Starter for @heartbinders
Xion w/ Roxas
At the edge of pale blue glass, backlit to hues of neon sky, Xion leaned forward, and peered into the abyss. Darkness like a pot of spilled ink obscured and swallowed the light below. A spark of fire and heat, simmering like the sun or a star on a clear day, trembled in the tumultuous clouds of shadows. Xion stretched out her hand and a pale glimmer summoned her keyblade to her grasp. A slow breath, filling and emptying her lungs, focused her heart and mind. She stepped off the edge of the station and dove.
This process had become familiar to her: diving from heart-to-heart, delving into memories, and fighting the darkness, or nightmares, within. It may have been about week ago when Yen Sid called her, Sora, and Riku to his office. The three teenagers had been an odd bunch: Riku, serious and focused; Sora goofing around with his friends; and Xion, withdrawn from the bunch. Yen Sid wanted all three of them to take the Mark of Mastery by finding and awakening various sleeping worlds. Sora and Riku were all for it; Xion resisted the idea. She had no interest in becoming a 'master.' Nonetheless, he encouraged her to dive along with the two boys. He wanted her to repair her broken connections and restore the memories that Xion had scattered when she freed herself from the control of Xemnas. So, Xion had reluctantly done what he'd suggested and no sooner had she made the first dive to her own heart, did she truly admit the need.
Xion's Station of Awakening had been broken: the portraits in fragments, the glass cracked, and the foundation shattered. She had walked over razor edges and found only one parts of herself whole. In over a year, Saix was the only person who had remembered her and so only his portrait remained intact. So, Xion started with him: diving from heart-to-heart, delving into the memories of others, and fixing what had been broken. Something she continued even now, as once again, she dove.
The station below her was so deep and far away that she fell through layers upon layers of darkness, battling nightmarish tendrils that swiped at her falling form. But at the deepest, depth, she saw the blush of a fading sunset, sandy blond hair, and finally she knew, she had arrived at Roxas' station. She'd been trying to get here for days while she intersected and interacted with a dozen lives, some only tangentially connected to her own. But they all held pieces and fragments of the chain. They all led here.
Warm light exuded from Roxas' station, each portrait bearing the face of a smiling friend, and he slept in his image, encased in glass. In some way, it was peaceful. There was a little comfort: Roxas slept, he wasn't in pain. Xion didn't know if that made him alive or dead, or simply not being. But he was a nobody so he had never been anyway. Xion walked to the center of the station and lifted her keyblade towards the center. The memories opened for her and the darkness faded to a cobblestone street, winding alleys, white stone buildings.
Twilight Town. Xion supposed that made sense.
She watched him play, chasing friends in the streets. Friends he never had but maybe his heart had connected with and now he dreamed of. Like a never ending Summer vacation with no looming school work to threaten him. He looked like a teenager. A normal teenager and Xion lurked in his shadow, until at an opportune moment in his distraction she called:
