#when xion dies he says 'who else will i eat ice cream with'.

[dreamsy990]

thing i wrote down about roxas in class today that i wanted to share: a lot of the time when he tries to articulate a feeling he uses something physical. like roxas has a kind of bad understanding of emotions so he links them to tangible changes or physical feelings.

[roxasboxas]

[#axels a very interesting character #hes incredibly brutal and effective #hes the organizations assassin #(or at least one of them. marluxia might also be bc that’s his title and we don’t see him actually doing his job much) #but you see him when hes not working and hes downright gentle #hes almost a different person on the job and i think thats intentional #he disassociates himself from the horrible things he has to do to survive in the organization #and then hes put in charge of two children #(two dangerous children. two children who might rebel and who he might have to kill) #and he can be soft with them #soft like he is more naturally #softer even than he can be with his best friend #and maybe it makes the moments he cant be soft a little more bearable #maybe things are a little bit better]

Ok I want to make these tags into their own post because I am vibing about this and I want to expand on it a little more.

Axel’s job in the Organization is to deal with traitors. Our introduction to him is in Chain of Memories, where he does so ruthlessly. He harshly eliminates Vexen to maintain his cover and get an in to confirm Marluxia and Larxene’s plan. He attempts to kill Marluxia and doesn’t care that Marluxia is using Namine as a meat shield. He kills Zexion for.... reasons? It’s been a while since I watched that gameplay and I’m currently stuck on the first Repliku fight. For all appearances, Axel Does Not Give A Single Shit, which is in line with the Nobodies as they’re characterized in CoM and for most like half of KH2. He has a job to do and he does it.

Then Days rolls around, and we see what else Axel has been up to: child rearing. In KH2, he obviously cares about Roxas, but in Days we see that he’s basically responsible for raising the kids. There’s this subtext there, that it’s his job because keyblade wielders are willful and emotional and unpredictable and he’s the assassin who has to be in a position to catch that and possibly terminate them if they decide to turn on the Organization. And at the beginning (and the end) of the game, he’s very acutely aware of that. He holds himself apart, and puts up an emotional barrier so he can be ready to do that part of his job. But for most of the game he lets himself forget it.

Axel’s been in a rough position for probably about a decade. He and his best friend can’t be too close anymore, on account of their plans to use an emo cult gang that’s convinced them they can’t feel to their own advantage. He hasn’t been able to be himself (whoever that is, whether you want to say that person is Lea or that the Nobodies are different from their Somebodies) for that whole time (which again, depending on your interpretation, could be his entire life) and that sort of thing fucks you up. But suddenly he’s responsible for two willful, emotional, unpredictable, honest children, and for lack of anyone else they latch onto and love him and each other because they have no one else to love and Axel suddenly finds himself in a position where he can be soft.

At his core, Axel is almost certainly soft. He doesn’t get to be, so much of the time, because there isn’t a place for softness in the Castle That Never Was. There isn’t a place for softness in Castle Oblivion. But there is a place for softness at the top of a clocktower, looking out over a town, eating ice cream with his kids.

Axel’s personality runs hard code shifts. With his kids, he’s gentle. He’s careful, and he cares. He keeps secrets for them, covers for them when they make mistakes or get into rough spots. When he works, he’s stiff. Efficient. Possibly even more so than he was before. He falls into this rhythm, and what he has to live for (a failing friendship with someone who might not want him or only see him as a tool anymore and a search for someone who might be dead, if he thinks about her too hard) shifts to something a little more tangible.

Then Xion runs, and dies, and is forgotten, and Roxas runs, and gets caught by other people with other plans, and sacrifices himself, and Axel is alone and angry again even if he doesn’t understand why. And Sora is there but Roxas isn’t and Xion isn’t and it’s not fair and he doesn’t understand, because how could he understand the feelings he won’t even admit he has? And all those pent up and confusing emotions culminate in him sacrificing himself, too, because even if he can’t see much of his kid in Sora he knows he’s still there, and some things are still the same.

I just think he’s a really tragic character o(TヘTo)

[phoenix-downer]

A New Promise

~2600 words. Gen, Friendship, Angst, Hope, Introspection, Reflection. Features Roxas and Sora’s friendship plus Roxas and Xion’s friendship. Written for @roxaszine-summers-end​. A big thank you to the mods for organizing everything! 

Even after getting a body of his own, the boundary between dreams and waking was still a blurry one for Roxas some days.

He knew he was asleep this time though. Twilight Town, as great as it was, was never this perfect. There was just too much of a warm glow over everything, the weather was just a little too ideal, and he knew it was more a memory of the place he called home than an accurate representation of it. 

The question was, whose memory was this? As he walked through the late afternoon streets, he became more and more convinced it wasn’t his. Too many little details that weren’t usually the sorts of things he paid much attention to were here—the names of all the shops, not just the sea-salt ice cream one, the types of plants that were different from the ones on… 

Destiny Islands?

He halted. Where had that thought come from? Was this… 

If so, he knew why he was here now. And he knew where he had to go. 

His feet carried him to the Clock Tower as fast as possible. Who knew how long this dream would last? Who knew how much time he had?

When he reached the base of it, he was panting for breath. He paused for a moment to glance around, but there was no one here. The breeze tugged at his clothes, but otherwise it was pretty quiet. Had he been wrong about this? 

Just when he was about to search somewhere else, though, a voice called out to him. 

“Roxas.”

He turned around, and Sora was waiting for him, two sticks of sea-salt ice cream in his hand. He grinned and offered one of them to Roxas, and Roxas smiled and took it. Together they climbed to the top of the Clock Tower and sat down. The delicious treat was even better than usual, and for a while they both ate in silence as they looked out at the amazing view. He could see everything from here—the tram making its way around the Tram Common, the sleepy streets cast in light and shadow, and in the far distance, the sea sparkling on the horizon. 

“I always wanted to come here with you,” Sora said. “I mean, I guess I did, when you were still inside my heart. But it’s not the same as actually being here with you.” 

“Yeah. Guess we’ll have to take a rain check on that one.” 

Sora took another bite of his ice cream. “When you showed me your memories, this place… this is home for you, Roxas, just like Destiny Islands is home for me.”

“I guess. But I wouldn’t say it’s because of the location itself. Twilight Town’s pretty nice, but that’s not why I call it home. It’s home because of the people here and all the memories we share.” 

All those days after work spent hanging out with Axel and Xion on the Clock Tower. Meeting Naminé for the first time, too. Most of his important memories of his friends had been created here. Even Sora had a connection to this place. 

“Yeah. That’s what home is,” Sora said. 

“Then I guess I’m home.”

Sora smiled sadly. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry you can’t be right now.”

“It’s okay,” Sora said, though Roxas didn’t exactly agree with him there. “It was my choice, and I’m willing to pay the price. I’m just sorry I didn’t get to say goodbye properly. I sort of rushed off because I was in such a hurry.” He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Come to think of it, I didn’t really get to say hello, either.”

“Hey, that’s not your fault. A bunch of stuff happened in a short amount of time.”

“Still, I wanted to be there for you. You finally came back like we both wanted, and now I have to leave you behind.”

Roxas’s heart sank. “So it really is true. You won’t be coming back.”

He had suspected as much—he just hadn’t wanted it to be true. He looked away from Sora because he couldn’t bear to think about what was gonna happen. It was heartbreaking enough when he’d watched Xion fade away as he held her in his arms, trying to remember her even as the memories were torn from him. And it was awful when he’d watched Axel fade away through Sora’s eyes, unable to do anything to save his friend. He’d never forget how frustrating it was to see Naminé but not be able to talk to her a whole lot, either. 

He’d gotten Axel and Xion back, and the researchers at Radiant Garden were working to save Naminé, but now he was gonna lose Sora instead. Would he always be this… this helpless? Was he doomed to lose his friends no matter what?

Sora was silent for a few moments as he stared at the town below them. “I can feel my heart fading from this realm,” he finally said. “The closer I get to Kairi, the closer I come to dying. I’ve had brushes with death before, but this… this feels different. Inevitable. Like fate’s finally caught up with me.” He looked at Roxas, and his eyes were heavy. “I guess it’s like how you felt when you were about to return to my heart, huh?”

Roxas’s head drooped. So this was why Sora had come to see him. Not just to say goodbye, but because he needed the support of a friend. He wasn’t changing his mind about what he’d set out to do, but he needed a little encouragement to go through with it.

“It’s scary, isn’t it?” Roxas said. “The feeling that you don’t know what’s coming next.”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve died before, at the Keyblade Graveyard. But I ended up at the world of ocean and sky right after that. This time… this time I know I won’t be so lucky.” 

“Maybe not, but who’s to say what comes next? We really don’t know.”

It was the best Roxas could do, considering the circumstances. He didn’t want to give Sora pat responses to questions he didn’t have the answers to. 

“Yeah,” Sora said. “Whatever happens to me, I’m ready to face it. It’s more that I don’t want my friends to be sad when I’m gone, you know?”

“We will be sad. How could we not be? You’re a part of our hearts now, Sora, just like we’re a part of yours.”

“I know. I just… I don’t want you to suffer.”

Sora’s voice broke on those last words, and Roxas rested a hand on his shoulder as he wiped his eyes.

“Suffering is a part of caring. It’s a part of having a heart.”

Sora smiled through his tears. “See? You really do have a heart, Roxas.”

“So do you, you big softie. Most people would’ve given up on their Nobodies ever having their own existences, but not you. You were stubborn and refused to listen to everyone who told you it was impossible.”

“Because I knew it wasn’t. I saw your heart, and I knew it was real. I couldn’t just pretend like everything was okay when it wasn’t.”

“And you don’t have to pretend that everything is okay now. It’s okay to grieve. It’s okay to cry.”

“Thanks,” Sora said.

“Hey, gimme some credit here. I am your Nobody.”

Sora shook his head. “No, you’re not. Not anymore. You’re your own person, Roxas.”

The words warmed Roxas’s heart. Yeah, he knew they were true, but it was still nice to hear them from someone else. Especially from the very person who was the reason he even existed. 

“And you know what else?” Sora added.

“What?”

“You’re my friend.”

He grinned, and Roxas couldn’t help but get a little choked up. Man, having a heart was weird sometimes. Was Sora always this… this over the top, about everything?

He sniffed and wiped his eyes before saying, “Sheesh, do you wanna make me cry, too?”

“It’s true,” Sora said. “You’re my friend, and whatever happens next, that’s never gonna change.”

“Yeah.”

That much Roxas knew. Whatever happened to Sora, they would always be friends.

They talked about some other stuff after that, joking around together to get Sora’s mind off of what was gonna happen. Then Sora handed Roxas his ice cream stick. Printed on it in small, neat letters was the word WINNER.

“Would you look at that. We’re both winners,” Roxas said as he showed Sora his stick, too.

“Well, seeing as how I can’t really claim my prize right now, you’re gonna have to do it for me.”

“Sure.” 

Sora put his hand on Roxas’s shoulder and grinned, then stood and stretched. “Time’s up. I better get going.”

There was a determined glint in his eyes, a set to his jaw. Even if Roxas had wanted to talk him down from this, there was no stopping him now.

“Good luck,” he said instead.

Sora summoned his Keyblade and opened up a portal swirling with color in the twilight sky. “Thanks. See you around, Roxas.” 

This would be Sora’s last memory of him, and he wanted it to be a good one. So he smiled and said, “See you around, Sora.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roxas’s eyes fluttered open. Light poured through the window, and he groaned and rolled over. 

His breath caught as his fingers curled around something in his hand. Two ice cream sticks with the word WINNER stamped on them.

“But how? I thought that was just a dream.”

Rubbing his eyes, he sat up. Dream or not, he had just the idea about what to do with them.

After getting ready for the day, he asked Xion if she wanted to go with him. Axel was busy right now, talking to Saïx about everything that had happened, so it was just the two of them at home. Together they walked through the streets of Twilight Town to the ice cream stall, and he told her about how he’d woken up with the WINNER sticks in his hand.

“You sure you didn’t just eat ice cream before you went to sleep?” she teased, her eyes sparkling. “I wouldn’t put it past you to eat it in bed, then fall asleep before you could throw the sticks away.”

“Hey, I know I’m addicted to the stuff, but I’m not THAT bad,” he said with a grin. They turned the corner into a side alley plastered in Struggle Tournament posters, and he stopped. “Actually, I think I woke up with them because Sora gave them to me.”

“Sora?” Xion said softly. “But Roxas, he’s still—”

“Gone, I know. Searching for Kairi. But I had a dream about him last night.”

Xion tilted her head, her dark hair splashing against her cheeks. “You did?”

“Yeah, and it felt pretty real.”

“Well, maybe it was real.” She took one of the sticks from him and examined it. “Maybe this was his way of cheering you up.”

Roxas frowned. There was more to the dream than that, but the details were fuzzy now. All he could remember was the two of them eating sea-salt ice cream on the Clock Tower together, then Sora handing him the WINNER sticks.

He wished he could remember more. But he hadn’t thought to write down the details, and now most of them were gone.

“Well anyway,” he said at last, “I figured I should redeem both of the sticks for prizes so I can give him his when he comes back.”

“Sounds good. I’m sure he’ll be happy to get it.”

When they reached the Tram Common, they greeted the owner of the ice cream stall, a kind woman with a big smile named Claudette. Her dark hair was tucked under a handkerchief, and her face lit up when she saw them. 

“Roxas, Xion! Glad to see two of my favorite customers. What will you two be having today? The usual?”

“Sure,” Roxas said, “but before that, I’d like to redeem a couple of WINNER sticks. They’re for me and my friend Sora.” 

He placed them on the counter, and Claudette’s black and white cat Mittens hopped up next to them. Mittens purred as Xion scratched her chin, and Roxas grinned at the sight. Xion had always had a soft spot for animals.

“Two WINNER sticks at once!” Claudette said. “Well aren’t you a lucky man!” 

She went to the back of the stall and started rustling around in one of the boxes. Roxas craned his neck, and Xion did the same. What would the fabled WINNER stick prize be this time? It was something different every time, and Claudette always chose the perfect prize. She’d already given Roxas and Axel and Xion matching ice cream charms for their Keyblades. 

“Ta-da!” she cried as she set the two prizes down on the counter. Roxas tilted his head as he examined the items before him. They were little miniature scenes of Twilight Town, gold metal engraved and carefully painted so that it resulted in a 3D effect. The tram was there and so was the clock tower, and the words Twilight Town were written at the top of the little frame. A loop of red ribbon went through the top of one, and green ribbon the other. 

“They’re Christmas ornaments,” Claudette explained with a smile. “Sora visited me a few times, and during one of our conversations, he mentioned that it's his favorite holiday. Well, tied with Halloween. So I figured you’d like to have ornaments of your own.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of these before!” Xion said, her eyes lighting up. “You hang them on Christmas trees, right?”

“That’s right! And these ones are handmade.”

“They look great,” Roxas said. “Thanks, Claudette.”

“Of course. Now let me grab your ice cream for you.”

Soon, he and Xion were walking to the Clock Tower, ice cream in hand. On Monday, they’d be starting school with Hayner, Pence, and Olette, so they had to make the most of their last few days of vacation. It was nice getting to wear casual clothes like this and just hang out. Life felt normal, like they were no different from any of the other people out walking around. 

“Do you think Axel will let us celebrate Christmas?” Xion asked after a little while. “I’ve always wanted to.”

