If We Had Hearts: After Sora had selflessly sacrificed herself for Kairi and became a heartless, a nobody was created. Solitary, wandering, not sure how she became or where to go her Nobody walked the streets of Twilight Town only to be found by the Leader of Organization XIII. He gave her a purpose, he gave her a name: Roxas.

Author's Note: I realized a little too late that I keep switching Marluxia and Luxiana's names. Marluxia is a girl in this series of stories, Ailuna is her true name and Luxiana is her nobody name. I will be making the necessary corrections in the story once I've posted this chapter. If you guys notice any other name mix-ups let me know so I can make the necessary corrections! Thanks! .

Chapter 7: Identity Crisis

It had been ten days since Roxas had seen Xion. In fact it had been ten days since ANYONE had seen her. All anyone knew was that Xion was on a mission and hadn't returned. Axel promised her that he would help her find him, and he made good on his promise by setting up the arrangements for the two of them to go off hunting.

According to the mission records Xion was suppose to eliminate a heartless boss in Twilight Town. So they went out, searching through the town, eavesdropping on conversations, or speaking directly to the townsfolk. They kept their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary, and found themselves running in circles to the point Roxas wanted to sit on her butt and pout.

On the bright note she finally learned the names of the three friends who were about the same age as her. She'd often find herself staring after them with a kind of wide eyed wonder, and it was because of them that her relationship with Axel had deepened, because she questioned, and grew in curiosity. Hayner, Pence, Olette, those were names she'd remember along with the those of the organization members.

Pence in particular was very helpful. He seemed to have a vast curiosity like she did, and often wandered the town in search of mysteries and wonders. The most recent wonder involving the forest just outside of town near the haunted Mansion. It was said that those that walked there could feel someone or something watching them despite the fact the entire area had been abandoned for years.

"Well it's worth looking into." Axel suggested and pat her shoulder.

It took some time to find the heartless in question. Using it's cloaking ability the chameleon-like creature hid amongst the trees and brush. Roxas' eyes narrowed, and her ears strained around trying to keep track of its movements.

She gasped as she felt the harsh breeze of something rush by her and heard it's footsteps rush out the forest toward the mansion on the outskirts.

"Hurry! Don't let it get away!" Axel told her and the two of them rushed side by side after it. Roxas released her keyblade and rushed straight into battle. The heartless came out of its cloaking form and lashed out at the two of them.

It's large body stretched out with feet and tail. The whipping strike of it knocking the wind out of her lungs. Roxas puffed out a breath and narrowly ducked the second strike of the heartless tail. She raised her blade ready to strike back… and then saw the cloaked figure rushing out from the forest.

"Xion!" Roxas called out. The boy's head snapped up their eyes meeting briefly before the heartless whipped its tail in his direction. The guy was sent skidding across the ground rolling until he lay still.

"Xion!" She cried out again ready to rush over to him.

"Roxas hold on! We gotta beat this thing first!" Axel jumped back setting his chakras ablaze.

"Oh! Right!" She raised her keyblade up again. Joining together the two of them managed to take down the oversized chameleon, Axel roasting the carcass and Roxas striking her blade true to release the heart. She watched it rise up and be swallowed by the black to be collected. With the job finished Roxas ran to her fallen friend. She knelt by him lifting his head up and patting his cheek.

"Xion! Xion wake up!" She shook him slightly making him groan and slowly opened his eyes. For a moment his features seemed to change. It caught her by the throat as that muscular build seemed to go thin and elegant like a female. Those blue eyes stayed as they were but his hair went long over the shoulders in curtains and his cheeks with sharp feminine cheekbones. She shook her head blinking in surprise but then saw him as she always had.

"Roxas?" Xion groaned and sat up rubbing his head.

"Are you hurt?" She helped him up so he stood over her now. Axel remained silent behind her simply staring with intense concentration.

"No, just my pride." He let out a pathetic laugh. "I failed the mission."

"No, the heartless is down, it doesn't matter who takes it out so long as it's done, right?" She hugged him briefly but long enough to have his body tensed up. "You're okay, and that's what counts."

"Roxas…" He lowered his head. "I don't know… if I'm really okay."

