paixaorpg | Thinking of you, wherever you are [Active/Closed]

Entry tags:

riku,
xion

Thinking of you, wherever you are [Active/Closed]

Character(s): Xion and Riku
Content: Accidental meet up, where Xion is the saddest panda
Setting: The beach!
Time: Afternoon

Xion sat on the beach, just far enough back that the waves wouldn't hit her, knees pull tight to her chest and chin resting on them. She didn't care that she didn't have a real heart- the one she had was miserable. No one had seen Roxas, or Hope, and she hadn't been able to get in touch with Namine either. She didn't want to believe it, but... were they really all gone?

She'd looked everywhere she could think of, scouring all of Paixao and having started to look through the floors before Sora had asked about Roxas too. If even Sora didn't know... then was he even here anymore? She knew some people wanted to go home, but Roxas should have stayed. It was safer for them here, with Sora already awake. It was a chance for them to delay the inevitable. But now...

The hooded girl hugged her legs tighter, staring out into the ocean before squeezing her eyes shut. She missed him already.

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Riku had been frequenting the Islands much more recently, but his visits were shorter. Generally he used them to motivate himself, visiting on the way to the highest floor or stopping by on the way back. It was always a reminder that he had taken or was about to take another step closer to getting himself and everyone he knew home. What surrounded him now might be fake, but his memories of the place it mimicked weren't.

As he sighed into the wind, he saw something else he had real memories of. Down and away from the leaning palm he stood on was the figure of a boy with spiky hair dressed in a black coat. ...The face was much more delicate than when he saw it last, and Riku blinked a moment. After a second, he made his way to the bridge and jumped down. He let the crunch of the sand give away his approach.

"Xion?" He looked down at her with a mix of curiosity and concern.

Xion turned back to look as she heard the crunch of sand, and surprise gave way to sadness once more fairly quickly. "Oh... hi, Riku," she said quietly, trying very hard to not look too depressed. This shouldn't get her down so much... he could still be here, right? They all could. And even if it did upset her, she shouldn't show it. She couldn't.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Heading to Wonderland I decided to make a detour and make it a nostalgia trip," he answered almost off-handedly. He narrowed his eyes at Xion. No... I'm not losing it. She... Looks almost like a she. Her face was a little rounder with more subtle features than he'd seen before. Still, her build didn't quite match a girl, and her hair was still identical to Sora's haircut. Still, she looked different.

After a few seconds, he removed the blindfold from his pocket and put it on. Darkness gave him a better sense of what she looked like than his eyes did, even if that wasn't clear either.

"I could ask you the same question."

Xion pulled her knees a little closer to her, trying to calm herself down and only marginally succeeding. "I was looking for Roxas," she said, glancing back at the ocean, "...and Namine. And Hope. I can't find any of them anywhere, and no one else has seen them."

Namine had always been on the quiet side, and he only saw her on occasion. "It... It has been a long time since I saw Namine." Riku looked out to the ocean, sighing softly as he stuck a thumb in his pocket. "And I haven't seen Roxas, either."

After what seemed like a very long moment, Riku finally continued, looking out at the waves. "I can't see the Organization getting rid of Roxas, and Namine could still be a useful tool, potentially. I don't know about Hope. But they... They probably went 'home.'" It'd happened before. Apparently he'd "gone home" himself a few times before his current stint. Slowly Riku knelt beside her, placing his hands on his knees. The wind gently blew his hair back. "...They're where they belong, at least." Given his tone, it was more a statement than trying to be reassuring. Frankly he wasn't sure what he could say, and Riku wasn't one to lie.

Xion looked down at her knees, avoiding eye contact. "...I know," she said quietly, holding her legs, "I know they're probably gone and I won't find them. But... I don't want them to be. Roxas and Namine, at home they're- they're going to-"

She doesn't want to say it, but she's pretty sure Riku knows where she was going with that. The petite replica takes in a shaky breath before continuing.

"I knew it was going to happen eventually. We can't... we can't avoid it forever. But I didn't want it to come."

"No... I didn't want it to come either." Riku shifted back a little and brought his legs forward, letting the waves run across the heels of his shoes and soak the edges of his pant legs. His tone was somber. "I felt like I was almost on the same page as Roxas. ...I wanted to be, after everything that happened. He deserved that. It felt like I was just getting to know Hope. And Namine..." At that he trailed off.

Riku took a deep breath, leaning forward and resting crossed arms on his knees before looking back to Xion. "I've heard that I've been here and came back. Sora, Kairi, and Namine, too. I heard Mickey was even here once before, though I heard it from a gypsy I think was nuts. So... they might be back."

"Maybe..." But then they wouldn't remember all that happened here. Roxas would still know her, and Namine might, but Hope wouldn't. And she wasn't sure how to go about explaining that.

She finally let go of her knees, letting her legs stretch out in front of her, quickly soaking the bottom of her pants and coat. "I'm not sure if that would be good or not."