“He has to now,” Roxas said. “We have this ornament.” He held up the one with the green ribbon, and the light caught it at just the right angle. “It’s for you and me and Axel. To celebrate our second chance at life.”

She smiled. “Yes. And what about Sora’s?”

“We’ll keep it for him till he comes back.”

“I’m sure he’ll like that.” 

Roxas nodded, and they continued on. They were at the base of the Clock Tower now, and when Xion looked at him again, she said, “Roxas, you’re crying.” 

He stopped and touched his cheek. “I am? But why?”

“You miss him,” she said, her voice soft but unwavering. “I do too. We were a part of his heart for so long, it feels strange that he’s not here with us, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. But he is still here with us,” Roxas said, resting his hand over his heart. “Even when he’s gone, we’re not alone.”

“Yes.” Xion looked to the sky and smiled. “His heart is a part of ours now.”

Roxas nodded, and together they climbed the Clock Tower. As they sat down and took in the familiar view stretching out below them, Roxas bit into his ice cream and sighed. 

No matter what might happen, no matter how long the separation might last, he knew that someday, somehow, they would see Sora again.

It was a new promise, and he was determined to keep it, no matter what. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Thank you again to the zine organizers for all their hard work in bringing this project to life! I really enjoyed working on this zine and being a part of a project celebrating Roxas. And as always, thank you for reading!

[pocketfullaflowers]

Don’t Think Twice

Namine thinks it’s time to get something off her chest. She refuses to let a past she can’t change control a future she can.

“I want you for a lifetime So if you’re gonna think twice, baby I don’t wanna know, baby, I don’t wanna know”

You can read on Tumblr, or here on AO3.

“So, where do you wanna go?” Xion asked.

Namine had asked Xion to take her to Twilight Town, but hadn’t given any further explanation. Xion didn’t mind, she loved this place, and hanging out with Namine was always fun, so she was going along with it. The two were walking down Station Heights, Xion always enjoyed the feeling of the afternoon sun on her face.

“O-Oh, I don’t know wherever you wanna go, I guess.” Namine looked visibly nervous, wringing her hands together and barely meeting her eyes, and that confused Xion. They were friends, right? Friends hang out all the time, that’s what Axel said at least. Xion shook her head, there were so many parts about being a Somebody that she still didn’t understand.

“Well,” Xion said, letting the word linger on her lips, “We could always get ice cream and go to the clock tower. Who knows, maybe Hayner, Pence, and Olette could join us.”

“No!” Namine paused as her face reddened, “I mean, um, let’s try somewhere else?”

“Okay? If you have somewhere in mind, Namine, I’d be more than happy to join you, but you have to tell me.”

“Ah, um…” Namine paused again, and took a deep breath, “Just, follow me?”

Xion shrugged, “Cool, you lead.”

The two wove through the afternoon crowds milling around the tram common, children darted this way and that with their friends in tow while shopkeepers advertised their wares. Xion wasn’t paying attention to where they were going, and nearly bumped into Namine when she stopped. They were far from the crowds now, down a side street that led nowhere.

“Um, Nami? Where exactly are we going?”

Namine sighed, “I promise I have a plan, but we need to go down to the sewers.”

Xion’s eyebrows shot up, “O–kay?” She said, and rocked back on her heels, “Still not gonna tell me where we’re going?”

Namine chuckled a little, “You’ll see, I promise it’ll be worth it. Just… plug your nose?”

The two slowly made their way through the sewers, being careful not to step in any trash or puddles. It was dark, and  Xion felt on edge, she knew there was nothing to fear, but she summoned her keyblade, just in case. They heard rustling up ahead and Xion ran in front of Namine and fired off a fire spell just in time to see it miss a very agitated rat.

Xion blushed and rubbed her neck, “Whoops?”

Namine giggled, “You’re my hero, huh?” She took Xion’s hand, “C’mon, it’s not much further, just stick by me.”

Xion blushed further, glad for the darkness surrounding them.  Light up ahead signaled the end of the tunnel. The two climbed out of the tunnel and were instantly surrounded by the soft smell of dirt and grass. Xion looked up and saw tall trees filtering the soft afternoon light above them.

“This is…” Xion’s mouth hung open.

“The woods next to the old mansion, yeah. They filled up the hole in the wall, so I had to find another way to get here, sorry about the sewer.” Namine chuckled.

“But… Why?”

“You’ll see, follow me.” Namine grabbed Xion’s hand again and led her through the woods.

The last time Xion had been here had been right before she died, when she had fought Axel. GIven the choice of dying as a puppet or dying on her own terms, she had chosen the latter. In the end, that didn’t matter, though. She had been faithful to her master to the very end. Xion smiled ruefully. Namine, as though sensing her friend’s dark mood squeezed her hand and smiled at her.

The two walked in silence until they reached the mansion.

Xion’s eyes widened, “Namine, wha-” There was a red checkered blanket laid down in the courtyard of the mansion. On top of the blanket was a basket and a guitar case.

“It’s a picnic! Olette told me about them, you sit on the ground and eat!” Namine was practically vibrating with excitement, “I asked them to set it up before we got here so I could surprise you.”

“But… Why would we want to sit on the ground? And why would you want to surprise me?”

Namine shrugged, “She said it makes the food taste better, c’mon!”

Xion noted that Namine didn’t answer her other question as she joined her on the ground. Namine opened the basket and passed out food and plates. Grapes, cheese, finger sandwiches, strawberries and crackers, too. They had orange juice to drink, in fancy wine flutes that Namine said came from Pence. Namine was right, food did taste better sitting on the ground.

After they had eaten, Namine brought out the guitar and began strumming softly, humming along to a tuneless song. Xion laid next to her and let her eyes go soft, almost dozing. She didn’t even know Namine could play guitar, but she was quickly finding there were many things about her friend she didn’t know.

Xion sat up, “Not that I’m not loving this, but why did you bring me here? Why a picnic?”

Namine flushed and put the guitar to the side, “Well… we both have so many awful memories of this place, and I’m tired of letting a past I can’t change control my life. I just thought, if I had a happy memory here, it might help.”

Xion nodded, “I guess I understand that, but why with me? Why not Riku? He was here longer and spent more time with you and Ansem than I did.”

Namine’s face resembled a tomato, “Ah, well,” She took a deep breath, “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that living with the Organization was hell. They used me only for my abilities, I was nothing to them. I was so lonely, I let them use me to do horrible things. It was all I ever knew.”

Namine paused, “And then I met DiZ, and he saw me as just another tool, just another way to get what he wanted. But I was free, and that’s all that mattered.” Namine looked towards the mansion, to her window, “It’s another white room, just like the castle. He kept me there to remind me of my place.”

She looked back at Xion, “And then I met you, and it was almost worse knowing that I had to destroy you.” Namine’s face turned dark, “With all the powers I possess, I cannot keep even one piece of the being called you connected, I remember saying that and wishing I could go in your place. In the end, it didn’t matter, did it? You were destroyed and I returned to Kairi, and that was supposed to be the end of the story.”

She looked down and Xion saw the tears in her eyes, Xion grabbed her friend’s hand as Namine opened her mouth to speak again, “But it’s not the end of the story, we’re both back, we have our own lives to live now, and I don’t want to live mine being afraid of my past, or who I am, because the truth is, Xion, you’re only everything I’ve ever dreamed of. I love you, and I understand if you don’t feel the same way, but I just needed you to know.”

Xion gaped at her friend, not believing her ears. Then she burst out into laughter, feeling bad when Namine’s face drooped. “Ah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Xion said, wiping tears off her face, “It’s just, you must be kidding me, did you really think I could say no?”

Namine opened and closed her mouth, not knowing what to say.

Xion shook her head, “Nami, I love you, too.”

“Oh.” Namine’s face was curiously blank until– “Oh… Oh. ” Hot tears brewed at the insides of her eyes.

Xion leaned forward, wiping the tears off Namine’s face, “Namine, what’s wrong? Hey, it’s okay.”

Namine started to laugh, too, “I’m sorry, I’m only crying ‘cause I never dreamed it’d take this long for me to get the courage to ask you, I never even imagined you liking me back.”

The two smiled at each other, Xion risked a look down at her lips and Namine realized how close they were to each other. She flushed brightly.

“I don’t bite.” Xion’s breath was hot on her face.

“I know.” Namine closed her eyes and leaned in, sighing into the kiss.

Kiss me once, kiss me twice, kiss me three times

Cross the line

0o0o0o

“Yes!” Olette quietly cheered from the bush she, Pence, and Hayner were hiding in.

“Ugh, can we go now, my legs are asleep.” Hayner complained.

“I ran out of snacks ages ago.” Pence said.

Olette smiled at her boys, “Fine, fine, let’s give them some privacy. Think of is this way; now we won’t have to listen to them whine about their unrequited love anymore.”

“You just like playing matchmaker.” Hayner said.

“Guilty as charged!” Olette smiled at him.

“Guys, c’mon, let’s go to the clock tower, this is lame.” Pence said.

Hayner smiled and took off, “Last one to get an ice cream is a rotten egg!”

“Hey, no fair!” Olette and Pence ran off after him, leaving their friends to finish their picnic in peace.

[themattress]

The Butterfly Effect of Xion

So the Vince Vaughn movie Fred Claus has been on TV, and I have to paraphrase:

“I don’t hate you, Xion. I just wish you were never born.”

(XION FANS, DO NOT ENGAGE)

Dwelling on it recently, I came to realize just how damaging the existence of Xion has been on the Kingdom Hearts series. There were issues with her in her debut game of 358/2 Days, true, but they pale in comparison to what ended up happening in the games afterward. Xion’s existence created a Butterfly Effect, where five major problems that wrecked the series might not have occurred if the precedent hadn’t been set by Nomura and Kanemaki with Xion. 

1. So, Xion is a replica. She was meant to be a replica of Sora, but because the memories she absorbed from Roxas (because that’s a thing now) were Sora’s strongest memories, those of Kairi, she became a girl who resembled Kairi. Except when she isn’t and looks different depending on who is viewing her. This didn’t only over-complicate the replica concept in Days, but it set the precedent going forward that replicas could be used for anything the plot demands and ended up as the go-to method to bring previously dead or disembodied characters back (that and time travel). Back in CoM, the Riku Replica was just a clone of Riku, the idea was simple to grasp. Now replicas aren’t even really replicas at all. 

2. Let me point this out again: Sora’s fractured memories somehow escaped him and that’s never explained how this is possible. They go into Roxas and then “leak” out of him and into Xion, which is what gives her an identity. And Namine’s power over the memories of Sora and those aligned with him are now increased so that she can view memories currently being made by Roxas and Xion from a far away distance. This convoluted usage of the concept of memory only gets worse in Coded and 3D, and it’s unclear who remembers what anymore. Much like replicas, memories are now being used to make any ludicrous plot turn happen, and this especially damages Namine’s character given that she has power over memories.

3. So because Xion’s identity is composed of memories that need to go back inside of Sora, she ceases to exist after dying. Let me repeat: Xion ceases to exist. This is what is said by Namine, who is a pretty reliable source given how overpowered she’d become at this point: 

If you return your memories to him, you'll disappear. And since everything about you was built on those memories...no one will remember you when you're gone. There won't be any "you" to remember. I can't save you, Xion - even a memory of you.

Except that this totally becomes a lie in Coded, making it so that what Namine should have said was “Don’t worry, Xion - I can totes save a memory you inside of data placed within Jiminy’s Journal, and everyone will begin remembering you again in a few months’ time until finally you can come back to life and exist independently of Sora. There’s no stakes here!” 

And this begins one of the most damning trends in the series: previous canon is discarded on a whim in order to bring back characters who definitively reached a conclusion in order to give them an ideal ‘happily ever after’ ending as fanservice for everyone who likes them. Roxas, Namine, Xion, Axel, all the other Organization members, Ansem the Wise, Eraqus, even the goddamn Riku Replica...the dramatic power of their endings is completely undone against all internal logic and good storytelling sensibilities. And it all started with Xion, who even after ceasing to exist (making her deader than dead), still managed to give belated telepathic messages to Riku and Roxas the day afterward, leaving a door for revival open.

(Side-note: Nomura actually said in the BBS Ultimania interview that “there is no concept of death in the KH universe”. Really, now? Tell that to Hades, the lord of the dead. Or the numerous Disney villains who have died. Or good guys like Mufasa, Tadashi, or Bambi’s mother! Hell, even your own OC characters have acknowledged the reality of death: Xehanort’s entire impetus behind possessing Terra is because he was afraid of dying from old age before he could see his plan through to fruition! Nomura, you are an absolute hack.)

4. So, Xion is a Kairi look-alike who can wield a Keyblade. Chronologically speaking, she wielded a Keyblade before Kairi did, even though the game where Kairi did was released first. You have her in your party throughout Days, can play as her in Mission Mode, and then in KH3 she flat-out replaces Kairi in the party during the battle with Saix. Kairi, meanwhile, has never been playable, and had exactly 1 minute of time in the party before being taken out of it and replaced by Xion. Then she gets killed by Xehanort and is unable to take part in the big climax, but Xion does. And during all of this, Kairi is phased out of the trio between her, Sora and Riku, all while Xion is a retcon to the KH2-established duo of Axel and Roxas.

If Xion didn’t already feel like a self-insert Mary Sue from a fanfic before, she certainly does now. Kairi actually had narrative build-up and anticipation for years at becoming either a playable character or a full-fledged party member, and either way being an all-around capable Keyblade wielder who could fight alongside her friends Sora and Riku. But instead, this black-haired copycat of her who was created after the game where Kairi was given a Keyblade and was then said to be deader than it was possible to be gets all the glory.  

Just look at the cover of KH3. Kairi sticks out like a sore thumb because she remains the only one with alleged combat capabilities who has never ever been playable across the entire series’ existence, and whose time as a party member is pathetic compared to everyone else. Perhaps if we didn’t have Xion, who got 30 more votes than Kairi on an official popularity poll, the game developers would have felt more of a drive to develop Kairi and make her a competent combatant. But I say perhaps because Nomura would be a sexist pig either way.

5. Lastly, let’s talk about the “Seasalt Trio” that became a thing thanks to Xion. In KH2, the narrative was that Roxas and Axel had been friends, with Roxas having something of a heart and Axel actually being able to feel emotions due to forging a close relationship with him. But Roxas left the Organization to find out the truth about himself, disillusioned by Axel’s lies and possessiveness of him. Ultimately, when it came down to truly helping Roxas or just helping himself, Axel chose himself and tried to kill Roxas. When this failed and Roxas merged with Sora, Axel became consumed by guilt and tried to get Roxas back until he finally realized that his selfishness was the problem and reached true atonement to Roxas through sacrificing his life for Sora. And for his part, Roxas learned to be at peace with an existence as part of Sora, as he felt more emotionally fulfilled than he did as a Nobody and could still be with Namine.

While Days mostly stuck to the narrative in regards to Axel, the addition of Xion complicated things so that Axel was made to be viewed more sympathetic than he really should be. The connection Roxas had with Xion, meanwhile, totally eclipsed the one he had with Namine in KH2, to the point where all of Namine’s helpful actions toward Roxas are retconned into her subconsciously keeping a promise she made to Xion to look after him. And the idealistic friendship between the three of them, where they enjoy working together in the Organization and having ice cream together atop Twilight Town’s clock tower guaranteed that many players would no longer accept Roxas’ fate in KH2 as a happy ending for him. After all, if he was perfectly comfortable as his own physical existence and had good friends he enjoyed eating ice cream with all the time, then nothing less than that seems like it could make him happy.

