Chapter 2

"NICO!" Noah shouted as he jumped of the top of the tower after his friend. To most this would appear to be a stupid move, looking back at it, Noah would agree, but at least he was able to look back. Noah used his shape-shifting abilities to stretch out his arm like Mr. Fantastic, grab Nico by the back of the shirt, and pull the two of them closer. Noah realized that Nico was seizing and convulsing violently, unable to think. Now that Noah was close to Nico, they were both moving too fast to be able to teleport safely, Not the two of them anyway. Noah tried to telepathically get inside Nico's head, but was quickly repelled, almost as if his consciousness was shaking just as hard.

Must be some kind of psychic induced seizure, instead of physical brain thing, Noah thought. The ground was approaching fast, in what little time Noah had left; he went for the first tactic that came to his mind. He maneuvered himself under Nico's body, the two facing each other, Noah grabbed his wrists and used his feet to spread out their limbs, and hopefully slow the fall. Well, maybe slow the rate at which they were speeding up at least. Noah felt bones crack and muscles and organs try to separate as he hit the ground with a sickening crack. The pavement under Noah cracked a little, creating a small mini-crater in the ground. Nico's body didn't handle the shock well, but it had no broken bones, cushioned by Noah. River quickly ran out of the building and pulled Nico's shaking body off of Noah. She knew exactly what she was doing as she carefully tended to Nico's seizing body with medical professionalism. Meanwhile, Naminé came to Noah's side. Noah could hear his bones crack and bend as they morphed themselves back into the right formations along with his flesh. Naminé helped him up back onto his feet.

"You jumped off the Clock tower?" She exclaimed.

"Wanted to take a shortcut. Is he alright?" Asked Noah, as he ran up to Nico and knelt down beside him and River. River shot Noah a facial expression as if to say

He just fell off a skyscraper while having a seizure, what do you think?

"Nico, I'm really sorry about this," apologized Noah, he put his hands on the sides of Nico's head and closed his eyes, with that, Nico stopped moving and calmed down. Noah opened his eyes again and looked up to Naminé "we're going to have to take him home to psycho-analyze him."

"What was the apology for?" Naminé.

"I forced him to go to sleep without asking," said Noah as if it were obvious.

"Why didn't you just let him fall?" She continued.

"Because then he would have died," Noah answered.

"But he would have come back to life,"

"That doesn't mean it's pleasant!"

River rolled her eyes.

Sora pulled up to Roxas' house. The lights were on and crashing and thumping sounds could be heard coming from inside. Based on their one brief meeting, Sora could easily tell that Roxas' father was one of the "Thirstiest" people Sora had ever met. They both frowned. Roxas reached for his seatbelt and started to get out.

"Thanks for riding me home." He said

CRAP! Did I seriously just say that out loud!

"I MEAN THE RIDE HOME! THANKS FOR GIVING ME A RIDE!" Roxas Quickly corrected himself, but Sora didn't seem to respond. As Roxas reached for the door handle, the lock popped down, sealing the door.

"Your dad's going berserk again," explained Sora, still fixated on Roxas' house. Perhaps he hadn't heard Roxas' little Freudian slip.

"Yeah, … so I'd better get in there before it gets any worse," replied Roxas.

Crasssshhh. Something formerly made of glass.

"You should stay the night at my place," stated Sora simply.

"Sky, I couldn't do that," Said Roxas, trying to think of a reason not to.

"I've got the house mainly to myself, I'm watching the twins tonight and Mom won't be back until tomorrow morning."

Roxas was beginning to wonder if he would have to use unlocking magic to get out of the car.

"Sora, I really couldn't jut,… come over and spend the night," said Roxas.

"I won't take no for an answer. You shouldn't have to deal with him. Especially not tonight."

"What's tonight?" Roxas asked cautiously, not wanting to get his hopes up. Sora looked at him as if he were crazy.

"Your birthday, silly! Don't tell me you forgot your own birthday." A faint and somewhat unwelcome smile spread across Roxas' mouth.

"How did you find out?" He asked.

"Easy, You spent exactly a week in the virtual twilight town, which ended the last day of summer vacation, right?"

"Yeah,…"

"And 358 days since you were born you spent with the organization, altogether that's 365. A complete year. Which makes this, the last day of summer, your birthday. A day on which you shouldn't have to put up with…" Sora struggled to find a word.

