Ok! I just watched Advent Children so I am pumped! Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, basketball tryouts are murdering me! I hope I make the team...But we are not here to talk about my sports dreams.

Disclaimer-I do not own KH FF or Sweet Frog.

Chapter 5

Roxas~

The next morning, I dragged myself out of bed and into the kitchen. Kairi and my dad were already in there. I ate as quickly as I could, grabbed my backpack and flew out the door.

Unfortunately, Xion was standing outside.

"Ok spill it, Roxas."

'How did you get up here?' I asked. We began walking down the stairs. At the bottom, she replied "Your doorman let me in."

As we passed the front desk, I shot a dirty look at our doorman, Mac.

A/N I asked my friend to think of a random man's name and that's what she said (I'm pretty sure that's her crush's name).

Xion questioned me relentlessly for two blocks. Once my ears started bleeding, I decided to tell her. We were gonna be late anyways. I put my hands on her shoulders and drove her into an ally.

I told her everything, not holding back. She would hate me if I did. So I explained every detail. The Jenova cells inside my body. The people that wanted every last one of us dead. The incredible danger I was put in by just being.

Xion's eyes grew to the size of a munny piece.

"I...wow." was all she could say.

Then it seemed something dawned on her. She gasped and clutched my shoulders.

"Roxas! Do you know what this means?!" she was...exited.

I shook my head, a little scared she'd gone crazy...er.

"It means..." she paused, as if wanting me to fill in the blank.

"You have the power to defeat AVALANCHE! You can avenge your mom!"

I blinked.

Xion was right!

We ran to school, energized by this new revelation. By the time we made it to school, it was already second period. Good thing the teacher, Mr. Xigbar, couldn't care less if we'e there or not.

XxX

I was fairly happy the next few days. Then my life got difficult again on Friday.

Xion and I walked to school together. She talked about the party and I occasionally put in a word or two.

We were about a block from school when we passed a clump of crying bushes.

Wait.

I grabbed Xion's arm and pointed at the bushes. She looked at me, then crept toward the shrubbery. She reached into the leaves and parted them.

Sitting there, his head in his hands, was Sora.

He looked up at us, then plastered a giant fake smile on his face.

"Oh hey guys! I...dropped my contact lens! Yeah! Can you two help me find it?" he tried, but his soaked face and puffy eyes told a totally different story We each grabbed one of his arms and yanked him up, possibly dislocating both shoulders.

"Ok Sora. Seriously what's wrong?" Xion demanded. The brunette parted his lips slightly, as if to say something. Then he looked at me and seemed stunned.

Then he just lost it completely.

Tears streamed freely down his face. "I'm sorry!" he screamed and sprinted down the street.

"What was that?" asked Xion, cocking her head to the side.

'I...have no idea.' I replied.

The school day went by slowly, probably because we wanted it to be over so we could get to the party.

After seven hours of pure torture, Xion and I ran out. We had a few hours to kill until the party, so we hung out at Xion's house. Suddenly my phone rang.

It was Demyx. I guess he forgot I can't really answer it. So I handed the phone to Xion.

"Hi, Demyx." she sighed

"Yo!" the energetic blonde yelped "Roxy, are you just now going through puberty? Cuz uh...you sound like a girl."

I slammed the heel of my hand on my forehead.

"I am a girl Demyx! This isn't Ro-"

"Wait, WHAT?!" he shouted, almost deafening us both, "I had no idea! Wow...wait aren't you dating that girl uh...Xion?"

He is incredibly stupid-I mean smartly challenged.

"I am Xion! Roxas can't talk, so he can't answer the phone!"

"Ohhh! I get it! Anywho, I forgot to tell you guys: bring your swimsuits. Cuz we're gonna be swimming."

Xion went pale, then tried to recover "G-great! I uh...can't wait! Bye." she hung up and said to me "Go get your swimsuit and meet me back here. Ok?"

She still seemed nervous, I wasn't sure why.

I shrugged it off and skateboarded back to my house.

XxX

The boy sat on his bed and stared numbly at the wall.

He had to kill her.

Suddenly, he was pulled into a flashback.

"No! Let me kill Roxas! He has the Jenova cells, I know it! Kairi isn't nearly as strong as him! A-and he's got a huge birth defect! It's gotta be him!" he screamed, trying desperately to convince them.

"I'm sorry, kid, but we can't take any chances." a man with layered brown hair covered in an old camo bandana grumbled.