And ultimately, not even the narrative around Axel was to last. In Days, he says to Xion that she and Roxas can “keep on running, but I’ll always be there to bring you back!” In context, this was a selfish, possessive threat. It was Axel saying “Screw what you two want or need! I want and need you at my side in the Organization and I’ll drag you back there against your will no matter how many times you try to escape!” But once Axel is revived as Lea in 3D, the narrative pretends that wasn’t the case and now insists that it’s a noble pledge, a promise to “always bring his friends back” when they disappear, and that it’s legitimately what they want him to do. An interesting, morally gray character was totally whitewashed so that he deserves the ideal happy ending that he receives. All from something he said to Xion.

So yeah, this is what holds me back from being a big Xion fan, and while I hold no personal animosity toward her, I deeply wish she had never been introduced into the series at all.

I wish she was conceived exclusively for Shiro Amano’s manga instead!

[starcharmfunzies]

Xiiiiiiiooooooonn xD

oh boy okay here we go

I’ll just say it. I don’t like Xion. She’s a bad character, but it’s not her fault it’s the writers’.

My argument is divided in the following points:

She has no personality, and is only a blank slate for anyone to be able to relate to.

She has no flaws, and is never in the wrong.

Her only character trait is the “tragedy” of her story, and it’s shoved down the player’s throat so she can earn our sympathy only for it to be meaningless later on.

Her bad writing is so contagious she makes other characters around her act out of character.

She serves no purpose to the story.

I’l explain each point after the read more:

She has no personality, and is only a blank slate for anyone to be able to relate to

Kingdom Hearts characters, including heroes and villains, have distinct personalities of their own that makes them unique between them and believable. If you closed your eyes and I started describing someone via character traits you wouldn’t have a hard time figuring out who I’m talking about.

How would you describe Xion though? She’s kind, cares for her friends, is determined and has a strong sense of justice.

That could be literally anyone.

If I added to that description “cool, composed, collected.” you could already narrow it down to Terra, Aqua or Riku. If instead I added “cunning, sly, nonchalant” you could think of Axel. 

But you can’t add anything else to Xion, she just has a bunch of generic character traits that anyone could relate to, including us the player. Who doesn’t care about their friends? Who doesn’t want to do the right thing? Everyone does! While some people could see themselves in Sora or others in Riku almost any KH fan can somewhat relate to Xion because she’s very standard in personality.

She has no flaws, and is never in the wrong.

Characters make mistakes man. Terra trusted Xehanort, Aqua blindly obeyed Eraqus’ orders, Ven left LoD to chase after Terra, Riku accepted the darkness, Naminé fucked with Sora’s memories, Roxas tried to fight against the Organization by himself with no plan. The list goes on. 

You ever notice Xion never does anything wrong? Whenever there’s conflict she’s always right. Roxas wants her to come back? Can’t, she has to go to Sora. Axel tries to bring her back? She fights back (even tho she loses she still tried to not lose). She has the chance to stay alive and ditch Sora? Nope, that wouldn’t be the right thing. Overall her moral values are always right, she just doesn’t make mistakes. And no, following the organization’s orders doesn’t count as a mistake because she was brain dead when she first joined and only started thinking for herself later on.

She’s a perfect character. A character that does no wrong, and y’know what? Perfect characters are fucking boring because they never cause conflict. You know what to do with perfect characters like her? You kill them so the main character goes through development. Mufasa and Tadashi ring a bell?

Her only character trait is the “tragedy” of her story, and it’s shoved down the player’s throat so she can earn our sympathy only for it to be meaningless later on.

When you think of Xion what is the first thing that you think of? Her death, and that’s because that’s the only thing she has. What else could she possibly have? Eating ice cream in a tower? Hiding from Roxas and Axel? Nah dude, the only striking thing she has that left an impact is her death. When you think of Roxas you could think of the KH2 intro, his fight with Riku, his fight with Axel.. Roxas has a lot of amazing moments, and so do the rest of the cast!

But not only is her death the only thing she has, but the game tries real hard to rub in our faces just how tragic and sad it is oh no :v

The reason why she has such a hard time deciding to go to Sora is because she’ll pretty much disappear from existence. We know this way before she makes her choice, and the whole thing is building up the more she thinks about it and you know it’s unavoidable. Naminé even explained to her, and I quote, “There won’t be any ‘you’ to remember.” So according to Naminé there literally won’t be any trace of Xion left. At all.

Okay so you can be like, well fine, her death is the only thing she has going for her, it was sad and all so I’ll take it. 

Except she’s not fucking dead.

Despite Naminé telling us that she’d disappear for good, that there was no fucking chance she’d ever be remembered, SOMEHOW she still shows up in Re:Coded and DDD because aylmao deal with it. If there really were not going to be ANY memories of her left then why the fuck is she still “remembered” deep in Sora’s heart? And wait a minute, then that makes her super tragic death pointless! She was brought back, what was the point of forcing me to feel bad about her?

Because yes, I felt pretty forced. Even her fucking theme is shoving it in our faces.

You have Aqua, who was trapped in the RoD for a goddamn decade, almost succumbed to the darkness, lost her two friends to a creepy old man that wanted to end the world, and had to fight the embodiment of all her fears. She gets: Aqua’s theme.

You have Naminé, who was isolated for an entire year and used to hurt the only person that showed her kindness ever since she was born. Her mistake was so big and tremendous she spent another year fixing that mistake with the help of a revenge-thirsty old man that treated her like shit. She gets: Naminé’s theme.

You have Kairi, who lost her home, has no memories of her early life, lost both her best friends after their first journey and was left behind by herself for a year with no idea of whether they were alive or not, and was later used as fucking bait to lure Sora into danger. She gets: Kairi’s theme.

And then you have Xion, who had to fight Axel and Roxas like once, and then died but not really because she came back. She gets: MUSIQUE POUR LA TRISTESSE DE XION.

jfc talk about subtle.

Her bad writing is so contagious she makes other characters around her act out of character.

You remember what happened to Riku after Chain of Memories? When he found Sora asleep, he was determined to do anything to help wake him up. Anything. And that included beating the shit out of Roxas with no room for debate, conversation or argument, relying on the power of darkness so much he changed his appearance into the guy that had tortured him for the last year, kidnapping Roxas and aiding Ansem in placing him inside a fucking computer so he could die.

When Riku spotted Roxas about to try and set Kingdom Hearts free Riku did not play around and did what he had to do. He didn’t tell Roxas to think it over, didn’t sit down with him and tried to come up with a better solution. Nah dude, he beat the shit out of him.

And yet, what happened when Riku encountered Xion? He knew Sora needed her too to wake up. But instead of being as merciless as he was with Roxas he gently cradles her in his arms, brushes her hair out of her face, and talks with her about what she wants to do. Uh, excuse you? Why on earth would you give her the choice of not going with Sora when you want him to wake up? What if she decided to not go? Would he have let her? Well either way, the same Riku that kidnapped Roxas would have kidnapped Xion too, especially since he found her unconscious and would have been pretty easy. But no.. this is Xion, she’s special, she needs to make her choice. Ugh.

Riku is not the only one affected by this. When Roxas found out Axel was hiding information about him he got fucking pissed. He lashed out at him, yelled at him, accused him of not being a good friend because friends shouldn’t keep that kind of secret from each other. Roxas was not having it, and he let Axel know.

But when Xion kept avoiding Roxas without saying why? No that’s okay! Roxas is just worried and he wants her to come back! It’s okay! 

Wtf dude? He had all the right to be angry at her too! She’s clearly hiding something from him, something that is a huge deal. Why is he not getting angry at her too? Why is Axel the only one that gets put in his place? I’ll tell you why, because this is Xion and she’s special, and she has the right to make her own shady choices that affect her friends.

She serves no purpose to the story.

And so we find ourselves here. Have you thought about it for a second? How exactly did Xion affect the story? Because obviously she did, didn’t she? After all, her death had a huge impact. What was that impact? In her final moments just as she’s vanishing, Xion asks Roxas to set Kingdom Hearts free, and thus that’s why Roxas left the organization. If it hadn’t been for Xion, Roxas would never had been pushed to do so.

Except that’s not true.

Prior to Xion’s death, Roxas was already getting distraught, impatient and angry because of all the questions he had about himself. Why is he so special? Why can he wield the keyblade? What does the organization want with the keyblade? Who is Sora and why is he so important? 

Axel was not giving him answers, and he was definitely not going to get any from the organization either. Even without Xion’s death, Roxas would have eventually reached a limit and tried to search for answers himself, thus betraying and leaving the organization. Xion’s death only made it happen sooner than later.

So then, what did Xion do?

Let’s try to figure it out. If you were to remove Xion completely from the story, from the franchise, would anything change?

If for example we removed Terra Xehanort would never have found a young body to posses, Terranort would never have become Ansem’s student and the emblem heartless wouldn’t have been born.

If Kairi was removed Sora and Riku would never have been motivated to leave Destiny Islands, after arriving to Traverse Town Sora would have gone to search Riku directly instead and would have joined him when he found him during his second visit to Traverse Town thus avoiding the conflict of Riku thinking he got replaced by Donald and Goofy. Sora would never have sacrificed himself to save Kairi, and Roxas and Naminé would never have been born and it only snow balls from there…

If Axel was removed Naminé would never have escaped from Marluxia and Larxene in Castle Oblivion and wouldn’t have been able to help Sora. The organization’s plans wouldn’t have been foiled, and Sora wouldn’t have been able to make it to the World that Never Was by himself to save Kairi.

So now that we have a few examples, let’s think it over again. What would change if Xion was completely wiped from the story?

Nothing. Maybe Roxas and Axel would have remained as a duo instead of a trio of friends, but that makes no difference since KH2 was originally written with that in mind anyways. And maybe Xehanort would be one darkness short in KH3, but if he really wanted to he could pick Demyx, Vexen or bring another version of himself from the past.

When you have a character in your story that contributes with nothing you have a huge problem there. You either change that character’s influence, or you remove the character entirely. You can’t leave things as they are.

So there you have it. Unless Xion is given a crucial role later in the franchise (which I seriously hope she doesn’t), my opinion on her won’t change. She was pointless, served no purpose, and is overall a bad character in my eyes. 

I want to clarify though that it’s not her fault, she just had bad luck and was the character that got stuck with bad writing.

[laurasterisk]

Thoughts and feelings about the (KH2) Organization XIII

XIII: Roxas

He wants you and your beautiful sole~

Probably one of my favorite characters in the entire franchise.

First time I saw him pull out Oathkeeper and Oblivion during the fight with Axel, I thought it was an extremely badass moment.

Good bois get all the ice cream.

XII: Larxene

I really want to see more of her in UnionX

I feel like there’s something more to her than we know.

The name “Savage Nymph” is oddly accurate.

XI: Marluxia

I never played the gameboy version of Chain of Memories.

So whenever someone brought this character up, I’d be like “Oh hey, it’s that flower man.”

And I’d keep laughing at jokes about his power being flowers.

That is... Until I finally played RE:Chain of Memories.

His power wasn’t flowers

...It was that Final Fantasy ability DOOM

You know, the one that makes a counter appear on top of your head, and once it reaches 0, you instantly die?

Scary.

X: Luxord

He who gambles with fate.

(fate being destiny, and destiny being destati *cough cough* Luxord is totally Brain, not our avatar the player)

Nomura spoke about expanding Luxord’s story a bit, and I’m extremely curious on what he’s planning.

What’s in the card Nomura??

WHATS IN THE CARD?!?!?!?!

IX: Demyx

Is not the Master of Masters.

let me repeat that

DEMYX IS NOT THE MASTER OF MASTERS!!!!!

A few simple hand gestures is NOT ENOUGH PROOF to even consider that idea!

Remember when everyone thought that Xigbar was the Master of Masters just reborn??

If it DOES end up being confirmed, I’ll eat my words.

ALL OF IT!

I’LL SNAP YOUR SITAR IN HALF!!!

(That fight in Hollow Bastion CAN KISS MY AS-)

VIII: Axel

Holy crap, I loved him in Days.

Axel being a keyblade weilder was a surprise, I didn’t see it coming!

But what WAS surprising, was the lack of training Merlin gave to him.

I mean... Come on man! You had all that time, and you nearly got killed... AGAIN

Best Pyromaniac

VII: Saix

...nothing much really.

Probably the closest to “Heartless” than the rest of the Organization Members.

VI: Zexion

Baby emo boi, now turned baby emo boi who wants to make things right.

Messing with Riku in CoM was a little messed up.

The fight in Reverse/Rebirth was a tough one, nearly gave up a couple of times.

V: Lexaeus

The extremely silent hero.

He died in R/R RE: CoM too soon.

I still don’t know much about him.

IV: Vexen

I really wished that Vexen would remain the Evil Scientist of the group, but ok.

Come to think of it, almost all Members did things that were greatly messed up.

I guess that’s what you get for having 13 Nobodies in a group.

One has morality, they all didn’t (cept Roxas, and Xion).

What else can I say except... He got fired.

III: Xaldin

He who breaks wind.

Hair is pretty cool.

II: Xigbar

OK, I AM STILL NOT OK.

I kinda knew something was up during the last fight, but I didn’t think to consider it!

GOD DANG IT NOMURA

I: Xemnas

Did anyone else look up his VA and were just as shocked as I was?

If not, go ahead and look, I’ll wait.

...

...

...

Yeah. Shocking. I know.

This character was greatly animated.

I frigging loved the final fight in KH2, it was. the absolute best. <3

XIV: Xion

A sweetheart, an angel. I’m so glad she got a happy ending.

I just wish it wasn’t at the expense of Sora.

Cutie.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Shrinking Violet

Summary: The first SoKai story I wrote after beating Kingdom Hearts III, where Sora doesn't fade away and everything is happy. And Sora and Kairi are officially together... but still super innocent and not thinking about anything sexual at all and are fine just holding hands and stuff, and figuring out how to balance this new relationship with everything else in their lives now.

Kairi's PoV

Sora squeezed Kairi's hand tighter—as the two of them sat on the paopu tree, and breathed a long sigh of relief after the awful adventure they'd just been on.

Kairi hated that she'd once again been used to hurt Sora... That that man from her nightmares—because of the experiments he'd performed on her when she was a child, before throwing her into space—had killed her twice, and then Sora had nearly died trying to save her.

It made Kairi sick to her stomach, that she'd told Sora he was safe with her—and he had been once (him, and the others through their connection), as she'd kept his existence from fading away completely—and yet it had all still ended up this way.

She knew Sora didn't care in the slightest, or her friends… that they were just happy to have her back, to have them both back, and that's what Kairi tried to focus on now.

Right now, Kairi saw Roxas and Xion debating with Lea and Isa on whether or not sea salt ice cream that fell into the sand was still good... She noticed Pence inspecting Donald's perfect mud castle, that the duck had just erected, as he tried to decide if the mud on Destiny Islands with a Wonder in and of itself. And she caught Riku watching Naminé drawing a hat into her sketchbook, and trying to magically get it appear to protect her hair from the wind.

Kairi smiled at all these displays—and even more that were still going on—and was about to ask Sora if he wanted to go down there where they were at, and swim in the water.

Usually, Kairi avoided the water. But she thought there was enough reason to celebrate today, that she wouldn't really mind getting salt water in her eyes.

But before she could even dream of uttering the words, Sora completely caught the redhead off-guard: "I love you, Kairi."

