Chapter Text
Seeing familiar, formerly hostile faces in Ansem’s Castle is putting Roxas a little on edge, but the warmth of Axel and Xion at his side softens the blow of meeting Aeleus, Dilan, and Ienzo. Though the former appears stand-offish, the middle completely neutral, and the latter shyly welcoming, it was clear from their vibe they meant Roxas no harm. It’s a far cry from all the golden-eyed members of the Organization that had been too shocked to strike when Roxas had taken form inside one of their waiting replica bodies, and subsequently missed their chance to when he’d opened a portal to Sora’s location using his keyblades and arrived just in time to save his friends.
From Aeleus, he receives a grunt. Dilan, a nod that speaks volumes without saying anything at all. And Ienzo, a nervous smile as he says, “Hello, Roxas. I’m glad to see that you made it.”
Ienzo doesn’t specify whether he means out of Sora’s heart, or maybe surviving the battle at the Keyblade Graveyard, but when Axel explains, “Ienzo was the leading guy we had working with Sora on the ‘bringing Roxas back’ issue, apart from me, of course. He was the one that found the data Ansem the Wise left behind and discovered you were still kicking around in there,” Roxas gives the man a grateful nod.
“Thanks.”
“It was no problem.” Ienzo waves his hands, palms facing outward, back and forth quickly. “I wanted to help. I’m sorry about… everything that happened in the past.”
Roxas was not expecting to receive an apology, despite feeling in general like many people owed him one. In truth, he’d barely interacted with Zexion before the blue haired young man had been terminated at Castle Oblivion, but Roxas definitely hadn’t enjoyed being told by the Nobody that he ought to work even harder than Saix already asked him to during heart collection.
“It’s alright.” Roxas says belatedly, feeling awkward as Ienzo looks at him with a surprising amount of contrition. Taking a page from Axel’s book, he tries a joke to gloss things over. “So long as you don’t tell me to apply myself any time soon.”
Ienzo blushes scarlet. “Of-of course! I wouldn’t dare!!” He stammers.
Beside him, Axel snorts and claps a hand on the guy’s shoulder in amusement. “Lighten up, Ienzo, Roxas is only messing with ya.”
“Oh. Ahah…” Ienzo looks between the two of them as if he doesn’t really believe it at first, but then when Roxas nods, his eyes widen and he hides behind the thick curtain of his bangs.
After that somewhat painful exchange –painful for him and Ienzo, at least, Axel looked rather delighted to witness Ienzo’s squirming– Roxas cites the need for some air and leaves them behind in the computer room and goes for a little walk through the halls of the big Castle.
On his way down a long hallway, he passes by a lab room with an open door, and when he glances in, he does a double take, surprised to see yet another familiar face there: a blond girl in a white dress, sitting in a chair by the window looking out, a sketchbook open on the table in front of her.
“Namine!” Roxas exclaims in surprise, bounding a few steps into the room.
Namine looks up at the sound, turning in her seat. “Roxas!”
She stands up as he walks over and takes his hands when he automatically stretches them out to grip them once tightly before letting go to beam at him. “It’s so good to see you! They told me you got a body too, but… wow. Both of us really made it back in the end.”
“Yeah.” Roxas squelches a half-grin. “Guess you were right after all. We didn’t disappear.”
Namine’s smile is sweet but tinged with guilt. “I’m sorry for what I said before. I didn’t know this was possible. I thought we had to give ourselves up... I was wrong.”
“Did DiZ– uh, Ansem the Wise tell you that?”
Namine nods. “Yes. He said it was the only way Sora would wake up. I should have tried harder to wake Sora a different way but… I was scared of him. He didn’t seem to like me very much.”
“It’s okay. It wasn’t really your fault.” Roxas sighs. “I appreciate you risking yourself to at least tell me what was going on.”
“I thought you had the right to know.” Namine says quietly.
Roxas quirks a lip at that bitterly. “I’m sure DiZ didn’t agree with you on that.”
“No. He didn’t.” Namine says somberly. “I was really surprised he changed his mind and decided to help us in the end. Him and Riku.”
Roxas furrows a brow in confusion. “Riku? What do you mean?”
“Oh. Um, not that Riku. The replica Riku.” Namine explains. “Riku came by earlier and told me about what happened in the Keyblade Graveyard. The replica was inside him the whole time, and sacrificed himself to defeat the replica from the past and told the real Riku to give me the replica body it left behind.”