"Why? What happened Xion?"

Axel pat her shoulder pulling her back some.

"Easy… for now let's return to the castle. We'll report in and get ice cream then Xion can tell us the whole story."

~The Tower~

Xion stared down at his melting ice cream. The blue treat didn't look as appealing as it had before. The past few days had been difficult and soured his mood. He glanced over at Roxas, watching her lick her treat and smile at Axel. Their closeness, and Roxas' happiness at being near Axel, left him feeling… alone.

"Xion?" Roxas waved a hand in front of his eyes snapping him from his angry thoughts. "Are you okay. What exactly happened? What's been going on with you lately?"

"I…" He grit his teeth and looked down at his melting ice cream. "I can't use the keyblade anymore."

"Huh?" Roxas stare stunned for a moment. " You can't use the Keyblade? Why not? What happened to you?"

"I don't know… but without it I can't do my job." Xion closed his eyes and gripped the stick of his ice cream tightly in hand. "Without the keyblade I defeat the heartless in one place and they just pop up in another. If I can't collect the hearts… I'll be useless."

Roxas' eyes went sad and sympathetic and she glanced back at Axel.

"Is there anything you can do, Axel?" She asked him, pleading with those big blue eyes.

"I wish there was… but it's just like she said." Axel started to point out and noticed the odd look on Roxas' face. "What?"

"She?" she looked back at Xion who remained stoic in the face "Aren't you a boy?"

"I think so." Xion shrugged. "What's the difference?"

"Huh?" Axel blinked then realized his mistake. "Oh… sorry it's a bit complicated. I'll explain it to you later. At any rate what Xion is saying is right. Without the keyblade he can't collect hearts. Once the superior and the others realize that, they're more than likely going to turn him into a dusk."

"We can't do anything to help?" Roxas held her stomach feeling it twist and wretch at the thought.

"Well, there's nothing I can do but-" Axel shifted his gaze to her and smiled. "There is something you can do for him, Roxas."

"Really?" Her eyes brightened. "What can I do?"

"You can work double duty… Xion, make sure your missions are with Roxas from now on. The two of you can go out on the mission together, he collects the hearts and no one will know that you can't use the keyblade."

"That's it!" Roxas jumped and hugged him her ice cream falling off the stick but she didn't care. "Axel you're a genius!"

"Whoa! Watch it…" Axel complained when he nearly lost ice cream too. "Don't get too excited now. Remember that doing double duty means you'll have to collect twice as many hearts."

"No worries, I can do it!" She turned to Xion who looked surprised and alarmed by this.

"Y-you sure?"

"Friends need to lean on each other now and again," Axel explained and wrapped an arm around Roxas. "Ain't that right, Roxie?"

"Yeah, just leave it to me. I'll take care of it until you can use the keyblade again."

"Friends… does that mean you and I are friends too, Axel?" Xion asked.

"Well yeah, If you're friends with Roxas…" He rubbed Roxas' shoulder gripping it a little possessively before letting go. "Then of course you're my friend."

Xion stared at the man, his blue eyes wide and his smile slowly spreading across his young handsome face. Axel blinked a little in surprise as the female he'd seen before began to blur and shift to the male form before going back to the female. Huh… interesting.

"Thank you, Roxas, Axel."

~Later at the Castle~

"Double Duty huh?" Roxas sighed as her and Axel curled up for the night. "I guess I'll be working overtime for awhile."

"I'd like to go with you, but we can't have three people on a mission. Saix would never go for it. It's bad enough we had to chase after Xion today. Still we can meet up for Ice Cream when you're up to it, and we always have this." He stroked a hand down her hair and back.

"Yeah…" She smiled. "We do." She blushed a little and closed her eyes at the touch. "I wonder what the others would say to us about sharing a bed together."

"Saix might be perturbed by it, but I doubt the other would really care. They all prefer to keep to themselves." Then again… Axel mused. Luxiana and Vexen had been bed mates a time or two. That had been before their relationship soured. Axel referred to it as a relationship because no one else really seemed to be in agreement about what it should be called. Vexen called it an experiment, Luxiana called it a source of entertainment…and Saix called it a distraction. Which is exactly how he would term Axel's "relationship" with Roxas.