And she was so much in shock by this confession, that she almost fell backwards onto the island behind her.

And the part of the princess' brain that wasn't reeling, wondered if this was how Sora had felt when she'd sprung the paopu thing on him so suddenly.

"…Sora, I love you, too. Of course I do." But Kairi's words were a lot more calculated than Sora's had been, and she was ashamed for it.

For Kairi knew that she and Sora were in love... but he had a tone to his words, that almost seemed to hint of marriage. And Kairi wasn't quite sure they were ready for even a promise ring yet. They were still only fifteen.

But Sora had changed… and become a bit more desperate with his feelings for her after she'd died that second time—and even a bit before that—Kairi could tell.

And if Kairi was being honest with herself... So had her own feelings become much more desperate, when she hadn't been able to sense him after the Demon Tide and had hoped against hope that her greatest of loves was alright.

Just imagining again, what it had been like without Sora in that moment—and without Riku, Lea, Donald, Goofy, Aqua, and everyone else... but Sora in particular—was nearly enough to make Kairi blackout.

So overcome with her own need now, Kairi reached her hand out and held Sora's face in between her palms.

And then—much more slowly and gently than she'd moved to get here—Kairi placed her lips to Sora's, and let her mouth dance with his as if it was their last night on Earth.

It wasn't a perfect kiss—it wouldn't be, as no one's first one was—as Kairi bumped Sora's nose a few times; and Sora moved away from her whenever he though Kairi's face against the stubble on his chin: clearly thinking it was hurting her—but it was theirs, and that's what made it superb.

And the two lovebirds broke apart only, when they heard everyone giving them a round of applause and whistling.

Kairi and Sora blushed beet red, as they remembered everyone around them and finally started acting proper again.

…Though Kairi was a bit irritated about the interruption, and she could tell Sora felt the same way.

"Shall we go read our friends the Riot Act?" Kairi questioned, grabbing onto Sora's hand as she began leading him down the bridge.

"Please do," Sora agreed, with a slight smirk on his face. But much like her own words, Kairi could tell what her boyfriend said held no real weight.

And instead, Sora began watching in amazement—just when Kairi did—Aqua toasting chestnuts over an open fire.

"You guys want any?" the mage asked, when she noticed the items had caught the couple's eyes. "Terra and Ven have missed my cooking, as it turns out. I'd much rather do some baking, to be honest... but Terra really only likes nuts. So what's a girl to do?"

Truth be told, Kairi was a bit hungry... but she knew if she said yes, Sora—who clearly also wanted some—would let her have the only silverware here to eat, as he went home to get more utensils for himself and everyone else. And not wanting to be away from Sora for even a second, Kairi declined.

"Thank you so much, Aqua... But I'm actually really tired. And I think I'm going to go home and go to bed."

For at least that way, if she had to be separated from Sora… she'd still be with him in her dreams.

But surprisingly, Sora had an even better idea:

"And I'm gonna go with her, Aqua. Riku and I always had sleepovers with Kairi when we were little, so I doubt Kairi's mom Mihoshi will mind if we do the same thing now. But you guys have fun camping out! And I'll see you tomorrow... Oh, Riku. Do you wanna come?"

Sora asked the last, when Kairi and he caught up to him and Mickey trying to figure out if he could do Starkeeper type flips via a water ski.

Riku smiled—clearly glad that they wanted him around more than they wanted alone time, Kairi could see, but she also immediately knew he was going to refuse.

And he did.

"Nah. Xion wants to talk to me about something: Probably about me bequeathing her her own Keyblade, since even now she wants to make sure her identity is her own."

And as those words washed over her, Kairi pondered if Xion had gotten that from her:

Because so often she wanted to stand on her own two feet... but she always came back to thinking she was the shadow of Sora and Riku. And that was why she'd been afraid to even try and escape the Castle That Never Was, until Naminé had told her to believe in herself.

And maybe, in some ways, Riku still needed to believe in himself, too. Which was why Kairi sought to reach to the heart of the issue, as she let her heart do the talking. "If you change your mind, Riku, please do come. You know where to find us." And she made sure to take Riku's hand in hers—the way that she had when she'd helped Sora to see through his disguise-so he understood that no matter what, it was the three of them against the world.

Soon after that—when Sora and Kairi had gotten more than enough hugs from Riku, Donald, Goofy, Roxas, Xion, and Naminé—they were piling into Sora's boat, and rowing back to the Main Island together.

As as they did, Kairi eventually found herself thinking about the upcoming situation. "I'm sure Dad will let you borrow some pajamas, Sora. It's the least he can do after you saved the multiverse again, I mean."

Sora looked like he was about to say something to this… but maybe in not having the right words, he didn't speak what he'd clearly meant to.

"…I can just stop at the moogle shop and get something to sleep in there, Kai."

But Kairi was already cutting Sora off—as she stopped paddling, for they'd reached their destination—when she began climbing onto the dock just above her. "Sora, that's silly. And a colossal waste of money. If you don't want to wear my dad's, who's closer to your size, than wear my brother Ryke's…"

Sora must have thought that was a better idea—because when they were in Kairi's home and she was clothed in her own nightgown, Sora came into her kitchen dressed from head to toe and yelled "Tada!"

"Sora, you sound like Ven," Kairi giggled, grabbing the belt around his waist and pulling him to where she'd got cereal out for them. "And via the sleep mask, you have your eyes covered up like Riku did a year ago. Really?!"

And seeming somewhat abashed by that—Sora took the eye covers off without much wait, whilst he stammered: "B-b-by the way, Kairi. You saved the world, too, and you should know that."

So this was what he'd wanted to mention earlier. And it sort of figured, that Kairi's lazy bum would get up the courage to say it only when he was lacking it elsewhere: in wearing the sleep mask, like he truly wanted to. But Kairi wouldn't have had it any other way.

"Th-thank you," Kairi replied—feeling gooseflesh begin to develop on her skin, since she was humiliated in thinking she hadn't done too well in the Keyblade War at all… but appreciating Sora's heart all the same.

She ended up looking at the purple walls of the room they were in—with its orange polka-a-dots for some kind of comfort—but it only served to make Kairi even more embarrassed, since her family clearly sucked at interior design.

"Umm, but about the cereal, Sora. Forgive it for being popcorn-esque—which is weird in milk, I know—but I'm figuring my mom doesn't have any real popcorn, and is planning to soon use this to string on the Christmas tre-"

"Kairi... We- we kissed… Are we going to talk about it, and what it means for us?"

And to say that Kairi wanted to drown herself in the milk in her bowl here would have been an understatement.

Sheesh. Since when had Sora become so confident about this stuff, and she so shy?

But Kairi answered, anyway—even though she found herself becoming the Shrinking Violet she'd been when Sora said she made him strong in the light—because above all else… she wanted to talk to him about this.

"What do you think, Sora? We're going to manage to still spend time with Riku... and figure out who our new friends are, like we both want. But moreover... we'll see what it means to be soulmates at such a young age. I mean… after everything we've gone through to be together now, how could we not?"

And at first, Kairi didn't think Sora was going to react at all.

But then he went into Kairi's kitchen cabinet—pulled out two wine glasses, and then some sparkling grape juice from the fridge—and assured her: "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"...Me neither, Sora. I love you."

And Kairi clinked her glass against Sora's, and leaned her head against his until the moment they both slumped down on the floor and fell asleep.

The cereal, much like their desire for Aqua's chestnuts, completely forgotten.

And yet even without either amazing food, life was good.

[nadziejastar]

Do not get offended, but I think you're pretty obsessed with the relationship between Axe/Lea and Saïx/Isa. I do not deny that their friendship has been fundamental and essential in many aspects regarding the development of their characters, decisions and stories. But sometimes I think that you always try to go further, gilding the lily, only looking for details to justify a relationship beyond friendship, giving your theories as real, when it's clear that this is not the case.

Eh. I feel no reason to be offended because I know that what you’re saying about me is simply not true. I mean, I am obsessed. But…I have an obsessive personality. For better or worse, it’s how I have always been with anything that interests me. But I’m not obsessed in the way you are characterizing. It sounds like you’re saying I have shipping goggles on and I am deluding myself into seeing “signs” that don’t exist just because I’m so obsessed with this fictional pairing.

But that’s not the case. I’m so “obsessed” because I think there was a really great idea behind this ship, and it would have made a great story if it was allowed to run its course. But it was so underrated compared to Roxas/Xion/Axel that it got treated extremely badly in canon.

Axel: Well, I think you can be inseparable even if you’re apart.

Roxas: Really?

Axel: Sure, if you feel really close to each other. If you’re best friends.

Roxas: What’s it like having a best friend, Axel?

Axel: Couldn’t tell ya. I don’t have one.

Let’s not forget that this isn’t the first time Square-Enix has used a combination of sunset and waning crescent moon imagery for their characters. Final Fantasy X did this, too. Nomura is quite fond of that game. He knows damn well what those symbols mean.

Yuna: I want my journey to be full of laughter.

Tidus: Okay.

Yuna: If we should get separated, just whistle. I’ll come running. I promise.

The Okinawan word tida means “sun”. Yuna means “moon”. Most people probably know their story. They are Twin Flame lovers. Complementary opposites. Light and Dark. Yin and Yang. Inseparable.

Yuna: Pretty…

Tidus: Sure is.

Yuna: I wish I could live in a place like this. Peaceful… Living with a smile on my face every day.

Tidus: You can, once you beat Sin, right?

Yuna: But then a new Sin will be born anyway.

Tidus: Well then, you can just beat it again.

Yuna: I wish I could.

There are two particularly important scenes. One is the sunset on the Highroad where Yuna was recording a sphere saying her goodbyes to everyone.

Yuna: “So… So this is what it feels like. It’s a much more wonderful feeling than anything I had ever imagined. Wonderful…but it hurts, sometimes. I wonder. I…I just want to say, thank you for everything. Maybe…maybe that’s why it hurts. When I… When I think about us never being together again at all…”

She accepts that they cannot be together, even though she loves him.

Tidus: “Let’s go to the sea, before the sunrise. The city lights go out one by one. The stars fade…Then the horizon glows, almost like it’s on fire. It’s kinda rose-colored, right? First in the sea, then it spreads to the sky, then to the whole city. It gets brighter and brighter, till everything glows. It’s really…pretty. I know you’d like it.”

Yuna: “I’d like to see it, someday.” Tidus: “Well you can, Yuna. We can both go! Yu..?”

Yuna: “I can’t. I just can’t! I can’t go!”

And the other is the lake where they share their kiss under the moonlight. Tidus tells her that the sunset in Zanarkand is so beautiful and he wants her to go.

Yuna: “Stay with me until the end. Please.” Tidus: “Not until the end…Always.”

Yuna: “Always, then.”

She can’t, but they promise to always be together.

Yuna: “Everyone…everyone has lost something precious. Everyone here has lost homes, dreams, and friends. Everybody… Now, Sin is finally dead. Now, Spira is ours again. Working together… Now we can make new homes for ourselves, and new dreams. Although I know the journey will be hard, we have lots of time. Together, we will rebuild Spira. The road is ahead of us, so let’s start out today. Just, one more thing…The people and the friends that we have lost, or the dreams that have faded…Never forget them.”

Yuna was planning on sacrificing herself to bring peace to Spira. She kept it a secret from Tidus so he would not be sad. His cheerfulness made her journey happy. She lives, but Tidus fades away in the end. He kept the fact that he was a dream a secret so Yuna would not hesitate defeating Sin. She never wanted to forget him.

Axel: “As long as we remember each other, we’ll never be apart. Got it memorized?”

She was always very guarded about sharing those memories with anyone else. Axel always gave off the exact same sense of secretive sentimentality that Yuna did when it came to his memories. He had the sense of a person who was heartbroken over a lost love. The day Axel said his memories of the past were what he valued most, it’s titled “Too Precious to Lose” in Roxas’ Diary. Yuna would whistle into the air sometimes. Tidus taught her how. It was like Axel eating ice cream all the time. It just helped him feel connected to his memories.

Lea: “I want everybody I meet to remember me. Inside people’s memories, I can live forever.”

Isa: “I know I won’t forget you. Believe me, I try all the time.”

Lea: “See, I’m immortal!”

Sunset and waning crescent moon are used as symbols of death, tragedy and parting in both games. The final stage of a cycle. The ending. I would argue lost love as well. Isa basically died and Axel is left with nothing but the memories of him as he looks into the sunset. The Moon Rabbit is a symbol of self-sacrifice, just like Yuna. Moon characters in general tend to be very empathetic and willing to sacrifice themself. Tidus couldn’t accept Yuna sacrificing herself. Same as Axel. Sun characters are bright and cheerful and inspire hope and optimism.

The letter χ can be pronounced both “key” and “kye” (leading to some confusion) and symbolizes the perfect crossing of light and darkness. The χ-blade can be forged via a high-dimensional clash between those two poles. It is believed that the Recusant’s Sigil also derives from χ. —KH3D Glossary

Gilding the lily is basically trying to improve what is already perfect. Basically you think I’m imagining signs of a romance when it’s a perfectly good friendship, right? I’m just seeing what I want to see. I guess that’s one big disagreement I have with you right there. I don’t think their relationship, even platonically, was handled well. At all. Isa and Lea’s platonic friendship turned out to be pretty pointless in canon, if you ask me. Didn’t amount to much of any substance or value. That’s not what I wanted to see.

Xehanort: Behold… These lifeless keys used to be full of power–united with the hearts of their masters. On this barren soil, Keyblades of light and darkness were locked in combat…as a great Keyblade War raged. Countless Keyblade wielders gave up their lives, all in search of one, ultimate key. And it will soon belong to me…

TAV’s main theme was their unbreakable connection. No matter what, they always found their way back to each other. That’s the power of the heart. What was Lea/Isa’s main theme in canon? Anything involving the Recusant’s Sigil? Nope. Anything involving the power of the heart? Y’know, what Kingdom Hearts is all about? Nope. Just sequel-baiting. I guess Isa was also a plot device for fan pandering, too. I don’t view anything in the story with a shipping bias. I think Lea/Isa was written like total shit in canon. Doesn’t matter how much I like the ship. I’m not going to lie to myself and say it was well-written. I know how to separate my wishes from my observations.

Terra: Yep, hard to believe there are so many worlds out there besides our own. The light is their hearts, and it’s shining down on us like a million lanterns.

And I am just observing what is there. I think that everything you said sounds more true of all the Axel/Roxas arguments I’ve seen than Lea/Isa ones. People seeing things beyond a platonic friendship when there is absolutely no textual basis in the story to support that interpretation. It all comes down to artistic intent. You analyze the story the same way you would during English class. Critical reading. Why are events being presented in such a manner? What message is the author conveying?

Xemnas: There hangs the heart of all hearts–Kingdom Hearts–shining down on us at last. See the countless hearts that have gathered? Hearts full of rage…hate…sadness…and bliss. There, in the sky, hangs the promise of a new world.

There is a TON of evidence supporting the existence of artistic intent for a very specific idea. Xehanort is trying to forge the X-blade by initiating a clash of opposite polarities. An idea inspired by Freemasonry, hence the black and white checkerboard theme associated with him. Scala ad Caelum is Latin for “Stairway to Heaven”, a big idea in Masonry. And Masonry uses the two luminaries, the Sun and Moon, to represent Light and Darkness. The letter “X” is all about opposite polarities, as well as death and endings. Saïx sports a big fat “X” on his face as his defining characteristic (which is never explained). Lea and Isa are described as complementary opposites in the novel.

