Chapter 14

Remember?

Axel sat on the ledge of the clock tower, a Sea-Salt Ice Cream in his hand. On his left sat his coworker and friend Roxas, who also held an ice cream. The two of them stared into the distance, watching the sun sit permanently on the edge of the horizon.

"Hey, Axel. You haven't forgotten?"

"Hm? What?"

"You made us a promise."

"I did?"

"That you'd always be there… to bring us back."

"Yeah…"

Roxas turned toward him and pointed at his head. "Got it memorized?" he asked teasingly.

Axel laughed even as the image of Roxas faded away. "Best friends forever."

The dream ended. Axel opened his eyes, hearing a regular beeping that sounded like a heart rate monitor. He saw a white wall in front of him and groaned.

Great, he thought, I'm still alive and now I'm back in the castle, probably a prisoner for betraying the Organization.

He forced himself to sit up, and noticed that he was lying in a bed. Looking around, he saw a computer monitor next to him, and he realized that it was measuring his heartbeat. The biological organ, of course. Looking past that, he was surprised to see two men lying in similar beds down the row. He was shocked when he recognized them as Vexen and Zexion. Zexion appeared to be regaining consciousness.

"Oh, things are going to get really awkward when they wake up," he muttered to himself. He stopped himself when he realized that they were wearing lab coats. He looked down at himself but saw that he still had on his Organization XIII coat. He climbed out of bed, unclipping the apparatus that monitored his heart rate, and stretched out his muscles. He noticed a door with a glass window next to it, and realized that he was not in the Castle That Never Was, but rather what appeared to be a hospital.

He ran over to the mirror and studied his reflection. Beneath his green eyes, he noticed that he no longer had the purple teardrop-shaped marks. Those Twilight thorn cuts had only decorated his face five years after he became a Nobody. If he no longer had them…

"We're people again…" He looked behind him and saw three more beds lined up between him and where he had been lying. In those beds, he recognized Lexaeus, Xaldin and Saïx.

No, from furthest to closest, they were: Ienzo, Even, Aeleus, Dilan, and Isa. No longer were they Nobodies, so no longer did they have to live under the distorted names given to them by Xemnas.

He heard the door open and a green-eyed woman dressed in pink and white ran in, looking concerned. She noticed Axel standing next to her and relaxed. Axel wondered why she seemed so worried, but remembered the monitor next to his bed. He looked back at the screen and realized that, since he had disconnected himself from it, it read his "pulse" as a flatline.

"Er, sorry about that," he said sheepishly. "Can you tell me what's going on?"

Aerith cleared her throat. "My name is Aerith," she introduced herself. "I am a member of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee, and I am in charge of this infirmary. Some of my friends found you all unconscious in the computer room in the castle, so we brought you here to check up on you while you recovered."

Axel considered what she said. "Right. Tell me, doc, was there a man named Braig in the room where we were found?" he asked.

Aerith tilted her head to the side, confused. "Braig?" she repeated uncertainly.

Axel sighed. "Scars, eyepatch, dressed either like me or like Aeleus and Dilan over here," he clarified, gesturing toward the soldiers, vaguely noticing Aeleus begin to stir. "You might know of him as Xigbar," he added.

"Oh, him. Yes, he was there as well, though he was already awake," she explained. "Sora, Riku and Leon are questioning him down the hall."

Axel was taken by surprise when he recognized two of those names. "Sora and Riku?" he repeated. "What room are they in?"

Aerith was not expecting to hear such desperation in his voice. "Room A07," she answered. He quickly moved to leave the room and go to his destination, but she interrupted him. "Wait! Don't you want to be here when your friends wake up?" she asked.

Axel waved his hand absently. "Let me know when the rest of them start to wake up. But for now, I really don't think I should be the first thing Ienzo sees when he wakes up. Especially since I kind of killed his Nobody form and all. And if I'm being honest, Aeleus sort of scares me." He broke into a run, quickly leaving Aerith's sight. Aerith sighed and decided that she would check on the other patients.

"What do you expect to get from me?" Xigbar asked his interrogators, feigning ignorance. He sat at a table in a small room, facing Sora, Riku and Leon, who were all less-than-happy to have to put up with his antics. He was bound to a metal bar on the edge of the table by handcuffs.

"When we found you, you said something about 'expecting someone else'," Leon answered sternly. "Care to explain what you meant by that?"

"As if!" Xigbar scoffed. "You want to know every little thought that goes through my head, read my diary!"

Sora locked eyes with Riku, his annoyed expression screaming I hate this guy, and Riku's expression saying I know, right?

"You were expecting to see someone upon waking up. That means you weren't very surprised when you reformed as a Somebody," Leon pointed out. "And you figured that, once you did, someone would be here to meet you. Who were you hoping to meet?"

Before Xigbar could give a non-answer, the door opened. Sora, Riku and Leon turned and saw Axel standing in the doorway. They stood in shocked silence, and even Xigbar was at a loss for words. In fact, he was glad that nobody was looking his way because he was worried that with Axel's input, he might end up being exposed.

