"There she is…" Roxas whispered to himself.

Should I find Axel? The boss made it sound like this would be a difficult mission If things go sideways, I'm not sure I can handle her on my own. But she be gone by the time I get back…

He decided on diplomacy. Maybe she could be convinced to come willingly to the castle if he told them about their mission. He'd always figured people would be sympathetic towards the Organization's plight if they were told.

People with hearts felt for others. He knew that much to be true, even if he hadn't experienced it firsthand.

He had spent too much time in his thoughts, the girl having wandered in the direction of the train station, ascending the hill. She looked about herself as she walked, giving Roxas the impression that she was unfamiliar with this world.

Roxas stepped out of his hiding place, and suddenly realized that he had no plan. How was he meant to approach her without startling her? He didn't want to scare her off. He tried to think what the more experienced members of the Organization would do, but came up blank. They probably wouldn't engage with locals in the first place, preferring to stick to the shadows and observe. He would have to think of something on his own.

Maybe if I act like I'm lost. People with hearts want to help others, right?

After taking time to accumulate some courage, he approached her with what he hoped was a casual gait. The last thing he wanted to do was run at her and risk her running away.

"Excuse me?" He called out, hoping his nervousness didn't leak into his voice. As soon as he saw her reaction, his heart, had he had one, would have sank. The woman stopped in her tracks suddenly, and began to shake.

"That's…no," he heard her say, seemingly to herself. She had a soft voice, but it had a tinge to it. A shakiness. Roxas wasn't an expert on emotions, even on an observational level, but could make a few guesses. Shock, surprise, hope, doubt, fear. Any and all of them were possible.

"It's impossible," she continued, taking a shaky step forwards. "You're hearing things, Aqua. It's just like what you saw before, just an illusion. He can't have possibly-"

"Hey," Roxas called out once more, more careful in his tone this time. "I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, but I'm a little lost. Could you help me?"

The woman put her shaking hands over her ears and shook her head. She whispered to herself, and Roxas could barely make out what she said.

"Not real, it's not real, it's not real, it's not real…"

This was going nowhere. Either the woman was crazy, traumatized, not all there, in a state of panic, or all of the above. This approach wasn't working. Maybe trying to get her to the castle through conversation was impossible. Roxas couldn't even get her to turn around.

Then Roxas had a thought.

She said her name, didn't she? Maybe…

"Aqua?" He said, confusion and uncertainty ringing in his voice.

Not a moment later, she whipped around, breathing hard, eyes wide, and all Roxas took an involuntary step back by the sheer force of her emotion. Her chest heaved, her eyes widened, and her knees nearly buckled beneath her.

"Y…" she whispered shakily. "You…are…are you real? Are you just in my head?"

Well, he definitely wasn't a figment of her imagination, or an illusion, but real? Roxas had been struggling with that concept for quite a while. It seemed that if you had no heart, you weren't truly real. It's why he'd been fighting so hard to complete Kingdom Hearts. It's why he wanted his friends to share the same future as him.

But in that moment, something about her voice and her face resonated with him. He couldn't tell if he just tricked himself into thinking that he felt something. But that unsureness just reminded him of when he first came to be, stumbling around in a haze, unable to speak. Something about her called out to him, and he wanted to greet her.

"I'm real," he finally answered. Not that saying that improved anything. He figured that, in her state, he'd have to supply a bit more proof, if it gave her some ease of mind. He couldn't exactly talk to her while she was in this state anyways, and at the moment, she was liable to run off.

But she approached him before he could her, and Roxas suddenly became very aware that she was a good head taller than him. Tentatively, cautiously, slowly, until she stood right in front of him. She reached down, and it took all of Roxas' willpower to not flinch away.

Aqua gasped as she touched his cheek, cupping it in her hand, feeling his cool skin under her panic-warmed palm.

"It's you," she said, her voice breaking. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes until they shattered, sliding down her cheeks. "It's really you! When I hid you away, I didn't…" Her voice hitched in a sob. "I didn't know if I'd ever see you again!"

Roxas recoiled, shocked at her outburst, but Aqua pressed on, embracing him, a hand lacing it's fingers through his hair, the other tapping along his back as if to search for injuries, or to further prove the reality of the situation.

"You're the same, just like I left you," she managed through thick relief. She pulled away, Roxas' shoulders in her grip, and looked him in the eyes, a quivering smile on display. "I'm so sorry. I thought I'd be back for you sooner, but…" She shook her head. "it doesn't matter anymore. You're awake. You…"

She looked him up and down, and looked at ease for the first time in their interaction.

"You got new clothes," she laughed. "You've really got no fashion sense, Ven."

"Ven?" Roxas finally spoke. He tried to pull away, but Aqua's grip was like iron; she was stronger than she looked. Though she did lessen her hold on him, and her smile faded.

"What's wrong?" Aqua asked with an almost motherly concern. "You're not hurt, are you?" She leaned closer, but Roxas backed away, leaving her grasp entirely, leaving her arms reaching for him. "Ven?"