Naminé: We don’t disappear… We’re only reborn.

Axel: I’m not like you and Roxas. It’s because I don’t have a heart. I don’t want to disappear, but I’m not upset or sad about it.

There are seven Guardians of Light. There are seven colors of the rainbow. Light is made up of seven different colors. Lea’s Keyblade is based on the Phoenix, a solar bird. It represents the red Rubedo stage of alchemy. It’s called the “Flame Liberator”. In alchemy, the Phoenix symbolizes “the freeing of the spirit from the bounds of the physical”. It’s about spiritual enlightenment and eternal life. They made a point in Days of showing that cutscene about the red sunset right from the get go. It was important.

Axel: Hey, Roxas. Bet you don’t know why the sun sets red. You see, light is made up of lots of colors. And out of all those colors, red is the one that travels the farthest.

The Sun sets red because red light travels the farthest. In Luxord’s tarot deck, “The Sun” is Hazard Gear.The Sun card represents a feeling of optimism and fulfillment, and the dawn which follows the darkest of nights. Saïx’s weapon in this category is called “Light Year”, and is shaped like a Reiki angel. Reiki is a method of energy healing using one’s aura—their inner light. The weapon has a pale yellow aura. The color of renewed hope and emerging spiritual awareness. Axel’s weapon in this category is a red weapon called “Omega Trinity”, and it is shaped like a transmutation circle. The name is referring to the Tria Prima of alchemy. Sulfur (Sol), Mercury (Luna), and Salt (the Philosopher’s Stone).

“The Moon” is Dual Gear. Dual means involving two parts. The Moon represents your fears and illusions. Axel’s weapon in this gear is “Dive Bomb”, as in Dive into the Heart. And Saïx’s is “Luminary”. It’s also shaped like Reiki, and is gold. The ultimate aura color of enlightenment. Both “The Sun” and “The Moon” are shaped like the 4 of Pentacles. This card indicates that you are trying very hard to cling onto people or possessions out of fear of losing them. “The Sun” is pink, which is associated with love and forgiveness in Tarot.

Saïx: Pitiful Heartless, mindlessly collecting hearts. The rage of the Keyblade releases those hearts. They gather in darkness, masterless and free…until they weave together to make Kingdom Hearts. And when that time comes, we can truly, finally exist.

Isa is a Moon character, and pretty much all of his weapons are feminine terms. He has a weapon called “Queen of the Night”. In Japan it is known as “Gekka Bijin”, meaning “Beauty under the Moon”. This white flower only blooms one night a year, usually under a full moon. This weapon is listed under Glory Gear. In Luxord’s deck, this is “Strength”. This card is about inner strength and the human spirit’s ability to overcome any obstacle. It represents the ability to ‘tame’ your animal instincts, gut reactions, and raw emotions, and channel them accordingly. The symbol on the card it the Two of Cups. It represents a partnership that is built on the union of forces, a strong connection and a balanced and equal partnership. Each party’s emotions are intertwined with the other’s, and each participant’s feelings have profound effects on the other. It symbolizes the joy of two becoming one.

“See anything interesting out there, Poppet?” Xigbar patted her on the shoulder.

Meanwhile, Axel plopped down on the sofa and pretended he wasn’t listening in. Xion turned to look up at Xigbar. “Just Kingdom Hearts.”

“Is it all that interesting?”

“It’s kind of pretty.”

Xigbar let out a low chuckle. Axel didn’t see what Xigbar found so entertaining about that reply. But then he could never quite follow what he was thinking.

Xion looked rather confused herself. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing—you’re just making so much progress.” Xigbar kept laughing, as if there was an uproariously good joke in it somewhere.

He has another weapon with the same shape called “King of the Night”. In alchemy, the Sun is the Red King, the Moon is the White Queen. This is Raging Gear. In Luxord’s deck, this is “The Devil”. The Devil card represents your shadow side and the negative forces that constrain you and hold you back. The Devil card appears in a reading when you have been tricked into thinking you have no control over your shadow self or these negative forces, and that you can never break free from their hold. It is shaped like the 10 of Pentacles, which is an omen for success, no matter what your current lot in life is. Axel’s weapon is the yellow stage of the Phoenix wings. Citrinitas represents “the transmutation of silver into gold,” “the yellowing of the lunar consciousness”,  and “the dawning of the solar consciousness inherent in one’s being”.

In alchemy, the Red King and White Queen are associated with the Emperor and Empress arcanas. The Empress represents the feminine principle and is Valiant Gear. Axel’s weapon is purple and called Double Edge. It is shaped like the Third Eye chakra, which is on the forehead, and controls the ability to “see” things with the mind’s eye. It’s where Saïx’s “X” scar is located. Saïx’s weapon is “Moonset”, which is when the sun rises and the moon disappears in the sky. It’s pink and shaped like the symbol of Vesta, a goddess of chastity known as the “Keeper of the Sacred Flame”.

The Emperor represents the masculine principle and is Ultimate Gear. Axel’s weapon is called “Rapid Spinner” which refers to the chakras and is shaped like the Crown Chakra. The highest one that connects a person to higher consciousness. Saïx’s weapon is called Horoscope and is shaped like Venus/Sagittarius (a fire sign). It is pink, an aura associated with love, affection, compassion, healing, and a new or newly revived romantic relationship.

Star and Crescent—the symbol on Isa’s jacket in the epilogue—is a Sun and Moon symbol meaning a union of complementary opposites, and romantic love. Alchemy is all about a union of complementary opposites. The Sun and Moon’s marriage and sexual union is a symbol of the Philosopher’s Stone, along with the Phoenix, gold, and the color red. It’s all there in the story. I certainly didn’t put it there. The writers did. Some people might just say that Sun and Moon imagery is not necessarily romantic. 99% of the time it is, though. But if ALL that wasn’t enough, there’s the way Axel was paralleled with the Beast.

Beast: The last rose petal is about to fall… When it does, I’ll lose– No! I can’t bear it–I don’t even want to think about it!

Axel: I guess the closest thing we Nobodies have got is our past. You know, memories of the stuff we couldn’t bear to lose, back when we couldn’t bear to lose it.

The Beast’s rose is like Axel’s memories. The rose represents the Beast’s last hope to return to his past. And it also represents his desire to love and be loved by another in return.

Beast: Belle… I couldn’t bear to see you…or the other’s hurt. A master protects his castle… I don’t want to lose you.

Roxas: That still doesn’t explain what love is… Is love fighting to protect what’s most important to you? Where does its power come from?

Love is fighting to protect what’s most important to you.

Roxas: I found out about love on today’s mission–that it’s something powerful.

Axel: That’s true. It is. But I’ll never get to experience it.

Axel’s memories are what he considers most important to him. “Because that’s all we have to remember the pain of losing something.” The Beast is tired of strength. He wants to experience love, but thinks he never will. Axel doesn’t care about Xemnas’ promise of power. He wants to complete Kingdom Hearts to experience love, but thinks he never will. Wink wink, nudge nudge. I’m sorry, but you don’t just write things this way by accident. It’s all intentional.

Axel: Love is what happens if there’s something really special between two people.

Roxas: More special than friends? Like…if they’re best friends? Inseparable?

Axel: Well, you can care about your friends, I guess, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m not imagining any of it.

Roxas wouldn’t let it go. “Do you think we would, if we had hearts?”

“Once Kingdom Hearts is complete, I bet you’ll be able to figure it out.”

The magic words again, Axel thought. It’ll all make sense when Kingdom Hearts is complete. But was that true? No one had ever seen it happen before. So who knew?

Still, all they could do was believe in it. Pitiful Heartless, mindlessly collecting hearts…

It all supports the idea of Lea and Isa originally being viewed as a romantic pairing by the writers. I don’t get what you mean by me giving my theories as real. I’m not claiming to be a Square-Enix insider or anything. I post my opinions and I assume that the people reading are smart enough to decide for themselves whether they find them persuasive or not. I don’t have to force anyone to think anything. If the evidence is strong enough people will be able to see it themself.

[angelspigeon]

Sun of Corona - Chapter 05

Another chapter, woot woot!!!

You still can read it on AO3!!  > |  °| <

Words: 3074

Corona was a beautiful world.

As beautiful as Radiant Garden… or maybe more beautiful because the nature was calling you. You could run everywhere and never stop being amazed by the beauty of what the World could give to you.

Obviously, letting two children in such atmosphere promised you to see them running all over, trying to climb a mountain because they had seen flowers on a little sill above a tree, or coming on their kness to see what was in this hole. Just roots or animals? Xion, more than Roxas, was still obsessed with her collection of sea shells and it would only grow but maybe she could get interested with something else here. Honestly, the stones were just beautiful.

Isa had showed doubt, still having the rules deeply indocrinate within him… Wasn’t it bad to arrive late at Rapunzel’s Birthday? You could guess, if Lea was invited, she knew he was her cousin and so wantes to see him? But Lea said it was okay… they had time, Rapunzel expected people to have fun and the most important pat was for tonight? What Isa could do except believing him and walking next to him.

He must admit it was quite strange to see Lea like that. He kept an eye over Xion and Roxas like a father and he seemed a bit more… mature.

Isa wished he could talk with him and ask him a million of different things, know what he felt, taking care of teenagers as children and not as friends. And how did he managed to pursue while one year? Did he really cried because of him? What was his job? What was his routine? What was his dreams now? Was he sure he still loved him?

He watched him in silence as they walked, approaching a large area of calm water.

If only he could break the ice, he did nothing since he had put on those clothes he had already when he was seventeen years old. He felt just a little too tight in this designer jacket  and pant but it was okay. He just wished he could find the words and make everything become like before… but before… what?

What should he try to reach? The only thing he managed to do was to press Lea to come around the big town, hence the reason they ended not so far away from the Feast thought it was still the nature and the children could play. But the teenagers seemed to want big adventure, without any risks as before. Maybe, he should have try to just fit? Say nothing, smile and comply… He was good for that.

Suddenly, Xion yelled.

Lea, who was looking Isa’s face under the warm light, and Isa himself both turned their head toward Xion. Her pink dress was now wet, drop shining over the petals of the fake flower adorning the chest in a Heart shape and in the off-shoulders thin strap holding everything in place.

“You’re gonna pay for it!” she screamed, happily, at Roxas.

And the second after, water splat in every sense, the two children laughing as their face, hairs and clothes got sprayed.

“Uh… Their clothes…” Isa said. “Don’t you think they should stop?” he asked to Lea.

Which walked toward them. “Come on, Xion, Roxas!” He approached the water as they looked toward them. A huge amount of water bounced in the air and fell over the teenager in a harsh and dense rain. “That’s how you do!”

Isa pressed his hand over his face while, in an unique and quick glance, Roxas and Xion switched their target. Water flew and hit Lea’s, making him as wet as them, if not even more.

The three of them laughed, splashing sound accompanying them as strange but soft echoes.

“Isa!”

On the shore, the freshly reconstructed Human got a little jump, not expecting to be called like that.

“Come help me!”

“Help you?” Isa repeated, lost.

A wave splashed on Lea, making him spat water. On the teenagers. Who replied with even more water.

“They’re trying to murder me! Do something!” Lea said. “Aaaaaaah!!” he added tragically.

And fell in the water.

Isa slid down the zipper of his jacket, knowing how much it was expensive and habits died hard, and fold it, putting it on a rock not really dirty before coming toward them.

“Ya wanna take your revenge?” Roxas asked with a smirk.

“That was the plan,” he said, walking toward them.

Lea raised up in the water, just in case. He loved Isa and wanted to believe he wouldn’t hurt those he loved, even if he had ressent against them. But who knows. He didn’t want the children to lose the little confidence he managed to gave them as the days passed. Three Hundred fifty and eight days exactly, in fact…

But suddenly, water splashed him and he hiccuped it.

Just there, in front of him, he had his two kiddos and the love of his life teaming up to splash him.

“Oh! Oh! I see!! I SEE!!! It’s going to be war then!!” he warned.

And has he said this, he sprayed water on them, forcing them to reply to it. They were three against one but he wasn’t the kind to let the situation split out his hands. He dodged a spray of water and counterattacked.

Only a few minutes was necessary for all of their clothes being completely and totally wet. Not talking about Lea’s hair being more straight than he would never be or Isa’s one. Especially because while the reconstruction of his body, they seemed to have take even more length.

In fact, Lea was able to know when he was launching himself in a lost battle.

This was a really lost battle.

But he could switch the tendency.

He jumped on them and hrabbed them to make them fell in the water, the biggest of the splash casting a soft rain over them.

As they were all in the water, Roxas jumped on his feet and pushed Lea over Isa. When the man fell on his lover, he let out a little laugh, blushing as Isa was trying to smile to him. He moved his hands, caressing his cheeks but Lea was the one who kissed him tenderly, not taking care about the water soaking them all.

Having this blessing feeling while they were kissing, having their Heart beating the same harmony, it was what they craved for since so long…

They lips couldn’t do anything than finding each other, finding their skin though there was a salty taste. Lea loved eating sweet-salt treats but there wa snothing better than the feeling to kiss this skin sparkled with sea water. And so, he didn’t miss the occasion to kiss the X-scar as if he could made him disappear. Isa looked him, caressing softly his nape, his fingers being  catch by the red locks. But he didn’t care, landing a kiss on his skin, his throat, as soon as he had the occasion.

“I’ve a bit of munnies left, do you want me to reserve you an inn?!”

Isa blushed when he heard Roxas’ voice and he pushed back Lea, clearing his throat. Lea got up and grabbed his hands to help him got up so they could go to the shore. Xion throw a shy smile to them. Especially to Isa.

“Let’s dry those clothes!” Lea said. “I saw a field up there, could be nice to be there while the clothes dry?” he offered.

“Yeah!! Xion! The last up there pay ice cream for everybody!” Roxas shouted before running.

Or did he started to run before the end of his sentence because…

“You’re cheating!” Xion yelled as she ran after him, water sprinkling around.

Isa looked at them, wringing his hairs, then to Lea. Steam was moving from him and Isa could easilu guess he was raising his own heat to dry faster.

“You’re doing good with them.”

“Ah? Thank you! I didn’t have the choice. It was like… adapt or they’ll die so, oops, I adapted.”

Isa smiled very slightly.

“They look happy.”

“I think they are,” he said before ajusting Isa’s hairpin in his still wet mane. Though, he hugged him to disperse more steam in the air. “I hope you’ll be happy soon too.”

Isa pressed his hand on his, brushing his finger. “I’m happy with you.”

Lea smiled and pressed a kiss on his lips.

“I’m happy with you too. Thank you for coming back!”

Isa kissed the inside of Lea’s palm with a tender smile. Lea passed his other arm around him and he lead him with the others. He needed to be sure everything was okay with them. Honestly, he believed if something had to happen, the one wanting to annoy them would be the one in trouble but… he had to be sure his babies would be okay.

He walked up with Isa and if the hill was really steep, it wasn’t that difficult, especially with such company. And, suddenly, it was easier to talk. Not necesseraly to important things but just talking… discovering what Lea did with the children, talking about what future can hold for them… talking as they did for years because being with the other and never running off subject of discussion was a soft part of the love…

When they arrived, Xion and Roxas were already playing, running after each other, trying to catch the other and if it was absolutely adorable to see, this beautiful scenery was helped by the landscape. It was as if a rainbow had rained its colors on this endless flower field. Wherever you looked, it was an eruption of pastels colors wore by flowers in every shape. The Sun was beaming in the petals sparkled by the droplets of water coming from the children and a million of rainbows were appearing for them.

