Jessica's Point of View
Over several weeks, I didn't go out much. I mostly stayed by Xion's side. Xigbar, Xemnas, and Saix checked on me often. I never imagined I would enjoy Xigbar's company, but after our snowball fight, I felt more at ease around him. He showed me that he had my best interests in mind, even if it meant breaking the rules, which was more than I could say for anyone else in the Organization. Even Axel would never go so far as to do something fun with me during a mission and then call it a day. Though I didn't always agree with how he went about looking out for me, I could see the effort he put into it.
Saix's visits were much more brief. He would make sure that I was eating regularly and getting enough sleep. Once I answered his questions, he would nod and be on his way.
Xemnas was a different matter entirely. Xigbar had filled him in on what really happened that day, so he wouldn't worry when he got Saix's side of the story. He didn't bother bringing the ordeal up. It didn't seem to matter to him. He would talk about how nice it was to have me around and how the Organization would always protect me from the outside world. It irked me every time because it felt like he was gloating over a long-fought battle.
Roxas and Axel also dropped by often after they had their ice cream. Roxas would put a seashell on Xion's pillow every day. I asked him about it, and he said Xion did that for him, so he was returning the favor.
The morning finally came when Roxas and I witnessed Xion finally come out of her coma. She opened her eyes and bolted upright.
"Whoa!" Roxas exclaimed.
"Xion! Finally! You're awake!" I squealed, hugging her.
"Um... Hi?" Xion replied, hesitantly wrapping her arms around me.
"Xion... Good morning," Roxas greeted.
Xion pulled away from me, and I gave her some space. "Morning..." Xion replied. She shifted her body and looked down in surprise as her hand bumped against the seashells. "Huh?" She smiled and chuckled fondly. "You brought me seashells." She held one up to her ear.
"Do you hear it?" Roxas asked.
"Can I listen, too?" I requested.
"Of course, Xion replied, handing me the seashell.
I placed it up to my ear and heard the sound of the ocean waves. "I haven't heard that in a while," I commented before setting it down with the others.
"How long was I asleep?" Xion questioned.
"About twenty days," Roxas answered.
"That long?!" Xion gasped.
"Yeah. Me, Axel, and Jess were getting worried. Jess has been with you almost every day," Roxas mentioned.
Xion looked away in shame. "I'm sorry. I feel bad."
"Hey, no! You don't get to feel bad. It's not your fault. I wanted to hand out with you more anyways, though that wasn't quite what I meant," I joked.
"Kind of... weird that we can feel anything at all, huh? Without hearts to feel with," Xion commented.
"Yeah..." Roxas trailed off.
"Hey, don't you have work?" Xion brought up.
"Huh? Oh, I'm about to head out," Roxas replied.
"Can I come, too?" Xion wondered.
"But... don't you need more rest?" Roxas checked.
Xion giggled. "After sleeping for three weeks? I'll be fine. C'mon, take me with you."
"We should all go!" I cheered.
"All right, sure!" Roxas grinned.
I practically skipped all the way to the Grey Area, but Saix's nasty attitude instantly soured my mood.
"Well, well. It lives. There's just no keeping you down."
Roxas and I placed protective arms around Xion, though they did very little against Saix's barrage of words. Still, Xion didn't seem disheartened.
"Saix, I want to go with Roxas today on his mission," Xion requested.
"Same for me," I added.
"You belong in your room, and as for you," Saix turned to me. "You'll only serve as a distraction."
"Oh, hey, Xion! About time you crawled out of bed," Axel greeted us.
"Morning, Axel," Xion beamed.
"Roxas will team up with Axel today, as scheduled. Xion, I'm afraid I neglected to pencil you in. Jessica, I don't need you getting in the way. Better you stay here and look after Xion," Saix remarked.
"Don't keep me pent up in here. I need exercise," Xion argued.
"Yeah, and we'll be bored here," I grumbled.
"I'll look after them. I promise not to let them out of my sight," Axel tried.
Saix let out a groan before agreeing. "Fine. Go if that's what suits you." He walked away without another word.
"Score for Axel!" I cheered.
Axel ruffled my hair. "Yeah, don't make me regret it. You listen to me and don't talk to anyone, you hear me?"
"Got it," I giggled, excited to go out with my best friends.
When we stepped into Twilight Town, I could barely contain my excitement.
"This should be fun, huh? All of us together like this," Xion commented.
"Yeah. This is my first four-man mission," Roxas mentioned.
"The last time they sent more than three people on a mission was..." I trailed off. Castle Oblivion. Only one Nobody walked away from it.
Axel took my hand. "Don't think about it. Let's just do our mission so we can get to the good stuff. Two spots on the Clock Tower have been empty for way too long."
I noticed Roxas and Xion exchange glances. Xion was the one to finally break through the silence as we searched Twilight Town for our targets.
"It sure is nice to be back on my feet."
