"About a month before you arrived, yeah," Riku confirmed. At least Sora had said something. But Roxas hadn't and that concerned him, though he didn't make that thought process known. What Roxas and Axel spoke of was between them and no one else. But as Axel began to work through what he'd heard, the pieces clicking into place, Riku realized that it was probably a bad idea that Roxas had kept him in the dark this time.

He shook his head. "He took people's hearts and experimented with them. It got to the point that we were hunting but couldn't find him. He'd slipped away. He locked Sora and Roxas in...in something and we were stuck trying to figure out how to fix it." Riku and Aqua had taken charge then, trying to stop them. "The Heartless took over Xion's body. Master Xehanort took Terra's. It was--"

It was hard to think about, even now. He had failed then too. And they'd sat around, twiddling their thumbs, when they should have acted. But the Heartless became their open enemy, Master Xehanort was defeated, and Xemnas had proven himself capable of being any ally. "Xemnas fought the Heartless. It was one of the reasons why we kept the truce. He had a stake in this world and there was no reason for him to let it go." Of course...now it all just seemed like a fluke. Maybe it had been orchestrated all along. Maybe Xehanort had been too hasty last time.

"Everyone was all right afterward. It took a while for everyone to come back together, but we did."