towerofanimus | In you and I...

Entry tags:

In you and I...

Characters: Xion and everyone!
Setting: Room 1-01 > Dormitory Hallways > Floor 20
Format: Whatever you like!
Summary: Xion's Arrival, plus worrying, plus minor exploring, plus falling back on something familiar
Warnings: Nothing yet, will edit if necessary

[Not being able to move when she'd woken up had been a little scary, but not nearly as terrifying as the letters she'd found just after. The worlds, all of them, gone? They couldn't be... they couldn't! And yet, when she tried to open a darkness corridor to one of them, nothing happened.

She gets dressed from the clothes in her trunk, puts the hood of her black coat up, and after that, she heads out into the dormitory hallways, where she finds one of the network terminals. She may have been able to gain access to files she wasn't supposed to back in the World That Never Was, but it doesn't take much poking around on the device though to come to the conclusion that there's not much more information on what happened on the terminals here.

What was she going to do? What happened to Roxas and Axel, or even Riku? Was this somehow her fault?

At that point, she begins descending the stairs to the floors below, looking around briefly on each floor before continuing.

On floor 20, though, she stops. It's open to the air for the first time. It reminds her a little of the Clock Tower, though it was impossible to mistake the cold, overcast skies for warm, bright Twilight Town. Still, it's familiar, memories that are her own, and right now that familiarity is a comfort. She walks out to the edge and sits, legs hanging over as she stares out. Not that there's much to see.]

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[At the sound of his voice, Xion's head jerks up. She knows that voice. She twists around to see, to be sure. It was hard to mistake the silver hair, and the blindfold over his eyes.]

Riku!

[Relief courses through her. She's still upset about what all had just happened, but she'd been terrified she was here alone, without anyone she'd known or trusted there. If Riku was here, though... he had to know what was going on, right?]

[At hearing the sound of her voice the rest of those almost lost memories settles back into place and a small, sad smile flickers over his face, because he is glad to see her again, especially since he hadn't thought he ever would.]

You just arrived, huh? Welcome to the Tower, I guess.

[She nods quietly, looking down and out. The welcome is appreciated, but she can't help but feel a little hollow about it. The letters she'd read, the reason they were here...]

Riku... The worlds... they can't really be gone, can they?

[There's a pleading note in her voice. It can't be true, can it? There has to be some kind of mistake or trick...]

[With the way she doesn't look at him, that note in her voice, he can't help, but reach out to settle a hand on her arm. She's not alone after all, and while admittedly Riku hasn't quite figured it all out himself (yet) that should at least be a small comfort. Right?]

...I don't believe so. It's just a letter, after all. I have yet to see any proof that anything happened the worlds.

[Small as it is, it's a comfort she takes readily at the moment. He'd been giving her so much guidance, back on their worlds, before Axel had caught her and taken her back to the World that Never Was. She'd been wondering what to do then, trying to figure out the situation, and wishing she could ask. Now she doesn't have to wish, but the asking will come another time.

The reassurance does help too, though it doesn't explain everything.]

Then why are we here?

[Riku probably wouldn't call it 'so much' guidance, not when he, even when thinking of the worlds, couldn't help but feel as if he was acting selfish in all of it. Hero of the Keyblade or not, needed by the worlds and everyone living in them or not, Sora is still his best friend, one of two persons that he would do anything for in a single heartbeat.

And even though he gave her time, even though he had never actually pushed her to make a decision, but had made sure that she made it on her own - part of him can't help but wonder, maybe it had been selfish of him to put her before that choice in first place, to ask her to give up her existance so that his best friend may wake up with the memories of that one friend most important to both of them.

He will never speak of any of that.

He frowns slightly; not at her, but at their situation - this is another one of those questions he has asked himself ever since arriving in this place.]

...I suppose, because whoever is controlling this Tower and its whims likes to play games.

[The choice he'd given her was a difficult one. It weighed heavily on her mind as she'd traveled back home. But really, so long as she'd known everything, known that her holding his memories was keeping Sora from waking up... if the choice hadn't weighed on her mind, then that would have. She couldn't justify to herself just selfishly allowing someone else's friend to just... sleep forever, never waking up or interacting with the world ever again, just so she could keep living her own life.

Maybe someone else could make that kind of choice, but she couldn't.

The Organization had kept so much from her, about her nature and existence, they'd told her what to do and expected her to do it, with no questions, for fear of being turned into a Dusk (though now a part of her wonders if they would even do that - if they wouldn't just destroy her like a defective puppet). But Riku had explained things, or if he couldn't he'd still say why. And he had given her that choice.

It meant a lot, to her.

Their current situation is an unpleasant one though. The idea that their rescuer or rescuers just like to play games with them leaves her feeling uneasy and uncomfortable. Maybe it's something about the way Riku says it, but she gets the feeling these aren't the kind of "games" she's seen the kids in Twilight Town play.]

We can't leave either, can we...? I tried making a portal to the other worlds, but... nothing happens.

