Roxas

Roxas is a Nobody from the very end of the Kingdom Hearts series. Quiet and tempermental, but kind, he is the other side of Sora's heart, currently finding his own identity in the one place he can be himself. He's part of the healing group that responds as soon as possible to most crises.

His codename in DECK is Firefly, and he resides in the SPADES suit, better suited for fighting and healing from the front lines than anything else.

He lives in 16C with Axel.

Appearance
Roxas isn't very tall, clocking in at one of the two shortest members of the Organization. He's the same height as the rather-short Sora which puts him at about 5'5", according to fan logic. His blonde hair, true to KH-style, defies all sense of logic and most of the laws of physics. Too-blue eyes are the same color as Sora's. He's slender, but strong regardless, and usually clad in a checkered black-and-white jacket, black-and-white pants, and various other zippered and checkered things. Or his Organization cloak which, incidentally, also has many zippers.

Abilities
As a Nobody, Roxas has quite a few supernatural powers. He controls the element of light, which shows up mainly when he smacks something with his weapons in the trail of light that follows behind, and in his limit breaks. These shoot pillars or rays of light down on the enemy while Roxas attacks at super-fast speeds, rarely getting hit.

His main weapon is the Keyblade, which he can dual-wield thanks to absorbing another Keyblade-user at the end of her life. Its form changes with the various keychains / gears he collects. His fighting style changes with the weapon, but mostly it is Sora's characteristic heavy-hitting style, modified to suit duel blades. He carries one in each hand, hung mostly at his sides until the time to attack comes. While he mostly smashes the Keyblades into things, Roxas can also slash, and is aided by slightly superior control, aerial combos, and supernatural speed thanks to his control over light. His main advantage in a fight, besides having two weapons, is the fact that he can use a move called Reversal and quickly scoot around behind someone in a blur, knocking them off-balance.

Roxas can also perform magic. His spells are: Fire, Cure, Blizzard, Thunder, Gravity, Stop, and Aero, and he mainly uses their higher-level forms since Sora knows them. He can Glide if the need be, which allows him to leap in the air and almost fly a short distance, and his aerial recovery moves allow him to flip around and fight in the air. It's shown in a fight with Riku that Roxas' speed also allows him to do things like run up the sides of skyscrapers, and he has used this ability in the Facility to try and destroy the ceiling.

As a Nobody, he has control over lesser Nobodies, of note the Samurai and Dusks; he can also summon Corridors of Darkness which can transport instantaneously over large distances using darkness. These, however, are shakily under Roxas' control and he prefers not to use them as much for fear of missing and ending up on the inside of a wall. Or a tree. Or a person.

Non-fighting abilities include trick skateboarding, painting, singing, and generally being oblivious.

The more practice he has, the better at healing he's becoming, and help from Tsunade has instructed Roxas quite a bit in triage. He knows basic emergency medical response in addition to his healing spell, and plans to learn how to do more.

Personality
Roxas is, in three words, hard to describe. He's simultaneously patient and tempermental, kind and ruthless-- a study in contrasts.

His friends are one of the most important things to him, but he doesn't often show it like you'd think. Instead of laughing and having fun with them-- though he does do his fair share of that-- he prefers to hang back, observe, and think. Roxas has a very analytical mind, dissecting things into categories, disassembling them, and putting them back together again only to break them down differently later. It's because of this that, if given time to think about it, Roxas can be a very slow decision maker.

However, if thrust into a bad situation, his temper tends to get the better of him (a temper which flares up very easily, given the right prodding) and he'll lash out, first with words (razor sharp and often acidic) and then whatever weapon he can get his hands on if it goes far enough. He does prefer not to get into a physical fight but if the situation calls Roxas is certainly up for the challenge.

His sense of humor and wordplay centers around biting sarcasm and short, fragmented sentences. Roxas tends to observe the world around him, then shorten those observations and say them if necessary. His sarcasm is sort of like a wall he keeps around himself, but if you know the way in it's easy to get close to him. He likes to keep his friends safe and will put himself in danger to protect them. It's the same way that, if he's in trouble, he'll not tell anyone about it, simply try to deal on his own and get more broody than normal.

