How you KNOW you have no life: A) your name starts with Saf and ends with Dawnheart, and B) you make almost daily posts on your fanfic. (Actually, this is probably only because I hate this story arc and want it to be OVER...)

So, yeah... feel free to hit me over the head with a heavy, blunt object for that. And the gazillion, bunched-together flashbacks in this chappie.

You'll probably see what I mean by "how things get later on", concerning the Anxy/Roku couple.

Onward with our tale!

Disclaimer- Do not own. I do, however, own my OCs and a copy of the game. And this ice cream cone I'm eating. Yum... ice cream.

Roxas and the others were gathered at the Usual Spot. Pence and Olette were huddled around Hayner while Roxas sat off to the side. He realized he hadn't contemplated these dreams for a few days now, but the most recent one made him think more than ever before.

The redhead who was in the school uniform… Kairi… had sent a letter to Sora. Wanted to remember him. Roxas' question was, why couldn't Kairi remember her brunette friend? From the dream of her giving Sora the charm, it didn't seem like she could forget him that easily. So what had happened?

"Roxas!" Olette's angry voice broke through his mind, and he looked up and saw his friend with her hands on her hips. "Have you been listening to anything I've been saying?!"

The spiky-haired boy cringed slightly. Olette was not a fun person when she was mad.

"We've only got three days of summer vacation left," Hayner cut in hastily, before Roxas could be subject to Olette's wrath. "So don't even mention that assignment!"

"But we agreed we'd get it finished today," Olette retorted, crossing her arms.

Roxas turned to look at Hayner and Pence. "Yesterday…" he began slowly. "I fell off the station tower, didn't I?"

"You wouldn't be here if you did!" Hayner replied, confusing Roxas even more.

"Stop changing the subject," Olette said, annoyed.

"Okay, okay," Hayner grumbled, getting up off the box he sat on to stand. "You win. We'll do the assignment." He waved his hands around mockingly. "Stupid 'independent study'. Now, do any of you have any bright ideas for a topic?"

"Maybe we could study the stuff that's been happening to me," murmured Roxas, looking at the ground. "Y'know – the dreams, and the guys in white…"

Hayner made a disapproving noise in his throat. "Forget it."

Roxas' head jerked up, and he fought the flash of indignation that had scythed through him. "Why not? It's an easy topic. I dictate, Olette writes. What's so hard about that?"

"Look, things have been weird with you and the town since the photos were stolen, right?" Hayner asked bluntly.

"Well," Pence said, "tomorrow we're going to search the town and find out what's been going on."

"Lots of people are helping out," Olette added. Although she still looked huffy at Hayner and Pence, her temper seemed to have calmed a bit.

Roxas blinked. "They're doing all that… for me?" Seeing the looks on his friends' faces at his seriousness, he looked down and grinned. "I'm gonna go get some ice cream!" he announced, and ran out of the Usual Spot to the shop.

"So, there's this weird rumor going around. Wanna hear it?" Pence asked between gulps of ice cream. Olette nodded, and Hayner and Roxas shrugged.

"You know the stone steps at Sunset Station?" The others nodded; the train took passengers to Sunset Terrace when they wanted to watch the skies from Sunset Hill. "Well, we just use 'em all the time without thinking about it, but get this: Apparently the stairs count differently going upwards than downwards!"

"Seriously?" Hayner asked, eyes widening slightly.

"And there are six other weird stories like that, too," Pence went on. "It's like…" He seemed to grope for words for a moment. "…the seven wonders of Twilight Town."

"We should investigate that for our school project!" Hayner clapped Pence on the back, causing the shorter boy to wince slightly. "Pence, you're a genius!"

"There might be other rumors going around, too. I'm going to go search the seven wonders."

"Oh, no," Olette interrupted. "You're not doing all of them by yourself. We're going to split up."

Pence opened his mouth as if to argue, but at the look on Olette's face he relented.

The four of them gathered around the map of the Seven Wonders that Pence had made earlier. "Okay, so…" the girl began. "Pence, you can go to the wall at Sunset Terrace–" she pointed to the location on the map as she spoke – "and you might as well do the steps too. Hayner, you can go to Sunset Hill and solve the wonder there… and the tunnels too… and I'll take the waterfall, and the train above Sunset Hill."

Roxas turned to face her, which was rather hard since their heads were about four inches apart. "What am I going to do?"

"You're going to the mansion." She indicated it on the map.

"But… we were going to explore the mansion tomorrow," Pence pointed out tentatively. "And Seifer's gang was going to help out too."

