Mei's POV-

I was six years old when it started. I remember it all too well: my obsession with the supernatural.

The school had a cultural festival and in the kid's theater there was a magic show. The magician could pull rabbits out of hats and saw people in half without forgetting to put them back together. He could pull out colorful handkerchiefs from anywhere and white doves flew from the palms of his white, gloved hands. For a young child, this was all pretty amazing even though in reality, they were all just tricks using optical illusion.

The magician, in one of his tricks, went up to me and went behind my head.

"You haven't seen anything yet," he whispered to me before he pulled out a coin from the back of my ear. He winked and flipped the coin up in the air with his fingers, only for it to disappear in what seemed like thin air.

After the show he came up to my friends and I. He went down on one knee and asked for my name. Once I gave it to him, he took my hand and kissed the back of it like a true prince.

"Miss Mei, if you take one thing from my performance, please take this: a magician never reveals their secrets." With that he pulled a bouquet of flowers from his black hat and departed after giving them to me. His show prompts us young children to never stop believing, but of course, most of the kids in that audience did grow up to disbelieve. His tricks may have been just that, but there is truth to his words.

I wasn't always close with Pence and Olette. When I first moved I had no friends until Hayner came along with all the persistency in the world. Hayner was my first friend and I have to admit my best friend out of the gang. He was the one that helped me to open up and get closer to the others.

Pence got into playing RPG games and convinced me to join him. We traveled to distance lands together with a team of warriors, monsters, and mages to conquer the antagonists of the games.

Olette got into books about vampires, transforming werewolves, and horror ghost stories. Though most of them were romance novels, they were still very good in my childish journey to becoming a magical being.

Hayner, well, he was happily there for the ride with everyone. He brought us out of our secluded hobbies and connected us all. He kept us together all these years. He may seem like an idiotic tyrant at times, but he had earned all of our respects ten times over.

"I'm happy," he said to me when I started to get into learning more of the supernatural with the help of Pence and Olette as well as my Aunt Molly who bought me my first magic kit.

"Why?" I asked him as I put on my own black top hat.

"Because you're finally connecting with the others. You're becoming a little more human." Since I was aiming to learn all I can about magic, Olette and Pence became eager to help me by sharing their hobbies with me. I used to always be to myself and only talk to Hayner energetically, so by opening up myself to others, I have, in Hayner's mind, 'become more human'.

"It's also nice to see you've found a passion."

Magic was my passion, but once I've learned every trick in the book, I wasn't satisfied. It wasn't real magic. I started to slowly lose faith in magic being real as I grew up. The others became disbelievers while I was still hesitant on becoming one. It was still a weird dream of mine to become a wizard or something, but I would never admit that I still had hope to my friends. They would make fun of me if I did. It's childish, but a part of me will always yearn for that ability.

Ever since I met Axel and Roxas, everything has fell out of the normal cycle in my life as if by magic. That feeling of magic drew me to them and it wasn't a mistake. My hunch was right: magic was real, but so are monsters.

The drive, which I have had buried for so long, to learn and excel started to appear again.

Why was I so keen on magic for all these years? I do not know the answer. Something about it draws me in like a moth to a light.

.

.

I opened my eyes to find that I was floating in nothingness between clouds of light and darkness.

Am I dead?

Before I blacked out, I last remembered seeing some Heartless trying to sneak up on Xion and I tried to stop it.

I feel like a feather just floating here. Actually, I don't feel anything. It's as if I was just standing normally.

I was angled back a bit as if I was just relaxing on a couch. I put my hands around my pendant. The pebble was glowing a yellowish hue.

This…isn't a normal pendant…

I clasped my hands over the pendant, the light going through my fingers as I closed my eyes and felt the warmth of the light. That warmth was familiarity, but I could not recall from where.

"Believe."

I gasped as the voice of a young girl sounded throughout my surroundings repeating the same word over and over.

"Believe."

That voice…it's-

I sat up in a cold sweat. My eyes darted around, not knowing where I was.

I relaxed my shoulders when I saw that I was just at the clock tower. My throat was dry and I felt exhausted.

So much for being dead.

"Mei?"

I turned my head to the side to see Xion come over with a plastic bag. "Xion, how did I get here? What happened?"

She kneeled beside me, opening the bag she had. "I brought you here after you fainted." She took out a bottle of water. "Here."