“You’re here!”

Xion dashed toward Lea and jumped at his waist, hugging him. He smiled and ruffled her hairs.

“You’re here too!” he said, bumping his finger on her nose. “I’ve something for you!”

“For me?”

Isa moved away from Lea, letting them room.

“Look!”

Lea slid his hand in his pocket and took out a bunch of shiny seashells.

“Ooooooooh!!!” Xion let out with a little squeak.

She looked them with stars in her eyes, loving the shape and the colors. She certainly could have pick them up by herself but they were even more precious now that it was coming from Lea.

“Thank you, daddy!!!!” she said, before hugging him.

Isa almost chocked out. While it was normal he didn’t expect that but… Lea seemed so happy. He could only smile.

“Roxas, look!”

Xion didn’t let go on Lea, just moving her hand to her brother so he could come see the shiny seashells.

“That’s so neat! They will look great for your collection.”

“They will!! I need the best place for them!”

“Sure you need it! But every of your seashells got the best place until now,” Lea laughed.

“True! It’s thank to you!” she smiled.

Lea tried to be a good  father, to be strict when it was needed but joyful and supportive most of the time, offering treat and saying ‘congratulation’ each time they come back with neat grades but he couldn’t prevent himself to pamper them with presents. He had the money for it and he didn’t want them to crave too much. So Roxas had skateboard and struggle’s staff and Xion had boxes and boxes for her seashells. She had tried to have a poney, though, and still hadn’t got the chance to make him yield. Even when her and Roxas found one abandonned poney. Strangely, that day, he almost accepted them to have a kitten if that could let them forget the poney they loved already so much.

Fortunately, Lea didn’t have to adopt a poney, though he agreed of the fact if he could travel on a horse, that would be awesome.

Eh, maybe he would ask his cousine if the children could play with Maximus? They were her kind of nephews after all! And they get along with her the day of the wedding.

That was one of those things he wanted to tell Isa. He would love to hear those stories. But if they were meant to pass the eternity together, and of course they will, he had time for it.

Glancing on the side, Roxas saw Isa looking the flowers, his fingers brushing the petals, and while Xion was talking to Lea, who helped her to dry a little faster, he approached him. A smile appeared in his lips when he saw the man pick up a red flower and roll the stem around his fingers.

Not any finger…

The one that didn’t have any ring since the day he died as a Nobody… The ghost feeling on the ring around his finger was awful because if he knew Lea loved him, it was as if he had broken the most important promise of his life.

“How many time do you plan to stay with us?” Roxas asked, landing next to him.

Isa turned his face toward him.

“As long as possible…”

Isa stopped himself from saying ‘if you agree’ because he was afraid Roxas push him back. He would be in his right, thought… This was possibly wrong of doing that but if he didn’t let the possibility to Roxas, he could stay with Lea? Lea accepted him and he was so glad for that but if he was pushed away from him…

“I see,” Roxas replied with a smile. “I know what you did for us, for Xion and I, I mean, and maybe even for Axel? I’m gonna say you something…”

“I know,” Isa cut short thought it was out of politess. “If I hurt Xion or Lea, I will regret it.”

“Obviously,” Roxas said back.

A sound echoed and both looked to the side and saw Lea, Xion on his back, who just took a picture with his Gummiphone.

“Oops! I didn’t want to disturb you! But you were so cute!”

“I think he heard absolutely nothing,” Roxas let out in a low voice.

Isa replied with a slight smile, because honestly that was what he preferred, and heard another sound.

“Are you done?” he asked.

“Noooo!!! It’s the perfect light and the perfect subject!”

With his phone he took a picture of him and Xion.

“With a s!!” he added. “This place is absolutely beautiful!!! Let me take a lot of pics please! I want to have y’all just with me as soon as I want it!” he said.

This soft statement looked quite bittersweet to Isa but he did his best to just smile so Lea could have a lot of pictures and keep his Heart warm.

“Wait! I can turn the pics even more awesome!” Xion said.

She jumped on the floor and let herself roll in the flowers before picking them up. As Lea was taking more and more pictures, and Isa swore it was the same again and again because he didn’t move, Xion started to do beautiful crown. A red for Isa, a blue for Lea and a pink for Roxas while she was going for something whiter for her.

While she was doing it, Lea had a lot of occasion to do awesome pictures. Either when Roxas asked Isa what kind of flowers was one or else or when Isa picked up the flowers Xion asked him. But his favorite one where just Isa. Every little things he could do what a blessing for his Gummiphone.

Xion just had put the red crown flower on Isa’s head, who was quite stiff when she did but let her do anyway, when he grabbed Lea’s wrist.

“Come,” he said. “I’ve an idea for a good photo for you,” he said. And he sealed those words with a kiss.

It would have been a beautiful photography, of course, but Lea was too busy enjoying the kiss to take it.

“Hmmm… we will have to kiss again if we want to succeed this pic’!” he smiled.

“I’m sure you did it on purpose,” Isa snickered.

“I swear I’m innocent!! Buuut I’m always up for more kisses!” he laughed.

Isa kissed him quickly, still a bit uneasy in public, even if it was his boyfriend… children.

“Give me that!” Roxas said.

He got up and grabbed the Gummiphone to take the pic himself. Isa was grateful but he didn’t say it, mostly because he received another tender kiss and just a few second, he allowed himself to enjoy it. Just a few second before pushing him back, though offering him a slight smile.

“So… uh… you wanted to know what was that?” he asked to Roxas, moving his finger toward a steem covered by tiny fluffy seed.

Roxas let out a laugh. “Yay, I totally know that’s a dandelion but if ya wanna breath you can also just hit him in the calf!” he snickered.

He picked up the dandelion to give it to Isa. Which mechanically thanked him.

The area was filled with so different flower you wouldn’t even expect next to each other. In fact, the dandelions all came from a little slope, just next to them and this one was a little one trying to reach this field so colored. When the dandelions were still yellow, it must be absolutely pretty to see them but… Isa blew on the little seed, making them fly in the so colored field.

A smile appeared in his lips.

“It’s beautiful…” he whispered in front of this freedom flying in the breeze.

“It is!” Xion said as she placed Roxas’ crown on his head.

Roxas who just nodded and accepted the present.

Lea jumped on his feet and summoned his Keyblade.

“Lea?”

The second after, he casted a spell and seeds flew around, spreading in the air in all directions like a floral constellation.

Xion let out a laugh and looked them all, blowing on the seed trying to fall on them, Roxas himself had to move so back but was clearly pleased too. And Isa was wearing the most beautiful smile Lea had seen on his face since way too long.

He would never thank enough the magic of the Keyblade. Wielding it was worth it.

Just for that.

[vincula-flammae]

 This by no means reflects the thoughts of others in the fandom, this is my own personal opinion based on thoughts, observations and head canons gleaned from information and evidence presented through the various games.

Axel. Had. No. Redemption Arc.

This it is a big part of his character and I will say, while I will explain why he does what he does or my opinion of it, I will not excuse it. I will not make light of it. I am not trying to sway you into forgiving him or to feel any sympathy for him. You are not obligated to.  Nor is your character required to forgive him.

Now without further ado:

Axel faded at the end of KH2 after he defended Sora in the Betwixt and Between, this seemed to be a turning point for him, a good deed that he faded for preforming, but lets rewind for a moment.

This is also the person who single handedly orchestrated the murder of an entire castle of people (Castle Oblivion crew in Re:Com), the same individual who was willing to lie to and ultimately murder the kid he considered his best friend (Roxas) you might say that this is one bad dude.

I'd agree. He is a terrible person. He is every bit of the Assassin of the Organization 13.  However I would also like to look at why he is like this, what made him into this terrible person because as we can see in BBS this was not the happy teen that hung out with his best friend in Radiant Garden, and liked to eat SeaSalt Ice Cream.

Something happened, something changed.

What changed is the loss of his heart at such a crucial age, but this was only the beginning, because as a Nobody, he didn't just turn into a murderer. Losing a heart does not equal such a drastic change in morality.  Though it makes it easier to dissuade moral values for things less desirable in a normal society.

Lea was turned into a killer. A living weapon to be used as the Organization, as Xemnas saw fit. This was done through training, through manipulation and conditioning. Both horrific and terrible. Things that likely happened in the course of the time between games. You don’t just become okay with killing because someone asks you to. And Lea did not show signs of being a sociopath.

He was pushed, punished and forced to forget the notion of right and wrong that he'd learned as a child, and in his teenage years, which are very crucial  the most relevant reason is a persons establishment of a sense of self. Even though psychological studies say we start to recognize who we are during infancy, we decide who we are when we are teenagers. We decide what we want to learn, where to go to college, what we like and don't like.

Teenage years are the time when a child's mind is maturing, and while Axel’s was maturing, he was learning killing was a necessity. 

The only person he'd bonded to was there with him trapped in that hell and being subjected to his own brand of manipulation and coercion.

Now, one might argue that Axel could have rebelled, could have said no, and while I could say yes I will also say, why would you when your first instinct in any situation is to come out alive. Even if you do not wish to live, your body will struggle to survive. Survival instinct is not something easily ignored. Children in abusive situations often find themselves trapped and feeling helpless with no way out. 

There was also the matter of Saix, he would not leave him there either. This was not a choice for them. This life, however it is a life they accepted. They were victims who were groomed to be terrible people.

Children who were clutching at the only remaining constant in their lives, each other. Its not easy to abandon something, especially something you are constantly used to having/seeing, in your life. 

I would also like to point out that at some point this does change for Axel when he begins to bond with Roxas and Xion, not a great deal but enough for him to begin to rebel. Not so much that he can just drop the things he's learned and the things he knows.

Which brings me back to Roxas, when it became obvious he could not get him to return to the Organization once the blond defected, he fell back on what he knew to deal with a problem.

To kill.

He was unsuccessful of course but he was still very willing to murder the kid.

Is this entirely Axel's fault, no. However, forgiveness for such things is not expected. Sometimes it cannot even be earned. Its always up to the victim in that case, others can form their own opinions and conclusions based on the presented facts. 

You might say upon re-completion and the fact that he now has a keyblade he's a good guy. Everything is all rainbows and kittens.

Wrong.

Keyblades do not = good guys.

Case in point, Xehanort has done some terrible terrible shit, he's the reason shit went down, he has a heart and he has a keyblade.

Light does not make you inherently good, darkness is not inherently evil.

And while Lea is a Guardian of Light, and has forgiveness from several characters, that still does NOT make what he did okay (its not forgotten nor null and void). He's still not a redeemed character. He died without ever saying he was sorry for what he did. Verbally the only person he has apologized to is Kairi.

Who forgave him. Of her own volition. 

He is still very capable of murder, of selfishness, and equally he is capable of doing good, when Terranort tried to go after Kairi, Lea shielded her physically with his keyblade and his body.

He struggles yes, with the things he did because of his heart knows that the things he did were wrong, but does that stop him from repeating those mistakes?

No.

If someone threatened those he has come to care for he is very capable of removing them permanently. He knows its wrong but he also knows that it will end the threat.

Leaving he himself, and the rest of his friends/ family unhamred.

Someone who is redeemed would no longer entertain thoughts like this. They would know there are other ways, better things to do to handle this.

Not Lea, he was made into a weapon, a predator, and he is still very much the same beast.

Should you forgive him?

Should you sympathize with him?

Should you understand why he is the way he is?

All questions that you have to decide for yourself.

Yes he is a monster, but this monster was made. He wasn't born.

That does not make him less of a terrible individual. He can still be the devil.

Now its at his own discretion rather than the direction of someone else.

So not he's not redeemed. He's done terrible things. I won't crucify him for it but at the same time I won't make excuses for him. He hasn’t apologized for any of it. Even with Sora. He offered an excuse for his actions. 

‘I wanted to see Roxas’ 

His reasoning was selfish and his actions thus far were not altruistic. 

Right is right and wrong is still wrong. Even if done with the best intentions in mind.

As they say: ‘The Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions.’

In the end, many in the fandom have disregarded Axel’s crimes, swept them under the rug or made excuses about them. What he did was still in no uncertain terms evil. He hasn’t apologized for it. He’s only show remorse in connection with those he has formed bonds with. Roxas, Xion, and Kairi to name a small few. He has done good, he’s helped save the collective of words and fought against the heartless, this does not outweigh nor erase the past, only that people have in some fashion chosen to forget. You will not find that on my blog. I will continue to explore this side of the character as it was an important tool in his development and not easily cast aside. Take that as you will, however, know to expect that my Axel/Lea will not be treated like he is Redeemed. The assassin is still there, lurking. Only this time. The wolf knows to wear his sheepskin suit. 

[rainbowserenity]

I finished KH3 🙃🙃🙃 I HAVE THOUGHTS

spoilers obviously, though I feel like I’m in the last person in the world who finished it so pffft

- SO LIKE..........THE FUCK.........XIGBAR IS LUXU??????? THE FUCK??????????????? I mean I guess that sorta explains why he seemed to know so much about Keyblades and stuff BUT WHAT THE ACTUAL FUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUCK???

- and then all the Masters just kinda appearing??? They really want everybody to play the shitty mobile game, don’t they.....cause if this was the ending of the ‘Xehanort saga’, I’m guessing that the next part is gonna be the ‘Masters saga’ or........something...

- kinda sad that they didn’t explain more about Marluxia and Larxene’s connection to everything, but eh...I gave up on the mobile game forever ago and basically only know the gist of things thanks to the magic of people summarizing it all

- WAIT IS DEMYX THE MASTER OF MASTERS............lol oh god watch this end up being true I hate everything

- even though I’m meh about Union X or whatever the heck they call it, the battle towards the end where all the Players help Sora....and then you see that one kid....I sobbed like a baby IDK WHY IT WAS JUST VERY EMOTIONAL FOR SOME REASON

- the ending sort of confused me in regards to Sora....when you see him and Kairi on the tree, I’m like, okay woo he rescued her, but then he sort of disappears and she cries...? what the fuck was that about??? I guess it’s not a KH ending if there isn’t something that confuses the fuck out of you, but still...

- whatever happened with Sora, I feel like there should’ve been some kind of sequence at the end with Kairi, maybe ~reaching towards the light~ or whatever. I was honestly really disappointed with her in this game. they gave her a Keyblade and she was supposed to be all badass, but nooope....it was just an excuse to get her to the final battle so she could be kidnapped. so lame

- ANYWAY Riku and Sora were ridiculously gay throughout the whole game and it was all glorious

- like seriously, when they rescued Aqua and that random Keyblade appeared when Sora showed up??? nobody ever mentioned it or anything...? just a Keyblade from Sora and Riku’s gayness, here to save the day. THAT’S THE KIND OF SHIT I’M HERE FOR!!!!!!!!!!

- also I did all the Battlegates (I was like level 80 by the end of the game because I wanted to make it last FOREVER so they were all pieces of cake), and in one of the Secret Reports, it says that the replicas needed some kind of “spark” to get their hearts going and make them people

- ...........Roxas appeared after Axel had lost his Keyblade and was all upset about Saix.......I’M JUST SAYING.................that’s not gay at all cough cough

- OH GOD AND AT THE END WHEN THEY’RE IN THEIR NORMAL CLOTHES???? AND ALONE ON THE CLOCK TOWER BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE SHOWS UP????????? EXCUSE ME WHILE I CRY LIKE IT’S 2007 WHAT THE HECK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- seeing Namine and Xion hang out together was way more awesome than I thought it would be. IDK THEY’RE BOTH CUTE

- my feelings towards Xion have always been a solid “meh,” but when Sora said her name - even though nobody was supposed to remember her - and she started sobbing, THAT WAS IT, HERE COME THE TEARS

- Axel and Roxas staring at each other before Xion starts sobbing? gaaaaaaay

- AND THEN AXEL GATHERING BOTH OF THEM IN HIS ARMS......

