AN: Oh my gosh. I am. SO SORRY. That it's been three weeks since my last chapter! Some new games came out, I had some life stuff going on, annnnd admittedly I also had a pretty bad case of writer's block that inhibited me massively lol...BUT: I AM BACK! :D Sorryyyyyyy! I know this one ain't much for a return chapter, but that's cause of the writer's block I had lol. Sorry sorry! But we are BACK to our regularly scheduled programming lol!
On the first day of the week ahead, Roxas woke up feeling a little confused. It wasn't the place he'd...gotten used to waking up in, lately.
But, then he remembered.
Right...
Kairi and the others - they wanted Roxas to be more like Xikira. To be like the people he'd seen in all these worlds. To...live like they did. At least, for a week. To do more than just fighting Heartless and swinging a Keyblade around.
He tried to recall all those things Xikira used to go on about...things she'd said she learned from Kairi's memories of life - from Sora's and Riku's, too - but...it was just a useless blur. She'd said a lot of things to him, just in those two days they'd hung out together before...
Roxas sighed and gave up, getting out of bed.
Guess I'll figure it out...this "normal life" stuff.
Because that was the whole point, wasn't it? He was supposed to learn things here, by doing this. He was supposed to...come to understand things, he supposed. Like Xikira had always understood - and Roxas just couldn't grasp. Maybe a week of this, actually living it, would help with that, since he couldn't just pull up memories about it all like she could. He'd never had memories of life like that, life before, "normal" life. Sora's life, it would have been. Roxas wondered if he should have actually asked Sora about his life before. He'd been right there, they'd talked enough times...
Just not about the important stuff, he guessed.
Maybe Roxas would have been better prepared for the week ahead if he'd asked. Or if he'd remembered Xikira's words. Or if he'd...
Though, it wasn't like anyone had given Roxas time to prepare for this, had they? He didn't have any idea what to do - no training. Well, this was supposed to be the training, according to Kairi. For the "real" life ahead, after they...beat Xehanort and all of that stuff. He wished he could have trained for the training mission, then.
And maybe...maybe if he did this - this week, this vacation he had of "normal life" - maybe it would help him understand Xikira better. Understand why she made the choices she had in her life so far.
Maybe.
Or maybe he should have just asked Lauriam or Elrena.
Man, why did Roxas only have these ideas after it was too late to do anything about it...?
If Xikira had just told him what she was planning all that time, maybe Roxas could have spent his time working on Axel. Maybe he could have chosen to stay with her in the Organization too...
Great. Now he was just angry at her again. He didn't want to be angry with her. But anger had always come easy to him, for some reason.
Roxas tried to let it go, taking another deep breath. He strode over to the window, looking down into the Fourth District's fountain plaza.
He smiled to himself and climbed up into the window sill. He braced himself there, letting his legs hang down on the outside of the building. He tilted his head back to gaze up into the open sky, watching the sun rise. It was different from a sunset, but it was still amazing in its own way. Roxas had come to like the sunrises in the Land of Departure, lately - and Traverse Town was tough competition.
"Oh! You're up early..."
Roxas looked back over his shoulder, startled. That woman was standing there in the doorway to the bedroom - the dark-haired one, with the red colored eyes. Tifa, wasn't that her name? Her long hair was messy, and she was wearing a black dress. Girls sure liked those, didn't they? Xikira, that friend of Riku's (Erin, right?)...
"I like watching the sunrise and sunset," Roxas explained.
Tifa smiled, nodding and brushing her hair back behind her ear. Then she crossed her arms over her chest. "Right. I won't bother you, then! Sorry. I'll just be..." She trailed off, quickly turning away and disappearing from view.
Roxas shrugged, going back to what he was doing.
Though, after a while, she came back again - that Tifa woman.
"Hey - so - you said the other night that you liked ice cream, right?" the woman spoke, joining her hands together as she stood in the doorway. She wasn't wearing the same clothes as before, Roxas noted. She was wearing something else entirely. A black top, and black shorts, with a long skirt thing hanging down her lower half. But it was only down the back of her body. She had on red gloves now too. On her left arm was a red length of cloth, tied there. Her whole outfit was...well, whatever it was made of, it reminded him of his own coat. Like they were made of the same thing.
