Day 32

She opened her eyes slowly, trying to wake herself up. "It's time," she thought. She sat up on her bed and rubbed her eyes as thoroughly as possible as she got out of bed.

She began to put on her black leather coat while she thought about Roxas, the boy who had fallen into a deep slumber. Before she left for her mission, she decided to drop in on him, to make sure he was doing okay.

She walked into the room with a bucket of water and a sponge. Ever since Roxas had fallen into a coma, the dusks would always mess around with him for no apparent reason. They would write on his face, put napkins in his nose so he couldn't breathe properly, and sometimes just hide him under the bed for no reason.

As she walked in with her bucket and sponge, she took a seat next to Roxas and looked at him. Almost instantly did she notice that he had pictures of Moogle drawn onto his face; not to mention the badly drawn Saix that settled on his cheek.

She sighed, took a seat next to him, grabbed the sponge from the wet bucket and began to scrub Roxas's face. She rubbed it lightly, making sure that all the ink was wiped away, and no spots were left behind. She then began to scrub a little harder, seeing how the ink was not coming out. That's when she noticed something.

Near the Saix drawing, there seemed to be a small cut that looked like it had been there for quite a while. He must have gotten it from one of his missions before the coma. She looked at it and began to scrub it lightly trying so hard to make the stain go away.

After an extensive amount of scrubbing, she stopped abruptly and took another look at the cut. It seemed to have gotten bigger than it was before. The wound was practically split open at this point. Curious as to why, she took her finger and began to pick at it cautiously.

It was strange. The tip of her finger was inside this gash on his face, yet she could feel skin inside. In fact, when she looked at it again, she noticed that the sides of the cut were red while the inner most part was a more peachy color, like skin. She looked at Roxas for a second and wondered if it was a good idea to continue. To ignore the simple cosmetic damage or to be the persistent cat that curiosity had killed.

She chose the latter, despite dire consequences, and began to pull the side of Roxas's cut. She pulled gently and noticed that his skin was easily tearing. She stopped for a moment and looked at him again. That's when she decided. She glanced back over to the wound, placed all four fingers inside while clutching the side of the skin. Without hesitation, she closed her eyes tightly and pulled as hard as she could, ripping the skin off his face as if she had taken off a mask that he was wearing.

Her eyes were still closed and the only thing she knew for sure was that she was holding on to the skin she had ripped off. She was too scared to see Roxas's face and the damage she had left upon him. At that moment, she began to regret what she had done. She wanted to reverse her foolish actions, but knew that it was already too late for that. Seeing as there was no way around this ordeal, she thought about it and realized that the damage had already been done; she might as well take a peek. As she opened her eyes slowly, her mind raced with different ideas of how this situation was going to turn out. Most were horrible, but some were cheery. Whatever happened, she knew that she would never forgive herself for what she had done. Her eyes, now fully opened, stared at the wall as she prepped herself to look at Roxas, and at the count of three, she took a deep breath and looked straight at his face.

"Wha…" Her eyes widened at the sight of what she was looking at. "This isn't Roxas," she thought to herself, wondering who was sleeping in front of her. This boy did have a sort of resemblance to him, but it wasn't Roxas.

"Kairi?"

She jumped up at the sound of the voice and took a step back. Did he speak or did she hear him internally? As she asked herself this question, she heard a big splash coming from the bucket. She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice she had dropped her sponge inside it. Startled, she looked down at it and noticed something. She kneeled down, removed the sponge from the water slowly, and looked at her reflection. She didn't see herself, but someone who seemed to resemble her greatly. She touched her hair gently wondering what had happened to her raven colored locks that had somehow turned… red.

She began to whimper, trying to release the anguish that seemed to build up inside her. Unable to set her feelings free from her tear ducts, she screamed out at this baffling enigma. Was she not who she was? Was she not Xion?

Xion gasped heavily as she awoke from her slumber. She sat on her bed trying to catch her breath, wondering what had happened. Flashes of what she had just dreamt began to overtake her mind. As she remembered it all, Xion quickly grabbed her hair and examined it, making sure it was dark and nothing else. She let out a sigh of relief, but at the same time wondered what the ordeal signified. Who was that girl in the bucket of water? And why did she look exactly like her?