"Are you serious?" Roxas asked, eyebrows raising in surprise.

"Yeah, I actually asked him to," Hayner said, a belligerent look on his face as if daring Roxas to argue.

Olette narrowed her eyes as she pulled back out of the circle. "Do you want to get this assignment over with or not?"

"Yes, ma'am," Hayner muttered.

Roxas trekked through the woods by himself, occasionally stepping over a root or a fallen tree. Man, he didn't realize how scary Olette could get when she was in bossy homework mode. He smiled to himself; he knew that he and the guys wouldn't have gotten their assignments done throughout the school year if she hadn't nagged them endlessly.

But that still doesn't make it any less annoying… or terrifying, for that matter.

Roxas reflected on Pence's words just before the gang had departed for their various destinations.

"They say there's a girl who appears at the second story window of the old mansion, even though no one's lived there for years. Pretty weird, eh?"

The blond stopped in his tracks as he realized he had reached the mansion. Stretching upward and craning his neck to see better, his eyes widened slightly. There was a girl there, her pale profile showing up obviously against the bluish-white of the rest of the room. But it wasn't just any girl.

"Namine?"

Roxas felt, rather than saw, the burst of white light against his body. When he dared crack open an eye, he gasped upon seeing his surroundings. The room, like the one he had appeared in after the fight against the white monster, was indeed bluish-white, only this one was different in that it had hand-drawn pictures on the walls. He took a few steps forward to look around and saw a few he remembered from his dreams: Sora, Donald and Goofy heading into battle; the portal that Riku and Sora had clashed at…

Roxas halted at one that seemed to prick at something in the back of his mind, like a buzzing fly that just won't go away. It was a picture of five figures, all clad in black hooded coats. The foremost two had heads of long blue or silver hair, and the others, who had their backs to the audience, made Roxas blink in surprise and look closer. One had a head of spiky, fiery red hair – Axel? – while the second's hair was longer and dark brown. He recognized this as Anxclof.

And the final one…

"Roxas?"

The boy whirled at the sound of his name, but didn't see Namine. Feeling his nervousness flare up, he looked at where he thought her voice was coming from, and gestured at the picture. "This is… me… And why're Axel and Anxclof here too?"

"You are all best friends."

Roxas let out a harsh bark of laughter. "Very funny." Because last he checked, he didn't try to make friends with fiery guys who tried to kill him.

"Don't you want to know the truth," Namine continued, acting as if Roxas had not spoken, "about who you really are?"

Roxas snorted. "No one knows me better than me."

"I meant about the dreams."

"Well…" The boy felt his scorn melt into concern and the confusion that had become so familiar over the last four days. "I am kinda confused about what's been going on lately."

He paced the room as he spoke. "Like, how do I know Axel and Anxclof, and why do I keep having those dreams where we're all together? And…"

His voice trailed off when stopped to look at the picture of Sora, Donald and Goofy racing into a group of the bug-like Heartless, their respective weapons of Keyblade, staff and shield at the ready.

Namine spoke softly, like a teacher trying to make a confused three-year-old realize that two plus two equals four. "You know these three, don't you?"

"Yeah," Roxas murmured, lifting his head. "Yeah, I do." He pointed at each of them. "Sora, Donald, Goofy."

There was a deep intake of breath before Namine spoke again. "A year ago, some… things happened, and I had to take apart all the false memories that had been previously chained together in Sora's heart. But now, I'm putting back all the real ones, exactly as they were before. It's taken a long time, but very soon, Sora will be his old self again." A slight stir to the air made it feel like Namine had turned to face Roxas. "The process has been affecting you too, Roxas."

"You mean the dreams?" Roxas tried hard not to let his excitement show; he was finally getting some answers to all this, and he wasn't about to screw up and leave too soon this time.

"Yes… you and Sora are connected. And in order for Sora to be complete again, he needs you."

"Me?" Roxas cocked his head to the side.

Suddenly he felt himself seem to zoom forward, and then the next thing he knew he was sitting on a chair on one side of a long, white table. Namine sat on a chair on the other side.

"Namine… who are you, anyway?"

"I'm a witch, with power over Sora's memories and those around him."

Roxas' brief sense of insight was starting to ebb now, to be replaced with a sense of puzzlement that was growing all too familiar. "A… witch?"

Namine shrugged, but the boy sensed that she was feeling more about this topic than she was letting on. "That's what DiZ called me, anyway. But I don't even know why I have this power – I just do." She laughed quietly. "I'm not even sure there's a right way for me to use it."

