A Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep Fan-fiction

Miscellaneous information/Disclaimer:

SL:

1. None of the franchise belongs to me.

2. Improvements have been made earlier than promised! Hope you enjoy the first chapter (again or for the first time)!

Chapter 1

Mission of Nobodies

Roxas

It's only been a few days since I was created.

Moving was a challenge, a small feat compared to what I can do now. Rational thought didn't develop until later days. Memories of Axel talking to a lifeless body of mine still surprises me. I don't know how he had the patience.

Axel and I have gotten acquainted to some level now that I can express myself fully, however awkwardly still. Although, I know he wouldn't really hang out with me if it wasn't an assignment. There have been days when I've been wrong and he takes me to the top of the Twilight Town tower after a mission where we eat Sea-salt ice cream bars. I even got a stick that said WINNER. Axel congratulated me while I dumbly stared at it. Back then, I was still a newborn, new to the world and all it had to offer. Axel was my only anchor to reality.

For the first time since those long and peacefully sunny days in Twilight Town, we've been split up. I've been assigned to play the role that Axel played with me with another newborn Nobody.

Today's mission involves me going with the new kid—Xion—to Twilight Town. I get the feeling that I'm on babysitting duty. I learned what that was when I overheard Axel talking to Saïx about me. It saddens me that he feels that way, because for me, being with him was fun. But I guess the feeling's not mutual. Axel's always been quick to correct me when I use pathos or ethos vocabulary-he calls it. Whenever I refer to something that happens in my chest and the only words I can use to describe the sensations are words that are "pathetic". He always laughs when he corrects me.

Back to the point. I'm stuck with Xion today.

He hasn't said anything since I first met him. This is our second mission together and once again, I have no idea what to say or how to act around him. Things feel even more awkward with him around, more than I already make them. I've tried talking to him twice, but got nothing. Axel never once complained (at least not to my face). I suppose I shouldn't either.

"Hey…Xion." The name feels foreign on my tongue. I get some sort of acknowledgement nod from him. I barely notice that he hasn't once taken off his hood that's always covering his face."Do you want to split up? We can get both the giant Heartless and the weaker Heartless that way. Then we can RTC faster." He doesn't say anything. I remember when I was like this the first days too, so for me to get exasperated with him is unfair.

"Alright." I say. "I'll take that as a yes."

I head off to the Station Plaza where the Train Common is. It's a big area and for some reason Heartless like to gather in it. I'll probably find a huge one there. Just before I get out of earshot, I hear a whisper.

"R-Roxas."

Not knowing how to distinguish feminine qualities in a voice since the Organization doesn't have many female Nobodies (Marluxia is more of a woman than Larxene), I can't really understand whose voice it is I'm hearing. I turn around. "Xion?"

"Roxas…that's your name, isn't it?"

Speechless, I force some words out of my mouth. "Yes, that-that's right."

(She) turns her body to face the opposite direction of the Station Plaza. "See you." She says raising her hand to wave slightly while walking away.

I regain my composure when she's out of sight. My name…was that the first thing she's ever said?

I get on with the mission, not wanting Saïx to reprimand me so soon on the job. As I enter the Plaza, nothing appears out of the ordinary. Suddenly, I feel the hairs on the nape of my neck prickle. I turn swiftly, barley able to dodge an incoming attack.

"What is that?" I ask aloud.

I check my Enemy Files as fast as I can. This Heartless is called Darkside.

I should never underestimate the Organization again when they tell me to fight a giant Heartless. I quickly dodge another attack, sending a string of attacks of my own. The Darkside counters relentlessly, not giving me any chance to breathe. I approach it's hand, Lock-On, and hit it as much as I can before moving out of the way. He brings his hand into a fist, too high for me to reach, and slams it into the floor. A dark puddle oozes from it, spawning Pureblood Heartless. I hack and slash at them until they disappear, all while losing HP. Darkside raises his hands again and through the gaping hole of his chest, he unleashes orbs of light that follow me wherever I go. I roll onto the ground, gaining speed and momentum, dodging as much as I can, not able to catch my breath. My energy is dangerously low. I check my Backpack for a Potion, but find a useless Moonstone. I see Darkside ready to make another huge attack but I can't avoid it in time. I close my eyes, bracing for the hit.

Out of nowhere, someone fires a blast of ice at Darkside's face, distracting him. Xion grabs me by the arm while she Air Slides twice, enough to get us out of the way of his attack.

"Here." She hands me a Hi-Potion.

"Thanks." I gulp it down, eternally grateful, feeling replenished. "You came in the nick of time. Did you destroy your Heartless?" I ask.