"Please just let me bring back Roxas! Y-you can test him to see if he has them! Kairi just couldn't!" the boy sobbed. The man simply shook his head, then disappeared into the darkness.

Back in the present, the boy began looking for the weapon.

A few minutes of searching went by and he found it, much to his dismay.

He tucked the minuscule gun into his size-ginormas shoe and began his slow trudge to Demyx's house.

XxX

Roxas~

I stepped into Xion's house, dressed in my swim trunks. I knocked on the table to inform her I was back.

She padded into the living room and smiled at me. She had a blue flannel shirt over her black bikini, and black high tops.

She grinned at poked me in the stomach. "You been working out?" she flirted jokingly. I smiled. Then we both heard a loud "Ng!" we looked at each other in alarm, then ran downstairs to their den.

C/A (character note) They used their den as a gym. Weights and random sparring weapons were always strewn across the floor. I had never seen Xion actually go down there, other than to get something to hit me with.

We turned the corner into the den. And almost got hit by Xion's mother.

Tifa flew past us, turned and launched off the wall back to Cloud, who was standing in the middle of the room. He tried to sidestep but Tifa grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to the ground with her. The chestnut-haired woman jumped up, took his wrist and flipped Cloud over her head.

"Mom...?" Xion asked, obviously embarrassed by her parent's behavior.

"Oh hi, ho-ah!" Cloud took the opportunity while she was distracted to kick Tifa's legs out from under her. Cloud pounced. On the ground, he twisted her arm behind her back and buried his elbow in her back, pinning her to the floor.

"Hey, guys." Cloud greeted nonchalantly as if he wasn't breaking his significant other's arm.

"What are you two doing?" demanded Xion.

"Oh, just sparring." Tifa replied dismissively.

"Yeah, so your old mom won't get rusty." Cloud teased.

"No, your dad just likes getting his butt handed to him." Tifa smirked. Cloud glared at her. Then, they both bursted into a fit of laughter.

Then they noticed what the teens were wearing.

"Uh...what are you two planning on doing?" Tifa looked them up and down.

"Swimming at Demyx's." Xion answered.

"In October?" wondered Cloud.

"It's an indoor pool!" my friend exclaimed.

I laughed (silently you dopes) the family noticed the sudden movement from me and turned.

"Wadder you laughing at?" Xion tried to look annoyed, but started laughing herself at my ridiculous show.

"They're so cute!" squeaked Tifa.

We both turned deep red.

"Mom!" Xion whimpered

"Tifa, your embarrassing them! Well...I guess you need a brake from embarrassing yourself."

"Oh shut up! And while your at it, get up! Your squishing me!" Tifa yelped. Cloud stood, and pulled her up with him.

Tifa rubbed her gut, then pulled up her shirt slightly to examine the area. Xion slapped her forehead with the heel of her hand.

"No bruises. Your loosing your touch, Cloudy."

Cloud cringed "You...have been hanging around Zack too much. I get annoyed enough by him at work" then he looked over at me "Um...no offense Roxas."

'None taken, my dad can be very annoying.'

XxX

We arrived at Demyx's place a little while later.

He greeted us and practically dragged us to his pool house. Everyone else was already there, besides Sora and Kairi, who were walking to the party together.

All the kids were swimming and splashing and having fun. I kicked off my shoes and was about to jump in when I noticed Xion was pressing herself against the wall, pulling her button down tightly around her.

I cocked my head to the side, using that to ask what was wrong.

"My scars." she whispered "If they see them, they'll give me those weird looks and start judging me...but they don't understand."

Then I got an idea.

I picked her up in my arms, ran to the pool and jumped in.

She squealed but didn't object further. The other guests clapped and catcalled, eating up the act of serious flirtation.

"We're here!" we turned to the voice and saw three boys. We then did a double take.

Xion~

Axel, Roxas and some blue-haired boy walked through the door to the pool house.

But hold on...

I turned and saw Roxas gaping at his doppelgänger. Then I looked over at Axel, who was frozen in the middle of throwing a beach ball at Larxene's head.

"Ok! Who was messing with the magic copy machine?" yelled Riku.

I climbed up out of the pool with Roxas. We ventured to the still-dry group.

"Um...hi. I'm Xion. Who're you guys?"

"I'm Ventus!" Roxas' clone piped "But call me Ven!"

He held his left hand out to Roxas, who shook it cautiously. Then crossed his right hand over his left to shake my hand.