It was pretty different from all the outfits he'd seen people wear before, all in all.
"You okay there?" her voice came again, worried.
Roxas blinked, coming out of his thoughts. "Fine. Yeah - ice cream's the best," he replied quickly. "Why?"
"Well, if you wanted, I could take you over to the cafe later and we could whip something up for you," Tifa spoke on, smiling.
Roxas smiled too now. "Okay. Thanks."
"No problem. Uhhh...so..." Tifa wrung her hands tighter as she stepped forward into the room.
"What?" Roxas said, staring at her.
"Well," Tifa began cautiously. "we should probably talk about what you'd like to do with your day. You don't have to have a plan for the whole week - we can just take it each day. Nothing too crazy, right?"
"I guess," Roxas agreed, though he felt as nervous as she looked.
Tifa strode over to him and leaned against the side of the window. She crossed her arms and gave him another smile - a nod. "Great! So...any ideas?"
Roxas glanced at her, then away. He looked out the window - down into the plaza below. He shrugged. "Not really. I never thought I'd actually get a vacation; I never thought about what I'd do with so much time," he answered, laughing to himself.
"Right," Tifa laughed too. It was a nice, soft sound. Her red eyes glistened at him as she smiled again. "Well then, you wouldn't mind if I threw a few ideas out there myself, would you?"
Roxas gave another shrug - another glance. "You're the expert?" he said.
Tifa laughed again - a lot harder than before. She put her hand over her mouth as she got control of herself. "Roxas, I know I may look like a twenty-year-old adult woman to you, but I'm really more like you than I am Cloud or Aerith."
"Huh?" Roxas stared. "Are you a Nobody too?"
"Oh - no. Sorry, honey," Tifa said quickly. "But, I might be something close enough? See, I'm the..sort of living personification of the Light in Cloud's Heart."
"What...?"
Tifa shook her head, brushing at her hair. "Sorry. It's complicated - I don't even fully understand it, myself. None of us do. How I came to be..." She frowned, making a long humming noise. "I only started to exist nine years ago, is really the important bit that you need to know. I haven't been around as long as you think - and I used to be a part of Cloud. I was...born from him, I suppose."
"Like I came from Sora, then?" Roxas said, struggling to understand.
"Exactly," Tifa said. "Well, not exactly, but...like I said: it's similar enough. Anyways...this is all getting really far off topic. I'm supposed to be giving you ideas!"
"It's okay," Roxas said. "Um - so what are your ideas?"
"Well..." Tifa's face scrunched up with deep thought. "The most obvious thing would be getting you out there to interact with kids your own age - or, what your age appears to be. That's something that helped me the most, in my own journey, early on," she continued softly.
"It did?"
"Yes. When I came into being, I looked like a normal little eleven year old girl - but I was even younger than that. I didn't have much going on for me - no real thoughts about anything, and no memories in my head," Tifa spoke quietly, closing her eyes. "My first few weeks, after Cloud and I...well, I mostly stayed by his side. But then, I started to talk with and get to know others. People all around Radiant Garden. That was how I met Cid, and Aerith, and so many others. And they've all...enriched my life. I wouldn't be the person I am now without them. Without those interactions, those bonds I made. They pushed me to new heights, helped me to have ideas of my own. Even if they were terrible ones, like wanting to grow up to own a bar," she concluded humorously.
"A...bar?"
"It's like a cafe, but for grown ups only," Tifa replied, grinning.
"Why?"
"You'll find out when you're grown up, yourself," she replied. "So, on to some more ideas for you! For kids your age, what you should be doing is having fun, picking up hobbies, and making friends. All things that make your life more fulfilling - and can be a main way of killing time in a day."
"Hobbies..." Roxas frowned. "I eat ice cream - and watch sunsets and sunrises."
"That's a good start - you can keep those if you want. But you should try for more," Tifa told him lightly. "Something more...involved."