"At any rate, it's none of their business anyway what we do outside of our missions, right?"

"Right." She smiled up at him and snuggled in closer. "Mmmm… so how come you called Xion a she? You never explained that to me."

"Oh… well you see when I inquired about Xion, Saix said that he has a unique power that disguises his form. He appears differently depending on the person who's looking at him."

"So… whoever looks at him sees what they want to?" Roxas raised a curious brow.

"Not quite the right description but close enough. Xion's appearance is based on their relationship with him, and how they interact with him. I'm not entirely sure how it works in his case… I just know that when I saw him, it wasn't what you saw."

"What I see," Roxas narrowed her eyes a bit. "What I see is a boy. He's around the same age as me… black hair, blue eyes, shorter than you but taller than me. He seems… familiar somehow."

"Not surprising." Axel murmured letting his eyes droop and the rough day taking its toll.

"Hmmm… when you look at Xion...what do you see?" She lifted her head to stare into his sleepy face.

"I see…" He paused, his fingers running through her hair once. "I see you."

"Huh?" Roxas' eyes go wide. "Me?"

"Sort of… you look like twins… only she has black hair." He explained. He wouldn't point out that it was that black hair that also had him thinking of Sora. The three of them were all melded together in his brain.

"So you see a girl, that's why you call him a she." She sighed a bit remembering the few moments after the fight. "I think I saw it too for a moment… it was just a flash but I could see the female face and form. It didn't click that Xion and I look alike." She bit her lip thinking about that. "Hey what if… Axel?"

She lifted her head, and found he was asleep; his eyes closed and his hands still around her. She sighed again and tucked her tongue in her cheek.

"Guess I'll worry about it later." She closed her eyes and let herself fall to sleep… before she dreamed, she wondered what was this nasty tangle in her belly was… and why it appeared at the prospect of Xion… a female Xion... getting closer to Axel.

"Goodnight, Axel."

~Day 75~

Roxas and Xion's first mission together was to the dessert city Agrabah. They not only had to collect hearts, but also fully explore the cave in which she and Axel had discovered before. While Xion couldn't use the keyblade, he was helpful with battles, eliminating the sudden plethora of heartless that decided to pop up out of nowhere.

The cave itself was massive, with all manner of hidden doors, secret latches, and treasure chests. For some reason Roxas felt as if theyt were being followed and occasionally looked over her shoulder trying to figure out where the sensation was coming from.

"You alright, Roxas?" Xion asked when she stopped suddenly.

"Y-Yeah, just can't seem to shake this inkling that someone's watching us." She shrugged her shoulders in an attempt to rid the spine tingling sensation. "Let's keep going."

"Alright… though I think we've been through the majority of the cavern already." He explained and examined a device on a wall. "Though everytime I think we're done… a new door opens."

The device shifted and started to turn and another gate opens and he laughs a bit.

"See what I mean?"

"Yeah, it may take some time to fully explore this place, but on the bright side there's plenty of heartless around, which means plenty of hearts to reach our quota." She stepped through the gate into a dark room.

"We reached our quote a hundred heartless ago, Roxas. I think you've swung your keyblade enough for both of us today. You're gonna tire yourself out. Remember it wasn't all that long ago you were on in a sick bed."

"Ah don't worry about me, I'm fine. I could do this all day!" She swung her blade around to prove it and gave him a wink. Xion laughed, and gasped touching his mouth.

"Whoa, where'd that come from?"

"You must be in a good mood." Roxas deduced.

"We don't have moods, Roxas," Xion reminded her. "We're-"

"Yeah, yeah I know, we're nobodies… man I'm so sick of hearing that. So what if we don't have hearts? So what if we're not real people? That's all going to change eventually. That's what we're here collecting hearts for, isn't it?. So why can't we act like we do have them, why can't we just… go with it?"

"Roxas…" Xion blinked in surprise at her tirade and Roxas sighed heavily holding her chest.

"Sorry… I don't know where that came from. I've been… off lately." She rubbed her stomach. She tensed a bit when she felt Xion's hand on her shoulder and she turned to face him.

