A/N: XD tonight was the Homecoming Dance….My friends were mad because I didn't go. I don't dance, and I hate big crowds. But, still…it might've been a little fun. So, I guess I'm square now, seeing as how my friend, Melissa put it, 'Be there, or be square!' Lol…yeah, I've done absolutely nothing all day long, and I'm exhausted. Well, might as well get this over with. Enjoy, and sorry for my lack of enthusiasm.

"Hope…Hope, get up." Axel said, shaking the girl gently as she slept.

Hope softly mumbled incoherently, rolling over onto her side, hugging a pillow to her. "Why?"

Axel sighed, carefully scooping her up into his arms and walking out of her bedroom, and opening a portal and walking through it, ending up in the round room in his normal seat, Hope sitting next to him, her head laying on his shoulder as she still slept lightly. The remaining 8 members sat in the chairs of the round room in silence, everyone awaiting for Xemnas to tell them why they had all been called in here so early in the morning.

Finally, Xemnas spoke. "Xion is gone."

Hope's eye's immediately shot open, stricken with shock and worry. She opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn't find it in her to form the words.

"What! Whoa whoa, time out…You mean she, like, flew the coop?" Demyx asked, breaking the silence that everyone had gone into.

No one else seemed to be shocked by it, save for Hope and Roxas, but Xaldin was the one that asked the bigger question. "Hah, preposterous. What would drive her to choose her own demise?"

All the questions that were asked were not give an answer, but an explicit order. "On the contrary. No one is to go looking for Xion without my express permission."

This time, Roxas was the one to speak. "What? Why not!"

Saix looked over at him, sending him a warning glare. "Your "friend" will be left alone. Or would you rather find some other punishment?"

Roxas looked up at Xemnas, growling. "I'd rather you get her back!"

"ROXAS!" Hope yelled, earning the blondes attention. She shook her head, as if telling him to stop yelling at the higher ups.

"And why would we do that?" Saix asked, smirking slightly as the blonde stood down.

"All will be revealed when the time comes." Xemnas stated.

Hope quietly heard Axel speak to himself. "Hmm…Which means, if the time doesn't come, things can stay as they are…"

Hope frowned at his words, confused as to what they meant. "Huh?"

"Lord Xemnas has spoken. Obey, or face your end." Saix said, everyone soon portaling out. Just as Hope was about to leave with Axel, Xemnas spoke.

"Number VIII, you may leave Hope here. I wish to speak with her about important matters."

Axel frowned slightly, but nodded, leaving Hope sitting in his chair. "Hmm…"

"I need to know….what you remember about our first meeting."

Hope head shot up in surprise. "What?"

"Our first encounter….what do you remember about it?"

Hope looked down at her lap and closed her eyes, thinking back 6 years earlier. "When we found you in the middle of the town square…You looked completely different than you looked later on. You're hair was like the color it is now. Silver. And your eyes were like they are now. Golden brown. But…once you woke up after a week of sleeping, your hair was white and your eyes were black. You're voice changed, too. After we found you, I began to keep a journal of observations that I made on you. Just changes from when we first found you, to then. But…one thing that really never changed was what I could sense coming from inside you." Hope said, feeling guilty for never explaining this to him before.

"And what would that be?" Xemnas asked, his curiosity growing as to what she was talking about.

"It felt like…you had more than one being inside you…And they were always fighting with each other. The conflict seemed to be centered mostly on your heart."

This surprised Xemnas, though it didn't really help trigger any memories from before he was found in Radiant Garden. "I see…I have no more questions. You may go now."

Hope nodded her head, and left quietly, leaving Xemnas to think on his past some more.

At the end of the day, Hope sat on the clock tower with Roxas, both of them enjoying the silence as they ate their ice cream. Eventually, the silence became bothersome, so Roxas spoke. "Axel could've shown up at least."

Hope glanced over at him, frowning upon noticing the glum look on his face. First Xion disappearing, and now Axel not showing up for ice-cream? What was everything coming to? Everything was beginning to grow a bit depressing to Hope. "Hey, I think I'm gonna head back. I'm not feeling all that good." Roxas nodded his head in understanding, watching as Hope opened up a portal and walked through, leaving Roxas all alone on the clock tower.

Little did he or Hope know, that Axel had been hiding behind the corner of the tower, listening to their conversation.

0o0o0o0o

Enter Riku's Flashback~

Namine sat at the long table in her room where she kept most of her drawings taped on the wall, all of them of Sora's memories. On the other end of the table, sat Riku. Namine sent him a smile. "I wasn't sure I'd see you again."