- THE PART WHERE ERAQUS SOMEHOW CAME FROM TERRA’S HEART AND THEN GATHERED THE WAYFINDER TRIO IN HIS ARMS???? WHAT THE FUCK WHY DIDN’T I BRING TISSUES WITH ME WHEN I PLAYED THE ENDING AUUUUUUUUGHHHH

- Chirithy finding Ventus would have lost all meaning for me had I not read the summaries hahaha don’t make me play your mobile game KH, jfc

- apparently some people missed this part, but in the Final World, you could talk to “Namine” and some other girl when you spoke to those transparent stars....I assumed that all the text stuff were from Players in Union X after that first Keyblade War....??? idk, but I’m also assuming that the other girl who spoke was the one that died (Laurium’s sister??? idk everybody on Twitter was flipping out about it awhile ago lol)

- THE SECRET ENDING............Nomura is awfully salty about XV, isn’t he lololol

- THE NEXT KH SAGA IS THE VERUM REX SAGA HAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA seriously what the fuck was happening there

- maybe I’m just slow, but WHAT WAS IN THE BOX???????????????? I’m assuming the full Book of Prophecies???? but like...???? THE FUCK???????? IS HAPPENING???????? I hate that so much is connected to Union X ughughugh they should release some kind of console/handheld version that condenses all the mobile nonsense into a 40-hour game that’s less nonsensical. I’m actually really curious about the story, but Union X’s gameplay suuuucks and I have no desire to go back to it

- I sorta wish there’d been at least one more Disney world that they hadn’t shown in the trailers, just for a ~surprise~....I’m definitely not disappointed with the worlds they did pick, though

- except maybe for Arendelle....one of my least favorite kind of places in video games are confusing mountainous paths where you can barely tell which way you’re going and....WELP....

- I do absolutely LOOOOOOOOOOVE that they put the entire Let It Go sequence in there. my jaw dropped when it happened and it was AWESOME

- The Caribbean and Kingdom of Corona were the best worlds, don’t @ me

- I WANNA SMOOSH SORA’S FACE IN <333333333 he was like....a thousand times more adorable in this game than in any of the others, what the heck???

- I loved that there were points where you played as Riku and Aqua, instead of it merely being a cutscene, and that they had powers relevant to them (like at the beginning, Riku had higher level magic cause he’s a Master?)...idk I thought that was a nice touch!

- while I completely understand why the Unversed were in the Monsters Inc world, Vanitas showing up and being all “VEN IS IN YOUR HEART” kinda lost the dramatic impact they were going for since Sora was a furry, pantsless monster. IDK MAYBE I’M DUMB BUT IT MADE ME LAUGH sorry Ven

- every single scene where the Wayfinder Trio reunited with each other or someone close to them made me cry like an idiot

- ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY SAVE AQUA AND THEY’RE ALL “WELCOME HOME”.................WOW WATERWORKS BRB OW MY HEART!!!!!!!!!!

- I loved that tiny little moment towards the end where Roxas and Ven see each other and are all “???????” lol it was cute

- I’m sorta disappointed there wasn’t a little more with Roxas, considering half the point of Twilight Town being in the game was for Hayner/Pence/Olette to find a way to get him back.....but seeing everybody eat ice cream on the clock tower was Very Good

- personally, I think the whole Final World part was beautifully done. the location, the music, seeing hundreds of Soras doing backflips and flailing around.......magical

- I’m going to need another compilation of people saying “Sora, Donald, Goofy” like immediately please thanks

- THE WHOLE SOUNDTRACK WAS A++++++++++

- even though finding some of the emblems was a pain, all those Hidden Mickeys and being able to use Disney rides in battle kinda made things feel more Disney-tastic, like I was at the parks ahahaaaa so great

- I feel like I had more thoughts but I’m finally coming down from all the sobbing so excuse me while I float into another plane of existence and maybe get the strength to write AkuRoku and/or Riku/Sora fic even though there’s probably like two people who follow me who would read it

- WHO WAS THAT RANDOM GIRL EVERYBODY WAS TALKING ABOUT???? I mean, given the reports, maybe that one girl who died in Union X didn’t actually die but time-traveled.....but if she was that other voice in the Final World.....ow my heard idk what’s happening anymore

TL;DR: GREAT GAME, MAYBE NOT WORTH A 12-YEAR WAIT BUT FABULOUS ALL THE SAME, WILL CRY OVER AND PLAY MANY TIMES IN THE FUTURE BUT ANNOYED AT ALL THE RANDOM CONFUSION AND CONNECTIONS TO UNION X; 8.5/10

[taliaxlatia]

Forget-Me-Not

@projectdestati Later than I expected, but here’s my contribution to the #XionLives challenge!  This is the only piece I’ll be doing, but this idea came to me, and Xion deserves it, so yeah.  And of course I had to go with “Unbreakable Chains” for the track I picked, because honestly, when was the last time I wrote something that didn’t revolve around Vanitas?

Summary:  Inside Sora’s heart, Vantias gets a new visitor - and for once, she’s actually awake.  (Probably not compliant with the KH3 trailers)

(Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2705612/chapters/32720790)

Vanitas cursed when Sora’s heart-pillar started shaking violently, as if someone was spamming a Quake command.  He stood up and brushed himself off despite the fact that there was never any dust in this place.

“What is it this time?”  He muttered, glancing over at Ventus, who - as always - was lying unconscious near the edge of the platform.  He was still half disappointed at that fact.  Stupid.  If Vanitas hadn’t been able to wake his other half by punching him, slapping him, or drawing on his face with a marker he managed to pull out of Sora’s memory, then the pillar shaking wasn’t going to make a difference.

“Is Namine screwing with us again?”  He glared up into the inky sky, where he could see chains in the distance if he squinted.  Sora’s memories.  It had been a nightmare when she’d first started tearing them apart - broken links raining down everywhere, leaving cracks in the stained glass of Sora’s heart pillar.  Leaving a lump on Vanitas’s head, too.  That particular memory had been of Sora, Riku, and Kairi eating ice cream though, so at least he’d been able to use it to summon a bowl of dessert for himself.

But there were no raining memories now - there hadn’t been in a long time.  Vanitas just saw them drift away from time to time, and more rarely, link back together.  He didn’t know why.  With Sora unconscious, it was difficult to get any idea of what was going on in the outside world.  He didn’t even know how long it had been, or how much longer it would last.  Thinking about it only made him want to stab things, which he couldn’t really do here.  Not without risking damage to Sora’s heart. And the last time he’d broken a heart he was trapped inside, it had nearly killed him.

He sighed heavily, plopping down at the edge of the still-trembling pillar and swinging his legs off the side.  Not very safe, but it wasn’t like he had much to lose.  He’d jumped off this pillar plenty of times before.  It hardly even hurt.  It wasn’t really worth it unless he got really bored, though; all that was down there were the dregs of Sora’s memories.  All the ones not important enough to be remembered.

Only… that wasn’t all that was down there, not now.  He could see something in the dim light filtering through the pillar’s windows - there was a person down there.  

An awake, moving person.

Without thinking, he jumped from the top of the pillar.  It felt best to dive head-first, but he did flip at the last second to land on his feet, scattering the broken chain links away.

The black-coated figure screamed.  That scream - too high pitched to be a guy.  Why was Sora’s heart always picking up girls?  At least this one was conscious, unlike Kairi had been.

The girl skipped back a few steps, nearly slipping on the clinking chains, and pulled her hood down farther over her face.  “You’re - who are you?  You look like Sora, but… different.”

Vanitas had been about to laugh in relief - another living person - but then it turned to a scowl.

“No, I’m not Sora.”  He had the urge to cover his own face too.  He hadn’t bothered to wear his mask here, considering there’d never been anyone to see him before.  “The name’s Vanitas.”

He stepped back into his fighting stance and summoned his keyblade.

“Vanitas?”  She frowned, not looking intimidated by his weapon.  Not that it would be easy to tell underneath her hood.  “I never heard of you in Sora’s memories.”

“Tch.  Of course you wouldn’t have, I never actually knew the guy.  Now, are you going to fight me or what?”

She tilted her head.  “Why?”

“Wh-why?”  His blade lowered.  “What do you mean, why?”  He met someone, he fought them.  That was just how it worked.  Was the first awake person he met in years really going to refuse a battle?

“Well, I…  I already died fighting once today.  So I guess I don’t feel like doing it again.”

She made as if to walk away, but Vanitas slid to block her.

“Wait, you can’t just leave.”

She shrugged.  “I don’t even know how I got here.  I should be gone completely.  And I just… I want to be alone right now, okay?”

It was only then that Vanitas realized she wasn’t shrugging.  Her shoulders were just shaking.  And there was something dripping out from beneath her hood…

“You’re crying,” he realized out loud.

“Replicas can’t cry,” she said quietly, tugging on her hood again.  “It was nice to meet you, Vanitas.”

He just watched in confused silence as she ran off into the distance.

                                                          XXX

“Hey,” Vanitas said when he finally found the girl again.  The memories under his feet had been acting up, floating off into the sky in huge chunks ever since she’d arrived.  That made it a bit more difficult than usual to navigate the wasteland around the heart-pillar, but he managed.

“Y-you again?”  The girl looked up.  Her face was still wet.  He should’ve waited longer; dealing with crying girls was the last thing he wanted to do.  But if he waited too long, he was afraid she’d disappear for good.

“What, you expecting someone else?”  She sat down beside her and stretched out his legs.  This spot was far enough out that there weren’t many memories around, so he had plenty of room.

“No…” she mumbled, fiddling with a memory link in her fingers.  She didn’t offer anything else.  Sheesh, was she going to make Vanitas do all the talking?  Maybe he should just attack her.  Then she would have to fight him.  But what if he accidentally killed her, and then she disappeared?

“So… uh… you got a keyblade?”  He asked awkwardly.  To his surprise, she stretched out a hand, and a silver and gold weapon appeared there.

“...I guess I still do,” she said, as if she were just as surprised.

“Looks just like Sora’s,” Vanitas noted.  “Bulky. Blunt.  Kinda stupid looking.”

The girl frowned.  “It looks just like Roxas’s, too.”

Vanitas didn’t particularly care who Roxas was, but he did want to keep the girl from running away again, so he asked, “Who’s Roxas?”

“My best friend.  Him and Axel both are.”  Her frown wavered for a moment, but stayed.  Vanitas wished she would take off her hood.  Was this how he made everyone feel when he had his mask on?

“Friends.”  He snorted.  “Doesn’t sound like they helped you out any more than Ventus’s helped him.”

“Why would you say that?”  She replied angrily.  He grinned.

“You want to fight me over it?”

She sighed and lowered her keyblade, letting it disappear in a flash of light.  “No.  Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

“I’m the only other person awake here in Sora’s heart.  You’re stuck with me.”

He succeeded in getting a frustrated sigh out of her.  A verbal fight might not be as good as a physical one, but at least it was something.

“You won’t be the only one for long.  Roxas will come back soon.”

Vanitas scowled as another chunk of memory links started glowing and then floated upwards.

“Why would your friend end up in Sora’s heart?”

“Because he’s Sora’s Nobody.”

Nobody?  Vanitas didn’t know a lot about Nobodies.  Xehanort had mentioned them briefly, a long time ago.  But didn’t you only become a Nobody if you were turned into a…? Oh.  Vanitas remembered - that had been the worst day of his not-life.  He’d thought Sora was going to go full Heartless, and then who knew what would happen to Ventus and Vanitas’s heart?  But Kairi had saved him, putting Sora’s heart pillar back together before it could crumble all the way into darkness.

“Huh,” Vanitas grunted.  “Maybe he’ll fight me, then.”

“Why do you want to fight so badly?”  The girl asked, still turning that link over in her fingers, over and over again.

“What else are we supposed to do?”  He asked back. Her head tilted.

“You… you’re asking that honestly, aren’t you?”

“I guess.”  He shrugged.  If she had some other idea of how to pass the time, he wasn’t going to complain.  Not much, at least.

She laughed, a small chuckle that startled him.  He hadn’t heard anyone laugh at something he said before.  Should he be offended? He put on a scowl just in case.

“I don’t really know what people normally do together, other than go to work and eat ice cream.  But I guess we don’t have either of those things here.”  She sighed sadly.

“I made ice cream out of one of Sora’s memories once,” he said.  “Tasted just like the real thing.  Or at least I think it did.  Haven’t had the real stuff in a while.”

“Out of his memories?”  She asked.

“Yeah.”  He took the link from her hands, feeling what memory it contained.  Something about flowers.  It was a really faded memory, so it was hard to get much else out of it.  Still, he closed his eyes and felt it, until the link had transformed into a small bouquet in his hands.

“Here.”  He shoved the flowers at her.  “Flowers are for girls.”

“Thanks?”  She laughed again, accepting the small blue blossoms.  “Wait… I remember these.  One of the Dusks left them at the castle before.  Luxord told me they were called... forget-me-nots.  Hah…”

Her hands trembled.  A small drop of water dotted the blue petals.

“For someone who says they can’t cry, you cry a lot,” Vanitas said.

“I guess… I’m lucky then.”  She wiped her eyes - or at least wiped something under her hood.

“You’ve got a pretty twisted idea of luck.”

“Well, when you weren’t supposed to exist, I’m just lucky to be here at all.”  She smiled a little.

“Not supposed to exist, huh?”  He leaned back on his hands. “I know a thing or two about that.”

“You do?”

He nodded.  “Xehanort pulled me out of Ventus so I could forge the X-Blade.”  He drew an ‘X’ in the air with his finger, in case she’d never heard of it.  “But I was never supposed to be my own person, and he never let me forget it.”

He wished he could find one of Sora’s memories of Ansem - the closest thing he’d know to Xehanort - and choke the life out of him.  But pulling actual people out of memories was beyond Vanitas’s abilities.

“Xemnas created me,” the girl said.  “Him and some other Nobodies on Organization XIII did.  I was a replica made of Sora’s memories, meant to copy his keyblade.”

Vanitas raised an eyebrow.  “Keyblade, or X-blade?”

The girl frowned.  “There’s a difference?”

“‘Key’ as in the letter ‘ex.’”  When she didn’t respond, he just said “Nevermind.  Probably just a regular keyblade, then.”

“Oh.”  She grew silent for a while, then finally said, “I’m sorry.  About what happened to you.”

She was… what?  He stared at her.  Sorry?  Was she… pitying him?

“Don’t be.  I’m fine.”  He shrugged, then stood up.  “We should get back to the pillar. It’s not safe to stay down here for too long.”

“Why not?”  She asked, though she stood too.  She still clutched the flowers tightly between her hands.

He gestured to the scattered links that lined the hard ground.  “This is where forgotten memories go.  Stay down here too long, and you’ll be forgotten too.”  He never really worried about it himself - there wasn’t anyone he wanted to remember him, anyway.  In fact, he’d be better off if no one remembered him when he got out of this place.  But this girl - she said she had friends.  She probably cared about stuff like that.