Roxas raised and lowered one shoulder in a half-shrug. "Well, I can't exactly help you there."

He immediately regretted his wording, but Namine just looked at him, the shadow of a smile flitting across her face before fading.

Roxas allowed his gaze to rove over the drawings on the walls before settling on the one of himself, Anxclof and Axel. "It's funny… suddenly I feel like I don't know myself at all… Who my real friends are, or anything. I thought I could confide anything in Hayner, Pence and Olette, but…" The spiky-haired blond felt somewhat embarrassed at spilling all of this to a girl he'd known for only a few days, but Namine merely gave him a glance that was both sad and understanding. "Now, I'm not so sure." He raised his eyes from the picture of himself and the redhead to meet Namine's, dark blue to dark blue. "I guess my real question is – what do you know about me that I don't?"

Clearly, this had not been the question to ask. Namine's eyes took on a sorrowful look, and Roxas saw her swallow, as though each word spoken next would choke her like thorns. She took a deep breath. "You… were never supposed to exist… Roxas." She seemed to add his name almost for good measure, but the blond boy was too busy feeling shock course through him.

"What?" he managed at last, his voice strangled and angry. "How could you say something like that, even if it were true?"

Namine sighed. "I'm sorry. I guess some things… really are better left unsaid."

Roxas blinked out of his reverie to find himself standing where he had been in front of the mansion. He quickly looked back up at the window, but all he saw were the curtains waving gently to the afternoon breeze.

"Hey, Roxas," Pence greeted as the blond entered the Usual Spot. Olette waved at her friend, but Hayner was nowhere in sight. "How'd it go?"

Roxas shrugged, trying to act nonchalant when his mind was spinning. "There was no girl after all," he lied. "It turned out to be a curtain flapping in the wind."

Olette blinked and shrugged. "Well, it doesn't really matter, anyway. The paper's done."

Pence snorted. "Yeah. 'The rumors were bogus', the end."

The girl shot a glare at him. "We wrote about all the work we did, remember?"

"So none of the seven wonders were really wonders after all?" Roxas asked. At his friends' nods, he sighed. "What a rip-off." He looked around. "Where's Hayner?"

"He said he'd be at Central Station with some ice cream."

"And that we should meet him up when the report was done."

Roxas couldn't help but let out an irritated groan. "And what exactly did he do for the project?"

"He helped out," Pence reminded the other boy. Roxas just rolled his eyes in response.

"You know…" Olette began slowly. "We only have two more days together." At the blank looks on Pence and Roxas' faces, she sighed. "Summer vacation, remember?"

The three made their way to Central Station and up the spiral steps to the top of the clock tower. Hayner was sitting on the ledge with an arm draped across an upraised knee and the other hand holding his ice cream stick when the others sat down next to him. Roxas in particular was especially careful, remembering when he had fallen off the tower.

Or… had I?

He shook these thoughts out of his mind as Hayner spoke – absent-mindedly, staring out at the permanently-dusk sky. "Tomorrow, we search the town."

"Next day's the fair," Pence added.

"The last day of summer…" Roxas murmured.

Hayner made a sound as though he had been shot. "Don't say that! You'll give me an ulcer."

"Not if you explode from all that ice cream first," Olette retorted, causing Hayner and Pence to burst out laughing, and she soon joined in. Roxas, however, stared up at the sky, almost completely disregarding the brightness of the later afternoon sun in his thoughts.

I was never… supposed to exist?

"Well, look at that," Ansem said, directing these words at Char. The three of them had abandoned their usual posts down in the computer room for the moment, and now were in the ruined dining room of the mansion where they all lived. The gray-haired man went on, "You actually managed not to meddle in Roxas' life today."

The redhead, who was standing against the wall with Ansem, narrowed her eyes and scoffed. "I was busy monitoring Sora's progress. You know that."

DiZ, who had previously been sitting by quietly in one of the two leather armchairs in the room, laughed. "I'm certain you were restraining yourself from going outside and spending all our money, Char."

"Don't start that again," Char muttered. "One time when you want some pretzels and watermelon, and you're banned for life!"

"We're never letting you handle the money again, that's for sure," Ansem chuckled. "Not when you're hungry, anyway."

Char's face formed into a half-snarl, half-pout as she crossed her arms and looked away.

DiZ's single showing amber eye was glinting as he turned to Ansem. "My real question is, what about you? Are the holes in your memory starting to fill in?"

