I.

Running is pointless. She learns this early in her non-existence. Like a little bird in a cage, she is locked up and can only sing the tune that fancies the one who holds the key.

The first time Naminé runs, it is to save a boy she had hoped would be able to save her. The strain of it had caught her off guard, but it was not so surprising. Naminé has spent her life cloistered in one room and drawing at the long white table. Even Kairi has spent years after Sora and Riku on the beach of Destiny Island; Naminé has no friends to run after laughing.

Still, when Naminé finds herself running, she runs as fast as she could. Down the stairs and across the halls of Castle Oblivion then. Through the streets and between the buildings of Twilight Town now.

The clocktower... Something is happening at the clocktower and she has a sinking suspicion that she already knows.

Utterly out of breath, she climbs up the brick stairs leading to the station to find it unnaturally empty. Empty save for a singular, despondent boy in a familiar black cloak.

Oh, Xion. You didn't...

Naminé gives him a moment, a moment she uses to catch her breath. The straps of her sandals has caused her feet to bleed and chafe and only now does she truly register the pain even as she stands still.

But no... Her pain is nothing compared to his.

At least, she doesn't think it is.

(After all, she has no friends so she would not know what it is like to lose one. Maybe Sora. Maybe. But it isn't as though she has a heart to miss him with anyway.)

He rises slowly, unsteadily, holding something small in his hand as despair gives way to resolve. He lifts his hood up and holds out his arm to summon a portal and she shouts before she thinks.

"Wait!"

II.

What is the meaning of his existence. He questions this just now.

To regain a heart? Well, if this is what it felt like to not have one, then maybe he is better off for it. For the first time since his first seven days, Roxas doesn't know what to do. The Organization has always told him what to do, but the Organization is behind him now and he is determined to not return.

Hours before he has pondered, without the Organization, what is he? He knows his answer now. It is not the Organization that mattered to him most. What matters to him are sea-salt ice cream, a clocktower and a sunset that is comforting.

What matters to him are Axel (who keeps one secret too many) and Xion (now dead by his own hands). Without them, who is he?

Shell in hand, Roxas does know one thing. He wants them back. He wants his old life back. And he was going to get them back.

Her last words linger. Free Kingdom Hearts.

Yes, he'll do that. What else does he have left?

Roxas prepares to RTC one last time, but then he hears a voice and thinks-

"Who are you?"

III.

Naminé has not thought this through. When the day begun, she had an awful feeling and finds that she couldn't ignore her instincts this time. All she thought about was that she needed to get to the clocktower - and of how furious DiZ would be if he knew she is delaying Sora's awakening.

(DiZ, who opposes the Organization. DiZ, who makes no secret what he thinks of Nobodies. DiZ, who only keeps her around because he needs her to restore Sora.

She thought with Marluxia gone, she could finally be safe.)

Now that she is here, she is at a loss.

Roxas is… familiar. He feels like Sora, like Xion. Almost, but not entirely. Sora was kind to her, even after learning the truth of what she did to him. She has no certainties that his Nobody would be the same way, but if a sweet girl like Xion could call him 'her best friend', Naminé should try.

"H-Hello," she says. That is how one started a conversation, right? "Um…"

Maybe she should just introduce herself?

Unable to think of anything else to do, she puts a hand on her chest and does that.

"My name is Naminé."

IV.

The girl in white is not someone he knows, but what she is is familiar.

A small comfort, after Xion's death.

Nonetheless, she awkwardly introduces herself. Roxas is dimly reminded of his first days where he was quiet and spacy and, in Axel's words, a complete zombie.

When on missions in other worlds, he is instructed to keep a low profile and not interact with the locals. He is not a part of the Organization anymore, no longer bound by its rules, so he doesn't hesitate to tell her his name.

"Roxas," she repeats and a little smile forms on her ghostly face.

V.

It begins to rain, so they sit together on the stairs of the plaza with an empty space between them. Her hands in her lap and his elbows on his knees. Roxas keeps his hood up. He leaves out the details of Organization XIII and the Keyblade, but he tells her that he's lost his best friends.

Naminé listens. As she listens, she wonders, truly wonders, if everything she's known about Nobodies and hearts are true. Roxas truly cares about them, doesn't he? And because he cares, he misses them. Can it be possible that… he has a heart?

(Or maybe it's simply the fact that he is half of Sora.)

Then he tells her, "Sometimes I feel as though I don't understand myself at all. Why am I here and why… why do I exist?"

(Then again… It's not as if Naminé herself isn't an odd exception among Nobodies.)

She looks up at the sky and closes her eyes.

Naminé can feel her memories of a raven-haired girl starting to disappear, but she remembers her voice. Will you watch over Roxas once I'm gone? You won't be alone.

From the very beginning, Naminé simply didn't want to be alone. Despite knowing better now, Xion's words has given her hope that there will be a day where she won't have to be anymore.

But Roxas deserves to know. Who he is, why Xion made the choices that she did. The truth may make him turn on her. After all, if she hadn't rearranged Sora's memories, those memories wouldn't have leaked into Xion...

The words of a raven-haired girl echoes in her mind again, It's just...there isn't anything else I can do for him.

But there is something Naminé can still do for him.

So she takes a deep breath and begins to speak.

(After all, she is a witch. Perhaps witches are just meant to be alone.)

VI.

"The truth is, I am like you. A Nobody."

Naminé tells him about Castle Oblivion, what little she knows of the Replica Project, and she tells him about Sora.

Of course. Sora.