"Thank you…" I took the water and quickly chugged the entire bottle, much to the amazement of Xion. "What happened when I fainted?"

"You saved me from getting hit by a Neoshadow."

"I-I did? I remember seeing it and thinking about how you were going to get hit…then everything gets fuzzy."

She nodded. "Your pendant started to glow and next thing I knew, you had just casted barrier and later stop!"

"Barrier? Stop? Well barrier sounds self-explanatory… Wait! Y-You just said I casted them?!"

"I was surprised too! I was trying to teach you fire not those! You really don't remember it?"

I crossed my legs and rubbed my chin in thought. "It feels like a dream…but I think I can vaguely make it out…"

Xion smiled, taking out two sea salt ice creams. "You were like a natural!"

I blushed lightly, taking one of the ice creams. "Really?"

"If we can get you to remember what you did to cast both barrier and stop, I'm sure we can teach you other spells without any problems!"

I looked at my left hand as I ate with my right.

I used magic…real magic…

I balled my left hand.

I can use magic!

I grinned childishly as I felt giddy with joy.

"Mei, where did you get your necklace from?"

"This?" I picked up my pendant. "My Aunt Molly gave it to me. She said my parents wanted me to have it. Why?"

"It's not a normal necklace."

I thought back to that weird dream I had where it was glowing.

"I agree. Do you know what it is?"

"Well, I'm not sure if that's a gem or not. It's not an ordinary rock… I'll do some digging back at the Castle That Never Was."

"The Castle That Never Was?"

"That's where the Organization resides!"

"I've never seen a castle around here."

"That's because it's not located on this world. It resides in the World That Never Was."

"…"

"What's wrong?"

"…"

Did she just say that it's not on THIS world? Meaning there are other worlds full of life?

"I think I heard you wrong, Xion. Did you just say you live on another world entirely?"

"Pretty much."

"… MAGIC, MONSTERS, PEOPLE WHO CAN FIGHT WITH WEAPONS THAT JUST APPEAR, AND NOW THERE ARE MULTIPLE WORLDS?!"

Next thing you know animals can talk.

"You never-" Xion covered her mouth. "I wasn't supposed to tell you the existence of other worlds…"

"Too late for that now… Besides, I already know about you guys, so I don't think it matters much, but…wow…there are other worlds…probably different from our little town here."

"Actually, your world is called Twilight Town."

That's a stupid name for a world, but I can't judge. I wasn't there when the naming committee came by. Though, I guess it makes sense since we're bathed in an eternal twilight.

"This is a lot to take in…"

"Sorry…"

"It's not your fault! It's just a lot for me to try to accept right now. All my beliefs are kind of being shaken up."

I confided in Xion about everything Roxas and Axel have ever told me about their business and my original beliefs.

"It's hard to imagine living like...," Xion started, but couldn't find the right words.

"Living in ignorance?" I finished. Xion nodded in agreement to my answer. "So do you guys have missions in other worlds too?"

"All over. It depends where Saix sends us, but we typically go to one world a day since missions tend to take a while."

"Saix?"

"He's the seventh member and also the second-in-command to our boss Xemnas."

…I feel like I need to see all of this to believe it.

"Hey, do you think I can join you on your missions now since you're teaching me magic?"

"… I don't see why not. It could be helpful for me to have a second person to help me especially if we can figure out how you used barrier and stop…"

"What's stop?"

"It's when you freeze your enemy in place for a certain amount of time."

Oh wow, duh. Stop stops the enemies.

"Then we have a partnership!"

We created a meeting place in town where Xion would drop by before her mission to pick me up. Even if I couldn't go with her on a mission, I would meet with her to tell her since we had no other means of communication.

This seemed like the start of my adventure through the universe.

Are there multiple universes too?

I ran home after Xion and I said our goodbyes. On my way home, I pretended to shoot fire out of my hands at birds, squirrels, and trash cans. Nothing came out of course, but in my imagination, everything was toast.

"You look awfully happy."

I froze and cranked my head to see Hayner in from of the entrance to the grocery store with a bag in on arm. My face flushed. "Y-You didn't see anything!"

He grinned slyly. "Sure, Mei." He walked over to me and put a hand on my head as I just felt like crying in a corner. "Whatever you say." I ended up walking with Hayner to my house. He said something about wanting to make sure no on messed with me when I was so out of tune with the world. I wasn't that aloof in my own little world.

