxas!" Sora ran to catch up with his well-respected other side, then put a hand on his shoulder and tried to comfort him, finding no more words this time to say to Roxas than he had the first time. A final breeze blew itself across them both like a warm breath as it brought in the dawning storm, and both stood silently for a moment.

Instead, all Sora said was, "I'm sorry, Roxas. I didn't mean to…to, uh…"

Roxas scoffed to himself, then shoved Sora's hand away. "You can't fool me. Selfish."

Sora was left to stand by himself while the one who he turned to as a brother continued to walk away after shunning him. Kairi and Naminé continued to talk as if nothing had happened.

Sora felt alone.

-,-,-

"You know, I don't see why you're the one getting so mad about this," Sora said suddenly, and when he turned back to face Roxas, the others were surprised to see a look on his face that matched Roxas' appearance perfectly.

"You don't, huh!" Roxas yelled.

Sora's face became even more filled with unhappiness. Though their faces were exactly similar at the moment, when the others took a step back they could see that Sora seemed to be more sad, while Roxas looked ready to tear Sora's face off. Even outside, they could see through the window that it seemed to grow darker, as if the sky were reflecting the two Keyblade bearers' sudden mood fluctuation.

"Not really," Sora said. "Seeing as it's you who started it in the first place!"

"Oh, wouldn't you like to think so?!" Roxas dared Sora, standing and approaching him one sentence at a time. "…And not that you were much help either, might I add!" He yelled abruptly at Kairi, who stood by.

"What…?" Kairi asked Roxas quietly, her face now an expression of innocent guilt and shock as she held her hands in front of her and took a small step back.

"Don't drag her into this!" Sora yelled at Roxas. "She's not part of this!"

"I…don't understand," Kairi said to them both softly.

"Fine, then don't understand," Roxas snapped, and Sora nearly hit him as hard as he could.

Instead, he grabbed onto Roxas' sleeves roughly, staring at him eye to eye as he backed Roxas against the wall next to them. "Listen," he said in a voice much calmer than either of them knew he felt. "I don't know what made us suddenly remember all of this. But this is ridiculous; we were friends for this long, and we still share the same heart…"

He stopped, and suddenly both he and Roxas shared an expression of surprise as they stared at eachother. Sora had no idea why he suddenly said this, but when he thought about it, it was true…

Sora and Roxas both put a hand over where their hearts would have been, then their eyes met again. They both still felt angry, yet were distracted by something much more important, which was who they were to eachother.

"…Still friends?"
"'Til the end."

Both sighed and smiled at eachother. Everyone else in the room nearly collapsed in relief. Being caught in the same room as those two were they to start fighting could have become a matter of sudden death for those there who were standing by unarmed.

"Alright," Tifa said at last, her voice still wary. "Is everyone ready? I think we have everything of yours over here from the Black District, Sora; why don't you check?"
"No problem," Sora said as Roxas pondered whether or not he should bring his flower.

"Sora, I'm going to miss you," Kairi reminded him suddenly as he packed. Sora felt an arm wrap around him while he was putting things in the backpack he had finally given in to carrying, and he froze for a moment. Finally he turned his head to look up at Kairi, who was kneeling next to him with a gentle, genuine Kairi-smile on her face.

"I'm going to miss you too," Sora said to her meaningfully. "And I won't forget the promise we made awhile ago."

She giggled. "You don't think it expired?" She asked him playfully.

"Naw, promises like that never expire!" Sora spoke with such passion that Kairi couldn't help but laugh again.

"So," Hayner cut in unexpectedly, resting his head between Sora and Kairi's and placing a hand around each of their shoulders as if forcing a group hug. "Do the love birds mind if we hurry up and get out of this place? I'm already looking forward to the next world."

"Hayner!" Sora shoved his friend away in such a manner that Hayner only smiled and pushed Sora back. Deciding she didn't want to get caught in the boyish tussling that went on when they were together, Kairi stood and went to join Tifa. On the way over to the other female, she could hear Sora say to Hayner that they weren't leaving until Sora saw that Kairi was safe on her way to the Radiant Garden, and this made her smile.