"That?" offered Roxas, Nodding his head toward his own house.

"Exactly. Come over to my place. Besides, the twins love having you around. They think you're the greatest thing since sliced bread."

The two boys got to Sora's house in time to pick up Sora's younger twin brothers, Phoenix and Griffin, from the school bus stop. With the way their school district worked, for some reason the elementary schools started earlier, but also got out earlier. The twins were five years old, both with spiky (much shorter than Sora's) brown hair.

"SORA! SORA! SORA!" Both children came off the bus shouting for their older brother. Sora greeted the young boys and started walking with them the short distance back to the house.

"Where's mommy? One of them asked.

"She's had to go away for a little while, but she'll be back tomorrow to send you guys to school. But I'm going to tuck you in tonight. Won't that be fun?"

"Not really," said one twin.

Oh,…

"Well, you know what else? Guess who's here today!"

"Santa claus!" asked Phoenix excitedly. Both twins' eyes lit up.

"No, sorry not Santa, he comes in winter, guess again." The Twins thought for a moment.

"The Easter bunny?"

"The plumber?"

"Chuck Norris?"

"No, but you're close, it's Roxas!"

Upon entering the house both twins greeted Roxas with a big hug, which only came up to about Roxas' waist, and proceeded to insist that they play pirates. Sora took this as his cue to inform them that they should finish their homework first, and then they'll see. The two boys protested at first, but eventually gave in.

"That was not my idea," said Sora.

"No, its okay, I'll play with them," responded Roxas.

"I don't know what it is, you're the only one they like dueling with," Said Sora, sitting down.

"Well, they can't duel with you"

"And why not?"

"They need a challenge, don't they?"

"Why don't you make some paper hats for them, I'll be right back."

"Wait, where are you-?" but Sora was already up the stairs. As he entered his room he made his way over to his desk, looking at the key chains mounted on the wall, but then pulled out the one kept safely in his desk drawer, the one he was saving. He ran back downstairs and sat on the couch next to Roxas, who was folding paper pirate hats on the coffee table. Roxas looked up at Sora, but before he could say anything, Sora held up the keychain for him to take.

"Happy Birthday," said Sora with a grin. Roxas slowly took his gift,

"A keychain?" he asked. The Keychain in question was a long black feather, fastened to the end of a chain, and a clip where it could be attached to the handle of a Keyblade.

"The One-Winged Angel, that's the one I got for beating Sephiroth in the platinum challenge. I want you to have it."

"Sky, you shouldn't have, I mean, I can't take one of your-,"

"Of course you can, besides I've still got Fenrir, and you never got to, well, had to fight Sephiroth, so it's only right." Roxas paused for a moment not knowing what to say, technically, this was the first birthday present he had ever received, excluding the ones he remembered getting in the alternate past.

"Thank you, Sky, I appreciate this," Said Roxas. Sora smiled; glad he was able to make Roxas happy.

Before long, the four boys were in Sora's backyard, Roxas and the Twins both wearing paper hats. The Twins where shouting and playing happily as they charged Roxas with wooden swords, but Roxas played along, and put up a big fight, dual-wielding two wooden swords of his own. Roxas fought with exaggerated and theatrical movements, nothing like a real battle. Phoenix and Griffin mainly just flailed their swords around in the general direction of Roxas and shouted pirate-ish phrases. By the time the sun had set, Roxas had a wooden sword tucked under his own arm, and was making the twins giggle with an extravagant playful death-scene. As the four of them went back inside to get away from the bugs, Sora turned to Roxas.

"You really are good with them," he said.

"Yeah, I guess. They're fun kids," said Roxas. Sora lead Roxas into the Kitchen.

"We're going to have to make dinner," said Sora. "Do you know how to cook?"

"The organization assigned me to dinner duty once,…..just once. Do you?"

"Not a clue," Sora responded.

They decided to try something simple, pasta. Things started off relatively easy, as Sora and Roxas started to get the hang of it they started talking.

"Dinner duty?" asked Sora.

"Well, yeah. What, did you think I ate nothing but ice cream for the first year of my life?" Roxas responded.

