I went back and tweaked a few things back in Chapter 17. Just added one more villain. Nothing else changed. Heads up, this chapter is going to be dealing with all of the sad moments that resulted from Xehanort's actions, so grab a pack of tissues. Also fair warning, there will be some dark moments/implications for Namine's time in Castle Oblivion chapter. You've been warned.

Episode 22: Xehanort Survivors Anonymous:

Radiant Garden – Community Center:

August 22, 2015

Dilan couldn't help but smile as he looked around the room in the new community center that had been set up in one of the newer districts of Radiant Garden. They'd gotten an even bigger turnout for their first meeting than they'd hoped. All of the surviving members of the original Organization XIII, Riku, Vanitas, Namine, Aqua, and Ventus sat in a circle in the small room they'd booked for the evening. With a nod to Ienzo and Terra, the whirlwind lancer spoke up.

"Good evening everyone," he began. "Thank you all for coming here tonight, and welcome to our first meeting of Xehanort Survivors Anonymous. Since the goal of this group is for people who have been personally affected by Xehanort's machinations to talk about their problems and move on from the trauma they endured, I think it's only fair that the ones who've dealt with the trauma the longest should go first." All eyes immediately turned to the oldest generation of Keyblade wielders in the room. In turn, Terra, Aqua, and Vanitas looked at Ven encouragingly. Or Terra and Aqua did, at least. Vanitas only gave his light half a raised eyebrow and a look that said "you might as well get it over with."

"Hi," Ven began after taking a deep breath. "For the handful of people here who don't know me or don't remember, my name is Ventus, and I survived Xehanort. I was ten years old when I first met the old man. I was caught outside in a storm, and the waves were so big I was almost swept out to sea. He saved me from the storm, but then he took me to his hideout, and refused to let me go back to my parents. He trained me in wielding a Keyblade, but whenever I tried to go home to my parents he wouldn't let me get off whatever world we were on."

"He put me through impossible training exercises, hoping to make me give into my inner darkness," the teen went on, voice shaking. "He wanted to use me as a vessel to replace his aging body. When he realized that wouldn't work, he split my heart in two." Everyone clenched their hands into fists in anger at how low Xehanort was willing to go. "He brought me home to die, and it was only thanks to my little brother that I survived that night. But when I woke up, all of my memories were gone. I couldn't remember anything except my name."

His voice finally broke as tears began rolling down his face. Aqua and Terra quickly enveloped their young friend in a supporting hug while everyone else in the group bar Vanitas (who was responsible for a lot of what happened after the memory erasure), offered words of comfort and sympathy. Ienzo told Ventus that he didn't have to share everything right then and there if he didn't want to, but Ven insisted on telling the full story. The collective blood of the former founders of the Organization boiled as Ven described the madman's machinations to make him and Vanitas fuse to create the X–Blade. Roxas and Xion quickly came over and gave Ven a hug when he told everyone about being in a coma for the last thirteen years. They'd been able to interact with the inside of Sora's mind at least. Ven never had that luxury.

Ven was sobbing inconsolably by the time he finished his story. Everyone in the room sympathized with him, and quickly began offering suggestions for coping mechanisms. After a few minutes, he finally calmed down and admitted that while he'd been to Disney Town's Dream Festival before his coma, he'd always wanted to go with Terra and Aqua. The two older Keyblade wielders quickly agreed, wanting to cheer their surrogate little brother up however they could. Like everyone else in the room, he had a lot of trauma to deal with, but a quiet, surrogate-family outing was the first step on the road to healing. As Namine passed Ven a box of tissues (which Ienzo had purchased in bulk in anticipation of nearly everyone being driven to tears telling their stories), the group moved down to the person with the second oldest meeting with Xehanort.

Vanitas kept up his aloof act as he recounted the four brutal years he'd spent living with Xehanort. The physical and emotional abuse. Being forced to prostitute himself for food. Beneath his cocky exterior though, he was just as emotional as Ventus was. He was just better at masking it. Unfortunately, (in his mind at least) Riku saw through the sarcastic veneer, and told him that he didn't have to be in denial about how traumatizing growing up with Xehanort had been.

Next was Terra, who recounted being manipulated by Xehanort into helping to kill his father figure before being possessed by the old man. Aqua described her nightmarish experiences in the Realm of Darkness and her feelings of failure. Ienzo spoke of how Xehanort had talked him into convincing Ansem to build the basement laboratory where they conducted their inhumane experiments. Even elaborated on how the madman had used the older man's scientific curiosity to easily manipulate him into committing crimes against humanity in the name of resarch. Dilan talked about the guilt the former founders felt at following Xehanort blindly.

