Twilight Town
First Appearance: KINGDOM HEARTS CHAIN OF MEMORIES (2004)
Unaware of anything, a blonde boy with eyes of blue awakens in front of the massive old mansion. He is approached by a man in a black coat who gives him the name "Roxas". The man, Xemnas, deems it - "the new you".
Roxas undergoes training in Twilight Town with various members of Organization XIII. He works with Axel, Marluxia, Zexion, Larxene, Vexen and Lexaeus. He learns the basic skills and of the Heartless, creatures made of Darkness that capture people's Hearts. Using his mythical weapon, the Keyblade, Roxas must defeat those Heartless and free the captured Hearts. The Hearts released by the Keyblade gather to form Kingdom Hearts, a massive force that will help the Organization reach its goal. The members are all Nobodies, beings that lost their Hearts. Using Kingdom Hearts they can attain Hearts of their own, and as Roxas is the only member with a Keyblade, he's irreplaceable.
After each mission, Roxas meets up with Axel on top of the clock tower. There, they eat ice cream and talk about nothing and laugh together as friends do. A week later, however, Axel leaves to Castle Oblivion along with all the members Roxas worked with so far. The Castle is a research facility of the Organization's, placed in the world between worlds.
Once Axel leaves, Roxas is teamed up with Xion, the XIV member. Day 24 marks the first day in which she talked ever since joining, and the next day she removes her hood for the first time. She is a girl Roxas's age with short black hair and blue eyes. During the mission Roxas is hit and his Keyblade is knocked away. It teleports into Xion's hands and she completes the mission, but neither can believe she was able to wield Roxas's Keyblade. In celebration of their success and the newfound friendship between them, Roxas takes Xion to the clock tower and they have ice cream together. They promise to try and be friends once Axel is back - all three of them.
Roxas revisits Twilight Town after being asleep for several weeks. He meets Xion at the clock tower and she gives him a seashell. Roxas presses it to his ear and sees the image of a boy with brown spiky hair dressed in red and a redheaded girl dressed in white and purple, sitting on a dock and watching the sun set over the ocean.
Axel returns on Day 71 and Roxas is overjoyed. Once they reach the clock tower, Roxas tells Axel about Xion, and voices his wish they could all be friends. They'll get a chance to see how it works several days later as they're sent to track down Xion, who went missing during her last mission in Twilight Town. The two investigate and go as far as come into contact with the townsfolk in order to gather information. They reach the old mansion to face off against a chameleon Heartless - Xion's target. No wonder Xion went missing - she's no doubt still out there, looking for it, Axel concludes and the two hunt down the target first. Xion shows up during the fight and once the mission is accomplished, she explains her absence. She became unable to wield the Keyblade, and so the Heartless she defeats only reappear as the Hearts don't go to Kingdom Hearts. Without her Keyblade, she is useless to the Organization. Axel suggests Roxas and Xion team up on their missions. That way, Roxas can collect Hearts for the both of them and no one'd have to know about Xion's Keyblade. Xion asks Axel if they're friends now, to which Axel replies that if she's Roxas's friend, she's his friend too. When he looks at her again, he sees her face for the first time.
It works up to Day 95 when Xion says they can't fool the Organization forever. This leads them to talk about the differences between the various members. Axel says everyone has something that makes them unique, as do the Nobodies in the Organization - they remember their pasts from before they were Nobodies. Xion and Roxas wouldn't know of it - they don't remember their pasts.
At the same time, a young blonde girl named Naminé and a man clad in red and black called Diz arrive at the old mansion at the outskirts of town.
Xion finally becomes able to wield the Keyblade again the next day and the days pass by calmly. On Day 117 Axel and Xion share their ice cream alone. Xion confesses watching the sunset with Roxas and Axel makes her feel as though she did the same once with someone else. It makes her hear the waves hit the shore and the seagulls up above, as well as another's voice. When asked if she's remembering her past, however, all she can say is that if those truly are Memories, it feels weird that they're her own.
Day 119 has Axel away in Castle Oblivion for a while again until Day 149. Xion won't show up, however, until Day 151. Roxas spots her on top of the clock tower before his mission and in an attempt to cheer her up over failing a mission, they team up. They finish their missions and head to the clock tower, but Xion's mind is elsewhere. She thinks back to the mission she failed in Beast's Castle where she battled against the Organization impostor - and lost. He went as far as to remove her hood but was shocked at what he saw. He questioned Xion having a Keyblade, and she in return asked about him posing as a member of the Organization. The young man - Riku - replies it's so that his best friend can "sleep" in peace, and then turns to call Xion's Keyblade a sham. He warns Xion to leave the Organization before leaving.