S-O-R-A

He remembers the first day, a hooded man he now knows is the Superior, glowing golden letters and the promise of a purpose. Add an X, rearrange the letters and you get-

"Roxas," Naminé's voice is soft, "I… I'm so sorry. Don't be angry with Xion for keeping secrets. Or… Or Axel, for that matter. I'm sure he was just trying to protect you. If you must be angry at someone… Be angry with me."

VII.

Roxas is quiet for a very long time. It makes Naminé nervous. She is reminded of Marluxia's quiet periods and how she wondered what is he thinking, what is he going to do to me next?

"Naminé," he says at last. He doesn't sound angry, but one can never tell with Nobodies. "I'm not angry at you."

VIII.

So much for his plans. According to what Naminé's told him, it would have been a pointless endeavor. That, and now he's calm enough to think more rationally, he knows he'll never be able to reach Kingdom Hearts, destroy it and then make it out alive.

He wants to be angry at someone, at her. He really does. Anger is easier than grief. Anger is something he can act on.

But one look at the girl beside her and he realizes he can't be angry at her. She does not say, but he gets the feeling that she is as lost as he is.

"Are… are you sure there's no other way?"

IX.

There might be a way, but 'might' is not 'certain' and she does not want to give Roxas false hope.

(Is it better to have false hope or no hope? Naminé does not know, but she doesn't want to be cruel by telling him something that may not be true.)

"I'm afraid not," she tells him sadly, "I wish there was another way, but there isn't."

He sighs. "What's going to happen to me now?"

"Sora needs to wake up," Naminé says firmly, "In order to do that… he needs you. I'm not the only one who knows this. Riku is looking for you now. He intends to bring you to Sora and…" She trails off, but he easily fills in the gaps.

"I'll disappear," he finishes. There is a bitter edge in his voice. Naminé thinks back on her plan.

"You won't disappear," she says, trying to convince herself as well as him, "You'll be whole."

X.

He doesn't believe her. Maybe he'll be whole again, but he'll be whole again as Sora. And… He doesn't want that. He doesn't want to be Sora. He wants to be Roxas. He wants to be himself.

"What will you do, Naminé?" he asks, "Are you going to force me to return to Sora too?" Xion seemed to think it was the right thing to do. I belong with Sora.

But Roxas just doesn't know…

The corner of her mouth lifts. "I don't think I would be able to do anything about it, even if I wanted to."

Roxas lets out a laugh despite himself, though it sounds more like a croak.

"Why don't… Why don't you think about it?" Naminé says slowly and unsure, "A lot has happened today. Think about what's happened and… what you want to do. If you decide that you want to return to Sora, come to the Old Mansion. If not, well, there's really nothing I can do, is there?"

XI.

Riku gave Xion an opportunity to decide for herself, but that was before the matter with Sora's memories had gotten worse. Still, Naminé offers him this, even though it goes against everything she's been working towards.

She supposes it would be easy, hypothetically, to bend him to her will. Roxas is Sora's Nobody and she has power over the memories of Sora and those connected to him, but she won't. Not after Castle Oblivion.

Nobodies are never meant to exist, but Naminé won't take away his right to choose.

(After all… she never really had much of a choice in anything that's happened so far has she? Helping Sora was the first thing she's ever chosen to do herself.

Though she supposes helping his Nobody now is another.)

Roxas is quiet, very quiet. Then he leans over and touches the dorsal of her foot. Her blisters disappear with the gentle green light of his Cure spell.

"Naminé," he says softly, "Thank you."

And then he is gone.

XII.

It is still raining when he arrives in the World that Never Was. The streets of the Dark City is empty as it always has been. There are still heartless here, he can see them in the shadows cast by the light from Kingdom Hearts.

There is a part of him that still wanted to try. After all, it would be the end of him either way. Either the Organization will destroy him or he will be forced to go back to Sora. Naminé gave him a choice and she gave him answers to his questions. Not all of them, but more than what Axel ever did.

(He's only known her for a few minutes and yet, he finds that he trusts her. If they had gotten to know each other earlier… Or if they had more time, he may have one day started calling her a friend.)

Roxas summons his keyblades, his and Xion's. They are not the familiar Kingdom Keys he is used to, but one black, one white. Their names ring clear in his mind: Oblivion and Oathkeeper.

The Neoshadows surround him and they lunge.

XIII.

"Hello, Sora," she says standing alone before his capsule. She can work on his memories again without interference. She's been linking them, chain by chain, to the way they were before. With his memories of Kairi returned, everything falls into place much easier. "You know… I counted on you to save me once."

"I intended to make it up to you by fixing your memories, so when you wake up, we can be friends for real."

She feels that she has to atone for her mistakes before she's worthy of being called his friend. It isn't just Sora's life she had ruined after all, so she has far more to atone for than she initially thought.

"But I'm afraid that I need you to do something for me again." Naminé clutches her sketchbook, open to a drawing of Roxas, Axel and a girl with black hair, to her chest. "And it's something only you can do."

She doesn't tell anyone, but she makes only one change. Not to Sora, or Donald, or Goofy, but to the journal that recorded their first adventure.

Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it.

:.

:.

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i.

His world is set on pause. Pence and Olette has just finished a shopping trip and now they are frozen in time.

He doesn't think. He rushes forward towards them, towards his friends, but he skids to a halt because a girl in white appeared before him.

(He has no idea where these reflexes came from, but he stops just in time. That is, just before he can make an utter fool of himself in front of a pretty girl.)

She is not a local. He's never seen her before, but she smiles as though she's been reunited with a lost friend.

"Hello, Roxas."