She got up, put her coat on, and decided to repress this nightmare of hers. "It probably means nothing," she thought to herself.

Xion walked in to the mission room only to see Saix was already walking towards her.

"Xion," he said as he approached her, "your mission for today will be to a new world. One that has been producing a vast amount of heartless." He stops and looks at his clipboard, trying to see what her objective is. "We need you to eliminate all the heartless there." He hands her a card with all the details to her mission, so she wouldn't forget. "Do not disappoint us." With that, Saix walks away, making sure to give everyone else their missions for the day.

Xion looks at her card for a second and soaks in the details. She quickly puts it in her pocket nonchalantly and opens a portal to this world, where she will embark on her journey to destroy over five hundred heartless.

She walked through the forest trying to find these heartless that should have been very easy to find. Seeing as five hundred is a very large number.

As she strolled around, Xion noticed the odd colored trees that were around her. They were neither green nor brown. Instead, they were a nice fluorescent pink. The problem is, they seemed… delectable, and somehow a sweet aroma appeared to emanate from them. Come to think of it, everything around her seemed edible, not to mention pink.

As she began her climb of a nearby hill, Xion began to hear voices. They were very faint, but still there. It sounded like civilians of this world, so she ignored them, instead sticking to her mission.

Reaching the top of the cliff, Xion took in the miraculous view that was in front of her. She could see the whole kingdom from there, including the town folk. It was the perfect vantage point for her mission, yet no heartless could be seen. She began to take a seat on the edge of the cliff, waiting for some sort of sign. Where are they?

As she sat there waiting, Xion began to hear the faint voices again. In fact, they seemed to be getting louder. The first time she heard them it sounded like an argument was ensuing, but now it seemed like someone was yelling at the top of their lungs. She looked down, searching for the sound as fast as she could. Almost immediately did she see someone bustling through the trees. She couldn't see the figure quiet well, but she could see that it was some sort of green goopy monster. A heartless?

Xion, determined to destroy the heartless, lunged herself from the cliff and began to chase the creature. It was headed toward the kingdom, so she knew exactly where to go.

As she arrived to what looked like a racetrack, Xion could see that the green monster and a swarm of heartless were terrorizing the innocent inhabitants of this world. Without wasting any time, Xion conjured up a fireball and launched it toward the monster.

Feeling the burn from the fire spell, the creature turned around to face Xion and let out a loud roar. She quickly summoned her keyblade and took her stance. A fight was about to commence and Xion was ready for anything.

The monster ran towards her, flailing its arms violently, but Xion quickly dodged this and countered with a very powerful strike. A strike so powerful that it sent the creature flying towards the stands. The creature sat up and began to rub his head, hoping the pain would go away. It watched as Xion ran towards him, ready to end its life.

"Get out of my way!" Yelled the heartless angrily. "I need to get my medal back!"

Xion stopped in her tracks and looked at the heartless, surprised that it was talking to her. The monster wiped its face of the goop, trying to improve its eyesight. It was then that she realized that he wasn't a heartless, but a person.

The man stood up abruptly and pushed Xion out of the way, desperately trying to get his medal back. He chased after a girl with a green sweater that seemed to be carrying something shiny and valuable.

The man's blow did a number on Xion. Catching her off guard, the man's attack sent her rolling across the floor, leaving her paralyzed. Trying to get up and fight, she noticed that her keyblade seemed to be a few feet away from her. She reached as far as she could, but the pain was agonizing. Her eyes began to close slowly as her body seemed to grow numb. Xion tried her hardest to stay awake, but it seemed her body needed time to recover. She looked at her keyblade, eyes half closed, trying to stay in the fight. It was then that the little girl in the green sweater appeared near the keyblade and in front of Xion. The child then looked at her with a smirk on her face. "I'll take this, thank you!" She picked up the key and ran out of sight.

"No," Xion muttered in pain. She had run out of time. Her body began to shut down, aching for rest. Her eyes were forced to shut as her head hit the ground in defeat. The healing process had finally begun.

A/N: Missed this story so much. Good to be back. =)