Roxas frowned, looking down and thinking hard. What else could he even do then? The only other hobbies he knew about were...Xion's, he guessed? But he didn't want to just copy Xion. Besides, he didn't see much of a point to looking at seashells, anyways. What had Xikira talked about liking - doing? Or wanting to do, at least? Dresses. Clothes. Fashion, right? Well, Roxas wasn't too interested in any of that either. He was happy with his coat. He'd always been. So...what else?
He guessed...if he had to do anything here...
"Could I...just try and make friends?" Roxas asked.
"Sure!" Tifa beamed. "And you know what? I'm sure those new friends of yours will have all kinds of neat ideas for you to pick up on. There's nothing like sharing interests with your friends. You can even do it in reverse, and meet new people because of the hobbies you both share. It can be something to bond over - like Aerith and Kairi have a shared interest in flowers, for example."
"Huh...okay," Roxas nodded. He felt relieved that he didn't have to have a hobby yet. Didn't have to try to find one. He could find...friends first...and then maybe get a hobby after. Or they could even help him at it. Like he'd met Axel, and then started to hang out and eat ice cream with him...
Yeah. That'll work.
Roxas stood at Tifa's side, staring around the fountain plaza.
"All right, this is perfect!" Tifa's stage-whisper voice came from beside him.
"Huh?" Roxas glanced up at her.
"Look way over there - see that girl sitting on the other side of the fountain?" Tifa raised an arm, pointing.
"Uh...yeah?" Roxas confirmed.
"She's the perfect candidate for you," Tifa told him.
Roxas peered across the plaza, to the person in question. He looked back at Tifa. "Are you sure?"
"Yep! So - ummm...go for it!" Tifa declared, making shooing motions with her hands. "Go on. Go up to her, and you say to her: 'Hi - I'm Roxas. Do you want to be friends?' Simple, right?"
Roxas looked down at his feet, frowning deeply. He looked up, and nodded. "Sure. Okay."
He started off across the plaza, leaving Tifa behind.
Here goes nothing...
Axel, Roxas reflected, had just always been there, right from the start. And Xikira had sort of just come crashing into his life a few times over - and they'd had that natural "connection" of being "siblings."
But there was nothing there, for this. Roxas just had to...go for it and hope it worked.
There was probably a better way to make new friends - but this was the only way Roxas knew how to do it at the moment.
He crossed the plaza and neared the large black doors leading into the next section of the district - the area with the curving stairs and little shops clustered together (and past that, the way to Fifth District, and that big Coliseum building entrance nobody ever seemed to bother with). He strode toward the lone figure sitting beside the entrance into the back streets.
The girl Tifa had pointed out.
A girl who looked maybe his "age." Or, Sora's and Kairi's ages - real ages. She had long, dark purple hair with green streaks in it. There was a large bag beside her, on top of a thin, long object with what looked like little wheels? Roxas wondered what that was even about - or for.
"Um - hi?" Roxas spoke as he drew nearer. "I'm Roxas. Do you-"
The girl looked up at him suddenly. Quickly. She looked surprised. Then her cheeks turned pink. She reached up quickly and pushed her hair back. Then she was turning away and digging into her bag. She rifled through its unknown contents, and then she pulled out a little book and a pen. She quickly wrote in the little book, then she looked up at him and held out that book and the pen.
"Uh..." Roxas stepped forward and reached for the items, watching her. She nodded at him and smiled. Roxas looked down at the pages, reading what she'd written down on it: "'I can't hear you. Write what you want to say.'" He looked at the girl again, curious now. She couldn't...hear? Did her ears not work, or - was it like not having a Heart? Was it something she was just...missing? He guessed it didn't matter too much, either way. He sat down with her and carefully wrote out what he wanted to tell her on the line beneath her message. Then he gave the book and the pen back to her.
"I'm Roxas. Do you want to be friends?" was what he'd written down for her.
It didn't take her more than a few seconds to finish writing, then she passed the book to him again.
She was fast at that, he thought. Way faster than him.