Axel finally broke the silence. "Hey, guys," he said awkwardly. "I guess everything went well taking down Xemnas?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah. I reunited with Riku and Kairi," he gestured towards Riku as he said his name, "and we all fought Xemnas, and Xigbar, and Luxord, and Saïx."

"Ansem the Wise destroyed Xemnas' Kingdom Hearts and released all the captive hearts," Riku added, then solemnly, "at a great cost."

Axel's face fell; he understood what he meant. "I hear your voice is back to normal," he noted. "I guess whatever happened to you, that got fixed."

Riku smirked. "Yep. Back to my old moody self," he replied.

"How are you feeling, Axel?" Leon asked. "I'm surprised you're already back on your feet."

Axel shrugged and gave a cocky grin. "Please! You think something like death and rebirth can keep me down?" he retorted. "And by the way, I'm a normal person again. I don't have to live under that Nobody name Xemnas handed out to me. My name, my true name, is Lea. Got it memorized?"

Sora could not help but laugh, which he found to be odd since he never really liked Axel that much until he came to his aid in the end. He wondered if part of that was from Roxas. He wished that his Nobody could be there for real so he can catch up with his friend.

"So, why are you in here with Braig?" Lea asked, pointing at the handcuffed man to indicate that he meant Xigbar.

"Well, when we found you all in Ansem's computer room, Xig—Braig was already awake, and he said something about how he was expecting someone else," Sora explained. "We're trying to get him to tell us what he meant."

Lea thought for a moment, not sure what it could mean, then remembered something. "Hold on. The seven of us, me, Braig, and the others in the other room, we were all in the computer room, right where we'd lost our hearts, right?" he asked. Leon nodded. "Was Xehanort there, too?"

This gave everyone pause. They had not thought about Xehanort, which probably was not very wise. Sora slumped forward when he realized that he did not consider the very real possibility that his most dangerous and intelligent enemy, whose Heartless and Nobody have both been eliminated, could have come back into existence as a whole being.

"No, he wasn't," Leon answered. "I asked Cid to send probes all throughout the castle to check if anyone else had reappeared elsewhere, but there were no signs of life anywhere."

Riku glanced back at Braig and caught him with a shocked and confused expression. He slammed his hand down on the table to get the Freeshooter's attention. "All right, Patch. Where is Xehanort?" he shouted.

Braig shrugged, and put a smirk on his face in a mask of confidence. "Well, ain't that the twenty million Munny question?"

"He's not talking. We'll come back later," Leon interrupted the interrogation. He directed Sora, Riku and Lea to leave the room, then followed, closing the door behind him.

"He clearly knows something," Riku declared. "He just won't talk."

"Thing is, he wasn't expecting Xehanort to be a no-show," Lea responded. "Something happened that wasn't part of the plan. The others might have an idea, but right now, Isa, Dilan and Even are still out."

"Then let's wait until everyone is awake before we talk to Braig again," Leon decided. "We'll keep our eyes open for anything that might be Xehanort's doing. In the meantime, we should work with what we do know about. I'm sure that pretty soon, King Mickey and Yuffie will have found something about what it is Maleficent's council is looking for, and what Pete and Loki were trying to find."

"Ienzo and Aeleus should be awake by now," Lea said. "I suppose now would be a good time for you to catch up, Riku."

As they walked down the hall, Sora leaned in to talk quietly to Riku. "What's he talking about?"

"You'll find out when we get there," was all Riku said in reply.

Sora, Leon and Aerith looked between Riku and Lea and Ienzo and Aeleus as an awkward silence filled the room, broken only by the regular beeping that accompanied the fifty-per-minute beating of the other patients' hearts. The tension could be cut with a knife, with one pair not knowing what to say to the other. Sora had a vague knowledge of the other former Organization members, having fought silhouettes of them and later encountered digital reflections of them in a hidden computer lair beneath the town, but he knew nothing of any of them, bar Saïx and Xaldin, beyond that. He could only wonder how Riku knew the individuals facing them.

"Well," Ienzo addressed Lea, "aren't you going to say hello, Axel?"

Lea was surprised by the young man's calm demeanor. Normally, when someone tells a Replica to absorb your power and crush your essence, you would not greet them so cordially without trying to wring their neck.

"What…?"

"We have been restored to our Somebody selves after our Nobody forms had faced rather excruciating demises. You even murdered me and Vexen. Painfully. Don't we at least warrant a 'hello'?"

"Uh…" Lea put his and on the back of his neck and dodged Ienzo's gaze in embarrassment. "Hello, Ienzo and Aeleus…?"

Ienzo smirked in mild amusement. "Aerith explained how I came to be back here," Ienzo told him. "And since I have you to thank for sending my Nobody essence back to the darkness to wait for restoration, I figured I would put the incident behind me." He turned to face Riku. "The same goes for you cutting Lexaeus down."