"Don't apologize… You're not wrong, after all. These sensations you're getting… I've been getting them too. I don't know how to explain it, and for the most part I've just been ignoring them, because it's just easier to deal with it that way… but I know when I'm around you, and now Axel, the sensations get stronger, and I don't think I can just ignore them anymore."

"You're right." She smiled softly. "I'm the same… and I think that's why I snapped just not. The reason I've been off is because I keep trying to control what's inside me, instead of just letting it out. From now on I'm just going to act like I do have a heart, I'm going to watch all the people and learn from them. Maybe that's the real key to getting hearts of our own."

"If you think it'll work, then I say we try it. In fact there's something I've been wanting to try." Xion held up a pinky and Roxas raised a brow at it. "I saw those kids in Twilight Town do this. They called it a pinky promise." He hooked his pinky around hers… for a moment Roxas saw Xion change again, a girl again and a smile as warm as the sun and eyes crystal blue.

"Oh uh… what's it for?" She stared at their linked pinkies with a small blush.

"From what I understand, it's a pact. You promise each other something, and the linked pinkies is how you signify it."

"Oh… okay… well then I promise I'll help you learn to use the keyblade again. I promise I won't let you turn into a dusk!"

"Alright… and I promise to work hard and not slow you down." He paused and looked into her eyes, saw the wide curious gaze in them. "I promise to always be your friend."

"Huh?" Her eyes went a bit wide at that and then softened with a smile. "I promise that too… we'll always be friends."

~Later~

After finishing the mission and having ice cream Roxas went back to her room. She thought of everything she went through and wrote it down in her journal. For a moment she paused and lifted up her pinky. She replayed the conversation she'd had with Axel and Xion… about Best friends… and what it meant to be inseparable.

"We're friends… but what makes someone a best friend I wonder." She pulled her legs up to her chest still staring at the pinky. "Being close… even when you're far a part… what's the link that holds best friends together?"

"So long as they think about me from time to time… then our hearts will be one."

Roxas gasped and her hands dropped to her side and she clutched her felt a pounding there, painful and sharp and continued to hear the echoes of that voice.

"My friends are my power!"

Roxas rolled onto her side holding her head, panting and shuddering as the pain started to increase… but as quickly as it came it quickly subsided. She took long deep breaths, a sheen of sweat forming on her skin and she slowly released her head, shaking like a leaf.

"W-What… what was that?"

~Castle Oblivion~

Namine stared up at Sora as she floated in the glass bubble. Her eyes sad and worried for the girl. She hoped she could piece together the memories quickly… the sooner Sora was back to her normal self again, the better off they all would be.

"How long will it take?"

Namine turned at the voice and looked to Riku who stood in his new black hood that allowed him to travel through doorways of darkness without damage to his body. His choice to straddle the lanes between had given him a new confidence in his ability, and allowed him to forge a new path for himself.

"I'm not entirely sure. Really it all depends on Sora." She turned her eyes up to the girl once more. "Sora… and those who hold pieces of her. She's incomplete, not just because of her disconnected memories… but because of the other fragments of her who wander the worlds with their own purposes."

"Sora's nobody…" Riku deduced and got a nod from Namine.

"I'm going to piece together the parts that I have… but without Roxas, Sora cannot be complete. When the time comes, she'll either have to succumb to her willingly… or be destroyed."

"Diz told you this?"

"Yes… and I know which way Sora would prefer. She has a gentle and welcoming heart. I only hope Roxas can remember enough of her to see that… and accept it." She turned to Riku now her eyes full of sadness. "We nobodies were never meant to exist… but that doesn't stop us from trying. When the time comes Riku, Sora may need your help to be complete."

"When the time comes." Riku formed his blade in hand and lifted it up to eye level. "I'll be there for her."

~Ask Briry~

Briry: *Hiding in Fox Hole waiting for the barrage of angry fans* I know, I know, I took a long time to update… but I promise I'll be more frequent with the KH chapters. Next on my list is "If it Never Happened" and I'll be working on both simultaneously from here on out.

Next Chapter: Experimental Play