He tends to follow the rules simply so no more trouble than necessary is caused, and doesn't like to get in trouble anyway. In fact, he'd rather curl up and stare at something, contemplating life, the universe and everything. Roxas likes to think about things like that, that is, things he can't actually dissect. It's a challenge, which he does adore, though in a quiet way.

Everything about him is quiet. He's unobtrusive, part of the background, and prefers it that way. More often than not, unless provoked, he'll keep quiet and just watch.

Relaxation is very important to him- Roxas loves to sit back with ice cream and stare at the sunset or whatever is in front of him. With his friends, of course, to occasionally wrestle him up and make him laugh and play, which contrary to popular belief Roxas is capable of doing. His friends do the talking for him, so he tends to befriend those with open personalities (and mouths) who will be social for him and drag him into things. He does enjoy those times, silent as he is about it.

Despite his liking to stay in the background, Roxas is actually very emotive. He can often be seen with a rather pouty look on his face, but that's just default thinking mode- his face changes with his mood, and so does his body. Body movement accompanies his words, and sometimes Roxas can over-react if something really makes him mad. His temper can either be a quick flare-up, easily placated, or a slow boil until he finally explodes, depending on the situation.

Mostly Roxas is quiet, almost coming off as shy-- he won't talk to you unless he needs something or you talk first. A lot of what he says is questions, about himself, about the world, about his friends and everything. He’s naïve. He doesn’t know much, and Axel is the first person he goes to to answer questions. If he trusts someone, he trusts them for life.

And does not respond well to teasing. Nicknames just make him mad, as do jabs at his height.

Roxas is, in one word, complicated. He’s a teenaged boy. He’s moody in the way that only Nobodies can be. His heartlessness makes him quiet. His mind makes him distant. And those pangs he can feel in that empty hollow space in his chest make Roxas want to search even though sometimes he wonders why they want hearts at all. He's changed, since coming to the Facility. He's opened up, made more friends than he's ever had before. He worries and cares with that bit of a heart, with that connection to Sora, that he does have.

As he learned about himself and who he is, Roxas became more centered and sure of himself. He made a mutual decision with a friend once that neither of them were going to be pieces of someone else anymore. Roxas took that to the core of his being, and since then has been far more confident and forward. He is friendly, at heart, though in a quieter way than his Other. He's come a long way, maturity-wise, and while he still reacts on a hairpin Roxas also takes more time to dissect and analyze. If the changes were summed in a sentence, he's more complete. He searches less, and despite new confidence has moments of self-doubt and weakness like anyone. Still reflective, if Roxas notices something about himself he dislikes, he will try to take steps to change that, because he doesn't like it. He worries and helps and tries to improve and generally just live.

Having Axel, and all his other friends, as a support base through the rough times in Facility has really made him bloom, and Roxas is rapidly growing and changing, determined to live out the best life he can in these white white walls.

Canon History
Roxas was born when Sora became a Heartless, around the middle-ish end of Kingdom Hearts. Sora was not a Heartless for long, but in the time he was one, Roxas was created. Sora had a strong enough heart that Roxas was sentient, although he lacked a heart. So technically speaking, he’s only about 2, though he looks and acts the same age as Sora.

Roxas was what is known as a Nobody: a remnant, the body left behind when the heart succumbs to darkness. As such, Nobodies have no hearts.

He was soon found by Xemnas, nameless, lost, alone, and quite afraid, and deemed Roxas, the Key of Destiny. Number 13 of Organization 13.

Soon after joining, Roxas made friends with number 8, Axel. The fiery redhead was the perfect counterpart to Roxas’ calm, quiet, and logical nature, and the two became very close in a short amount of time. They hung out often in Destiny Islands or on the Clock Tower in Twilight Town, sharing Roxas’ favorite treat: sea-salt ice cream.

For a time Axel disappeared. To Castle Oblivion, which no one explained to Roxas at all until they said that “everyone in Castle Oblivion had been terminated.”

For a brief moment, Roxas had thought that heart he didn’t have would have been breaking if he did. His first friend, the one who showed him around and made him into someone with a personality and snuck off after suspicious people instead of doing the mission. For days Roxas could barely function beyond the basic needs of the mission, writing in his journal how worried he was about Axel.