"What has you so smiley today?" He frowned. "That guy?"

My mood instantly went down a notch when I remembered that I haven't seen Roxas for a few days. "I actually haven't seen him around… I hope he's alright."

"He just left without saying anything?"

"Well he is busy with his work…"

Hayner grumbled, "He should have at least told you what the holdup was. Damn guy, making you all worried."

"What about you Hayner? Any prospects?" I nudged him.

He looked at me then looked away towards the distance ahead in thought. I could faintly see his cheeks flushed. "Girls have cooties."

"I'm a girl."

"You're not a girl."

"Hey!"

"I'm just kidding! Geez." He trapped me in a headlock with his free arm as we walked. "You're more like one of the guys to me like Olette."

"Gee, thanks I guess. Now let me go!"

"No, this is actually pretty comfortable."

"Well that's makes only one of us!"

"Hey…" I looked up at Hayner, surprised at his serious tone. I couldn't see his face well from my angle. "Let's all go play baseball again."

"Because that worked so well the first time."

"Shut up! I just don't want to do nothing and I'd rather have everyone doing something together!"

I guess I haven't been spending as much time as I used to with the gang since the Organization came into my life…

"Okay, the day after tomorrow. Let's all play together. I'll bring a new friend I made. She's new to town."

"She?"

I nodded; grinning as he finally let me go. "She'll be pretty quiet and look uninterested, but she listens really well and observes. Once she opens up and sees how great you all are, I'm sure she'll have fun."

"Trying to copy my move, huh?"

He must be referring to me all those years ago.

I smiled. "Hey, would you judge me if I said I was getting back into magic?"

"I'm not surprised. You've always been so childish."

"Hey!"

"I'm kidding." He winked at me. "Whatever makes you happy, we would all support you one hundred percent!"

Xion's POV-

How am I supposed to tell Mei? She will be upset…

Before I left the castle, I found out that Roxas was in some sort of coma for a few days already and Saix has no idea when he will be waking up. Not only that, but apparently no one knows who's alive at Castle Oblivion and it's assumed that Axel has been terminated.

One friend is dead and another is in a coma…how do I tell her that?

"Xion! Did you wait long?" Mei ran over, fixing her backpack once she got to me.

"No! I-I just…got here…"

"Something wrong? You seem more out of it than usual."

"N-Nothing." She didn't seem to believe me fully, but didn't press me on the topic to my relief. I didn't want to be the cause of my friend's sadness as selfish as it sounds.

"Well, are we here or in another world today! What has ole' Saix prepared for us?"

"Um… We are heading to a world called Wonderland."

"Wonderland…"

I wonder what that world is like.

I laughed at my own thought.

Xion held her hand out as a portal of darkness appeared. I jumped back in shock.

"W-What? H-How? H-Huh?!"

"This is how we travel around between worlds and in general. It's a fast means of getting to our destinations."

"Portals? Now portals? Reality is just getting more and more unreasonable." I stepped up to the portal feeling the hairs of the back of my necks standing. I gulped. "No time like the present. Let's go."

"Take my hand… It'll be bad if we separate in there since you don't know what's going on and how to use them."

I took her hand and she led me inside. All I saw inside was darkness. I turned my head around to see the portal close behind us and a new one open in front of us. I felt heavy in here as if the air was a little too thick and ominous. Once we got out, I went into a coughing fit as if I have been holding my breath the whole time. Once I calmed down and took in my surroundings, I saw that we obviously weren't in Twilight Town anymore.

"Wonderland…," I mumbled to myself, letting go of Xion's hand as I looked at all the cards and wacky-shaped objects.

I-I'm actually in another world.

"Mei, make sure you stay hidden as best as you can and if we're seen, act as if we're from this world. Is there anything else… Don't let the existence of other worlds slip to the residents here."

"Why is it so bad for us to know of the existence of other worlds?"

"It'll disrupt the peace in the worlds, or something like that."

You don't sound like you believe in it.

We went off on Xion's mission to take out some Heartless. We'd take a lot of breaks to figure out how I used magic yesterday, but I gave up at one point because my concentration made it look like I was constipated. I decided to just be like a tourist since I was so amazed at everything. It was like a fairytale world that was projected into young minds to help them become more creative. I was able to drink a potion that made me shrink and I met a doorknob that could talk. A rather rude doorknob, I should add. Nothing about this world screamed out normal to me, but for the residents there, this was the most normal anyone could hope to get.