"I don't know either." His shoulders rose and fell with a very soft sigh. "Honestly? I can't say I'd be happy if Sora up and vanished. But Sora and I always guessed where the Door to Light would have taken us if we didn't get pulled here. Regardless, we knew we'd go back to the Realm of Light. And that we could go home. In peace. And we could finally relax. And while there's no promise that something else wouldn't come up, there's a good chance that if Sora went back, he'd be back on the beach taking a nap." He smiled, though a little sadly at the thought. "Not a care in the world. ...Yeah, I wouldn't want him to come back into this mess. I'd want him safe at home."

"Yeah..." For Sora, that made sense. But Roxas...

She shook her head, trying not to think about this. They wouldn't want her acting like this. She knew that. She just hoped everything turned out ok in the end.

It wasn't a good enough answer. Then again, Riku couldn't think of any answers that would be truly satisfactory, even for himself.

His shoulders rose with a deep breath. "...Do you know what's going on during the time I'm from? Has anyone told you?"

Xion thought for a moment, frowning. She'd never really asked, and there wasn't really a reason anyone would have told her, she thought. "No, I don't."

He looked over to her, peeking from under the blindfold. Wait, is her hair... darker? "Do you want to know?" It wasn't as if it would change the future. From what he understood, people had been here when they were younger and didn't remember their trip when they returned.

Edited 2012-10-20 06:25 (UTC)

Well... it couldn't hurt, right? She'd be gone by that point anyway, and she already knew what had to happen, so... Xion noddded, glancing over at him. "If it's ok to."

"That's why I offered," he said with a very slight smile. He took a deep breath and looked down when he felt a slight tap on his shoe. A shell had been washed up. As he began he picked it up, idly turning it over as he spoke and watched the waves. "This isn't a happy story, and it's a long one, but you deserve to know."

"I might be saying stuff you already know, but... Eventually you were forced to turn on Roxas. You were probably reprogrammed or... However replicas work. He won, and your power went to him. He then tried to go free Kingdom Hearts, thinking it'd get you back. It would've been suicide, and I couldn't let Sora's memories be destroyed. ...And you weren't quite gone. I still don't get how, but you somehow told me to stop him. ...I managed."

"A man by the name of Ansem the Wise digitized Roxas and put him in a digital Twilight Town to live as he was returned to Sora. His memories were temporarily overwritten and he thought he always lived there. No Organization. No Keyblade. It was just friends and a summer vacation. It was meant to be ethical, and we kept the truth from him. But as Axel infiltrated the system to get him back, trying to cover it all up made his digital life hard, too. Eventually he found his way to Sora, and Sora finally woke back up."

"Because Roxas was part of Sora again, Axel kept close tabs on him. He eventually sacrificed himself to save Sora. To this day Sora and I think that made Roxas wake up inside. Deep inside Sora's heart, the two vied for control. Sora won, but didn't destroy Roxas." He paused thoughtfully.

"Roxas and a Nobody named Namine appeared before their others - Sora and Kairi - later. I couldn't see or hear them, but I got the gist of what was going on. It was peaceful, and the two went back to their others. Sora told me Roxas seemed happy."

Riku handed the shell to Xion. "So in a way, you and Roxas are together."

Xion was quiet throughout, taking it all in and doing her very best not to interrupt. And when Riku was done, it took her a moment to process it.

She didn't like the idea of her being 'reprogrammed,' but... that was possibility. And she was glad Roxas won. That was what was supposed to happen. She really didn't like what they did with Roxas's memories... that hit a little to close to what happened here. They'd kept a lot of things from Roxas to try and make him happy.

But, in the end, what happened happened, and she took the shell from Riku, holding it in her hands. "I'm glad. I wish... I wish he didn't have to go through all that, but I'm glad things turned out all right."

"More or less. ...To be honest, when Sora and I go home, we don't know what's next or where we'll be. Xemnas had been stopped. But for better or for worse when we get sent back, Roxas will still be around in Sora." How conscious Roxas was, Riku had no idea, but it wasn't something to focus on now. He gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "You're there, too, you know."

Riku looked out to the ocean thoughtfully. "Nobodies and Replicas... Nonexistant or not remembered, they've all made a huge change in everyone else's lives." And that was true.

Xion gave him a weak little smile, trying not to wonder if that change was for the better or not. She took in a deep, deep breath, nodding her head. "Thank you, Riku."

"I wish I could do better than that." The fact that this many people had vanished meant there was possibly limited time for any of them. Xion... Sora... Maybe even himself. "Right now we'll do the best with what we got." He slowly stood and looked down to her. "Want more time to think?" Still, he held a hand out a little, ready to offer it if she was ready to go.

She shook her hand, taking his hand and pulling herself up. "I'll be ok." That was kind of a lie... she wasn't sure how 'ok' she'd be without some of her best friends. But she still had other friends, and she didn't want to let them down.

Riku didn't look like he fully believed her. "Then make sure to tell me if you're not. I'll do what I can." Reaching up, he removed his blindfold, narrowed his eyes curiously, and turned his head at her. "Do you... Normally have black hair?"

Xion's eyes widened, clearly surprised- and why wouldn't she be? She'd... sort of gotten used to the fact that people wouldn't always see her as 'her.' How was he...?

"Yes," she said after a moment, nodding, "I do."

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Thinking of you, wherever you are [Active/Closed]

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ACK, I'm so sorry!

it's fine!