A/N: Bleh :P My brain isn't in the mood for functioning today. We had to take the PSAT, and I think that I epically failed, though it doesn't really count on anything, but still…So tired…So, most of you guys said that you were alright with skipping ahead, so I'm planning on doing that later on in this chapter, or the next. So, yeah…enjoy!

Anomaly-peculiarity: something strange and difficult to identify or classify

Day 224~ Anomaly-

Namine stood in front of the large, white pod that held the sleeping Keyblade master inside it. She frowned as she continued staring at it. For some reason, the process of piecing back the brunette haired boy's memories had become a bit more difficult, as if something was interfering…More like someone.

"You seem to be struggling." The man in red said as he entered the room, walking over to Namine.

The blonde closed her eyes and clasped her hands together in front of her chest, her face sad looking. "A Nobody is interfering, I think."

"A Nobody?" The red clad man asked incredulously, staring at the white pod.

Namine nodded her head weakly. "I keep trying to piece his memory back together," She began, her face turning into one of worry. "but what if some of the pieces got lost? There would be no way for me to finish. If that happened-and they found their way into someone else-he'd never get them back."

"Oh, I think he can do without a memory or two." The man in red stated, causing Namine's gaze to shoot up at him.

"But what if he needs those memories in order to wake up? What if they're the key?"

"Namine…You are a witch with power over Sora's memories and those connected to him. Are you seeing something I cannot?"

Namine looked back at the white pod that held Sora, staring at intently. "If his memories become her memories…she will never survive it."

"She?"

0o0o0o0o0o0o

Axel was awoken by the sound of someone running into the bathroom and coughing terribly bad. Seeing as how it was bothering him, he got out of his bed and walked out into the hall and to the bathroom finding the door open, and Hope leaning over the toilet seat, puking her guts out. Once he saw it was her, he rushed over and knelt down next to her, pulling her hair back and out of her face. He stayed next to her until she was done and flushed the toilet, still leaning over the seat, her face pale and sickly looking.

"You finished?" Axel asked, rubbing gentle circles on her back as she laid her head in her arms.

Hope closed her eyes and nodded weakly. "Axel, I don't feel good…"

He laughed softly at her statement before scooping her up into his arms. "I kind of figured that out when I saw you puking your guts out."

Hope gave a weak smile as he entered her room and walked over to her bed, gently setting her down and covering her back up. Since he wasn't wearing her normal leather gloves, he placed a hand to her forehead, checking for a fever. Even though everything was always warm to the pyro, he could still feel the heat coming from her body, indicating that she was indeed sick with a fever. Hope gave coughed loudly, pulling the covers closer to her cold body. "It's s-so c-cold…"

Axel smiled at her sadly before exiting the room to go back to his own, where he grabbed several blankets he had stored in his closet and bringing them back, unfolding them and placing them on Hope. "I'm gonna go see if I can find a thermometer." Axel said before walking out of the room, leaving Hope to snuggle further into the blankets.

Several minutes later~

'BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!' The little white thermometer beeped, indicating it was done reading Hope's temperature. Axel pulled the thermometer from the sickly girls mouth and stared at it, growling a bit when he read the numbers 102.5. She was really sick. "Good news and bad news. Which do you wanna here first?"

Hope peeked an eye open to stare up at him. "Bad news…."

"Bad news is, you won't be going anywhere for awhile. You have a fever of 102.5. Good news is, you're not going to die."

"Joy…." Hope mumbled, her voice all choked up sounding as she spoke. "Guess this means no mission for me today, huh?"

Axel grinned. "You got it. Instead, you get to stay in your room and sleep, something that I wish I could do instead. But, since you're my best friend and all, I am going to stay and take care of you!"

Hope gave him a weak smile, opening her mouth to speak, only to have someone else speak before she could. "Axel, you should've left for your mission to Agrabah an hour ago." Saix said, his voice sounding irritated as he spoke.

Axel frowned, turning around to stare at him. "I'm taking the day off. Hope's sick, and she needs me to take care of her."

Saix smirked. "We'll see to it that she is taken care of properly, while you're on your mission."

"Wha-Are you implying that I can't take proper care of her?" Axel exclaimed, only earning a soft kick from Hope to get his attention.

"Just go…I'll be fine…"

"But, Hope-"

"Go, Axel…"

Giving her an apologetic look, he opened up a portal and left, leaving Hope to take care of herself.

Delilah hummed a tune as she stirred the hot soup around in the pot, while Hope coughed and coughed upstairs in her room. "Mom, *COUGH* is my soup*COUGH* done yet *COUGH-COUGH*?"

Delilah sighed as Hope yelled, which only caused more coughing. "It's almost done, sweetie, but try not to yell!" Hope only coughed in reply, causing Delilah to shake her head in pity. Just as she was pulling a bowl out to put some soup in, someone knocked on the door. With the bowl in hand, she walked over to it and opened it, surprised when she saw two familiar people. "Oh, Lea, Isa!"

Lea grinned. "Hi, Mrs. Daniels. Can Hope come out and play?"

Delilah smiled at the two, "Sorry, boys, but Hope is sick with a cold."