"I'm sorry," Roxas said, his hands held up defensively. There was something about the intensity of her emotion that was palpable – he could practically taste it in the air. It weighed heavily in his chest, overwhelming him. It was too much. He looked off to the side nervously, unable to look her in the eyes. "You-"

He was cut off as a chakram suddenly bit into the ground between himself and Aqua. They both reflexively jumped backwards and summoned their keyblades. Roxas held a keyblade with a yellow handle and a long silver keychain, and Aqua held one with a more intricate handle comprised of copper bars, from which a long dark-grey shaft jutted. They both looked at the direction from which the weapon had come, and Aqua leaped backwards further as a figure in a black coat cast an identical chakram after her. It didn't quite close the distance, and spun back to the throwers hand, who retrieved the first chakram from the ground.

"Axel, stop!" Roxas said.

"You know the order," the man responded, pulling back his hood to reveal a full head of spiky red hair. "We have to get her back to the castle at any cost. It's from the boss himself."

"Yeah, but we don't have to fight her!"

"Get away from him!" Aqua shouted, firing a spike of ice from her keyblade towards Axel. He threw a chakram, the fire revolving around it melting the ice in an instant, and threw out his second chakram. She quickly batted the it aside and closed the distance between herself and Axel. His eyes widened in surprise at her speed.

"She doesn't seem to think so," Axel said, blocking a swing from Aqua's keyblade and following up with a bolt of fire erupting from his hand.

It grazed Aqua's shoulder, causing a superficial burn and scorching part of her snow-white sleeves. She hardly even winced in pain; she had suffered much worse in her training, her adventures to other worlds, and her experience in the depths of darkness. She backed up and threw her keyblade, electricity sparking along its metal shaft as it spun through the air.

Axel raised his weapon to block the incoming projectile, bracing his boots against the ground, ready to take the brunt of the impact.

Both combatants were surprised when Roxas jumped in front of his friend in some attempt to protect him. But the relative novice didn't anticipate the speed nor the force of Aqua's attack, and so when he raised his own keyblade into a block, he couldn't do it quite in time. The keyblade collided with his chest, throwing him backwards onto the ground, twitching from the electricity running through his body.

"Roxas!" Axel shouted.

"Ven!" Aqua cried.

They looked at each other with contempt, Axel ready to engage in combat to avenge the damage that befell his friend. But Aqua had more important things on her mind. The moment her keyblade returned to her hand, she ran forwards, collapsed onto her knees, and placed it's tip against Roxas's chest, casting a healing spell.

"Ven, are you okay?" she asked fearfully. "Please be okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Axel hesitated. He wasn't sure if he could attack Aqua without hurting his friend. And something about the way that Aqua treated Roxas – her hands gently resting on his shoulders, her shaking mouth whispering apology after apology – put him on edge. And why was she calling him that?

"A-Aqua," Roxas whispered, his voice strained, his breathing uneven. He could take a hit, but Aqua had thoroughly knocked the wind out of him. "Don't hurt him. Please. H-He's my friend. He made a mistake, so please. Just s-stop."

Aqua looked up at Axel, who had a difficult expression on his face. She couldn't tell if he was angry, regretful, or both, but she could see that he wasn't attacking, and that his eyes were on Ventus, having almost completely forgotten his opponent the moment Ven was harmed. He cared for him, that much was clear.

She banished her keyblade, the weapon dissipating into sparks of light before disappearing entirely. Taking her eyes off her opponent, she helped Ventus to his feet.

"Who is he?" she asked firmly.

"He's my friend," Roxas said immediately, his hand on his chest. Her spell had helped his injury, but the pain was still there. "His name is Axel. He was just afraid that you were going to attack me."

"Why are you lying to me?" Aqua said, causing Roxas to flinch. "I heard what he said. You two want me to come with you to some castle on someone's orders. I didn't find you. You were looking for me. Because someone else told you to."

"Roxas- "

She looked up at Axel, who had since banished his own weapons. His sentence stopped short at her steely gaze.

"Why do you keep calling him that?" she demanded.

"Because it's his name," Axel said. "Why do you keep calling him Ven?"

"Because it's his name," Aqua echoed harshly.

"No, it isn't. You're delusional."

"You don't know anything about him!"

"How can you say that when you don't even…know…hey, wait a minute," Axel trailed off, looking at the topic of their argument with intrigue. Roxas looked confused, but when he met Axel's gaze, he began reaching for the same conclusion, shaking his head.

"No," Roxas said, stumbling back a step. "There's no way, right?"

Axel knew for a fact that there was no way. He knew who Roxas was, even if he wasn't allowed to tell him under fear of being eliminated by Xemnas himself. He knew all about Sora. He probably even knew him better than Sora himself, with his memories torn apart like they were. He knew that it would be a horrible lie to put Roxas through, that it was possible that he would never forgive himself.

But he also knew that he was a Nobody, and that anything he felt wouldn't be real anyways. It would just be an illusion created by himself. So he went ahead with his plan.

"Roxas," Axel said with the feigned shock appropriate for a discovery of this magnitude. "I think she knows who you were."