Gohan Roxas: This idea came to me last night, and I was originally gonna make it a SoKai, TerQua or Lea/Yuffie fic, but I decided to go with RokuNami, since I've written for them before, but usually as a background to SoKai.

Roxas: Time for me to shine.

Gohan Roxas: Right.

Lea: *quickly* Gohan-doesn't-own-Kingdom-Hearts-or-vampires-okaybye!

Gohan Roxas: Dammit Lea! You know I don't use disclaimers!

Underground Catacombs

The Castle that Never Was

2330 hours

13th August, 2010

The blonde man sat restlessly against the slimy stone wall of the tunnel, his blue eyes alert. In his hands he held a black handgun; its barrel was pointed towards the nearby corridor. His grip tightened on the handle. He was here for a reason, and he planned to see it through.

Footsteps resounded through the silent tunnel. Cautiously, the man inched forwards from his place of concealment. As the footsteps got closer, he himself moved closer to their source. Eventually, a black-garbed figure rounded the corner; the man immediately wrapped one arm around the person's neck, placing them in a loose sleeper hold.

"Roxas! It's me!" the figure shouted in a familiar, feminine voice. He immediately let go; sure enough, it was Xion. She was his partner on this mission.

She was also his wife.

"Sorry, honey," Roxas apologised. "Places like this make me jumpy."

"You?" Xion asked her husband in mock disbelief. "The legendary Roxas Strife, vampire hunter extraordinaire, scared of a tunnel?" She laughed lightly.

His eyebrows raised, Roxas wrapped his arms around her slender waist. "You know, I'm gonna have to punish you for that remark later."

"Is that a promise?" she replied in a seductive voice.

"You bet it is." He kissed her lingeringly.

Xion pushed him back. "Not now. We have a mission, remember?"

Roxas grumbled slightly, but let go of his wife.

Xion and Roxas worked for an underground organisation called the Light Guardians. Based in Radiant Garden, their major task was wiping out the scourge of this world: vampires.

Though this mission was unusual for a vampire hunter.

The mission was to rescue Tidus Blitz, the son of Jecht Blitz, one of the Guardians' top agents. Tidus had gone to this castle, the Castle that Never Was, for a mission several days before. He did not return, though his tracker proclaimed he was still alive. Roxas and Xion were brought in to bring him back, but under a strict condition that was almost never used: kill no vampires.

"You coming, babe?" Xion asked from the exit of the tunnel.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

Throne Room

The Castle that Never Was

0005 hours

14th August 2010

In the elaborate throne room, the tall, silver-haired vampire cradled a wine glass lazily in his left hand and gazed at the still form lying before him. The woman was a sycophant, one of the many 'groupies', as the modern world called them, of vampires across the world. She had willingly given up her life so that he might feast.

He sipped the contents of the wine glass and cringed. A+, with a dash of iron.

Behind him, he heard heavy footsteps. "What is it, Lexaeus?"

"Vampire hunters, My Lord," Lexaeus rumbled. "In the castle."

The man paused in the act of drinking the sycophant's blood and glared at his servant. "What?! How?"

"I do not know, Lord Xemnas."

The vampire known as Xemnas sat back in his gilded throne. "No doubt coming for their ally…the boy." He grinned wolfishly. "Let them have him."

"My Lord?" Lexaeus was confused.

"Place the boy someplace where the Hunters will find him. I myself…and my wife…will be waiting for them."

Lexaeus' eyes widened. "Your wife? But My Lord…"

"Do you question me, slave?!" Xemnas demanded, his cinnabar eyes flashing and his fangs revealed.

"…No," was the sullen reply.

"Good," Xemnas purred. "Set the trap."

Lexaeus bowed and left without a word.

Lobby

The Castle that Never Was

0030 hours

14th August 2010

They eventually found Tidus strapped to a crude chair in the middle of the lobby. His body was covered in bloody marks, and his tanned skin was pale.

"Tidus!" Xion shouted, rushing to him. The two of them had grown up together, so they shared a bond like that of brother and sister.

"You…shouldn't have come…" Tidus murmured. "It's a…" he mumbled a word.

"It's a what?" Roxas asked, his voice serious.

"It's a…"

"I believe what Master Blitz is trying to say is, 'It's a trap!'" a voice came from the shadows. The source of it stepped forward; there, all cloaked in black, with silver hair, cinnabar eyes and flashing fangs, was Xemnas St. Peter. The oldest vampire in the world, Roxas murmured in his mind.

Xion's hand immediately went for the wooden stake at her belt, but she was gripped from behind by strong, but feminine, hands. Staring balefully at Roxas with her fangs close to Xion's neck was Larxene, Xemnas' feared wife.

"You see, Mr Strife… And yes, I know who you are… You have a choice," Xemnas drawled. "Either you leave without your comrade…" He nodded to his wife. The grip around Xion's slender neck tightened. "…or your wife…" He grinned maliciously.

Roxas pulled his handgun from its holster and pointed it at the vampire.

Xemnas laughed mockingly. "That puny weapon can do nothing against me."

"It's not meant for you," Roxas snarled, wheeling. With precise aim, he shot Larxene in the face.

The blonde vampire screeched in agony, clutching at her face. Xion broke free and began to strafe the vampires in the room with her sub-machine gun. Roxas bolted towards Larxene, pulling out his stake as he ran, before slamming it into her heart.