She raises an arm and looks at it, turning her palm over and back. “It’s thanks to him that I have a body now.”
Roxas notes that despite the good news, Namine looks really sad.
“What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy about that?”
“Oh.” Namine blinks up at him, and he’s surprised to see that the girl who seemed so mysterious and all-knowing is one hard blink away from shedding tears. “It’s nothing, I just… wish he was here, so that I could thank him in person.”
It takes Roxas a moment to get it. And then suddenly he does, all too well. “The replica?”
Namine nods. “He was… the only one who ever cared this much for me, even after everything I did to him. He could’ve used this body himself, and instead he gave it up. Gave up everything. All for a promise I made up. I… don’t think I deserve it.”
Roxas is shocked. “Namine, how could you say that? What happened to him is bad, but of course you deserve a body!”
Namine is smiling again, but once more it’s one of pain rather than joy. “Do I? All I’ve ever done is make things hard for people. Maybe DiZ was right. I am a witch.”
“Don’t say that.” Roxas urges her. “DiZ was wrong about us, even he admitted it eventually. Being Nobodies doesn’t mean we don’t deserve to live just as much as anybody else. That replica guy made his decision because he knew that– and wanted to save you.”
Roxas firmly believes Namine deserves a life of her own, but even as he speaks, a cold stone settles somewhere in his stomach. Living at the expense of another, somebody who everyone tells you is more important, and seeing the proof of that for yourself… it had shaken him too. Maybe the two of them were a dark shadow of their counterparts, worthy only of the space they’d been given. Or at least he was.
“I guess you’re right.” Namine says, clasping her hands together in front of her chest, “But I still want to help him somehow. That’s why… I’m going to search for him. Him and Sora. I don’t know if there’s anything left of him, but if there is, I’ll find it. He had a heart, I’m sure of it. I’ll spend forever piecing him back together if I have to.”
“Yeah.” Roxas nods, approvingly. “I hope you find him. If you ever need help, let me know.”
“Okay, I will. Thanks, Roxas.” Namine smiles at him, genuinely happy this time.
Roxas smiles back.
“There you are. Was wondering where you wandered off to, Roxas.”
Blinking, Roxas turns to see Axel in the doorway, giving them an odd look.
“Axel!” Namine looks surprised to see him. “Hello.”
“Hey there, Namine. Good to see ya. And it’s Lea now.” Axel turns the hand he raised in greeting into a finger to point at his head. “Got it memorized?”
“Oh. Yes, Lea, I’m sorry.”
“All good, so long as you got it memorized.” Axel doesn’t spend as long as Roxas expects talking to Namine, in fact, he turns to Roxas and beckons him over. “You all caught up, then?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Xion was starting to miss you. We should probably go back before she gets too lonely, ya know?”
“Oh, right.” Roxas scratches his head. “My bad, I just needed a little space. The others weren’t what I was expecting.”
Axel snorts. “Yeah, not so scary now that they’re no longer Nobodies, huh? Those three were always a little toothless, especially Ienzo. Can’t believe I used to let those two drag me outta here by the scruff when I was a kid.”
“Who, Dilan and Aeleus?”
“Hyeah.”
“Wish I could’ve seen that.” Roxas remarks.
“I bet you do.” Axel snorts. “Too bad for you, even if I was willing to let them do it, I’m taller than they are now. It just wouldn’t be the same, I’m afraid.” He waves a wrist in the air, covering his eyes and looking down to the other side in mock lamentation.
Roxas rolls his eyes at his best friend’s not-so-humble brag. “What a shame.”
Through the spaces in his fingers, he can see Axel’s smile.
“We’d better get back to Xion. See ya later, Namine.” Roxas says, turning back to give Namine a wave goodbye, and as she waves back, he notices that she has another smile on her face, but this time it’s a new expression he hasn’t seen before. She looks dryly amused.
Huh. Maybe she thought what Axel said about the former Organization members was funny too.
He files out into the hallway after Axel and is pleasantly surprised as the taller man lopes an arm around his shoulder and pulls him to his side as they saunter down the hall. Roxas isn’t sure why they’re walking together like this, but it seems like something best friends would do, so he happily leans into Axel’s side.
It was good to see Namine again. And despite the weirdness, the others too. That just about summed up everybody in the Organization who’d switched sides that Roxas had yet to confront. Everybody but one.