"I never really thought about it." Roxas Continued,

"Everyone enjoyed Zexion's cooking, because he could just throw a slab of Tofu on our plates and use that little illusion book of his to make us think we were eating the best meal we've ever tasted. Xaldin was the best real chef. What can I say? The man had a talent for anything slicey-dicey."

"You don't have to tell me twice," commented Sora, he turned around and pulled the collar of his shirt down slightly showing Roxas a complex of scars on the back of Sora's left shoulder.

"Ohhh, he did that to you?"

"Beast's castle, but it was worth it," Sora put his shirt back to normal and turned back to Roxas, "You should have seen the look on Belle's face when she made off with her freedom and the rose. I think that night was the closest I've ever seen a Nobody get to angry," laughed Sora. Roxas chuckled.

"You know, for a while Xaldin was getting a little carried away with the whole 'stabbity' habbit. Axel almost lost a finger trying to sneak a grape from the fruit salad."

"What happened?" Sora asked, as he read the directions on the back of the pre-frozen garlic bread and opened the oven.

"Xemnas confiscated his spears. He figured Xaldin just had to cool down for a few days, ended sitting him in the back of the class with safety scissors and construction paper, without the classroom."

"That must have been annoying."

"Yeah, he put Axel on dinner duty for the next few days; Xaldin did miss having his lances at first, but it turns out he's a pretty talented paper cutter. He made all sorts of little intricate decorations and hung them from the roof with string. You should have seen Luxord's face when Xaldin ran out of paper. Luxord found a bunch of little snipped bits and pieces of playing cards in a discarded pile on a table one day."

"Oh, wow."

"Eventually Xemnas finally got fed up, so to speak, with Axel's 'unique' cooking style. Everything well done, verrrrrryyy well done. I kid you not, one time for dinner we had charcoal with a charcoal garnish, and a side of charcoal topped with ashes." There was suddenly a loud violent hissing noise, both boys turned and saw the spaghetti pot boiling over and dumping its contents onto the electric burner beneath it, which were fizzing and evaporating.

"Whoa!" Sora nearly jumped out of his skin as he grabbed the pot took it off the heat, and put it in the sink. Roxas Grabbed a few pieces of paper towel off the roll and started mopping up spilled water and noodles on the stovetop.

"AHH!" Sora yelped as he burnt his hand on the pot, or perhaps some of the water, Roxas abandoned his task and rushed to go help Sora, who looked up to see this happen.

"No! don't!" but Sora was too late, with a quick fwooosh the hot burner ignited the dry parts of the paper towels Roxas had left on it, causing a small plume of orange flames. "look out!" shouted Sora, as he threw his hand outward, and shot a blast of Blizzaga magic toward the flames, which were then extinguished, but now a streak of rough frost, like an ice burn, trailed across the stovetop and a little up the wall on the opposite side. There was a sharp but faint crackling sound as the paper towels, water, and burner all cooled rapidly. As if on cue, the Tomato sauce in the pot on the next burner erupted into flames as what was left of the sauce inside started to bubble and splatter everywhere, setting fire to a nearby overhead wooden cabinet. In panic, Roxas Grabbed the nearest source of water, the pot in the sink, and threw its contents over the flames and the burning pot, cooling them both down but scattering limp spaghetti everywhere. The two boys finally got a chance to calm down as they looked over the charred, papery, icy, wet, noodle-ey, sauce-splattered mess that had developed in a very short period of time.

"At least the Garlic bread is alright," said Sora, always looking at the bright side. However, as one might expect, it was at this point that the oven started giving off large plumes of smoke and an awful burning smell.

"Really? Come on Sky, you might as well have said 'what could possibly go wrong.'" Said Roxas with a laugh as they approached the oven, opened the door, and started waving the air with their hands at the billowing smoke coming from inside. Sora coughed, walked over to a nearby window and opened it.

"Hey, Roxas, you mind?" He asked.

Roxas snapped his fingers, and a torrent of Aeroga magic quickly cleared up the room.

"Let's,…. Order a pizza," suggested Roxas.

"I thought you'd never ask."

