I had an extra XBee breakout board and was able to just solder a new one and get it and working properly. I feel dumb that it was just the board, but I am grateful because I learn so much more from troubleshooting every single aspect of the project until I realize it's the most fundamental part. Here's a really simple video showing what I was working with. An extremely basic XBee to XBee network without using an arduino (except as a power supply because I'm lazy). Thanks for the suggestions regardless!
test.MOV (918 KB)