He smiled as he read her message: "I'm Rei. Rhymes with 'why'. And, yes."
Roxas glanced at her bag - and the object it was sitting on. He wrote back to her, asking about it.
She read his message, blinking at him in surprise. Then she hastily scribbled something back, tossing the book at him, to his surprise.
"It's a skateboard. You don't have them where you're from?"
Roxas frowned and wrote back: "I don't even know what a skateboard is. I'm a Nobody."
He watched her a bit nervously now, as she read his message over.
She glanced up at him once or twice. Then she was writing again. She sat forward, leaning in to hand him the book this time. Her eyes were on him.
Roxas looked down at the book.
"I don't even know what a 'Nobody' is. I'll tell you what a skateboard is if you tell me what a Nobody is!"
Roxas felt...relieved, as he replied to her, eager now. "When someone becomes a Heartless, sometimes the body stays behind and keeps living. It becomes its own person. I'm that person. The person I came from was turned back from a Heartless, so we exist together now. His name is Sora."
"Wow. I thought my existential crisis couldn't get any worse after discovering other - universes? Dimensions? Worlds? - exist, and that mine got torn apart by shadow monsters."
Roxas stared at her as he read her latest message. He felt an aching in his Heart. A tightness in his throat. He nodded at her. "Yeah, it's..." He stopped, then quickly wrote back to her.
She took the book back from him, read his reply, then wrote one back and tossed it at him before jumping to her feet suddenly.
Roxas stood too, reading her message quickly.
"I'll show you what a skateboard is all about, OK?"
"Uh - okay?" Roxas flushed, then settled for nodding at her hopefully.
She gave a smile, nodding back and raising a hand to wave it at him. She bent down and moved her bag, picking up that "skateboard" of hers. She stepped in and turned it over, holding it out to him.
Roxas examined the object closely, then looked at her.
She stepped away and set the skateboard down, then placed one foot on top of it. With her other foot she pushed at the ground and just started moving. Fast. She lifted that foot up and set it on the skateboard with her other foot, and she moved all over the place. She circled around a streetlight, she circled around him. She stopped in front of him, stepping off the skateboard. She smiled at him, then stomped a foot down on one end of it, in a way that made it flip around her foot and lift up for her to catch with her hand.
Roxas stared.
Her smile seemed to grow wider at his staring. She raised a hand and lifted up many locks of long, shimmering purple hair and gave it all a...a flick. It rippled even more before settling again.
Normal people were weird.
Roxas blinked as he realized Rei had come up to him and was offering him her little book again. He took it quickly, glancing down at it.
"Help me move these boxes, and I'll show you what I can really do."
Roxas glanced up to see her racing off toward the wooden crates stacked against the outer wall of the plaza. The ones leading up to one of those stone balconies. He smiled and hurried to help her.
He didn't know why, but there was just something about her. Almost like hanging out with Axel, or with Xikira. It almost felt...the same. And Roxas wanted that feeling back again.
Badly.
After helping to arrange all those wooden boxes around their corner of the plaza, Rei went through a series of swift and swerving maneuvers around and in-between them all. She even jumped over them, doing these complicated flips and twists on that skateboard of hers. It was all pretty impressive to Roxas's eyes!
He was eager to see more from her.
She was eager to show him, a smile on her face to match his. An energy to her that hadn't been there before. Like she was a totally different person.
After a while of this, she approached Roxas and held out the skateboard to him.
Roxas stared at her. Then down at the skateboard. "Uh..."
Rei smiled at him. She cocked her head, pointing at him - then at the skateboard. She stepped in and bumped it against his chest, her eyes locked to his.
"You want me to- try it?" Roxas guessed.
She pointed again, nodding.
Roxas took the item in hand now, uncertain.
She wrote a quick message to him in her little book, showing it to him.
"I'll teach you."
Roxas stared at the words. He looked down at the item in his hands. He set it down at his feet and held out a hand for her book. She gave it to him, and he worte back to her. "I only have a week here. After that, I have to leave."