Roxas snaps her out of her daze finally and she voices the doubts Riku planted in her mind about working for the Organization. She tells him she began having dreams. She never remembers them, but she can't help but feel as though something's wrong. Roxas tries to explain it by repeating something Xigbar told him, about how Roxas and Xion are special, "exceptional". Xion understands it as "different", and that the two of them are different from each other as well.
She won't show up on the clock tower for several days and eventually falls asleep for three weeks. She then joins Axel and Roxas on their mission. Once they reach the Station Plaza however, she passes out again. She dreams of the redheaded girl who looks like her as she flies through the boy in red, the boy in red as he disappears into orbs of light, and the girl giving the boy her lucky charm, telling him to be sure to bring it back to her. Xion then utters the boy's name - Sora.
Naminé falls into despair on Day 224. She is trying to piece back Sora's Memories but some pieces are missing. Without them, Sora might never wake up. To top it all, if Sora's Memories become "her" Memories - she won't be able to bear it.
Xion's dreams at this point become nightmares that haunt her and not too long after she goes missing. Roxas and Axel look for her, but even months later there isn't a trace of her. The only place they didn't look at was Castle Oblivion, a place Xion asked Axel about before. Axel confesses that Castle Oblivion is where Xion came from, and Roxas can't help but feel sympathetic. With her origin being that unexplained place, Xion must've had more questions than him.
Day 297 has Axel drag an unconscious Roxas to Twilight Town from Castle Oblivion. Roxas wakes up to the sound of a taunting voice with a call of the speaker's name - Riku. As soon as he wakes up the two notice Xion nearby, standing next to the impostor. Roxas tries to reach her but Riku stands in his way as Xion leaves through a Corridor of Darkness. They give chase but Riku manages to escape, only to appear next to where Xion is hiding nearby. He asks her if she wants to return, but she has no answer.
The following day Roxas is sent to town again to hunt for Riku, only to find Xion. She points her Keyblade at him but Axel intervenes and eventually manages to knock her out. Roxas is stunned while Axel drags Xion back.
About that time, Naminé realizes Sora's Memories have stopped recovering. They need to take action if Sora is to wake up. Determined, Riku accepts the morbid duty.
He meets King Mickey several days later, though at first Mickey doesn't recognize him - Riku looks like Xehanort, Xemnas's Heartless. Once he puts on his blindfold, Riku transforms back into himself. He explains the situation with Sora's Memories and says the Organization interferes. In order to help Sora, he's to fight Roxas but is uncertain he can make it back. If he doesn't, Mickey is to look after Sora, Donald and Goofy during their sleep.
Xion meets Naminé on Day 356. She says she knows her Memories don't belong to her and Naminé confirms it. The Memories belong to Sora, and even Xion's looks are based on a girl Sora knew. Naminé goes on and says that if Xion gives the Memories back, she'll disappear as they are what her whole being is based on. And as there will be no more 'Xion', no one will be able to remember her as well. Xion accepts her fate and asks Naminé to look after Roxas until he too is ready to return to Sora. Before they can go to Sora, however, Diz storms in. The Organization found them and Xion faces off against Axel, only to lose.
She arrives at the clock tower the next day to find Roxas who ran away from the castle. Xion says she's out of time and as she removes her hood, it isn't the face Roxas was used to seeing that is revealed. Thanks to all the Memories Roxas poured into Xion, she now looks like a tanned boy with spiky brown hair - like Sora. She was created in order to become him, and now, she intends to make Roxas a part of her too. She transforms into a form resembling the lesser Nobodies and the two fight. Once defeated, Xion reverts back into a girl and Roxas already begins to forget about her. In her final moments, she asks Roxas to free Kingdom Hearts and stop Xemnas before thanking both him and Axel for being her friends. That alone she wishes Roxas would never forget before breaking into crystal shards. A lone tear slides down Roxas's cheek as he picks up a seashell that fell out of Xion's pocket, and he wishes the three of them could go back to eating ice cream together.
