Wayward

IX

"[Name] are you all right?"

Sighing heavily, Roxas was more worried about the idea of returning heartless. Twilight Town had an issue with nobodies, not heartless. This had been his first real time encountering the beings of darkness in the humble town.

"U-um, Roxas..."

His brows crinkled together up until he turned around. His memories of Seifer were clear in his head, a slightly muscular teenager who was about his height and pretty skinny. Instead now Seifer to him, reminded him of someone else. Those small memories that were swimming of his head that belonged to Sora.

He oddly looked like a thing called 'Cloud'.

"Dude, is that Rai?" Pence's voice bounced around, unconcerned with the fact that there was a heartless attack on their growing group. You lifted Seifer's arm to look behind him, your jaw went limp. Behind Seifer was the versions of Fu and Rai that you were first introduced to.

Fujin and Raijin in their glory. Much like Seifer, Rai returned to his muscular form, taller then before. Though the one thing about Fu that you quickly noticed was the lack of her eye patch, silver hair still covered her left eye. You watched both members of Balamb Garden look at their hands in amazement.

"Yo, how are we, ya know?"

You were at a loss for words, circling around the now very adult looking Almasy to stare at Fu and Rai. Both of whom were more amazed at the fact that they didn't appear to be 'kids' anymore. Or at least that's how you felt the first time you saw them in game.

There was.. an idea. Alas, it would be too awkward with Hayner, Pence and Olette there. Instead you turned to them, glancing toward Roxas. "I-I know that this is really weird for you guys," Hayner's brown eyes narrowed slightly, obvious to the fact you were trying to steer them in a different direction.

"How do you.. remember Roxas?"

Roxas only watched your expression, he had half expected you to shoo them away. The fact that Seifer and his gang were definitely not what he remembered. In the blond's opinion, he didn't think much anymore about the fact that Olette remembered his name. That his name some how was the trigger for the Heartless.

Pence was rubbing his chin as if he was deep thought, wanting to piece things back together. You noticed how Olette played with her fingers, shy all of a sudden. "There was this guy, it was almost a month ago honestly." Her eyes flew over toward Roxas, recounting the memory that she hadn't thought about in a long time. "He came around asking about a 'Roxas'. He went on saying how I knew Roxas, that we were best friends."

"Now that you mention it, wasn't there another dude?" Instead of it being Pence's voice, it was Hayner who spoke up.

Pence shook his head, hands on his hips. "I thought it was a chick, ya? Or was it two girls and a guy?"

"C'mon lamers, we don't have all day here." You merely glanced over your shoulder toward Seifer. Obvious annoyance was on his face, this was probably too slow for his liking. Based on Final Fantasy 8, Seifer enjoyed things on his speed. This wasn't Almasy speed.

Hayner glared harshly toward Seifer, as did the older male return it with just as much force. That rivalry didn't die out.

"Yo, dude had crazy red hair, y'know!"

"Fire."

Seifer moved his hand around, one still holding onto his gunblade. "Listen, we'll figure out who this dude is later." Cyan eyes barely spared a glance toward his 'friends'. You did at times like to think of Fu and Rai that way, even Vivi. "Do rounds around the town. Now that we know what we can do, might as well keep this place ant free."

You were a little bit surprised to see how quickly Fu and Rai went toward the shopping district. It created a small amount of comfort to see that despite not being in Balamb that they were willing to protect the town. "Vivi, keep the kids safe."

Vivi only would nod his head and walked toward Hayner's group, Olette the only one sparing the dark mage a smile. "We don't need protection."

Roxas only shook his head and crossed his arms. "You do actually, Heartless aren't a joke. Please Hayner.."

After a few quiet moments Hayner threw his hands up in the air and spun around to walk away from the moment. "Fine, whatever! I want answers later." Roxas could only smile, he could hear it in the other blond's voice. The thought of having forgotten Roxas hurt him terribly. Not that the keyblader could blame him. He thought that their memories were only simply a facade. Now that they were real, or some how became real... yeah. There would be some answers for everyone.

Making sure that Hayner, Pence, Olette and their new protector Vivi left the area; you heaved out a long pent up sigh in your chest. Hesitantly, you shuffled to turn around to look at Seifer while standing beside Roxas. His face was distant, you weren't expecting for Roxas to have a lot of questions on what to ask. Rather, he would have another set of questions.

You on the other hand? You knew almost what to ask. "How did.. you guys get here? I mean, Edea? Balamb?"

Seifer could only sigh as well at this point, he wasn't one to visibly show emotion like this. He was a hard ass, asshole to everyone back in Balamb. One of the most hated SeeD mercenaries, especially by Squall and his group's standards.

"Darkness,  a lot of it. We thought it was Ultimecia, it wasn't though." He could only look up at the sky, memories like a trickle of water was dripping down in his head. Seifer could remember everything, his childhood, Balamb, the stupid things that he did and what he tried to do to make it all up. "Rinoa.. Rinoa and Ellone."

"I'm sorry Seifer. I-I..." You swallowed thickly, from what you knew so far only Squall and Selphie were around. You didn't see Zell or Irvine or anyone else around.

Seifer scoffed at the thought of you getting sappy on him. "C'mon, you and lamer here were trying to get to the train station right? What's your deal with that."

[Colour] eyes lighting up, you grabbed onto Seifer's wrist and then turning to grab Roxas'. "We need to see Yen Sid!"

"[Name]!"