His relief when his friend got back Roxas could swear was real.

Then Xion joined and Roxas befriended her, too. They bonded over their Keyblades and she was eating ice cream on the tower with him and Axel soon enough. They laughed without meaning it and talked about existence. Axel gave them information and random facts. Roxas made friends with some local kids from Twilight Town, and completed his missions.

Despite this ‘happiness’ (for Roxas couldn’t truly feel anything, lacking a heart) something was still missing. He could wield the Keyblade and that wasn’t right. Only someone with a heart should have been able to use the weapon of light. Roxas was a Nobody, steeped in darkness from the very moment of his creation.

Yet the weapon came when he called. That was wrong, and Roxas wanted to know why. Similarly, he could remember nothing of his past life. Everyone else knew exactly what their other selves had been through. Roxas (because of Sora’s mere minutes as a Heartless, though Roxas did not know that) had none. He had no idea what his other self, his Somebody, was called, or what he was like or if it was even a ‘he’ in the first place. Roxas could feel slightly more than the other Nobodies could. The fact that he could feel at all was alarming.

Soon Xion left to find answers to her own myriad questions, leaving Roxas in a state of greater confusion. Faced with Xion's desertion and mounting confusion, Roxas left the Organization, claiming that “no one would miss me” when Axel tried to stop him. The redhead failed and Roxas was gone.

As he was searching around Twilight Town, he was forced to fight Xion (who looked suspiciously like Sora). She had discovered that she was an incomplete replica of Sora based on his memories, and was then brainwashed by Xemnas into fighting him. He fought her monstrous, brainwashed form as she tried to absorb him and become "whole" under Xemnas' orders. Upon being defeated, Xion returned to her normal form and died peacefully in Roxas' arms, following the reasoning that they could not both exist at once, even as he slowly forgot her. She exploded into bits of crystallized light and became part of Roxas, who gained the use of her Keyblade while tears ran down his face.

He decided, therefore, to return to the Organization one last time to destroy Kingdom Hearts.. But in The World That Never Was he encountered Riku and got into a fight with him after the other boy saved him from too many Heartless. Roxas was winning, at first, due to his speed and dual weapons. Sensing that he could not win this way, Riku unleashed all the power of darkness in his heart and pounded Roxas into a state of unconsciousness.

He was then taken to DiZ by the very same man who’d just beat him up. DiZ decided to place Roxas in a virtual version of Twilight Town in order to save him from the still-hunting Organization, complete with altered memories of a fake life there, until Sora awoke from his sleep. His memories of his time with the Organization were lost and for a time, Roxas was happy with his friends in Twilight Town, Hayner, Pence, and Olette.

They fought in Struggle tournaments, hung out at The Usual Spot, and were generally teenagers until one day, Roxas began to have odd dreams. Dreams of a boy he didn’t know with blue eyes far too similar to his own. Dreams of people he felt a connection with whose faces he didn’t recognize.

Sora’s memories and heart were returning. And Roxas was feeling the effects.

Then strange things begin to happen. A word was stolen- picture- and all the pictures of Roxas in town were gone. He and he friends had been blamed for the crime, but of course they did not do it. Strange white creatures appeared and chased him into the woods. A stick- Roxas chosen weapon, as he hit a dead end at the old mansion- was not sufficient to kill them. After batting them around for a while, the Keyblade appeared in his hands. Confused but desperate, Roxas used the odd blade to defeat the things-which dropped the missing pictures- and returned home with more on his mind than ever.

Meeting Namine one day when the world stopped spurred even more memories. So did his fight with a man named Axel who claimed to know him and seemed very angry that Roxas didn’t. His dreams each night got stranger and stranger, until one day it all culminated in the old mansion outside of town.

Led there by frozen time and DiZ, Roxas entered the house only to make his way into the basement- where the computer simulator for the town was kept. On the way Roxas was assaulted by memories: his own, Sora’s, the Organization, Twilight Town- all of it. Outraged, he hacked the computer to pieces when he reached it, though it was only a digital copy, and went to confront DiZ. In doing so, he found Axel and fought him, this time with the regained memories. Oathkeeper and Oblivion, his two Keyblades, returned, and Axel was defeated. He then found the sleeping Sora and, with the knowledge of his fate in his hands, accepted that he would need to be absorbed into Sora. His mission was complete. He had found his past.