Riku nodded his head. "You made me a promise."

"To look after Sora. I remember." She then looked down at her lap sadly. "I'm sorry…I'm not sure I've kept that promise very well."

"What happened?"

"Some of Sora's memories are missing."

Riku gasped in shock. "How can that be?"

"They're escaping through Sora's Nobody into a third person-and now they're starting to become a part of her." Namine explained sadly.

Riku stared down at his lap. "You can't get the memories back out?"

"If they're still separate…then yes, I think so," She looked down at her tablet, where four figures, one with bright red hair, one with golden hair like the sun, one with black hair, and one with brunette hair, were drawn. "But if they join with her memories, things get a lot more complicated. I would need to untangle her memory before I could finish Sora's. What was supposed to take months might take years. DiZ would be furious."

"So what's the solution?"

"If I try to just jump in and rearrange her memory…the I risk Sora waking up to find out that nobody remembers him anymore. I can't do that to him. It's too late either way. His awakening will have to be delayed. I never imagined Sora's Nobody and the other one would fight so hard to be their own people. Unfortunately, the only real solution…is for them both to go away. Did you know her face was blank at first? Only now can you see someone. That proves that some of Sora's memories are inside her. Some inside her, some inside Sora…others inside Sora's Nobody. I can't sort it out anymore. All I can do is pick up the pieces once what has to be done, is done."

As soon as Namine had finished explaining, Riku nodded his head in understanding. "All right, then. Also, Namine…" Riku began, pulling out a photograph from his pocket and sliding it down to Namine. "Have you ever seen this girl before?"

Namine stared at the picture of the girl, who looked to be around 15, holding a young boy with bluish gray hair in her arms, smiling happily. Namine smiled and nodded. "Yes, I have. Her name is Hope."

"I need you to tell me everything you can about her…"

End Riku's Flashback, and enter Xion's dream~

Xion looked out at the sunset as it danced upon the waves. She sat on a tree, Hope and Roxas sitting on either side of her, while Axel stood, leaning back against the tree, allowing Hope to thread her hands through his red spikes. Eventually, Xion spoke up. "Is it that I'm not supposed to exist?''

Her three friends all looked over at her. "Well, what do you want to do, Xion?" Axel asked, turning back to look out at the sunset.

"I want…I want to be with you three…" She said sadly, lacing her fingers together. Immediately, Roxas and Hope both reached a hand over and placed it on top of hers.

"The come back with us." Roxas said, smiling at her. Axel and Hope both gave her their own smiles.

"I can't…Not the way I am now," She explained, looking back at the water, "But…what would it take for me to be like you?" She glanced at Roxas, Hope, and Axel, not getting an answer from either of them.

In the end, she just settled on continuing to watch the sunset with them.

The next day, when Hope rounded the corner of the tower, she was surprised to see Axel already up there, waiting for her and Roxas, already eating a bar of ice cream. "Well, well, well! Look who decided to show up after almost 2 months of not being around." Hope exclaimed, taking a seat next to him.

Just as soon as she sat down, Roxas appeared, just as surprised as she was. "Wow, you're actually up here."

Axel laughed slightly. "Been that long, huh?" Axel asked as Roxas took a seat on the other side of Hope, her being seated between the both of them.

"I got to go to the beach today for my mission. There was this girl there who looked kinda like Xion….but I couldn't get close enough to tell for sure. I probably imagined it. To be honest, I'm not even sure if today's mission really happened. I feel like I just woke up from a dream or something." Roxas finished explaining. Hope reached a hand over and put it to his forehead, surprising him somewhat as she felt for a fever. He ignored it and continued. "This is gonna sound crazy, but you know how we promised each other we'd all go to the beach? Well, I think I only saw her there because I wanted her to be there."

Axel, unable to take the depression that number XIII was letting off, stood up, surprising both Hope and Roxas as he laughed. "You wanna go look for her?"

"Huh?"

"But Xemnas's orders…" Roxas began, only to be cut off by Axel.

"Orders, shmorders! Starting tomorrow, let's use our spare time between work and coming here to try and find Xion."

Hope was the only one still seated when Roxas stood up as well. "Okay…Yeah, it's a deal!" Roxas and Axel both looked down at the lilac eyed girl expectantly, before she stood up, too.

"Count me in."

A/N: Wrote this last night, and just finished it. Man, I'm almost done with this game plotline, and then it's on to a few filler chapters, and the KH2! WHEE! Lol, don't forget to leave a review. LATER TATERS!