"Of Sora? Yes… the haze is clearing."

"That's a rather… blunt way of putting it," Char muttered.

DiZ ignored her. "The same thing is happening to everyone who had ties to Sora. Soon, he'll be just like an old friend who's gone away for a year."

Ansem let out another "hmph" and moved to sit in the leather chair that was opposite of DiZ's. "I've waited, and now I want to know. What were you and Char's motives for doing all of this?"

"You sound like an interviewer," Char chuckled, crossing the room to stand beside DiZ. At the narrow of Ansem's golden eyes, she sighed in mock annoyance. "But I suppose we could tell you…"

She and the red-clad man exchanged glances before turning back to the dark-coated one. It was DiZ who spoke. "Revenge."

Ansem blinked; clearly he had been expecting something different. "Revenge?"

"What, is there an echo in here?" asked the redhead, rolling her eyes.

"Now, for the finishing touches," DiZ murmured. He leveled his gaze to meet Ansem's. "First, we must dispose of Namine. She did a fine job with Sora, but it's high time she disappeared." He laughed softly. "Roxas isn't the only one who was never meant to exist. I want you to take care of that, Ansem.

"Also…" He turned to look at Char, whose countenance alighted briefly with surprise before the indifferent mask was back in place. "I… or rather, he…" He gestured to Ansem, who shrugged slightly. "…has a job for you, Char. He's already discussed it with me, and I find it suitable, since you would be bored waiting for Sora to reach the Organization with us."

Char blinked; it could not have been clearer that she thought that, with Sora's memory restored, she would be free to work more with DiZ and Ansem on the master plan. "Um, okay, sure. What is it?"

"Tell her, Ansem." The dark-cloaked man opened his mouth to speak, but DiZ cut him off. "In private."

This time, both of the others looked bemused. DiZ just smiled.

'Restoration at 97 percent.'

Sora, Donald and Goofy stand on an island amidst a purple sea of whirlpools and darkness. "Gawrsh, is that all that's left of the worlds taken by the Heartless?" Goofy asks in trepidation.
"Those worlds will be restored if we beat Ansem, right?" Sora murmurs. "But, if we do beat him and all those worlds become disconnected again, what's going to happen to us?"

The purple-clad Riku turns, but darkness eclipses his form as he does so, and he is replaced by a tall, dark-skinned man with amber eyes and long gray hair. "All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different." The man raises one fist and clenches it. "You see, darkness is the heart's true essence."
"That's not true!" Sora protests, raising the Keyblade. "The heart may be weak, and sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down there's a light that never goes out!"

The man reaches out one arm, feebly, as though he hardly has any strength left, to the door on the lone strip of land. "Kingdom Hearts! Fill me… with the power of darkness…"
"You're wrong," Sora says firmly, as the door opens, enveloping the other man in a beam of light. "I know now, without a doubt: Kingdom Hearts… is light!"

A dark silhouette, outlined starkly against the pale gold background, raises a Keyblade. "Now, Sora! Let's close this door for good!"

Sora, Donald and Goofy push hard against the doors, trying to force them closed. A normal Riku gives them a sad smile from the other side. "Take care of her," is all he says, as the door closes him off to his friends. Sora lifts his own Keyblade into the air, as does the dark silhouette, and, in a flash of light, the door is locked for good.

"Kairi!" The girl in question looks up as Sora runs over to her, but their respective strips of land are drifting apart.
"Sora!" Kairi cries out, trying to reach for him, but nearly stumbling to fall into the endless mist below. Sora catches her just in time.
"Kairi," he says desperately. "Remember what you said before? I'm always with you too." The land is drifting further and further apart, and he starts speaking faster, trying to get his message out before he loses her forever. "I'll come back to you, I promise!"
"I know you will!" Kairi says, and with that, even the most extension of their arms can't keep them from breaking apart as they drift away from one another.

Sora, Donald and Goofy walk along a grassy path. "Well, now what do we do?" Donald grumbles.
Sora, walking with his hands intertwined behind his head of spiky hair, is the one who replies. "We've gotta find Riku and King Mickey, remember?"
"But, uh, where do we start lookin' for that there door to the light?" Goofy asks.
They spot a yellow-furred dog running across the path with something in its jaws. "Hey, look, it's Pluto!" Donald says, pointing.
"And that's the King's seal!" Goofy adds, excitedly, as he sees the envelope with a circle that has two circles on top of it.
Sora kneels down to better speak to the dog. "Hey, have you seen King Mickey?"
The dog pauses for a moment, as though contemplating them, then turns and runs the other way. "Hey, wait!" Sora cries out, and he and the others chase after Pluto.