"Well, you think they're ready?" asked the somewhat older girl Tifa. Kairi still smiled, yet her eyes showed a touch of sadness as she watched Hayner and Sora begin to wrestle together, both laughing and coming up with different boyish comebacks.

"I don't know if I'm ready," Kairi said honestly. She didn't want to leave Sora again.

"No one's ever ready to leave the one they love," Tifa said. "Sometimes, though, it just has to be done, and for them, it's in the name of someone else they care about. Sora will be back soon enough, don't worry."

Kairi wanted to hug Tifa she was so grateful for her words, but she decided not to, mostly because of how little they knew eachother. When she was younger she might have, Kairi reflected, but she had grown some and things were different now.

Roxas could be seen gently poking at the flower in thought, and finally he used both hands to pull the stem cleanly apart from its roots. He then wrapped it in a tissue before tucking it carefully it in its own side-pocket of his backpack where, he hoped guiltily, it would dry and preserve itself. None of them seemed to notice him in their hurry to continue gathering their things together.

"Almost ready?" Hayner asked Sora.

"Check. Uh, how about you, Roxas?" Sora replied.

"All good. How're Kairi and Tifa doing?" Roxas added to the chain of replies.

"We're all good," they said as Tifa adjusted her suitcase and Kairi stood by, not having anything to remember besides the clothes she wore.

They were ready, so together they set off towards the outskirts of town where Leon had said he would pick up Tifa that same day.

-,-,-

"Sora!" A voice crackled over the intercom in the Gummi Ship as Sora and the other two got inside of it. "Sora?"

"Pence!" Sora ran over to the live communication screen that was set up, and looking at Pence through the small TV screen, he said, "What's wrong?"

"Olette," he said seriously. "She's back, and she says there's something up with Twilight Town—"

Sora and the others frowned at first as a familiar feminine figure began to force Pence out of the camera's view. Then, as the realization hit them, they all—especially Hayner—broke out in huge, excited smiles.

"Olette, you're safe!!" Hayner looked ready to either dance or cry. Something in the back of his mind was actually relieved for some reason that it was Olette and not Naminé who was safe, as if his mind knew it would always be Olette he cared about more.

"You guys," she said, too tense about what she was going to tell them to even greet them properly. "There's two Twilight Towns!"

"Wait, you…?" Sora thought she had known that. Wasn't Olette the one who had mentioned it to him in the first place that there might be?

"Wow, wait," Sora said to her suddenly, putting both hands on the outside of the TV screen. "How did you find out? Did you go to the mansion?"

Olette paused at first, looking at Sora suspiciously, then answered slowly, "Yeah, how…?"

"Was there a broken computer there when you got there?" Roxas asked, next to shove Sora off the screen. "Like, before you touched that beam thing?"

"No, after."

Sora and Roxas' eyes met, and Olette's voice could be heard continuing in the background, her voice suddenly distant in their ears.

"You guys, it was so scary, everything there felt so…unnatural compared to my home! I actually saw myself walking with Hayner and Pence, you guys, but it wasn't you, Hayner, it was…the same, but different! It was like being in a virtual reality or something!"

"Uh," Roxas looked at Olette, then was silent again. Finally, in a blunt, quick manner, he told her, "It's an alternate Twilight Town, Olette. I'm really sorry we didn't tell you before, but we have to go now, so can you put Pence back on?"

"Gladly," they heard Pence say as he pushed the hysterical girl back off the screen. Sora didn't like to see a girl like Olette get pushed around by a guy, but he knew they were friends and it was alright for him to do so. "So, is that all you're going to tell us, then? Just that there's another Twilight Town, the end?"

Sora and Roxas shot eachother another glance, and Sora said, "Pretty much; sorry, Pence. We'll try to find out more about it ourselves, then we'll get back to you."

"Sounds good to me, where're you off to next?"