I'm not high on drugs…unless someone slipped me something.

There were beautiful mazes of red roses and an outdoor courtroom.

"Any luck?" Xion asked me. I shook my head as we continued to the next area.

I was just thinking of protecting Xion from the sneak-attack… I can't remember what it felt to make a barrier or anything though.

I looked down at my pendant.

It seems like my pendant shines when I use magic, so I need to figure out how to get it to glow again.

I thought back to the dream I had where I was floating between light and darkness. There was a child's voice telling me to 'believe'.

That was definitely my voice when I was younger…

FLASHBACK START

"I don't understand this though, Mei," Olette said to me as I was practicing my magic act with Hayner to perform for the Talent Show.

"You don't have to understand it," I told her, putting my hat on her head. "You just have to believe."

"Believe in magic?"

I nodded. "Not only that, but believe in me and the impossible. We have to believe that things can happen. We're pretty amazing to have the ability to have faith. Just believe or else you won't be able to see. Believe."

FLASHBACK END

I talked as if I knew anything! That's embarrassing to think back on.

I thought more about it.

Maybe…I was onto something…

I got off the mushroom I was sitting on and walked over to where Xion was fighting off a bunch of Heartless. I closed my eyes.

I need to believe in myself that I can do this.

I opened my eyes slowly as I held out my hand.

I believe in myself and I believe in magic.

I made sure I aimed my hand over to a Heartless that Xion wasn't dealing with yet.

My pendant started to glow as my arm started to light up in streams of red.

I pictured striking the Heartless down with a ball of fire to help Xion.

"Fire!"

A beam of red light came out of my palm and shot out, forming into a ball of fire that hit the Heartless on the mark.

My jaw dropped. I was still surprised that I managed to do what I just did.

"Good job, Mei!" Xion shouted over to me, finishing off the Heartless that I reduced the health of.

I used fire and barrier to help Xion as a support. I may have gotten a little carried away using fire, but come on! I was shooting fire by waving my hand out! We finished Xion's mission with ease and went back to Twilight Town to get our traditional sea salt ice cream and eat it at our favorite meeting spot.

"If we finish early tomorrow, do you want to do something fun?"

"Fun?"

"Baseball!"

"What's that?"

"It's a game where you essentially hit a ball with a wooden stick."

"…"

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

"…"

Somehow I managed to convince her. The next day we went through with another mission, this one in Twilight Town. We were hunting down something called a Commander. I practiced using barrier, fire, and stop more. According to Xion, I was a fast learner.

After defeating the Commander, I dragged Xion to my house where I dressed her up in my old clothes: some old tee and a pair of shorts. I led her out of my house and out to the baseball field where Hayner, Olette, and Pence were waiting.

"P-People?!"

"Oh, I didn't mention we were playing with my friends?"

She glared at me in fear. I just patted her back to comfort her.

"About time you both got here! Go take a lap!" Hayner shouted.

"We were caught up with something. Guys, this is Xion. Xion, that's Olette, Pence, and Hayner."

"Nice to meet you, Xion," Olette said, taking Xion's hand and shaking it.

"The male population in this group is decreasing…," Pence said.

"It's not decreasing. We're just outnumbering you guys," I pointed out.

"Let's stop the chitchat and play some ball! Boys against girls again! We can't lose Pence! Just because they have one more player doesn't mean anything!"

I pulled Olette and Xion over into a huddle. "Don't worry guys, we have a secret weapon on our side. The guys must think that Xion isn't very athletic when really she is. We'll take them by surprise and win this!"

"M-Me? I…don't think I can…"

"Don't worry, Xion," I said, patting her shoulders. "I have faith in you."

"The guys won't know what hit them! Loser buys ice cream, but I say we spring for food also!" Olette said. "They're going down!"

"Ready?" I asked Xion who just nodded uneasily.

We played and like I thought, we won. Xion got a few strikes at first at bat, but got used to it. She ran fast to get the baseball and passed it to us with ease. Watching Hayner get worked up about losing was a plus too.

"You guys are cheaters!" Hayner shouted after the boys bought everyone ice cream and hamburgers.

"Don't be a sore loser Hayner," I said, wrapping an arm over his shoulders. He pushed me off of him in a fit. I laughed it off and took a bite out of my ice cream.