"Yeah, but it wasn't as huge as this one."

I straighten up, full of energy, "Ready?"

She gets in her fighting stance, "Yeah."

We rush at the Darkside in perfect unison as if we were created from the same person.

I cup my hands in front of me and propel Xion onto its arm. She scales up to the shoulder, shooting fire at its face. It tries to shake her off by moving its head, but Xion clings to it like a professional. She's a newborn and already she can do more than I was able to do the first few days of my creation.

Darkside grabs Xion and throws her across the Plaza. I run even further to catch up to her, air sliding four times. She lands with her back against my chest, sending both of us against the end of the Plaza. My back hits the concrete barrier hard, cracking the bricks. I cringe, but glad that I managed to get Xion, imagining her being the one getting hurt.

"Are you okay?" I ask. As I hold her, I realize how fragile she is.

She nods, somewhat stunned. "Thank you," She turns and smiles at me, although I'm still not able to meet her eyes, "Sorry."

I return the gesture, trying to cover the crack in the brick. She'll feel guilty if she sees that. "No problem."

She gets up, waiting for me.

I wave her off, "I'll catch up."

The shadow of her hood moves slightly. For an instant, she appears to frown, but I pass it off as a figment of my imagination when turns and runs ahead.

It takes me a moment to get up. Should I use Cure? I don't like using magic since I don't have any Ethers to refill my Magic Gauge. Then again, if I'm weak I can't fight as well. I raise my Keyblade and heal myself. I run to join Xion slashing the hand Darkside never seems to raise. Darkside surprises me by smacking the Keyblade out of my hands. It slides in front of Xion.

"Xi—" I call.

She grabs the Keyblade, turns full speed to Darkside and slices right through it. We watch as Darkside sways from side to side and finally, while spreading a dark powder, implodes on itself.

"There's no heart." Xion observes.

"That's because it's a Pureblood Heartless…I think…" I manage to say in my state of shock. Did she just use the Keyblade?

"Where do those go?" She asks.

"Y-you meant the hearts?"

"Mhmm."

I shrug, cracking my body from its shackles. "I was told they go to Kingdom Hearts." I summon my Keyblade; it goes from her hand to mine. "When did you find out you could use the Keyblade?"

Xion pauses, "Just now, I guess."

"You mean you didn't know?"

She shakes her head.

"Well," I stand up, "Now we know a little more about each other. People like you and I are the only ones that can collect hearts for Kingdom Hearts. At least that's what Saïx and the Organization told me."

Although, this information implies I'll be useless if I can't collect hearts. If I couldn't wield the Keyblade. I wonder what would happen to me? Would they exclude me from the Organization? Somehow, I don't think it would be that easy.

"Roxas."

"Hmm?"

"Do you want to return to the Castle That Never Was?"

"Mm…no, not yet. You did good. You could use a little something extra."

She raises an eyebrow, "Something extra?"

I signal to the tower, "Yeah, the icing on the cake."

I settle down carefully on the edge of the clock tower, watching as the sun sets red and orange in the horizon, past the buildings of Twilight Town. Although this is new to me, the image reminds of something I've seen somewhere else before.

"How'd you find such a great place?" Xion asks, sitting down on the edge. She gets momentarily distracted. "Long way down." She comments nervously.

I nod, sitting down next to her, time ridding me of my acrophobia. "Just don't think about it. I personally like the sunset."

She silently stares into the horizon. I unwrap the two ice cream bars and hand one to her, "Here."

She grabs it, "What's this?"

"Try it."

Xion grabs her hood for the first time and slips it back, revealing her face. I take in her ocean, blue eyes accentuated by her jet-black hair and porcelain skin. She looks down, slipping some strands of hair that fell near her eyes behind her ear. I notice her eyelashes cast shadows on her cheekbones that had a natural pink tint to them. I don't know how I ever thought she was a guy, not with features as delicate as these.

I gulp with difficulty.

In an instant, the feeling rising in the pit of my stomach disappears, leaving me with more questions than answers. What was that sensation? Perhaps this is what Axel meant. These are the memories of what it was like to feel. The remnant memories left in my empty shell of a body. However, I haven't remembered anything. How can I remember what it was like to feel first?

"Roxas?"

I realize I haven't strayed my eyes from her since she pulled off her hood. "Oh, sorry."

She chuckles, "Is it really…that surprising?"

"What is?"

"That I'm a girl."

I shake my head, "I don't really…know."

"Huh?"

"I don't…" I hope that isn't insulting. I change the subject, "How'd you like the ice cream?"

Grateful that she goes along with it, she answers: "It's sweet. But kind of salty, too."