Hayner stood by, now dazed as he wondered about the alternate towns. Maybe that one guy they had met way outside of the Radiant Garden was right…

"We're not sure yet," Roxas replied for Sora, still talking to Pence.

"Well, just keep me updated, alright?" Pence said to them, then was seen sitting back in his chair as he glanced back and forth between the screen and the radar chart.

Suddenly Sora turned as he heard Roxas whispering to him over his seat while they all buckled up.

"Do you think there even is a real Twilight Town?" he asked Sora.

"Just sit down and put your seatbelt on, Roxas!" Sora said to him, raising an eyebrow. "Stop being so over-critical; we'll worry about it later, okay?"

Yet a series of subconscious thoughts took place between Sora and Roxas without them realizing it, and in their head, they agreed that the reason they should stop talking about the matter was more for Hayner and Pence's sake, rather than it being that neither of them were curious. Both were actually dying to talk about it.

"Okay," Sora said finally, roaring up the engine as Roxas sat back, the last of them to fasten his seatbelt.

"Kay," Pence said to them, still sitting back and holding a half-finished Sea Salt Ice Cream in one hand that made the three crew members jealous. "Tell me if anything comes up, and I'll be sure to warn you as soon as I see something."

"That would be good," Roxas said casually, and Hayner nodded while tilting his head to look out the window during take-off.

Finally they were off, speeding towards their next destination.

-,-,-

Naminé sobbed. She was pitting those she loved against eachother, and all they had ever done was helped her.

She prayed that the first set of memories hadn't affected Sora and Roxas too severely.

Just then, she turned her pale blue eyes towards another Organization member as they appeared. She found herself staring at another blonde, someone who happened to be the only female in Organization XIII.

"Hey, I'm supposed to check on you," Larxene said, going over and snatching the sketchbook from Naminé. She looked at the sketches carefully, then compared them to the sheet of instructions that was tucked in the last page. After about twelve seconds, she handed them back in the same way someone hands back a picture of their friend's boyfriend that they've seen a thousand times. "Looks fine, whatever. Just keep doing what that Saïx tells you, alright? That's all he told me to say, so I'm out of here. Thank God."

She was already turning her back to Naminé when she heard the frantic scribbling of a pencil. Larxene leaned against the wall and listened for a minute, then turned curiously to look at how their captive was doing.

'She's a fast worker,' Larxene thought. 'Good, or I'd have to teach her otherwise.'

Suddenly a kind of image began to appear in her head. She had never recalled it before, and thinking about this sudden flashback as it became more clear in her head caused her face to burn with fury and embarrassment. Her fists clenched.

Finally she made a small connection and decided to see what was forming on the young artist's paper.

Color by color, pencil by pencil, the image in Larxene's head was getting more clear…

Naminé was leaning over the page, so it took Larxene several moments before she dared to snatch it away from her. By this time, Naminé was already nearly done.

Larxene's mouth opened and her face clouded with fury as she found herself looking at what looked to be herself bowing to Sora and Roxas. Sora was wearing a crown and pointing the Kingdom Keyblade at her, while Roxas was standing and crossing his Keyblades over Larxene's back while she bowed as if begging for mercy.

"Bitch…!!" She threw the sketchbook at Naminé, causing the girl to grab for it and topple off of her chair. Then, without another word, Larxene disappeared. The feeling of her anger could still be felt as strongly as if she were still right there, but Naminé didn't regret it. She'd actually quite enjoyed the reaction she got from Larxene.

Might as well have a little fun, she thought to herself as she straightened the sketchbook out and reseated herself. Then, while turning the page, she was reminded of the cursed sheet of instructions, which slipped from her sketchbook onto the floor. Naminé hadn't yet bothered to read ahead to see what else was asked of her to draw, for she was dreading it so much already.

Yet after picking it up and reading the next memory requested of her, she shivered.

This could be the final straw, assuming the last hadn't already done it. But she had no choice. There was no telling what they would do to her or Roxas if she didn't listen, and at least this way there was still reason for her to pray.

Naminé grabbed a pencil.

-,-,-,-