"Awww…" Lea mumbled in disappointment, earning an elbow to the side from Isa.

"Is there anyway we can help you out with taking care of her?" Isa asked.

"Well, I was just about to take a bowl of soup up to her. But, I think she would be more surprised if you two took it up to her." Delilah said, earning excited grins from the both of them.

In the end, let's just say that Hope felt a little better after eating some soup and seeing her two best friends.

0o0o0o0o

"Here ya go! One cup of hot jasmine tea!"

Hope smiled at Demyx as he handed her the cup of freshly brewed tea, taking a small sip and sighing. "Thanks, Demyx. So, how was today's mission?" Hope asked, setting the cup on the nightstand beside her bed and laying back down, shivering as she cuddled into the blankets some more.

"Ah, just another mission with Roxas to the coliseum. But, get this: He went up against Xigbar! Man, it was the most totally unexpected thing ever! Well, aside from the part when the giant heartless that was the target for today showed up and interrupted their match." Demyx explained, scratching his head.

Hope laughed weakly as he continued to tell her about his mission for the day, wondering only one thing:

'Where's Axel?'

0o0o0o0o

Axel frowned as he took a bite from his ice-cream, staring out at the sunset as he did so. Aside from Hope being sick, something else was bothering him, too. More like a person, actually. Xion, to be exact. After reading the reports that Vexen had made, Axel was bothered by the fact that she was not even a Nobody, but an experiment called Project No.i . In Axel's opinion, she really didn't even belong here with him, Roxas, and Hope. Mentally, he laughed at the thought, realizing that this was how he used to feel when he was younger. He would get angry every time Hope paid attention to Isa instead of him. The feeling of jealousy was something Hope told him he should never experience.

Some good that ever did…

"Hey, Axel?" Xion's voice broke the pyro out of his thoughts.

"Uh-huh?"

"You've been to Castle Oblivion, right?"

Axel's frown deepened. "Yup, me and Hope both."

"What's it like?"

"The Organization uses it as a research facility." Axel said, trying not to reveal too much information about the second castle.

"Seems like people are getting sent there all the time. Especially you." Roxas pointed out.

"But they never send me, you, or Hope." Xion said, her face becoming thoughtful.

"Well, Hope's been there before. They won't send her back anymore because of what happened the last time." Axel explained, frowning angrily as he remembered how Marluxia had attacked Hope.

"What…what DID happen the last time?" Roxas asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"…She went up against Marluxia and lost. Got beat up in the process. Y'know that scar she has on her side?" Axel asked, earning a nod from Roxas, "Marluxia gave that to her."

"Wow, I didn't know that happened. How did she make it out alive?"

"I…I got her out of there and sent her back home. But, enough of what happened then. The boss man probably doesn't need you there, that's all."

Roxas said nothing else, but Xion did, her face taking on this sad expression. "Maybe….." Suddenly, she stood up. "I gotta go."

Roxas looked at her with a confused face. "Huh?"

It happened so fast that, Axel hadn't really seen what had exactly happened, only seeing Roxas hanging onto Xion as she dangled off the Clock tower. Roxas asked if her if she was ok and needed to nap, but she disagreed with that idea. That's when Axel got an idea, opening up a portal and telling the two younger members to follow him.

"Ah-ahhh-AHHH-CHOOOO!" Ugh, I hate being sick…. "Curse you common cold, curse you…" I mumbled, grabbing a tissue and blowing my nose.

"You sound much worse than this morning." Axel said as he portaled into my room with Xion and Roxas.

"Oh, hi, guys." I waved, my voice all scratchy and my nose all stuffy.

"What's wrong with your voice? You sound funny…" Roxas said, frowning at me as he spoke.

"She's sick. Anyway, I got an idea: We should all go to the beach the next time we get a day off."

"The beach!" I exclaimed happily, causing me to cough.

"The beach? Where did that come from?" Xion asked Axel as the three stood around my bed, while I blew my nose.

"What, don't you wanna go someplace different for a change?" Axel asked, laughing a bit as he did so.

"So…it would just be the four of us?" Roxas asked.

"Yeah, exactly!"

"….I'll join you…if I can." Was it just me, or did Xion sound somewhat insecure?

"What the heck, Xion? Of course you can. You're our friend!" I exclaimed, coughing again some more.

"You'll have a blast, trust me." Axel said, clearly trying to reassure her.

Xion seemed to think for a moment before nodding, giggling a bit. "Well…all right, sure. Let's do it."

I smiled, before sneezing again and reaching for some more tissues when I realized the most horrible thing ever. "Guys, can I have more tissues?"

A/N: So, you'll never believe what I just found out: Fanfiction has a frigging Facebook page! Apparently, you can go look at it and vote for whichever author nominated on it to be the author of the month. I just thought it was kinda cool ^-^! Ugh, I have a Spanish quiz tomorrow….Don't wanna fail this one like I did last weeks. Yeah, this chapter was crappy towards the end, probably cuz I wrote this when I got home and my brain was bleeding from that test, but whatever! I hope yall liked it! LATER TATERS!