"And you are...?" he looked at my friend.

"That's Roxas."

"Um...I think your taking the words outta his mouth a bit. He can answer me."

Roxas sighed and looked over at me.

"Well uh actually...he can't."

Ventus-er Ven, raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"He's got this erm...disorder. And he can't talk."

Ven gazed at Roxas like he was an alien, then beamed. "Cool! Is it contagious? Can you give it to my brother?"

Roxas looked like he was gonna slap the blond kid, then smiled a little and shook his head.

"Aw!" Ven whined, the bounced right back "Oh well! I can find other ways to shut him up! But still that's pretty cool."

I was about to ask what was so 'cool' about Roxas' Siceforia, when the Axel look-alike pushed us aside and strode up to the side of the pool.

"Hello, mortals! My name is Lea! Got it memorized? You may bow to me now!"

Weirded-out-silence.

"Well, he may be crazy, but he sure is hot!" yelled Axel from the pool.

Lea's blue-haired friend walked over next to him and grumbled "I told you they wouldn't play along."

"Oh...shut it Isa!"

Wait...Lea?

I gasped, then ran up to Lea and hugged him.

"Huh?" he twisted around to see what was up.

"XiXi! I didn't know you lived here now! How're you doin'?"

I grinned. Lea had been like a big brother to me when I was living at Radiant Garden.

I turned to Roxas. "This is Lea! He goes to collage in Radiant Garden, where I used to live!"

He smiled and nodded.

"Well...actually I got kicked out so I came here." then he looked over at Roxas.

"This your boyfriend?" Lea whispered not-so-discreetly to me. I shook my scarlet head. Lea ignored me and looked over at my blond friend.

"Treat her right or I'll send my sadist-of-a-friend, Ranele after you!" then back to the group of teenagers in the water "I'm gonna go change! Anybody who wants to follow, please do!"

No one did, and Lea seemed pretty down about that, but just left. Isa walked to the changing room opposite of his.

"So...how do you know Lea and Isa...?" I turned to Ven, and saw him taking his shirt off.

Roxas~

These guys are so weird. I thought. That Ven is basically Sora in my body, and Lea is just Axel with stranger hair. And that other one...Isa...looked like a younger version of my astronomy teacher.

Lea and Isa went off to change. Xion tried to strike up a conversation with Ven.

"So...how do you know Lea and Isa...?" I looked over at him. Ven took off his shirt and cocked his head to the side, as if thinking about it.

"I was just drifting through Radiant Garden, looking for some friends of mine, and Lea tried to beat me in a fight. We've been friends since."

He looked over us for once "Uh...why're you wearing a shirt over your suit?"

"I'm...shy." she was twisting her left foot on the ground, like she does when she's lying.

"Why? Your pretty! Like, really pretty!" I bore a hole in his forehead with my glare. He took no notice.

Ven took a step towards her and pressed his lips to hers.

Lightning filled my veins and reflexes took over. I shoved him hard. He toppled into the pool. But my actions backfired.

On his way down, Ven grabbed the back of Xion's shirt, pulling her down with him.

They were underwater for a moment, then her head broke the surface. Her shirt fell off, exposing her slashed arms.

Everyone saw the dark gashes. Xion scuttled out of the pool. I reached for her as she ran past me, but couldn't catch her.

Xion~

I ran away. That's what I always do. I felt Roxas' hand on my arm as I ran, but I had to get away.

I climbed some stairs located down a small hallway close to the front door of the pool house.

At the top was a little balcony that gave whomever stood on it a view of the Aquatie's magnificent fountain. The balcony was already occupied by Sora and Kairi. I hid behind the doors that swung inward, leading to the romantic ledge.

I observed the couple, surprised. Sora was crying even harder than this morning. He was holding something that looked like a water gun in his hand.

"I-I can't d-do it-t th-though, Kairi! I c-can-n't k-i-ll y-you!"

My eyes widened in absolute shock.

Kill her? Kill Kairi?

"Sora.." she spoke softly "You said it yourself: if you don't kill me, they'll kill you." she put her hand on his shoulder "And I'd rather die then be without you."

What the heck is going on? Why does Sora have to kill Kairi? Who is 'they'?

All these questions and more raced through my mind as Sora laid a delicate kiss on Kairi's lips.

"I love you, Kairi." he whispered.

Then, with tears racing down his face, he touched the barrel of the gun to her temple.

And pulled the trigger.