"It's good, right? Axel and I always meet up here after work and eat some. Sea-salt's Axel's favorite." Axel's the only one that bothers to talk to me, except Xion now. "Axel's my first friend."

"Your friend?"

I nod. It's funny to say that. I didn't know what a friend was a few days ago and now I have one.

"Roxas…do you think I could be a friend?"

I raise my eyebrows in surprise, "Sure! When Axel gets back from Castle Oblivion, let's ask him. Then all three of us can have ice cream together."

A small droplet of melted ice cream slips on my glove. I lean and lick it.

"Roxas?" Xion says softly.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know…where I come from?"

I sigh, "I don't know where I came from. None of it makes any sense to me. Sorry. That didn't help at all."

She frowns, while taking a bite of her ice cream, "What are we?"

Mechanically, I say, "We're Nobodies."

"What is that? A Nobody?"

I'm not able to answer immediately, "What is a Nobody?"

I take a moment to think about my answer, "I think Nobodies are beings without hearts."

She puts her hand to her chest, "Why don't we have one?"

I finish my last piece of ice cream, checking the stick for WINNER. "I've been wondering that myself. I wish I knew."

"What is a heart?" She insists.

"—Why do we need it?" I quickly add. "I don't know," I look down, shaking my head, "I don't know anything."

Questions flood my mind with her provocative inquiries. Why do Nobodies seek to have hearts? Why do we need to destroy Heartless to get them? Why are they called Heartless in the first place if they have hearts? Do people that have hearts turn into those things? While looking down at the Plaza, I spot a trio that I've seen walking around Twilight Town before.

"Pence, hurry up!"

"Olette! Hayner! Stop running so fast!" the chubby kid yells out.

"Slowpoke! You need to exercise!"

They run through the glass doors of the tower.

Maybe having a heart makes us like them. They seem happy and carefree. I've felt like that sometimes. Like right now, before talking about this, I would consider myself happy. Yet, they have feelings; something that Nobodies don't have. How will we know if we have them or not if we don't even know what feelings are? How are we different from them—people with hearts? Yet, the question I want answered the most is: how did we come to be without hearts?

"I wish I could answer your questions, Xion. But the truth is I have the same ones, if not more."

She sighs quietly.

"Maybe having a heart, feelings, and everything that comes with that thing makes life worth living. Why else would Xemnas and the Organization want hearts so badly? So much so that he would send us and everyone else in the Organization to go to the ends of other worlds and collect hearts from beings called Heartless?"

One thing that's kind of bothered me since I started hunting Heartless is: how does the Organization know where the Heartless will appear?

Xion finishes her ice cream. "How do we know that Kingdom Hearts will give us hearts? Why do we need so many? We're only a few in the Organization."

I shake my head, "I don't know. Like I said before, I don't know much about any of this."

She sighs, "We really are a mystery, aren't we?"

I nod, "A mystery wishing to be solved."

We return to the castle and go to our respective rooms in the white and monotonous chambers of the place we call home.

Now with so many questions surging through my head, I have no idea what to think about anymore. Where's Axel anyway? Maybe he'll be able to give me some answers. I lie down on my bed, my back stretching painfully until finally readjusting. Why does it feel like he never tells me everything he knows? What is Axel hiding?

I stare out my window where I have Kingdom Hearts in plain view: the heart-shaped moon high in the everlasting night sky.

What is it about that thing that got all of this started? Speaking of starting things, who started the Organization and when? Xemnas—and if it was him them how old is he? How old am I? Xion? Axel? Is that what having a heart means: being able to age, to start young and end old? Has anyone of the Organization aged? Our past selves, were they really us or another person? What if this person is still alive? What if we can meet him or her?

I frown, exhaling in exasperation. If that person is alive, what are Nobodies? Ironically, I think the name fits.

Can Nobodies exist at the same time as their other selves—their 'past selves'? Will growing old really be the only thing we get from having a heart? Will Kingdom Hearts actually give us hearts?

Do I want even want one?

I turn on my side, putting my arm under my head. It seems right to want a heart since that's what I'm collecting hearts for: to get exactly that. Everybody has a heart, but Nobodies. Yet I can't help but wonder why we came to be without one. What's the purpose of opening Kingdom Hearts by collecting other hearts to make hearts for ourselves? Isn't that just a waste—redundant, even? Having a heart from the start would have been easier, logical. However, the fact of the matter is that I don't have one. I don't know if I want one or if Kingdom Hearts will get me one. All I know is that not having a heart makes me feel empty.

Like a shell—an empty shell.

SL:

An awful lot of questions, huh? Reviews are welcome!