After the Pizza had been consumed and little teeth had been brushed, Sora returned downstairs after tucking in his brothers. Roxas was sitting on the couch, a blank gaze on his face as he stared off into space and fiddled with the One-Winged Angel Keychain absentmindedly. Many people would make the mistake of assuming that Roxas and Sora are very much alike, but in fact the two had many differences, Sora pondered this briefly as he considered that he had always been the type to jump in head first, to leap before he looks. Roxas was much more pensive, he tended to over think and analyze things closer. Sora quietly made his way into the kitchen, now that the littl'uns were in bed. He got out two bowls and two spoons, the then opened the freezer door, and pulled out the other thing he had been saving for today; a big tub of sea-salt ice cream.

I can't believe all this time and we've always thought it was just in Popsicle form, thought Sora as he generously scooped the cyan ice cream into the bowls (particularly Roxas'). He wondered for a moment if he should put a birthday candle in Roxas', but upon looking for one, the only one he could find was leftover from a birthday of his a few years ago in the shape of the number 13.

Yeah, baaaad idea. Sora put the ice cream back in the freezer, but left out the scooper in case they decided to go for seconds. He entered the living room with the two bowls of Ice cream and confronted Roxas.

"Happy Birthday, Roxas," He said with a smile. Roxas snapped out of his trance and looked up.

"Is that sea-salt?" He asked, grinning.

"You bet. Your favorite, right?"

"Yeah, thanks," Said Roxas, as he accepted the bowl of ice cream, "You know, Diz was right after all; you are too nice for your own good," he continued, as he started to eat his ice-cream. Sora looked at the clock, 8:05, Twilight was starting to seep in through the windows on the west side of the house.

"so, you wanna watch a movie?"

"Sure, what've you got?" Sora walked over to the cabinet where they kept the DVDs, he smirked and pulled out a case showing it to Roxas. Twilight

"Why do you even have that movie?" Roxas Asked.

"It's my mom's. Okay, have you ever seen Secondhand Lions?" Sora continued.

"Yeah, I didn't think it was that great. But the boy in that movie sounds just like you, I swear it's uncanny."

"How about The Matrix?" Sora offered.

"Nah, I think I've had enough long black cloaks and virtual reality worlds for my lifetime," said Roxas with a chuckle.

"Star Trek?" asked Sora.

"The new one?"

"Yeah, that one"

"…I was never really into the whole 'trekie' thing,…" said Roxas cautiously.

"You don't really have to be, they made the movie so anyone could see it. The only reason we got it is because my mom thinks Zachery Quinto, the guy who plays Spock, is really hot."

"I thought Leonard Nimoy was supposed to be Spock," Said Roxas

"He is, He's spock from the future. But, you know, his voice sounds really familiar too, but I can't quite put my finger on it," Said Sora as he put the DVD into the player.

Sylar was waiting in the doorway for their arrival. They didn't see him as they first walked in, but then he stepped forward out of the shadows and said, quietly, calmly

"Boo." River reflexively spun around clockwise on her left heel, simultaneously kicking Sylar across the chin with her right and turning around to face her possible opponent in one swift movement. Sylar fell to the ground, and as he got up to face them , the bleeding cut on his lip regenerated, healing itself.

"Dad! What are you doing here? You're going to give me a heart attack, sneaking up on us like that!" exclaimed Noah, turning around to face their surprise visitor.

"Why didn't you tell me you were back?" Sylar Asked simply.

"Uh, River, why don't you and Nico go over into the next room and check his brain out, I'm going to talk to Gabriel for a minute or two," Noah instructed. River took Nico into the other room, while Noah stayed with his father.

"so, what brings you all the way out to Twilight Town?"

"You, and the pulse." Responded Gabriel Grey

"What about the pulse?"

"It didn't happen!" exclaimed Sylar, "When you left on the day we met, you warned me about this electromagnetic terrorist pulse that would attack America and short out all the technology in the country, but then it never happened!" Noah shrugged.

"I thought it was a fixed event in time, I guess it was more flux than I thought, but did you warn everyone I asked you too?"

"Yes, of course I did, and I got the multiplier power just like you said so I could be in more than one place at once, but then the pulse never even happened."

"Did you try to stop it?"

"Yes, I figured you said it was fixed, but I might as well try." Sylar explained as he sat down.

"Well, there you have it, the future can change just by talking about it. I guess it was flux, but only had just enough flexibility to be changed by someone as powerful as you. Oh, you didn't kill that multiplier to get his power did you?" Said Noah as he sat down on the small couch across from his father.