She read it over, then took it back to reply: "You can do a lot in a week."
Roxas...grinned at the message.
At her.
Yeah? Let's see how much, then.
Xion woke up for her first day in the week ahead feeling...really nervous. But she also felt more determined than she ever had before.
It was important. Kairi, Master Aqua and Terra - everyone thought this was so important.
And Kairi was right: Xion didn't want to be lost and confused when they took her back to their islands later! She didn't want to mess up, she didn't want to fail Kairi or anyone else. Or they might really send her away forever - maybe Kairi would refuse to let her come home with her, even.
Xion had to prove she could do this!
She got out of bed and stared at the door anxiously. Then she made her choice and left the room. She walked out into the rest of the home, and found Aerith. At least she was a familiar sight! Xion had spent more time around her than the other two - Cloud and Tifa.
"Well, look who's up!" Aerith greeted her, beaming at her. "Morning, sweetie!"
"Hi," Xion said, smilling back at her. "What do I...have to do?" she asked immediately.
"Huh?" Aerith frowned, cocking her head. "What do you have to do? Well now, isn't that a fun question. There isn't anything you really have to do - but there are some things we might want you to try."
"Like what?" Xion said nervously.
"Well...just what any kid does around here," Aerith beamed. "You make friends and have some fun! And most of all - you relax. As long as you're here, you just try not to worry about anything, okay?"
"Ok. How do I make friends?"
"That's easy: just talk to someone," Aerith replied. "Start a conversation - introduce yourself - and get to know each other. Then, you go from there! Easy peasy, huh?"
"Who do I talk to?"
"Well, anybody, really," Aerith said. "Though, ideally, we want it to be people your own age. Hmmm...hey, didn't you talk to some other kids yesterday?"
"Yes. A girl gave me spray paint to try," Xion responded.
"Well then, you already know who to start with, don't you? We'll just find this girl of yours again and see if she wants to hang out with you. Simple, easy - perfect!"
"I...guess..." Xion murmured, nodding.
"Let's go, then! Come on, sweetie. Time for a nice morning walk! I need to make my rounds anyways."
"'Rounds?'"
"Yep! I like to go around town and just check in on everybody: see how they're doing, see if they need anything - any kind of help," Aerith explained brightly. "Anyways...come on now. We'll track down your girl."
"Her" girl? Xion didn't really get that, either. It wasn't like the girl was a seashell; Xion didn't "own" her.
Xion probably should have been used to Aerith by now, after spending all that time around her before.
But she still wasn't.
She wasn't used to...anyone, really.
She wondered if she ever would be.
"So what does this girl look like?" Aerith asked.
Xion stopped in the middle of the streets that led to the Fourth District. All these streets and walkways between the big, high buildings...
It was still confusing to find her way through it.
She was glad Aerith was leading the way though.
"Xion? Helloooo?" came Aerith's voice again.
"Sorry!" Xion burst out quickly. She nodded and focused hard, trying to remember. "She was...tall and had red skin? She had lines on her that glowed yellow. And she had long hair - longer than Tifa's. It was...red too. Redder than Kairi's. So were her eyes. But not like Tifa's; they were...brighter. Very bright? She also has a...yellow crystal on her forehead that glows too?"
"I know exactly who you're talking about," Aerith said happily. "It couldn't be anyone else but Imra. Boy, she sure had you pegged, didn't she?"
"What?" Xion was confused again. She was almost always confused, she thought, with a spark of something hot in her chest - her Heart.
"You'll see," Aerith grinned. "If you can befriend her - which I'm totally sure you'll do! So don't even worry about it! You already have an in with her!"
"Ok," Xion replied. But, she was still worrying about it, as she followed Aerith on through the streets again.
What if she failed? What if she did something wrong? What if Kairi didn't want to take her home with her anymore? What if the friends and family that Kairi had back on the islands didn't like Xion? What if no one did? What if no one wanted to be her friend there? Sure, Sora's mom had seemed really nice, that time when Xion had met a memory of her in Castle Oblivion with Sora, but what if that was just Sora's memories? What if she hated Xion in reality? What if Kairi's dad...?