"Xion, you play really well. Are you sure this is your first time?" Pence asked. Said girl nodded shyly.

"She's in really good shape," Olette commented, looking at Xion. "You make me want to work out."

"Why can't Hayner motivate us to exercise more?" I said mockingly to him. "Ack!" He pulled my cheeks, pinching and pulling both of them out. I grabbed ahold of his face and did the same while the others just laughed, aside from Xion who just gave a small smile.

"Why don't you bring that boy you like to hang out with us?" Olette asked. I froze, letting go of Hayner.

"You mean-" I punched Hayner in the gut to let me go and quickly covered Xion's mouth before she could finish.

"SHE KNOWS HIM?!" Olette shouted. "Xion, tell me who Mei has a crush on."

Xion pushed my hand away. "Crush?"

"You know. The guy she wants to date and love and all that good stuff."

"Y-You're embarrassing! Don't answer Xion!"

"…" Xion looked puzzled. She must not understand what love is either like Roxas.

"Look at the time, we should be going now!" I laughed awkwardly, pulling Xion with me away.

"What do they mean you love Roxas?" Xion asked while we were walking to my house hand-in-hand.

"Love is a strong word…but it means that I would like to be more than friends with him…something more…personal?" My face heated up. "But he's been gone for so long that I can't really talk to him about this…"

I felt Xion's hand tighten.

Is something wrong?

"Did something happen to Roxas, Xion?"

"I'm…not sure… I'll ask when I get back…"

"Is there a way to ask how Axel is doing too?"

"I'll see… I'm not really positive about what goes on in the Organization XIII."

"Hm… It's okay. Don't beat yourself up over it if you can't find out anything. I'm just worried is all."

Xion's POV-

I have to tell her what's going on with Axel and Roxas.

I stopped by Roxas' room to see for myself his comatose face. It was like he was just sleeping.

I'll only be hurting her more by delaying it…

"Mei and I have been getting closer now, Roxas. I met her friends today… She's been worried about you. I've been keeping her mind off of you missing by teaching her magic. She's a natural at it! When you wake up, you'll be mind-blown at how good she has become!"

I had to take over Roxas' missions since he was out, which meant double the work at times if the missions were at two different worlds.

The next day I had two missions, luckily both in Wonderland. I picked up Mei and we went on our way through the corridor of darkness.

"Wonderland looks just like a dreamland to me," Mei said once we stepped foot in the world.

"Nobodies don't dream…"

"Really?!"

"Well, they said we have memories from our Somebody, but I don't get those…"

Mei made a sour face.

As we fought off Heartless and collected items, all I could think of was how I was going to break the bad news to Mei. I didn't want to be blunt about it because human hearts were fragile and I didn't want to jump around it and irritate her. There wasn't a good way to put this.

Maybe if I space them out…tell one today and another some other day…

I shook my head.

That would probably be worse for her. She seems to have a strong enough heart maybe I can just blurt it out.

"That's the last of them in this area," Mei shouted over to me, wiping sweat from her forehead. "This rose garden is so well-kept just like the last time we were here." I put away my keyblade, walking over to her as she sniffed a rose.

"Mei…"

"Yeah?" She looked up at me with that bright smile of hers and light in her eyes that showed my reflection.

Don't look at me like that…

She'd probably tell me not to be sad and apologize for something that wasn't my fault, but I still feel guilty.

I'll just make it sound like l found out today.

"I asked…about the guys…"

Mei's eyes widened in anticipation for my answer. "Tell me."

No turning back now…

"Roxas…fell into a coma during one of his missions…"

"…" She just stared at me, trying to process what I said. "…I want to see him." Mei tried to walk past me, but I grabbed her arm and turned her around.

"You can't!" Mei took a step back from my tone. "Um, I mean. It'd be bad if the other members found out about you. I remember Roxas told me that we have to keep you a secret from them to protect you."

"I understand…" Mei's eyes darkened. "Just when I managed to acquire some power I go back to being useless…"

I felt compelled to hug Mei and did so. I've seen people do this to each other a lot when I went to other worlds. Her smile was gone and replaced with a deep frown and her face held so many conflicting feelings that I could never begin to understand. That's just the difference between us, the wall that divides.

"W…What about Axel?" Mei's voice was cracking.