"No, I just did that empathy-link thing like you said. So, if the future is changed now, what does that mean?"

"No way to tell for certain, this means that America gets to stay a world superpower now, but for how much longer? And how will not being a third world country affect the rest of the world? The Transgenic thing is still going to happen, that's for certain, but who knows? Time can be weird like that, like, if the Hindenburg didn't crash, hundreds of thousands of more people would have died as an indirect result, if the first mars colony didn't explode, earth would have been overrun by parasites that spread through water, not to mention the charting of deep space in the early fifty-first century never would have been started, if Vesuvius didn't erupt, the Pyroviles would have used its energy to wipe out humanity. I guess at this point the best we can do is keep a close eye on the choices America makes as a world power from now on," explained Noah. "So, how are things in New York?"

"Not bad. A lot more anti-mutant protest over there, there was a big deal a few months back when Clair sued the college for trying to kick her out because she's a mutant, that's what they're calling us now."

"How'd that go?"

"Supreme court said they couldn't, but people weren't happy about it. There's been a lot of talk about the government rounding us up, like what they tried a while back. At least now there are people who will fight against it, politically. The trouble is people are concerned with how the legal system would handle criminals with powers; it isn't designed for stuff like that so people figure just lock us all up in Max security before we become criminals in the first place."

"So, basically a lot like it is in X-men?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Speaking of, I can regenerate now, when do I get my adamantium implants?" Joked Sylar. Noah laughed.

"You've got more powers than the justice league on radio-active steroids! The last thing you need is indestructibility, or my powers for that matter, don't think I didn't catch that," Said Noah, as he telepathically blocked the psychic empathy link Gabriel was trying to form. Sylar shrugged.

"So that was this River you kept telling me about?" He asked.

"Yeah, Nico and I picked her up in the thirty-first century after the earth was used up and abandoned. She's very special,"

"Yes, I've heard. Numerous times. Anyway, I had a visitor while you were off traveling."

"Oh? Who was it?"

"A man named Aanthoni, he said to specify that it was with two as and an i." The name sent shivers down Noah's spine.

"What happened?"

"He tried to kill me, but found my regenerating problematic. He seemed desperate. He really wanted me to tell him how to find you."

"Are you sure you don't mean sadistic?" inquired Noah.

"He was just as powerful as you, Noah, exact same abilities. It's been a while since I've had to put up a fight like that, much less lose. Also, He told me back then that I should pass on a message to you today, when you return, he said he wants you to meet him at these coordinates." Sylar pulled a small piece of paper covered in odd symbols out of his pocked and passed it over to Noah. Noah looked down at the strange language and read it, he looked up to tell his father 'thank you' but he was already gone without a trace.

"He must have met a teleporter," Noah muttered to himself.

He walked over into the other room where Nico was sitting down in a chair with River kneeling on one knee in front of him, staring sharply at his eyes as she read his mind. Noah Knew better than to interrupt her. River stood up, Nico blinked, and River looked at Noah.

"One man's junk is another man's treasure," she said with a sigh.

"So, that wasn't just a junk thought Aanthoni placed in his mind all that time ago?"

"So, what does that mean? What's wrong with my mind?" asked Nico.

"It wasn't supposed to become active until after he realized he was done traveling," explained River to Noah. "Most likely he assumed Nico wouldn't be done traveling until he was separated permanently from you, at which point he wouldn't have anyone to recondition him, at least not on a level that can supersede or counteract telepathic reprogramming on this scale."

"Maybe that's a good thing, maybe that means he didn't think he had to make subconscious detection of telepathic interference with the thought process in question a conditional trigger that would lead to some other behavior, weather perceived voluntary or otherwise," replied Noah.

"You know it's unlikely this is in any way a simplified telepathic total reconditioning."

"Maybe we could play that to our advantage, take this from the over-specificity angle."

"We still don't know what the primary psycho-catalyst is." By this point Nico had given up on trying to understand what they were saying, when Noah and River started talking science jargon, all he could do was nod on occasion when they stopped for breath. Eventually, Noah finally turned to look at Nico.