"Excuse me," Sora interjected, "but when did that happen?"

Now it was Ienzo and Aeleus' turn to give him confused expressions. "Castle Oblivion," Ienzo answered uncertainly. "You were there too. Marluxia used Naminé to twist your memories and try to turn you into a puppet he could use to overthrow Xemnas, but it failed and you defeated him. Don't you remember? Do you remember Vexen?" He gestured to the man with dirty-blond hair.

Sora was even more confused. The only name he recognized was Naminé, but that did not help much. Riku and Lea were there to help. Lea simply said "No" but Riku explained more thoroughly. "After Marluxia was defeated, Naminé put Sora, Donald and Goofy into a year-long sleep so she could put their memories back together," he said. "As a side-effect, their memories of their time in Castle Oblivion were disconnected from the chain."

"Okay. I guess that makes sense. I guess that's why the message in Jiminy's Journal said to 'Thank Naminé'. Though, we could have been more specific," Sora mused. "So, what happened with you guys?" He wagged his finger around to indicate that he was referring to Ienzo, Aeleus and Even.

Ienzo paused for a minute, thinking of where to begin. "Six of us, myself, Axel, Lexaeus, Vexen, Marluxia, and Larxene, were sent to Castle Oblivion to conduct research."

"However, Saïx knew that Marluxia and Larxene intended to betray and usurp Xemnas, so he sent me to gain proof of their treachery and eliminate them," Lea continued.

Ienzo frowned briefly at the interruption. "They worked in the thirteenth floor, where Marluxia used the mysterious girl Naminé to take apart your memories as soon as you entered the castle. Lexaeus, Vexen and I stationed ourselves in the basement levels, where we took an interest in Riku, who had appeared in the lowest level at approximately the same time as you." Sora's eyes widened when he heard this. "We came to suspect of Marluxia's plan, and so sought to use Riku to counter him. To that end, Vexen confronted Riku to gather data and create a Replica of him. He pretended to form an alliance with Marluxia and Larxene and tried to prove himself to them by sending the Replica to fight you, but you defeated him. Marluxia declared his experiment to be a failure, so Vexen decided to confront you himself, and after you defeated him he very nearly exposed Marluxia's plot."

"Marluxia sent me to eliminate Vexen to prevent him from jeopardizing his plan," Lea took over. "I complied to gain his trust and also to gain proof of his treachery."

A deep voice spoke, surprising Sora and Lea, since Aeleus had thus far remained silent. "Seeing that Vexen's effort had failed, I confronted Riku in an attempt to sway him to our side. I failed."

"He lost his temper during our fight and tried to kill me," Riku elaborated. "This gave Ansem, the remnant of Xehanort's Heartless that was still within me, an opportunity to try to take over. For a moment, he took control of my body and cut right through Lexaeus." Sora and Lea winced at this detail, and Aeleus looked away uncomfortably.

"I soon became aware that Marluxia's plans were falling apart, so I decided that I no longer needed Riku," Ienzo continued. "But there was something else, something that I could not identify. I think that I wanted to destroy Riku for what he did to Lexaeus. But, that did not make sense, as I lacked the heart to feel the compassion and rage required. Regardless, I attempted to trap Riku in an illusion that you despised him and drown him in light."

"I'm detecting the irony here," Sora quipped with a smirk.

"However, Riku saw through the trap and defeated me, having learned to no longer fear the darkness in his heart," Ienzo continued, not approving of the interruption.

"You can thank Naminé for that, too," Riku added.

By this point Ienzo had reluctantly decided to let everyone offer their commentary as long as it was not too disruptive. "I retreated, and shortly afterward, Axel appeared with the Riku Replica in tow, and he ordered the Replica to eliminate me and steal my power."

"Why did you do that?" Riku asked Lea, who averted his eyes shamefully.

"It's complicated," was all Lea said in defense.

Sora held his hand against his forehead, trying to take in what he had been told. On top of all of the Organization's internal affairs that had been going on behind the scenes, he had trouble processing that he had an entire mission that he did not remember at all.

"You all right, Sora?" Riku asked placing his hand reassuringly on his shoulder.

"Yeah," Sora replied uncertainly. "It's just that it's a lot to take in."

"To move to a less confusing topic, what are you guys doing here?"

Sora, Riku and Leon explained the situation.

Before Lea, Ienzo or Aeleus could respond, they heard the door open and saw Yuffie barge in. She appeared to be stressed, doing everything in her power to prevent herself from panicking.

"Yuffie? What's wrong?" Leon asked. He gripped her by the upper arms to hold her still and locked eyes with her to try to calm her down.

Yuffie pointed out into the hallway the way she had come, fear and worry in her eyes. "A… a Heartless… a big one… it's in town!" she stammered.

Everyone's eyes widened. Without another word, everyone ran out, Ienzo holding back for a moment before following. They charged down the hall to get outside and respond to the crisis.