Oh my… I almost don't want to tell her…

"Axel…was…"

"Xion?"

"…he was terminated at Castle Oblivion…"

"…What?"

"He's…dead…"

She broke out of my hug and stormed off, mumbling about needing to finish the mission. I couldn't feel, but I know if I could, I would be heartbroken right now. I followed after her, watching over her as she shouted fire spells to the top of her lungs.

"At this rate she's going to start a giant bonfire…"

I jumped into the line of action upon hearing her scream. The flames she created were increasing in intensity from balls of fire to just plain fire sprouting all over. She was a fast-learner all right, but this kind of motivation is cruel.

Fira…

It was obvious that she was taking out her feelings on the Heartless to cope with the bomb I placed on her inner world.

Mei picked up a large stick, using it as a medium for her casting. She was dashing forward sloppily with rings of fire around her, erupting fire from the ground like it was a geyser, and setting Heartless on fire and letting them burn. She was using skills even I can't name for lack of my own knowledge. Her emotions were getting out of hand now.

"There're gone." I said, tackling Mei to the ground as I casted blizzard to put out the fires. "No more for today…we're done with the mission."

Mei was face down on the ground and I was on her back making sure she couldn't get back up. She balled her fists over the grass, trying to curl her body as best as she could from underneath me. I lifted myself up to let her do as she wished. She curled up into the fetal position, but with both of her hands pulling on the grass. Her hair hid half her face, only allowing me to see her teeth gritting. Her shoulders trembled and her breathing hitched.

She was trying her hardest to keep herself together, especially in front of me, but she was failing to. I rubbed her back.

"Let's go home," I whispered to her.

I brought Mei home and sat at the foot of her bed as she cried as softly as she could. I hugged my knees to me as Mei hugged a stuffed bear to her.

She thinks she's useless, but I feel just as useless in this situation. My friend is in a pain that I can't properly understand, another is in a coma, and someone who could have been my friend left us before I could meet him.

As the days passed on, Mei either came with me on missions or went off with her friends. Sometimes she even took me with her to play with her friends after our missions. She was still affected by the bad news, but that just brought her closer to me. She would often tell me that she was thankful that I was safe and sound.

I taught Mei cure, blizzard, and thunder since that incident with fire spells in Wonderland. Mei even got to see two new worlds: Halloween Town and Agrabah. I've been working on building her endurance and overall physical aptitude since it was rather poor before.

Mei made a weird new tradition for us to do and that was to pick up a souvenir from each mission we went on so that I could give it to Roxas on behalf of the both of us. Mei figured shells would be a good souvenir since they wouldn't rot away and in some, you could hear sounds of the ocean. She even got me fascinated with them.

"Let's get out of this heat! I think I hate this world the most out of the others I've been to," Mei grumbled, fanning herself. "Let's go to a world this time with better weather."

I tried to think of a world that wasn't too hot. "I guess we could go there…"

I summoned a portal for Olympus Coliseum. Mei took my hand in hers as we walked in.

"The darkness in here kind of gives me the creeps. Like something is just waiting to pop out," Mei commented as we were walking. "They're really convenient though."

"It doesn't bother me much."

"Hey, do you have any memories of your Other?"

"No…"

"I wonder sometimes if I've ever met everyone's Others before… I also wonder if I originally came from Twilight Town because I only just moved there, but I can't really remember from where I moved. I feel like I moved a lot when really it was just once. I just moved from another part of my world, right? When I think of when I first met my Aunt Molly, it's hazy. I mean, I was probably five so my memory wasn't the best. She lived here, but I remember hearing the ocean when I was first brought into her custody… Maybe she lived somewhere else and we just moved elsewhere for better job opportunities, but were those moves between worlds?"

"You think pretty deeply about these things."

I nodded. "It feels like I have all the time in the world to think."

"Don't you ever think of your mortality?"

"My…mortality?" Mei frowned. "I'm still young. I have a lot of years left, so why should I spend them dreading some death years from now?"

"I guess you're right…"

I wonder if Nobodies age…

As we were making our way out of the corridor of darkness, I spotted Xigbar finishing his mission.

Oh no!

I looked at Mei who seemed to have noticed Xigbar as well. I couldn't let Mei be seen and in the moment, I somehow believed this was the safest option. I let go of Mei's hand while she was still inside the portal.