Sora is walking in a dark, grassy field. No moon, no stars to light his way. Suddenly he whips around at the sound of a voice. He relaxes for a moment, then at the feeling that someone is watching him he turns. A dark coated figure, hood drawn up, is standing there; it beckons to the brunette before seeming to fade into the night.

Sora is walking up the path to a strange-looking castle. He tilts his head slightly to the side at it…
And then everything seems to go dark.

The dark coated figure walks up to the one sitting by the rocks near the shore at a moonlit, dark beach. The one sitting at the rocks turns to his companion. "I've been to see him… He looks a lot like you."
Roxas' voice. "Who are you?"

"But why?" Roxas shouts at the young brunette.
Anxclof sighs. This time she's clad not in her normal black coat, but in a mainly white, sleeveless jacket with black markings along the bottom and sides; at the top is an X-shaped, steel zipper. Under the jacket, she wears a dark gray top that is slightly longer than the jacket, and red-and-black pants. "Roxas, I told you I've already made my decision. I have my own path to follow."
"And I'm not on it?" the blond snarls indignantly. "What happened to 'Roxas and Anxclof, journeying for truth'?"
"Sorry, Roxas." The brunette's dark green gaze levels to focus on the boy's, and the orbs are filled with sorrow. "But there are some things I have to do alone."
She flicks her wrist, causing a Keyblade to appear in her black-and-yellow-gloved hand – the spiky orange hilt and dark golden blade that Roxas knows so well. After a moment, during which Roxas' angry breathing can be heard, Anxclof turns away. "Don't follow me." She speaks without turning around, and takes a step forward. "If you do, I'll kill you."
Without further ado, she leaves the area, the place that has come to be known as the upper area of the Hall of Empty Melodies. Roxas can hear her footsteps pounding down the stairs, and finally lets out the breath he's been holding.
"So," he murmurs to himself, "looks like I'll have to do this by myself, too."

Heartless, rising up from the ground to surround the hooded figure. Seeing his enemies, the boy whips out two weapons: two Keyblades. One is white with a yellow-and-blue shaft as well as what looks like Kairi's charm on the chain at the end; while the other is black, with a purple gemstone on its handle and a dark star on the chain at its end. The figure twirls them in both hands before bringing them to touch in an 'x' across his body.
He whirls in an exquisite battle dance and rips through the Heartless with just two blows. Sensing that he is being watched, even as more Heartless rise up from below, the teen looks up. All he can see of the person on top of the blue-walled skyscraper is that they have unmistakably silver hair, the brightness of which is outlined conspicuously against the darkness of the sky.
He leaps up, runs up the side of the building with seemingly superhuman strength, and tosses the black Keyblade up to the person at the top. The silver-haired one jumps haphazardly, managing to catch the Keyblade in midair. On the silver-haired person's way down and the cloaked figure's run up the side, they meet in the middle, and seem to exchange a silent acknowledgment of the other.
The one in the black coat does a flip off the side of the building, landing almost perfectly on his feet, as does the one with the black Keyblade. They strike through the Heartless and turn to greet one another, but the feeling of congeniality is immediately dispelled.
"You…!"
The two clash their respective Keyblades, the hooded boy holding up his white weapon quickly to block every one of the other's strikes. He finally knocks the silver-haired man to the ground, and gets a good look at him.
He is clad identically to the man with the white Keyblade, only his eyes are, for some reason, covered by what looks like a dark blindfold. "Why?" the silver-haired one asks, imploringly, in a manner that disgusts the other. "Why do you have the Keyblade?"
The hooded one feels rage stir through him at the question he cannot even answer himself. Swinging his weapon downward, he snarls "Shut up!" and leaps forward to deliver the final blow.

Organization!Roxas is so angry and clueless. I love him. D: Consequently, I'm worried that he's somewhat OOC in the scenes with Anxclof. What do you all think?

And yes, I felt like splitting the group up for the Seven Wonders. I HATE that part of the game... Though part of me wanted to write Roxas' true reaction when he sees the dog coming out of the bag at Sunset Hill. xD;

Also, if you want a pic of Anxclof in her non-Organization outfit, PM me and I'll show you as soon as I can. (Or rather, when school lets me x.x')

Next chappie will be the final day with Roxas... and THEN Char can finally get some action.
Char: Finally... (shoves iPod into her pocket)
Me: ...Isn't that MY iPod?