"Here we are! And there she is! Up to her usual, I see..."
Xion blinked, stopping as they emerged into the fountain square. She looked around until she found the girl from yesterday: Imra. She was with those same, other kids she'd been with the other day too. They were her friends, weren't they? Hers - not Xion's... What if she told Xion to go away? That she didn't want to be her friend? That she had enough friends already? What if-
"Xion?"
"Yes...?" Xion stammered, looking at Aerith.
Aerith smiled down at her. "Do you want some help with this?"
Xion wanted to just say yes...
But she couldn't. She had to do this! And she had to do it right, and- and she had to do it on her own! No Kairi, no Master Aqua or Terra, no Aerith or Tifa or Cloud! It had to be...just her. She had to prove to them all that she could do this - that she could handle things! She couldn't give anyone a reason to doubt her! Especially not Kairi. If she didn't think Xion would be able to handle life on the islands...if she couldn't even handle herself for a week alone in Traverse Town...Xion might not get to go to school, or live with her. Kairi's dad might think that Xion was too much to handle. Or he might not even want her, because he'd have his real family back again, his real daughter back again, and Xion was just a copy made to look like her...
What if Kairi took back her adoption of Xion as her sister too?
Xion shook her head, forcing her arms to her sides and closing her fists. "No," she said, trying to sound certain and firm. Like Kairi would have. "I can do this," she added.
"I believe you," Aerith said simply. "But I'll still be around, just in case."
"Thanks..." Xion nodded, and she set off across the square on her own.
Even Kairi's Nobody, Xikira, had been so much better than Xion, from what she'd seen of the girl in Castle Oblivion. Smarter, stronger. Xion was just...what Vanitas kept telling her she was: the bad copy. A half-baked failure...of a better girl...
A real girl...
Xion approached the real girl named Imra again, summoning all her focus - and courage. She tried to remember the feelings inside her when she had told Vanitas those things about the Heart, and family, and love. She tried to remember the feeling when she'd stuck her Keyblade into his body. She hadn't felt confused, or afraid anymore - not then. She'd felt...good. Strong. Certain. Even if, now, she couldn't understand where those words had even come from...or where the courage to actually stab the boy had come from in the first place either.
It hadn't been like her, had it?
But she'd somehow done it anyways.
She'd felt so...something had just come over her.
Xion hoped something similar would happen here today.
It would be really helpful...
"Hi - Imra," Xion said to the girl as she neared her. Even though she tried, her voice still didn't come out as loud as she'd wanted it to.
Imra's head turned in a quick snap. Her long hair swayed. Her bright red eyes blinked at Xion. Then she smiled with her long, sharp curving teeth. "Xion! How are you feeling today? You looked upset yesterday."
Xion smiled too, nervously. "I feel fine today. Thanks? I was upset...but I'm OK now!"
"I'm happy to hear that." Imra held out her hand to Xion, stepping closer. Xion saw, no, it wasn't her hand: she was offering another spray paint can again. Like yesterday. "Do you want to join us? You remember Elric and Ash, don't you?" she went on, nodding to the two other people with her. Her friends from yesterday.
"Yes," Xion said quickly. She remembered meeting them the other day, but she hadn't remembered their names. But she couldn't let Imra know that! She took the paint can from Imra and looked to the two boys to distract herself from her feelings.
The two other kids weren't like Imra; they were...humans. Elric was tall and muscular, with short lavender colored hair that stuck up. Ash was almost the opposite: he was short, thin - small, maybe even a bit smaller than Xion, even if they looked the same age - and had long lavender hair that was tied up into a ponytail with a black piece of cloth. Elric was dressed more like Imra - with a sleeveless top and pants. Ash was dressed like Aerith - in a long black and red "dress", if Xion was even remembering the name of that kind of clothing right (why were there so many different kinds of clothes at all? It was just overwhelming!).
Xion only noticed it now, but both of them had the same eye color: a very light blue color that she almost thought was white. She had noticed the hair, but only now did she notice the eyes...