Both of our eyes widened upon realizing what I have just done. The portal closed and Xigbar came over to me after sensing my portal's presence.

Mei's POV-

The exit closed and I was trapped inside the corridor of darkness.

I sweated and scratched my head upon realizing the full extent of my situation.

"Xion told not to be alone in here…"

Would staying put even make a difference?

I decided it was best for me to stay where I was. I sat down, waiting for Xion to come back for me.

That guy I saw must be one of her coworkers…

I looked around and saw only darkness in shades of dark grey, purple, and black.

If I can figure out how to use these…can I see Roxas? I know Xion said it would be dangerous for me to be up and about their headquarters when I shouldn't even know all of this…but I need to see him…

My heart ached painfully. I've been doing my best to suppress my pain and grief over Axel and Roxas so I wouldn't worry my friends and my aunt, but no one was here now. I was all alone.

I wasn't okay.

I gasped and fell from my sitting position on the ground to the side. I grasped the clothes over the area where my heart was. It felt like my heart was being strangled and air was getting knocked out of me.

"W-What is this?" I tried to pull myself up, but I felt like I was being consumed.

I need to get out of here!

My pendant started to glow and I took that as my cue to use magic to figure a way out.

I may not know how to use the corridor of darkness, but I can just make my own portal my own way.

I used all the strength I had to get up onto my feet and charge forward, holding my hand out with just the thought of getting out of here and into a world. Any world would do as long I was out of here.

My pendant glowed brighter as a tear in the darkness appeared. I barrel-rolled through the tear and landed on something warm. As the pain slowly subsided I opened my eyes, not remembering when I closed them.

I smelled sea salt and not the ice cream kind.

Warm…

I looked up to see a clear blue sky. Once the pain in my chest fully left me, I found the strength to sit up.

Sand…

There was sand all over my clothes and in my hair as well as my arms. I turned my head from the sand to see a vast, sparkling ocean under the rays of the sun.

This isn't Twilight Town…this isn't my world…

I thought about what I told Xion.

This isn't where I've lived up until now.

The light from my pendant was gone now and there was no knowledge of magic I had that could get me back home, but this was much better than being stuck in that suffocating portal. I never told Xion, but I always felt like I was being attacked whenever we were in the corridor almost as if the darkness was trying to consume me.

I pulled myself up, dusting off the sand from my navy tank top, gray cardigan, and camouflage shorts. My hair was probably a mess right now and the sea breeze wasn't making it any better. I took off my sneakers and socks, leaving them where I was previously sitting so I could make my way to the ocean. As I stepped one foot at a time into the small waves, I felt a sense of nostalgia. I went knee deep and stopped. I closed my eyes as I tried to concentrate on the breeze on my skin and through my hair as well as the water level on my legs. I wanted to feel something other than emotional pain.

FLASHBACK START

"You will be staying with your aunt, Mei," said a male's voice lovingly to me. His appearance was foggy in my memories, but I could tell this man cared for me a great deal.

I looked from him to a young woman with brown hair and emerald green eyes. She flinched upon meeting my gaze.

I took a step up to her after being encouraged to by my male companion.

My aunt bent down to my eye level. "From now on we'll be living together Mei. You can call me Aunt Molly!"

I was told that she was my only blood relative left which meant she was all I had. I wrapped my arms around her neck, tackling her in a hug as I cried into her shoulder. She seemed tense at first but then melted into me and wrapped her arms around me. She picked me up, swaying and rubbing my back.

"You have a week to get your affairs in order before we transport the both of you to a new, safer location. I will handle paperwork for the new location," the man said making his way to leave the house we were in.

"W-Wait! You're just going to leave us here!"

"You have been chosen to watch over her and keep her safe. Her safety is our highest priority."

"What about mine? Y-You just threw this all at me! Worlds and wars and all that other stuff! Her previous caregivers died!"

"…that was an unforeseen attack on her life. The place you two will be taken to will be remote from their eyes. You both will be safe… You have agreed to the terms already and you know the risks. Are you pulling out already?"

"… After seeing her… I can't really back out... I did have some second thoughts, but I know I'm making the right decision in my gut. This child…needs someone to be there for her in her life. I can't imagine a child like this growing up all alone." She hugged me to her tighter.

"One week."

FLASHBACK END

The air smelled just like this back then too.

I remembered a memory from my hazy past when I was first brought over to my last blood relative.

Who was that man…?