That was when he went to the Facility for the first time. He lived there for a few months, before being sent home again.

He stayed in Sora's mind for months it took the Keybearer to complete his mission, half-aware and influencing his Other in ways he wasn't aware of, including the lending of his control over light. Sora made it all the way to the Corridor leading to the World That Never Was, and Axel's death, until Roxas really truly reappeared, prompted by the death of his best friend and being unable to do anything about it.

As soon as Sora arrived in the Dark City, Roxas appeared to him in their shared heartspace, in a Station of Awakening. He challenged Sora to fight him, and nearly won, but the Keybearer beat him at the last moment and Roxas finally, really accepted his Other as his. Sora gained a new form, and Roxas appeared to him only once more when everything was taken care of, to tell Namine they'd meet again in Sora and Kairi.

And then he reappeared in the place with the white walls, and cursed his existence, except here was the one place he could be himself, with Sora and Axel coexisting beside him.

Notable events in Facility history
Roxas has, since coming here, decided that he is his own person and not just a fragment of Sora's heart. The decision has changed how he carries and thinks of himself.

He has decided that he wants to focus more on healing (though not any less on fighting) and is currently training more under Tsunade to get better at playing healer / doctor. He is listed in the write-up, after all.

He has died several times.

He and Axel live together. === Relationship with Axel === When Axel appeared, a slow-burning romance he didn't understand began to develop. Axel wanted him, Roxas had no idea, and it all came to a head 6 months after it began when they got accidentally drunk in an apartment on a visit to an abandoned New York City. Sora filmed them kissing, and they dealt tentatively with the aftermath. Axel proposed a relationship the next morning.

They spent another two months together, soft and innocent as Roxas didn't quite understand what was going on, until Axel was terminated.

Roxas was more devastated than he ever thought possible.

And then the redhead reappeared, sans memories, not more than a week later.

Obviously this complicated things, and though Axel found out about his supposed relationship with the blonde almost immediately, thanks to preserved posts and a meddling Demyx, it took him until Christmas to really come to terms with it. They kissed under mistletoe and entered another tenuous, rocky relationship that is still evening itself out.

Their sex life was almost nonexistant, not properly, until finally they went and asked Mello, Kadaj, Gaara, and Sai exactly how it was meant to work. Red-faced, they got their explanations, and tried it.

It didn't go so well. The interns still laugh at Axel for the ensuing post and plea for what they did wrong. On the second attempt, it was actually fine.

One day, Poland put an idea in Axel's head: eloping. Eloping, he explained, was something that two people di when they couldn't be together where they were, so they ran away together.

One other day, Riku and Sora told them they were engaged. Naturally Roxas had to ask what that meant, and it was explained that marriage was meant for people who wanted to formalize their relationship, as a sort of symbol to others that they were together. So everyone would know.

This festered until one day, when they were separated for a week by a test chaining them to other people, Roxas, on the phone with the redhead, made a tiny suggestion: if they were already together like this, and planned to be forever, shouldn't they formalize it? Axel agreed with a tiny grin, and he and Roxas were engaged. They proposed formally a few weeks later when a test took them to Venice and a scheming Sora took them both out separately to buy rings (the significance of which had to be explained to Roxas).

A test was what prompted them to actually get married. It was a canon-swap experiment, and Roxas was pulled into a possible future in which he'd been terminated a few weeks from then, and sent home for nearly 8 years, only separating from Sora again 4 years ago. None of them (for Sora and Riku came from the same timeline) remembered the Facility until they returned. Axel, who had been regressed to Lea, and all the memories associated with him, came crashing back and that older Roxas spent a miserable week wishing they could have gotten married. He wrote a letter to Axel to find when he returned, telling him loved him and to please get married soon, because Roxas was meant to get terminated in two and a half weeks.

This scared them. Termination meant the end of their relationship, and so Axel organized a quick wedding. They were married on November 21st.

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