The Pain of Trying [Open]

[anicat]

Head spinning, blurred images, a nasty ringing in her ears drilling into her brain. An unending black void that threatened to swallow her whole, again.

I... I can't...

It was as though the darkness that had once consumed her had entered her peaceful sleep and forced a shattered soul into her newly reformed physical form. She could practically feel the sheer darkness pulling and clawing at her numb body. Her mind refused to take in what was happening, but it's capacity to process the pain had remained untouched. It was unbearable.

If I don't... fight it...

No. She had to fight it. She couldn't take in so much pain. So, with the little strenght she had, she opened her way across the black void, escaping the claws of darkness. Yes. Yes, somewhere far away, she could see the light piercing through the darkness, a sole star in the blackness of the horizon. It grew closer within every second...

"H-huh?"

Bright blue eyes opened to the eternal sunset she knew so well. Xion found herself lying on a small, deserted alley, still in her Organization cloak, with a burning pain al over her body. She winced softly as she struggled to get back on her feet; and once she'd done so, she made her way around Twilight Town. There had to be someone, anyone, whoever, who could tell her what had happened. Her mind felt... blank, completely blank, she couldn't recall anything. Not even the last minutes of her existence.

But she did know that she had people to see. Her best friends, to begin with. And after that...? Well, she wasn't sure, but the one thing she did know... was that she wanted nothing to do with the Organization anymore.

[Sora]

Well, Hayner and the guys weren't at the usual spot.

Sora let the tattered curtain fall back behind him, breaking into a jog back down the street out of habit. He didn't really have a goal in mind for today. That is, he did and he didn't--on the one hand he needed to follow Mickey's instructions, but on the other he really needed a place to start first. Sora's searches had a habit of taking years.

Whenever he found himself without Donald and Goofy, it was easier to get distracted. Sora normally led the charge between the three of them, but it also wasn't unusual for them to take over for him, and in general just being with those two put him in a different mindset. It meant keeping an eye out for the important things and wasting less time exploring. On his own, Sora could indulge every curiosity that caught his interest--at least until the situation got serious.

That wasn't likely to happen here. Sora's goal was to meet with Yen Sid at his tower, but while he was in the area he figured seeing his friends wouldn't take up too much time. But they just didn't seem to be around--maybe they were in school? School. There's an idea he didn't need to think too long on, he was behind enough already...

Meantime, seeing the clock tower again brought back memories. All of Twilight Town did that, really, but it was more like scattered cases of deja vu. He couldn't recall with clarity anything that had happened to his Nobody here, but hearing from Riku and the King both let him put together a picture of what Roxas had been like.

The sight of that blond kid in the cloak--the thought that his Nobody had been among the Organization's ranks--still filled Sora with a prickling anxiety.

He slowed as he got to the Station Plaza, blue eyes drawn upward to the barely visible lip of railing that hemmed in the area above the clock. At least, Sora assumed it looked like that--he'd never been up there so how could he know?

"Huh." Fingers interlocked behind his head and Sora shifted his weight back slightly. "Wonder if they're up there?"

Gradually, a sense of unease was settling over him. By the time he finished voicing that question, his expression started growing concerned and confused, and he couldn't seem to tear his eyes from that spot so far above.

Wasn't I here once?

The more he wracked his brain for something to remind him, the less familiar the entire experience seemed. He found himself wishing he could talk to that Nobody again for once, find out what Roxas was like when he wasn't angry and fighting. Maybe it was Roxas who used to sit up there, looking out over the town. Maybe it was Roxas who once stood here with the nagging feeling he was forgetting something...

Out of the corner of his eye, Sora saw her fall to her knees.

"Kairi!"

But she was gone the moment he turned his head. Shaken blue eyes darted around the plaza for her, and Sora rubbed them with the heels of his hands before he relaxed. It must have been a trick of the light, but how creepy was that? Come to think of it had he even shouted the right n--well yes of course he had, he knew what Kairi's name was. Suddenly it sounded weird, though, as if...as if it wasn't familiar. And now that he'd finally met Naminé, Sora could remember another time just like this.

Something cold settling in his stomach made a shiver twitch across Sora's shoulders.

Why was Twilight Town reminding him so suddenly of Castle Oblivion?

[Larxene]

Why of all places did she have to appear here?. The moderate-height woman with slicked back blonde hair and two 'antennae' on top of her head, looked around with icy teal eyes. There was no emotion, no sparkle of life, nothing, just a dead void of blue-green, green in some light, blue in other light. A heavy leather cloak nipped at the waist covered her thin figure, and her stature told of years of good bearing. Larxene had once been a popular girl, before she became part of the Organization, however, some of those memories had been forgotten, clouded by the recent events that had lead her here, to this godforsaken area of Twilight town.

A sneer wound it's way onto her features and she glanced around again, gaze locking onto a very familliar looking brown-haired male. The sneer was replaced with a smirk, as she walked deliberately slowly, her high heeled boots gently clicking on the ground. The Keybearer brat was here..and that's all Larxene needed to cheer herself up..if she could do so. A few E'clair manifested in her left hand and she took a quick glance at them. Their pointed ends glinted maliciously in the never-ending twilight.