Several boxes of tissues had been used up by the time it was Aeleus' turn. The former Number 5 explained how even when he was a Nobody, he had tried to perform small acts of kindness whenever he could in his spare time after his missions in the Organization.

"But in spite of my good deeds," he commented, "I still hated myself for what I'd done, in as much as I could hate at the time. I felt as if the things we did in Radiant Garden had left an empty void in my heart that could never be filled, no matter what I tried to do to atone for it." Even though as a Nobody the man had tried to kill him, Riku empathized with the guy on that count. He felt the same way after what he'd done at first, and even though he'd forgiven himself and moved on from it, there were times when the guilt still lingered.

After Aeleus came Lea, who, while putting on a similarly sarcastic attitude to Vanitas, admitted that he wasn't as bothered by everything as everyone else was.

"Sure, I still have flashbacks to both of my "deaths"," he admitted. "But the way I've always seen it is that I'm alive right now, so I shouldn't let the past bother me." Despite this, he still admitted feeling guilty about the things he'd done as part of the Organization. The lies, the killing, keeping secrets from Roxas and Xion that they deserved to know in the name of keeping them safe. As she sat silently in the back, Namine was beginning to think that nobody had escaped Xehanort's influence completely unscathed emotionally.

After Lea finished, he gently encouraged Namine to talk about the things that bothered her. She tried to protest that her problems weren't caused by Xehanort, but Riku and Aqua both insisted that this was still the best place to talk about her problems. Relenting, she told everyone about how Marluxia, Larxene, and DiZ had treated her. About the self-esteem shredding verbal abuse from DiZ, and the constant threat of sexual abuse (or just plain old physical in Larxene's case) Marluxia and Larxene used to keep her in line. Everyone was quick to reassure Kairi's Nobody that none of what she endured was her fault, and offer her all the comfort they could.

After Namine came Roxas and Xion, who admitted that while they were happy to be alive again, they kept having nightmares about what would happen if things had gone differently. They looked at each other and blushed profusely when Lea told everyone that the two of them had taken to sleeping together in each other's beds for comfort. Their blushing intensified when everyone gave them raised eyebrows and they quickly explained that it wasn't like that. Lea and Olette had given each of them "the Talk" after discovering the duo in Roxas' bed together after that first morning, and neither of them was ready to go that far when they weren't even ready to admit their feelings for each other yet.

Once everyone else had gone, Riku, who had insisted on speaking last, finally shared his story. Like Terra, he'd been possessed by Xehanort for a time, although nowhere near as long as the older Key bearer had. But he'd been able to break free of the tyrant's control and spent the next year fighting to keep the remnant of Xehanort's Heartless inside his heart in check. But even though he'd managed to break free, he'd still considered himself unworthy of redemption.

"I thought that because I'd slipped into darkness that I had failed," he said. "That no matter what I did nobody would forgive me for what I'd done. But in the last two years, I've moved past all that. The fact that Sora's dad is a psychiatrist definitely helped. So did passing my Mark of Mastery exam and earning the title of Keyblade Master. I think that was the moment when I finally put everything that had happened behind me and started moving on with my life."

Everyone applauded when the eighteen-year-old finished, and everyone went back to offering each other advice on coping mechanisms for the next hour before the meeting adjourned. As the group went their separate ways, they all agreed to come back next week. Since Riku was the most well-adjusted out of everyone there, he didn't really need to come, but he promised to show up anyway to support everyone.

So everyone went their separate ways. Terra, Aqua, and Ven returned to the Land of Departure. Lea, Roxas, Xion, and Namine went back to Twilight Town. Riku headed back to Destiny Islands. And Dilan, Even, Aeleus, and Ienzo made their way back up to Ansem's castle. The support group was a complete success. Everyone who had come to the meeting went home feeling a lot better about the trauma they'd endured than they did before.

Namine's bit about Marluxia threatening her with sexual abuse is based on some comments I read on Chain of Memories' TVTropes page, which pointed out that Namine's situation in the game had a lot of unsettling implications, so for her backstory I took that line of reasoning and ran with it to its logical conclusion.

I decided on having the former Organization members do something like this because it made sense that after all the times Xehanort manipulated them and the results of that manipulation, that everyone would have a degree of trauma and emotional scarring from what happened.

Next Chapter: Sora and Kairi talk about the future.