[Most people would call the choice he'd laid out for her not just 'difficult', but impossible.

That, Riku supposes, had been the Organization's mistake - had they told her anything instead of keeping her questions unanswered, he would have had a much harder time approaching her... in that he has to be thankful for its questionable information politics.

'Unpleasant' is certainly one of the first word that comes to mind when it comes to their situation, with 'dangerous' and 'uncertain' coming right after it. When Riku talks about 'games' here, he mostly thinks of Castle Oblivion, so many players each with their own agenda, trying to weave strings around him and to pull him into the one direction or another. He had been able to escape those would-be-puppet-masters then, and he's sworn to himself he'd do the same here.

He will never let anyone else take control of him and his actions ever again and he won't let them do it to others either.

He shakes his head, finally pulling his hand away and crossing his arms over his chest.]

I tried myself when I first arrived... for now at least, we are stuck.

[That doesn't mean he's giving up though. Far from it.]

[Had they opted to tell her, they not only could have controlled what information she received, but how it was presented, something that could have made a world of difference in her final decision (something the Zexion here can attest to).

As it is, she's still struggling to decide what to do right now, and arriving here at the Tower has just thrown a whole new bunch of complications into the matter. The games that Xemnas had been playing with their lives - hers and Roxas's and Sora's and everyone connected to them's - had suddenly changed.

When Riku draws his arm back, Xion wraps her own arms around herself - more for comfort than anything. Though she does feel a lot safer knowing Riku's here.

As well as a pang of guilt.]

Riku, I'm sorry, back in Twilight Town... I didn't mean to get caught.

[Some part of her, when she'd first pulled her hood off, had thought maybe talking to Roxas, however briefly, would help her with the decision she'd been struggling with. It'd barely take a few words though, to realize that wasn't the case. She'd wanted to leave, but then Roxas had stopped her, and then she'd fought Axel...

And of course, there's a part of her that sort of means here, too. She hadn't meant to get stuck here too, especially if their worlds weren't really destroyed.]

[Riku feels a slight pang of guilt himself when he watches her hugging herself, maybe he shouldn't have pulled away after all. It's too late to take it back though, so he just clenches his hands a little, shaking his head when she apologizes.]

It's okay... I know you didn't.

[She is too bound to Roxas and Axel to stay away, just like he is bound to Sora and Kairi and how could he ever fault her for that? The tower is even less her fault; non of them had meant to end up here and the only reason isn't far more on edge about all of it, is because Naminé assured him that Sora would wake.

And knowing this for sure, he can fully concentrate on the issues at hand.

In any case, this also answers the question of about when Xion is from... which is also a topic he should probably bring up.]

Xion... there is something you need to know about this tower. As strange as it sounds, it often brings people from differing points in time and if I'm right... I'm from a little less than two months ahead of you.

[The assurance that he wasn't unhappy with her for getting caught is another small comfort, and with things how they are she'll take what she can get. It's enough that she reaches up and pulls her hood down, still uncomfortable but no longer feeling the need to hide.]

Different times? [She looks down, frowning] The worlds can't be gone... [She sounds a little more sure now, and less like she's trying to convince herself. How would something like different times be possible otherwise? If the world were really destroyed, then they wouldn't exist for the people later to experience, would they?

She doesn't know what to say about Riku being two months ahead. Part of her wants to ask, if everyone's okay, if Sora was awake now... if she'd made her decision.

The other part of her isn't sure she wants to know.]

[He nods; alone by the logic that Naminé was from after him and couldn't be here if the worlds had been destroyed just after he had come to the tower, the letters are rather fishy to say at least.

Riku isn't going to tell her anything unless she asks... and maybe not even then. Her second re-capture by the Organization, her fight with Roxas... those not things she really needs to know about after all, right?]

I don't think we need to worry that much about the worlds. In this tower there are enough other things to be concerned about.

[Ignorance really is bliss sometimes. Or at least painful, when you don't know what's missing. She drops the subject, for now at least.]

What kinds of things are there here?

[She's been getting a really uneasy feeling ever since she arrived, partially from the letters, partially from the unexpectedness of it all.]

[Well, at least he will try to give her something like a reason why he won't tell her. And he won't lie to her. That's the one thing he won't ever do.]

I've only seen it once so far, but the tower... changes sometimes. Or does something along the lines of cursing people, I guess.

[And that's why she trusts him so much more than the Organization. It's a relief in many ways, having someone she can trust like that.]

Like... it becomes a different place?

[Not going to even ask about the curses yet. She's a little confused, and asking all these questions is sort of awkward, but she really doesn't know, and something like this... if it's as dangerous as she thinks it is, it's important.]

[He'd take that as a compliment, but well...]

Yeah. Shortly after I arrived it compressed into one single room; locking all of us in with dozens of monsters. They started swarming the place since; mostly at night.

[It is indeed just that dangerous, and to be honest Riku is glad that she is asking now rather than to stumble up it all by herself.]

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In you and I...

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/late orz

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