"Alright, here's the deal, we don't know what's causing this but we know it's not just a one-time fluke. We can take a look in your mind to find out more or try and tell it to go back to the way it was, but until we know more even entering your mind telepathically could drastically change you forever. For all we know, trying to remove it, or even investigate it could make you lose all of your memories, make you lose just some of your memories so that you only see one side of something, make you think you're a chicken, make you want to kill yourself, make you want to kill someone else, make you see colors differently, It could even make your powers as a Hades-child go haywire. Or it could be absolutely nothing at all."

"I don't think it's worth it then, if any or all of that could happen we should wait until we know more. How do we find out more?"

"I'm going to meet with Aanthoni now; maybe if I have something he wants he'd be willing to trade for the information on exactly how he implanted the message."

"You mean lie," said River.

"Yeah he probably would," said Noah.

"So why don't you just read his mind?" asked Nico. River looked at Nico as if he were an idiot.

"Nico, you know I'm a powerful telepath, the reason I say 'one of the most powerful' instead of 'the most powerful' is because, first of all, I haven't met everyone in the universe, and secondly, Aanthoni is just as good at it as I am," Noah explained. "If I were to engage him telepathically, Things might get messy, and by 'messy' I mean really bad," Noah clarified. Noah stood up straight. "Wish me luck," he said.

"Good luck," Nico wished. River kissed him on the check. Nico found this greatly surprising, he had always known that they got along really well, and definitely liked each other, but he had never considered the possibility that,…, well, that there was kissing involved. The next moment, Noah Teleported, flickering out of sight.

"Was that, by any chance, a little kiss I just saw?" asked Nico curiously.

"Yes," Said River flatly.

"And, should you have your way, might there be any more little kisses in the near future?"

"Near, in regard to the term future, is a subjective term, therefore open to questioning and a matter of personal opinion," she said monotonously, then turned to Nico, "Yes."

Star Trek with Zachery Quinto and Leonard Nimoy whose voice was eerily familiar ended a little after ten o' clock. Sora yawned.

"We should probably get to bed," he stated drowsily. Roxas swooned internally at the use of the phrasing Sora had chosen, even though he knew perfectly well what Sora really meant. Sora got up, turned off the TV and the player, returned the disc to its case and its shelf. He picked up the two bowls with cyan sea-salt liquid still clinging to some of the walls and took them into the kitchen. He started to head for the stairs, and turned his head to Roxas,

"This way," he said. Roxas got up hesitantly, was Sora actually inviting him to his room? He followed Sora up the stairs and down the Hall, Sora stopped at a door. "This is the bathroom, if you need it," oh, so that's why they were going upstairs.

"Cool, a conditional room, what is it if I don't need it?" Joked Roxas. Sora smiled, and then continued to lead Roxas Down the hall.

"And, this is my room," he said, opening the door. "So, I'll be,.." Sora paused, reconsidering his wording, "In the event that you need anything, you will be able to ask me downstairs, and don't hesitate by the way. Good Night," he said, heading back for the staircase.

"Wait," said Roxas, Sora turned and looked. "Aren't you going to sleep in your room?"

"No, I'm going to sleep on the pull-out couch downstairs, You're going to use my room," explained Sora.

"Sora! I'm not going to kick you out of your own room, you let me sleep on the couch," said Roxas, heading in Sora's direction, toward the staircase. Sora put out a hand, and placed it firmly on Roxas' chest.

"No," he said, "you're my guest, and I'm going to make sure you have a proper bed, I'm not taking No for an answer." Roxas realized that at this point he might as well go with it, but still, Sora moved his hands from Roxas' chest to his shoulders and pushed him into his room. Inside, Sora secretly relished the opportunity to have an excuse to touch Roxas, but he didn't let it show. Sora lead Roxas all the way to the bed, stopped there, and then turned and left the room, closing the door behind him. Roxas walked back to the door of Sora's room to protest, but there was an odd magic noise accompanied by the click of a lock as a beam of light flashed through the keyhole under the doorknob and faded away. Roxas rolled his eyes.

"I can do that trick to, you know!" he argued through the door. "And walk through walls, Locking me in is pointless!

"Good night, Roxas!" came Sora's reply, fading in volume as he got farther down the stairs. That was the first time in a very long while Roxas had gone to sleep with a smile on his face, at least someone cares about a Nobody.