Larxene immediately burst into flames and was gone.

"NO!" Xemnas' scream was one of hatred and bloodlust.

While Xion continued to shoot at the vampires, Roxas used the distraction to untie Tidus and throw him over his shoulder. "Xion! I got him! Let's go!"

His wife showed no sign of having heard him, she just kept shooting vampires.

"Xion! We've gotta get outta here NOW!" he roared.

Xion backed towards the door, still shooting. "There's too many," she said calmly. "We won't be able to get away."

"Yes we can! Let's go!"

"No." A single tear fell from Xion's blue eye. "Only one of us can make it out with him." Her glance moved briefly from the vampires to her husband. "Love you," she whispered in a broken voice.

"Xion! No!"

Xion silently pushed him through the door and closed it. Soon the sound of gunfire was replaced by screams of agony.

"Xion…" Roxas murmured tearfully. Then it turned into an inhuman scream.

"XION!"

Commander's Office

Light Guardians HQ

1200 hours

15th August 2010

"Rules were broken, and rules must be enforced," the blue haired man yelled insistently.

"Oh, shut the hell up, Isa!" his rival, a tall redhead, shouted back. "You know as well as I do that casualties were unavoidable in that situation. I am absolutely sure that Roxas never planned to kill any vampires on that mission…"

"But he did!" Isa roared.

"SILENCE!" a tall, scarred man yelled.

The room quieted down immediately.

"I am inclined to believe Mr Flynn's defence of Mr Strife. Mr Thornton, we must remember that Mr Strife is recently bereaved, and should be treated leniently." The man leaned back in his chair. "It was Larxene St. Peter that was the major vampire casualty, wasn't it?" he asked Roxas.

Roxas, his head bowed, said nothing.

"Yes it was, Master Eraqus," the redhead answered.

"Thank you Lea," Eraqus Hamill nodded. He paused, deliberating briefly. "I have made my decision. Roxas Strife will be taken off active duty in the Light Guardians and placed into witness protection for both his own safety and ours."

"Ours?" Isa snorted. "Why ours?"

"Because if Xemnas St. Peter tracks Roxas here, nothing and no one will be able to stop him," Eraqus snapped. "Especially not you!"

Isa bristled visibly.

"While Roxas' new identity is constructed, he will be confined to base. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir," Isa and Lea nodded. Isa's reply was sullen; Lea's full of relief.

"Good. Dismissed. And Roxas."

The blonde man looked at his commanding officer for the first time in the whole meeting.

"I really am sorry. Far more than you could possibly imagine."

"Thank you, sir," Roxas murmured.

Roxas' Room

Light Guardians HQ

1508 hours

15th August 2010

The worst part was that they'd taken away his guns and his gun licence. No matter what, he had no chance of doing the one thing he really wanted: putting a bullet in his own brainpan.

The door opened. In walked Roxas' best friend Sora Leonhart, his usually cheery face sombre. He sat next to Roxas on the small bed.

"Never thought something like this would happen, bro." They were not, obviously, brothers. They were, however, distantly related by marriage. Sora's father was Squall Leonhart, one of the most legendary agents the Light Guardians had seen, much like Roxas' own father, Cloud Strife. Xion's mother was Ellone Loire, Squall's sister. Therefore, in Sora's eyes at least, the two were cousins.

Roxas did not reply to Sora's efforts to make small talk.

Sora sighed and got down to business. "Well, once you walk outta here, you're headed for Twilight Town. Your new name is Ventus Tribal. Your mother, Garnet, lives in Hollow Bastion, while your father, Zidane, was killed in the Heartless Wars ten years ago. You have a half-brother, Vanitas, who lives with Garnet in Hollow Bastion." He paused. "Also, we've kept the part about you being a widower. Sorry."

Roxas looked at him and said one word. "Xion?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah, you were still married to Xion. Most of her details are the same, except for cause of death. Clearly, 'death by vampire mauling' isn't gonna cut it in the real world." Despite himself, Roxas smiled at Sora's feeble, if slightly tasteless, joke. "Hey, a smile! I knew you were still yourself! Anyway, we had to change Xion's COD to 'stabbed to death in a failed mugging'. Not much better than what actually happened, but it was the best we could come up with."

Roxas nodded.

"Okay, that's it," Sora concluded, standing up and making for the guarded door.

"Sora," Roxas called after his friend in a hoarse voice.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For everything."

Sora gave him a sad smile. "Hey. What are friends for?"

Corridors

Light Guardians HQ

1525 hours

15th August 2010

Lea was calmly walking through the halls when he was pushed against a wall by Isa.

"What the hell?" Lea demanded.

"You know what," Isa sneered in hushed tones. "Your defence of that rule-breaker back there."

"Oh, get off that high-horse of yours, will ya?" Lea batted away Isa's hands. "The only reason you were so…vehement in there was because of this obscure grudge you have against me."

"It is not obscure!" Isa snarled.

Lea grinned cockily. "Called it."

The blue-haired man stared directly into Lea's eyes before looking away.

"Isa, next time you wanna settle something with me, don't get my friends involved." Lea's voice was surprisingly violent-sounding.

Isa left without another word.

Gohan Roxas: I hate writing depressing things. Hence the likely indefinite hiatus of 'Reformation'. Sorry!

Roxas: Please review! If you don't, things'll probably become even more depressing for me!