[ The more Arden listens, the more he realizes just how accurate 'glossed over a few things' was in his estimation of what the original Riku told him. It'd seemed like such a simple response at the time, but Arden hadn't been as interested in hearing much more, he supposed. Not back then. By the time Riku came back, he wasn't in much of a mood to talk about that sort of thing. So many things happened and now here he is, trying to pay attention to what Roxas is saying, and coming up with even more questions.

For now, he tries to focus on the important things - he fought Riku. Riku took the blindfold off. Arden remembers hearing about what happened when Riku did that, how he was changed - and got more powerful, but also couldn't change back either.

And Naminé again... he lowers his head when she comes up. She held so much guilt for what she'd done to Arden... but he'd thought he'd been her only victim. At the orders of someone else, but still a victim.

He can relate to so much of what Roxas is saying. He'd always assumed they had things in common, but not nearly this much. ]

I... [ He swallows. ] I understand.

[ He felt like he didn't matter to certain people. Boy did Arden get that. And angry about it? Yeah... He starts to speak again, but quietly too. ]

Something like that... I'm still... I mean- I felt that way about Axel at first too.

[ Had anyone told Roxas about that? Maybe not... ]

When he came back as Lea, it wasn't easy either, my gut reaction was still to hate him, but... I told him I'd try. Because you were my friend, and because Sora vouched for him, I asked him to prove me wrong.