Kairi fell to the ground, dead. Sora knelt over her, crying hard. His shirt had ridden up to expose a red mark on his back the shape of a skull and cross bones with and A in the middle. I jumped out from behind the door.

"Sora! What the heck?!" I yelled.

He stood. "Shh! Listen Xion, I can't tell you why i had to kill Kairi. But you can't tell Roxas!"

"You just killed his sister! Of course I'm gonna kill him!"

His eyes got big "No! Please, I need you to promise me you won't!"

"Why not?" I demanded.

"Because...I can't tell you that either. But you have to trust me! Please don't tell Roxas!"

I couldn't keep this from Roxas. He was my best friend. But...what if it was for his own good?

"Fine..." I mumbled "I won't tell him."

Suddenly I heard four knocks. Two half notes, a whole and an eighth. It was a knock Roxas had thought up. It meant 'Hello' or 'Where are you?'.

"Roxas! Come up here!" I called then motioned for Sora to hide.

He jumped off the balcony.

Roxas ran up and saw Kairi, dead on the floor.

He looked at me, his breath shallow and his eyes filled with horror.

"I don't know. I came up here to hide and I saw this guy in a mask shoot Kairi." I twisted my foot slightly on the floor.

"I saw this mark on his back though," I couldn't lie more "It was a red skull and cross bones with an A in the middle." Roxas turned pale.

Riku ran up the stairs and yelling "Did you find her?"

He saw Kairi.

"W-what happened?"

I retold my lie. Riku rushed downstairs with us on his heels.

XxX

Roxas~

I couldn't believe it.

My sister was dead.

And by the sound of it, an AVALANCHE assassin had done it.

C/A My dad had taught us about the eco-terrorist group when we were younger.

An ambulance pulled up and took her away. My dad drove up and followed it, forgetting I existed. I didn't mind.

I sat on Demyx's front steps, waiting for...something.

Xion sat down next to me.

"I'm sorry Roxas. I know how you feel."

Numbly, I wrote a reply: 'I'm sorry, too."

She turned to me, looking alarmed. "F-for what?"

'You had to watch.'

"Oh.."

'And, for once, when someone says they understand...they really mean it.'

"Yeah..." then my phone rang.

It was a text from my dad.

Rox, stay at Xion's tonight. Zack-Fricken Awesome-Fair

I smiled at my dad's ridiculous signature, then texted back that I understood.

I showed the conversation to Xion. She nodded and we walked to her house.

XxX

The second we walked through the door, I was tackled by Tifa.

"Your dad called and told me. You can stay in our guest room. What do you want for dinner?"

I shrugged. "Ok...pizza?" I nodded

Xion just took me to the guest room before Tifa could ask more questions.

The guest room was painted with a blue sky and clouds at the top of the walls, a navy sky covered in stars at the bottom, and a ribbon of red, purple, gold and pink in the middle. A setting son at the base of the day, a rising moon at the top of the night.

It was beautiful.

Xion walked to the closet and tugged on a suitcase. It finally came out and she toppled out onto the floor.

"Here. You can borrow these clothes till you can get some from home."

I opened the case. Clothes of all sorts exploded out: button downs, ripped jeans, t-shirts and...

Skirts?

I held up a pink kilt and looked at Xion, puzzled.

She smiled sheepishly "Well...these are my sister's old clothes. A lot of them were stolen from her boyfriend so...yeah."

I sorted throught the outfits and put the clothes that were obviously her boyfriend's. He seemed to have a lot of black pants, grey jackets and collared white shirts. In one of the pairs of pants was a wallet.

"Aqua...that little klepto!" I can't believe she stole Reno's wallet!"

I opened it curiously. Inside was twenty dollars in Euro notes (?), a punch card to Sweet Frog with nine punches, and a picture of a young woman with short choppy blue hair. She was smiling and hugging the neck of a tall, goofy-looking redhead.

I cocked my head. The picture stirred something in me. I was about to figure out what that was when Tifa called us for dinner.

XxX

On Sunday night I laid in bed and thought about the next day.

I would be going back to school.

I knew what this meant:

Stares.

Pats on the back.

The 'he's going to sink into a deep depression if we don't talk to him.' act

I covered my head with my pillow and went to bed.

Done! 3,579 words! That took me four days! Gosh...Oh and yeah that guy Sora was talking to was Shears. If ya couldn't tell.

And Ranele is Larxene's somebody. (dosn't exist in KH)

And yes, I DID have to put Reno in this.