“Then you mean… there’s a chance I won’t be forgotten?”  She asked hopefully. 

“What, you expecting everyone to forget about you?”  

“Well… yes.”

He led her back towards the pillar, kicking chain links out of the way as they went.  “If your friends are anything like Ventus’s, I doubt they’ll give you up that easy,” he replied, a little bitterly.

“Did… did your friends forget about you?”  She asked.  He laughed.

“Hard for them to forget you if you don’t have any in the first place.”

She stopped. “You mean… you didn’t have anyone?”

“No one,” he snapped, then shook his head.  It wasn’t like it mattered.  Friends were for people of the light, like Ventus, and this girl.  Despite her black coat, he could tell she was bright on the inside.

“Do you think… I could be your friend, then?  If we’re both going to be here for a while…”

He blinked.  She was offering… to be his friend?  Okay, despite her light, she obviously wasn’t very bright, or she’d know better than to want to be friends with him, of all people.  But… he imagined the look on Ventus’s face when he finally woke up, and he found out that Vanitas had a friend too.  It would be priceless.

“Sure, why not.”  Vanitas shrugged.  “Just don’t expect me to make you feel better if you’re crying, okay?”

She laughed.  “That’s okay.  I don’t think Roxas or Axel would have known what to do about that either.”

Then, to his surprise, she reached up and lowered her hood, revealing short black hair and blue eyes.  Those eyes looked just like Ventus’s, and that hair was just as dark as his own.  He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but it wasn’t that.

“I never introduced myself, did I?”  She asked with a smile. He shook himself a little when he realized he’d been staring.  “My name’s Xion.”

“Xion,” he repeated, then paused, as if something were going to happen.  “Is that it?  Are we friends now?”

“Um… I think we have to eat ice cream first.”  She frowned thoughtfully.  That made sense; there had to be something more to making a friend then just saying the words.  Any idiot could do that.

“I’ll find us some.  But we need to get to the pillar first.”

“Right.”  She nodded.

They jogged the rest of the way there, with Xion clinging to the forget-me-nots the whole way.  Vanitas wasn’t sure why she bothered; they’d turn back into memories eventually.

Chains of memories peeled up from the ground in front of them; they jumped over and dodged around them.  Namine must be doing some serious work today.  

When they were almost to the pillar - only a few yards away - the chains did something different.  Instead of just falling up into the sky, two strands of them whipped out and formed an X in front of Xion.

“What the-” Vanitas spun, rolled his eyes, and jogged back to her.  “Come on, you lousy memories.  Out of our way.”  

He summoned his keyblade to slice through them - they were just brittle, forgotten things, after all - but his blow bounced off as if the chains had welded together.

“No,” Xion whispered.  She tried to dodge around the chains, under them, over them, but no matter which way she tried to move forward, they twisted to block her.

“What are you standing around for?  Help me smash these things!” He kept hacking at the memories, but they still stubbornly refused to budge.

“No.”  She shook her head.  He noticed that her eyes were getting wet, again.  “It’s not going to be that simple…”

“Why not?”  He demanded.  Smashing things was his favorite way of solving problems; he would make it that simple.

“I can’t be remembered.  Namine warned me.  I chose to go away, even knowing that.”  She pressed one hand to the chains; the other clutched the flowers to her chest.  “Go on, Vanitas.  I’ll be alright.”

He stared at her, his keyblade drooping to his side.  “You’re kidding.  You’re giving up?  Just like that?”

She forced a smile.  “It’s taken me a long time to decide this.  I know what I’m doing.”

“Fine,” he said, surprising her.  He dismissed his keyblade and wandered around the chains; they didn’t do anything to stop him.  “Let all those losers out there forget about us.  What’s it matter?”

“You - no, Vanitas.  You need to go back,” she insisted.

“What?  So all my non-existent friends can remember me?”  He snorted.  “I’m staying down here.  I got bored of hanging out on top of Sora’s heart, anyway.”  Sure, Ventus was still up there… but Vanitas needed to let go of the hope that his other half would wake up any time soon.  Besides, if he did wake up, Vanitas was sure he would know it.  And maybe, if he was lucky, Ventus actually wouldn’t remember him.

“But…”

“What, you want to get rid of me already?”  He smirked. “You can always fight me if you want to try.”

She rolled her eyes.  “I told you, I’m not going to fight you.”

“If you say so.”  He shrugged and knelt down on the ground, hands searching through the debris of chain links.  

“What are you looking for?”  Xion asked.

“You’ll see.”  He found it a second later - the memory he was searching for.  One that would work, anyway.  He drew on its power and ended up with two sticks of ice cream, one yellow, one orange.  “Here.  Since this is what friends do, apparently.”

She blinked before accepting the ice cream.  “I’ve never seen one like this before.”

“Just eat it.”  He said, biting into his own - he’d kept the yellow one for himself.  It tasted like pineapple.  He would’ve rather had strawberry, but it would do.

She took a tentative bite.  “It’s sweet.  But not salty.”

“Salty?”  Vanitas made a face.  “Why would ice cream be salty?”

Xion’s jaw dropped.

“You mean you’ve never had sea-salt ice cream?”  Judging from her face, that could’ve been the eighth deadly sin.

“...No,” he said carefully.  Was sea-salt ice cream the specific kind required by friendships?  He wouldn’t know.  But if Ventus did wake up, and he found out that Vanitas had ruined his only friendship by eating the wrong type of ice cream, he would never live it down.

“We have to find some!”  Xion leapt up; her orange ice cream dripped on the front of her coat.  “Come on, Vanitas!  If we both look together, I’m sure we can find it!”

“Unless Sora’s never had it, either,” he pointed out, but she didn’t seem to notice.  She grabbed his hand to drag him off, but he froze.

Someone was touching him.  He instinctively expected it to hurt, but it didn’t.  Her hand was really cold, though.

“...Vanitas?”  She asked.  He shook his head.

“Sure.  Sea-salt.  Whatever.”

He followed after her, still finishing off the last of his current ice cream.  She didn’t let go of his hand the whole time, almost like she was just as starved for physical contact as he was.  In spite of himself, he smiled.

If she was the one she he was stuck with, it might not be so bad.

[bardock1991]

Speaking of the Clocktower Trio, it's also nice to see that we're SHOWN how good of friends they are rather than tell. Sure, we've seen how far Riku's willing to go for Sora when the latter was a sleep & was a great showcase of how much Riku cares about him. But like you said, due to how rarely we see these 3 together & how Kairi is treated like shit, their so called "bond" doesn't feel as powerful as it should be.

& While the Wayfinder trio is certainly better in that department, we don't see the 3 together ENOUGH to make their unfortunate downfall give us a harder emotional gut punch. Like, we dot on have an act one where all 3 of them are training, traveling & hanging out together before Terra & Aqua take the Master exam, no! The game just give us a brief moment with these 3 (Which I'll admit, it's an amazing moment) & we go straight to The Mark of Mastery exam which starts the game. Right after that, the 3 go on their own & do their own thing, unlike with the Clocktower Trio where we DID see them as friends before the inevitable happened.

In fact, let me share something that's often overlooked. I know this is going from a RWBY discussion to a Kingdom Hearts discission, but screw it! Ya'know that really cheesy line from Roxas when Xion's dying where he says "Who else will i have Ice Cream with?"... Now without context, YES! This is a very stupid line (Which KH has alot of it, mind you) But like with RWBY, things take a turn when you actually pay attention to the context & go deeper. Let's go back to around the beginning of the game, when Roxas asks Axel about what Friends are, what's his answer?

Axel: "Friends eat Ice Cream together, they talk & laugh about the dumbest things"

& What do these 3 do whenever they go to the Clocktower? Eat Ice Cream together while talking & laughing about the dumbest things! To Roxas, THAT is friendship & we can't exactly blame Axel for making Roxas believe that since I'm pretty sure Axel himself doesn't remember what friendship is fully like due to being a Nobody that doesn't fully remember his past life. So in that scene with Xion when Roxas says that line, to him it's more akin to

Roxas: "Who else is going to be my friend?"

Because remember, Roxas has pretty much cut ties with Axel a while ago due to Axel not being fully honest with the poor guy! He got so frustrated with secrets that he decided to find answers himself & like RWBY, when a group of friends this united get separated, things go SOUTH!... REALLY SOUTH! Despite his best efforts, Axel wasn't able to keep the 3 of them together & somewhat branded a traitor, which in it of itself is a tragedy; Xion dies & Roxas is captures by Riku & DiZ which leads to the first 2 hours of Kingdom Hearts 2. What makes their bond actually FEEL like a strong bond is that we SEE them together, we see them just hang out & be friends & when something happens where they get separated, everything goes to shit & there's nothing they can do about it!

Just like with Team RWBY, where separating them is their LITERAL kryptonite! They literally CANNOT work separated as well as they can as a unit! The same can be somewhat argued with The StrawHat Pirates from One Piece. Whenever one of them leaves or gets kidnapped, they all immediately go to their rescue to bring them back & knock some sense into them if needed. It happened with Nami, it happened with Robin & it happened with Sanji.

But then we have Ussop's deal in Water 7 which is a massive tearjerker & a way to show that if they fight against each other like this to the point where they separate, things don't go well. When Ussop left the crew, what happened? Easy: Robin surrendered herself to the CP9, the CP9 beat the fock out of The StrawHats & Sanji gets a little beaten up in the sea train. But when Ussop comes back as SokeKing, things start to get better, especially since he's the one who burns the government flag & gives Franky the keys to Robyn's handcuffs, as well as being a motivator to Luffy in his death match with Rob Lucci. So like with Team RWBY & The Clocktower Trio, separating The StrawHats is a bad idea. So when Luffy tries to save Ace by storming the greatest prison on the planet & later get involved in a massive war between a Yonko & the Navy right after he got forcefully separated from his crew in Sabaody Archipelago, of course things go to shit for the guy! Of course he fails to save Ace since he did it by himself! If he could've had his crew with him, Ace probably would've survived! Just like how Penny could've survived if Team RWBY wasn't slowly getting separated by Cinder.

Anyways, i could go on, but i think you guys catch my drift. Thanks for listening to me ramble about Kingdom Hearts & some One Piece for who knows how long

One of the more subtle narrative details that I’ve always really appreciated about RWBY compared to other shows/games is the consistent emphasis and reinforcement of the Team part of Team RWBY. More specifically, the fact that Team RWBY have actually stayed a TEAM through the majority of the show.

I’ve seen many other shows, games and other kinds of series’ introduce this group of two, three or four main characters and continually make this big narrative deal about the ‘bond’ between them… despite having them be split up for most of the series’ actual runtime.

Like I’ve been playing through a few of the Kingdom Hearts games recently, and it’s been just a bit jarring to see the narrative of these games put so much emphasis on the bond between Sora, Kairi and Riku, and then keep having Sora going on adventures with Donald and Goofy while Riku is off doing his own thing and Kairi is alternatingly stuffed in a metaphorical closet, jail-cell or fridge. With only the most brief, fleeting moments given to these three to actually be seen doing anything together. These games will tell us over and over that Kairi and Riku are the most important people in Sora’s life, but will they actually let them be party members? NOPE.*

See also, how Naruto often talks up ‘Team 7’ despite this so-called ‘team’ being split up for the VAST majority of the show. With the show really just following Naruto while Sakura is largely sidelined and Sasuke is off being a flaming, hazardous-material-leaking, hundred-car train-wreak of a character.

Meanwhile, after Team RWBY becomes a team in Volume 1, they STAY a team. Even after the narrative splits the team up after Volume 4, it’s always clear that this team WILL reunite, with that big reunion being THE big emotional resolution of Volume 5. The narrative and undertones of the show has made it pretty clear that Team RWBY are supposed to be together. I mean, just look at the end of Volume 8; it’s easy to imagine a different show having only some of Team RWBY fall into the void to ratchet up drama and angst points for having been split up.

But instead, even as they suffered their greatest defeat in the show thus-far, Team RWBY still managed to stick together.

There’s actually an interesting consistent through-line I’ve noticed looking back through the show: When Team RWBY is together and united, things tend to go well for them. And when they are divided or separated, things tend to go badly for them:

The Battle of Beacon sees Team RWBY separated for almost the entire battle, and we all know how that ended for them. And going into Volumes 4 and 5, I think we can say that a common thread of each of RWBY’s struggles is that they are facing them without their teammates. For example, it’s easy to imagine Yang having a much easier time recovering in V4 if she had Ruby, Weiss and especially Blake to help her.

And no shade on Jaune, Nora and Ren, but I imagine that Team RWBY probably would have had a much better chance fighting Tyrian, and DEFINITELY an easier time dealing with the Nuckelavee.

Or compare the two times Team RWBY takes on the Ace-Ops: At the end of Volume 7 when the team is all together, they absolutely wreck the so-called ‘best huntsmen in Atlas’. Yet their rematch in Volume 8 when Yang is absent, despite having Penny and Nora filling in, doesn’t go nearly as well.

In fact, when we look at the first half of Volume 8 as a whole, I think we can see this subtle theme about how when Team RWBY is divided, things go bad for them, being emphasized more than ever. At the start of the volume, we see Team RWBY split on how to handle their current situation, and see Ruby, Weiss and Blake work with Penny and Nora to get the Amity tower operational while Yang goes with Ren, Jaune and Oscar to help the people of Mantle. And both of these efforts kind of blow up in their faces.

The efforts of Yang’s group ends up getting Oscar kidnapped by Salem. And while this does set the stage for some positive developments for our heroines like spurring Emerald’s and Hazel’s defection, Monstra being destroyed and Salem being temporarily incapacitated, it also sets off a chain of events that will lead to Cinder both getting the Lamp AND the password to summon Jinn.

Meanwhile, the efforts of Ruby, Weiss and Blake arguably blow up even harder, as while they do get the codes to launch Amity, the process also leaves Nora badly injured and out of commission for a while, and even worse, their scuffle with the Ace-Ops gives Watts and Ironwood their vector to hack Penny. Which in turn sets off a chain of events that ultimately leads to Penny’s death (Penny getting infected with the virus leads to her getting an organic body from Ambrosius, which in turn leaves her open to be later mortally wounded by Cinder).

And the funny thing is, when we look at the second half of Volume 8, namely Operation ‘Save Penny, Save Mantle, Save Atlas and Fuck You Tinman’ when Team RWBY (and JNPR) isn’t split up, things go MUCH better. Team RWBY+Penny is able to get into the vault, summon Ambrosius, save Penny and open a path for evacuation with no issue whatsoever and Team JNPR+Emerald+Winter is able to positively wreck ALL of Ironwood’s shit with likewise no issue.

And when we reach the finale of Volume 8, has anyone else noticed that it’s after Yang gets knocked into the void that things start really going south for our heroines? It’s like when Yang fell, it became a narrative inevitability that Blake, Weiss and Ruby would be following her.

I think that’s the theme with Team RWBY: Rise or Fall, Win or Lose, they’ll do it together.

*As an aside, this is actually why the ‘Clocktower Trio’ of Roxas, Xion and Axel are actually my favorite of the main ‘trios’ of the series as opposed to the ‘Destiny Islands’ (Sora, Kairi and Riku) or ‘Wayfinder’ (Terra, Ventus and Aqua) trios. Because the game following these three actually follows their growing friendship. Shows them going on missions together, shows them hanging out after missions, shows them actually being friends. We aren’t just told about the bond between these characters, we’re actually SHOWN their bond.