"Just don't push it, you hear me? We'll pick up the slack," Axel assured her.
"I hear you. Thanks," Xion smiled.
Our first target, a Heat Saber, appeared in the Sandlot. It was guarded by a Barrier Master, so I knew we had to take it out before we could touch the Heat Saber. "I hate these guys," I grumbled.
As we fought the Barrier Master, I narrowly missed being sliced by the Heat Saber.
"Watch out!" Axel shouted to me.
"He didn't hit me," I argued.
Roxas finished off the Barrier Master, and we began attacking the Heat Saber.
"But he almost did. You haven't been on the battlefield in a while, either. Get behind us if you need to," Axel insisted.
I shrugged him off and continued fighting as I was before. I needed to prove I could handle myself to regain Axel's trust.
Once we finished off the Heat Saber, we moved on to our other target.
Just as we reached the Plaza, Xion fainted into me. I grabbed her as soon as I realized what was happening. "Axel, help!" I shrieked. I wasn't sure what to do.
"Xion!" Roxas exclaimed.
Axel scooped Xion up out of my arms right before the second target, a Destroyer, appeared. Roxas and I hesitated. Axel glanced at Xion and nodded at Roxas. "I've got Xion. You take out the target!"
"Okay!" Roxas replied.
Axel turned to me. "Jess!" I knew what was coming. He would want me to stay behind with him and let Roxas handle this. "Help him out, already. What are you standing around for?"
"Oh! Right! On it!" I answered with surprise. I assisted Roxas as best I could. There was one time I got hit with its deadly beam and was in excruciating pain, but I kept fighting. By the time we finished, I could barely stand, but I did my best to hide my injuries for Xion's sake. She needed their focus more than I did.
Roxas ran back to Axel and Xion while I limped over.
"Xion!" Roxas exclaimed.
"It's okay. She's not hurt. What about you, Jess? That looked like a pretty big hit," Axel checked.
"I'm fine," I said, my voice uncertain.
Axel frowned. "Right. Let's just RTC, alright?" Axel lifted Xion in the air and carried her all the way back to the castle.
Roxas noticed me limping and insisted I lean on him.
As our luck would have it, or rather, lack of it, Saix crossed our path.
"Well, that didn't take long. Did it break again?" Saix scoffed.
"She's not an it!" Roxas shouted, making large hand gestures. Because I was leaning on him, I stumbled a bit.
Saix noticed. "What happened to you?"
"I took a bad hit. I'll drink a potion and be fine," I growled.
"Perhaps you should stop going on missions that are high risk. I told you not to go with them today," Saix huffed.
Axel began to walk right past him but paused to tell Saix off. "Keep your mouth shut."
Roxas and I walked right past him. True to my word, I stopped in my room to grab a potion and chugged it down before joining the others in Xion's room.
"Are you worried about her, Axel?" Roxas wondered.
"Of course I am," Axel replied.
"Doesn't seem like you," Roxas commented.
"What do you mean?" Axel asked.
"You hate complications," Roxas answered.
"He's right about that," I added.
Axel ruffled my hair. "Are you kidding? I deal with your messed up complications all the time, thank you very much." He chuckled before letting out a sigh and turning his tone into a more serious one. "Roxas... I meet up with you guys every day for ice cream, right? Why do I do that?"
"Huh?" Roxas mumbled in surprise.
"I mean, you think about it, I don't need to go out of my way, right?" Axel pointed out.
"I guess not," Roxas mused.
"You wanna know why I do? Because you're my best friends. The four of us... we're inseparable," Axel explained.
Roxas gasped. "We are?"
"That's right- get it memorized. And you know what? Best friends are willing to deal with complications. Just ask Jess," Axel smiled.
"Yeah... Yeah, you said it!" Roxas agreed.
Xion giggled from her bed. "Thanks, Axel. You're sweet."
"Xion! You're awake," I said, filled with relief.
"Feeling better?" Roxas checked.
"I just got a little dizzy. Sorry to worry you guys," Xion apologized.
"Try not to scare us like that anymore, huh?" Axel joked.
"Okay," Xion nodded.
"And you take it easy today," Axel instructed.
"I will. Thanks," Xion replied.
On my way to my room, Xemnas approached me.
"I was told you had gotten hurt on your mission today," Xemnas began.
"Nothing a potion didn't fix. I'm fine now," I assured him.
"You shouldn't have gotten hurt in the first place. This isn't a game. You will have mandatory training tomorrow with Xaldin. Report to the Hall of Empty Melodies in the morning."
I didn't reply. I tried stepping around Xemnas to get to my room, but he grabbed my arm. "I'm doing this for you. You should be grateful that I am pulling back my resources so that you may have help getting back to your former self who would have taken on such missions alone with ease."
At that point, I didn't know what else to do, so all I said was, "Thank you, Xemnas."
Xemnas released my arm and walked away. I ran into my bedroom and slammed the door before screaming into my pillow.