"Are you two brothers?" Xion asked, trying to smile again at them. "You look the same - like me and my sister do."
"That's right," Elric replied, crossing his arms as he looked down at her. "Pretty easy to spot."
"You have a sister?" Ash spoke, smiling back at Xion.
"Yes. Her name is Kairi," Xion said.
"The Keyblade wielding princess," Elric said, nodding. "Heard you have one too."
"I would be curious to see it - but you don't have to," Imra spoke quickly.
Xion shook her head, and quickly brought up her hand to summon her weapon in a flash of light.
"So all the rumors are true!" Elric exclaimed, uncrossing his arms and leaning forward. He was grinning now.
"Rumors?" Xion said, feeling uncomfortable as they all stared at her Keyblade.
"Everyone here has been talking about the Keyblade wielding heroes," said Imra, her eyes narrowing as she examined the blade. "The ones who are going to save us all, and set things right again."
Xion let her weapon vanish, stepping back. "People here really...say that?"
"Isn't it true?" Ash said quietly, peering at her.
"Yeah, isn't it?" said Elric, gazing at Xion in a way that made her even more uncomfortable and nervous than ever! "You know my brother and I might have just gotten here a few days ago, but Imra's been here for years. So have a lot of people. Waiting around with no hope. But now..."
"What we hear - what some of us have seen, right here in Traverse Town - what you Keyblade wielders have done..." Imra spoke. "Even in these impossible worlds, against impossible enemies, you do impossible things too. And you do them for us."
Was that true, though? Had Xion been doing anything she'd done for...for these people here? For these worlds that had all been lost? Had she ever really thought about it? No... She just did what she did because Kairi and the others did them - because they thought it was a good, right thing to do. Xion really was just a copy, wasn't she? Just copying others without even thinking about it...
Master Terra, and Kairi, they were right: she had to start thinking about it.
"That isn't true," Xion said softly, looking down at the ground. "I haven't been doing this...for anyone. I just...do it. Because it's what I was made to do. But..." She breathed and looked up again quickly. "But I want to make it true now," she finished, firm.
"'Made to do?'" Elric said, looking surprised. "Like Imra here?" He glanced at the girl.
"Like...Imra?" Xion echoed, staring at the girl now too. "What do you...mean? Are you- a Replica too?"
Imra smiled and pushed her hair back over her shoulders as she met Xion's gaze. "I was made to replicate the appearance of my creators, if that's what you mean."
"I was...made to look like my sister," Xion murmured. "I was made by the enemy - but she taught me we didn't have to be. We never had a...reason to be."
"I was made to fight my maker's enemies too," Imra replied. "But I chose not to - with some help, like you."
"If you're not a Replica, what are you then?" Xion asked.
"I'm a machine - an android. I'm made out of metal, mostly," Imra explained, seeing Xion's confused look. "But you...I can't tell what you're made of," she went on. "You aren't biological, but you aren't like me either. What are you, Xion?"
"Um...I don't really know?" Xion squeaked out. She didn't know why her voice did that. It just did. She stared down at herself for what felt like the first time. Or, the second time, at least, since learning what she was for herself all those weeks ago now. "I never thought about...that...either," she confessed.
"Whatever you are, you look real enough to me," Elric said, laughing. He stepped forward and suddenly bumped his fist against her arm!
Xion gasped. She had seen the likes of Kairi, Sora and Riku doing similar gestures before! And she smiled for it now. Then she did the same thing back to the boy; he laughed again, shaking his head at her.
"It doesn't matter what you are - except in there," Ash spoke, raising his hand to point at Xion's chest.
Xion glanced down at herself. "My...breasts?"
Ash's face turned pink. But Elric was laughing loud and hard now, a hand going to his face.
"N-no, your Heart..." Ash mumbled as he looked away.
"Oh." That made a lot more sense, Xion thought.
"So, do you want to join us?" Imra asked again, suddenly.
Xion no longer felt nervous or uncertain about it, as she looked at these other kids.
"Yes," she said firmly, her smile growing wider.