Sora stood at the top of the stairs looking downward into the dark spiral of stairs that went down into one of the darker parts of the castle. Riku stood next to him, putting his hand on Sora's shoulder. It had been over a week since they had defeated Xemnas. Every day since then they had been exploring the castle to insure that all traces of the organization and their plans. With the discovery of every new room Sora began to wonder if they would ever finish. With untold numbers of upstairs floor already accounted for, now it was time to dive downwards.
"Come on, the sooner we get this finished the sooner we can move on with our lives." Riku reminded him, handing the lantern to his friend.
The pair of them descended the spiraling stairs. Halfway down they began to feel dizzy, but they kept going. The smell of mold and mildew got stronger as they got farther down. As they got to the bottom of the stairs, Riku began to feel along the sides of the walls, searching for a light switch. After hitting nothing but wet stone, he gave up, returning to Sora's side.
"This place is creepy," Riku noted, voicing the thoughts that were running through both of their minds. Sora nodded.
"Yeah…" Sora said quietly as though something would attack them if they made too much noise. He held the lantern high in the air as they walked deeper into the underbelly of the castle. Their eyes kept moving around the hallway, jumping at every shadow, expecting it to be a heartless ready to spring. "And this place is like a maze."
"We better be careful not to get lost," Riku agreed, looking left and right. Two hallways stretched out farther than the light reached. He moved even closer to Sora so that their shoulders touched. Sora nodded and wrapped his arm around Riku's, making the older boy blush.
They turned down one of the hallways and walked along it until they reached a large metal door. There was a small opening at the top of the door with vertical bars. Sora pressed his face up to the bars, ignoring the smells that drifted out of the room. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see anything inside. After exchanging the glance with Riku, Sora tried the door only to find that it was locked.
"Stand back," Sora warned, taking a step away from the door and materializing the keyblade. A solid beam of light came from the end of the keyblade and into the lock. After a moment, he lowered the keyblade and the door swung open.
The room on the other side of the door was similar to the one they were standing in at the moment. The floors were the same stones that were slippery because of a small amount of algae on them. The walls were the same with one major difference. Sticking out five feet from the wall was a row of vertical bars with a few horizontal bars across them.
"It's a prison…" Riku said aloud, keeping close to Sora as they keyblader as he slipped into the room.
A crash echoed around the small room, making both Riku and Sora jump. The crash was followed with a low moan. Sora and Riku looked at one another, surprised that there was someone still down here.
"Hello?" Sora called out, jumping at the sound of his own echo, "is there anyone down here?"
"Over here," a voice responded, sounding like they had just been woken up from a good dream and was not happy about it.
Sora took the lead, heading towards the corner of the room that the voice had come from, keeping the lantern close to his body. As he reached the rusted bars he pushed the lantern into the bars, trying to see just who was inside. A hooded figure moved inside the cell, lifting his head enough to look at Sora.
"Roxas?" He asked, sounding hopeful.
"Sora," Riku corrected.
"Ah, that makes sense. Good to see you again, Sora, how about you get me out of here?" The figure stepped up to the bars, removing his hood.
"Axel!" Sora laughed, embarrassed at being scared of him. "What happened."
"Apparently Xemnas gets pissy if you betray the organization. They found me after I saved your life. Since I didn't have enough energy to get away, they decided to give me a life time stay in this luxury resort you see me in now. So, how about using that pretty little key there to get me the fuck outa here?" Axel stepped forward, slipping his arms through the door and resting his elbows on the horizontal bar.
"I don't know if we should," Riku said, realizing that Axel had forgotten that he was there, "He is part of the organization you know."
"Judging by the fact that you two are down here on your own free will and not being thrown in a cell, I'd say that the organization is a thing of the past right?" Axel noted, "Suits me just fine, they weren't worth the effort of talking to."
"As long as there is one member left, the organization is a threat," Riku corrected, almost growling at Axel.
"Sora," Axel turned away from Riku, rolling his eyes, waiting for a response.
Sora looked back and forth between the two trying to decide what to do. He didn't think that Axel was a threat, he had betrayed the organization to help him, but that didn't prove that he wouldn't turn around and betray Sora as well. Still, he couldn't leave him down here.
"Riku, go upstairs and get the king, he'll know what to do." Sora said after some time. Riku nodded and hurried off, taking the lantern with him. Axel watched him leave with the strangest look on his face. He had never seen any man be so obedient, almost like a well trained dog.
"Is he house broken?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"huh?" Sora tilted his head to the side, not understanding what Axel meant.
"Nevermind," Axel smiled. Sora reminded him so much of Roxas. They could both be so clueless at time. "So, to what pleasure do I owe this visit?"
"Huh?" Sora asked again.
"Why are you here?" He clarified. Perhaps there were some differences between them.
"Oh! Well, we defeated Xemnas and now we are searching the castle to make sure that there isn't any traces of Organization XII left." Sora explained, looking into the darkness. He wished that Riku hadn't taken the lantern with him. "Hey, Axel, why don't you just make a dark portal to get out of here?"
"If I could do that, do you seriously think that I would still be in here? I haven't been able to make one since that one I opened that one for you."
"Oh," Sora looked down at his feet, realizing how dumb his question had been and feeling guilty.
"Hey, Sora, don't feel bad, okay?" Axel smiled, reaching farther through the bars to lift Sora's chin. His eyes met with Sora's and an electric shock ran down Axel's spine. They were just like Roxas's. They were as blue as two gems and twice as beautiful.
"Axel…" Sora whispered. That voice, it sounded just the same as if Roxas had said it. Axel was so close to Sora, who looked and sounded so much like Roxas. His hand still touched Sora's face, that soft smooth skin felt just like Roxas's. The only difference was the hair. Roxas's hair was a soft dirty-blonde halo around his head. Sora looked like the movie "Attack of the Brown Spikes" was being filmed on top of his head.
"Hey, Sora!" Riku's voice rang through the room as he swung the door open. Axel yanked his hand back, looking away from Sora.
"So, what is going on here?" Mickey asked, stepping out from behind Riku.
"Um…well…" Sora stammered, still flustered by Axel's behavior.
"I was part of the organization, but obviously since they locked me up, things didn't go so well. I saved Sora once, which is what got me locked up in here, so he feels like he should help me get out of here. The silver haired guy, on the other hand, wants to gut me." Axel took advantage of the situation, using it to put his own spin on the situation.
"Hmmm," the king leaned back for a moment, thinking things over, "Well, you were part of the organization, so we cant just let you go, but we cant leave you down here to die either. We'll let you out of here, but we'll have to keep you under constant surveillance until we know that you aren't going to try anything."
"Out of one prison and into another, right?" Axel confirmed.
"Only until we know that you are innocent." Mickey explained, materializing his keyblade and pointing it towards the door. As soon as he finished opening the door, Axel rushed out, glad to be out of the cell. Riku grabbed him roughly by the shoulder and shoved him towards the door.
"Don't forget, your still a prisoner!" Riku barked, poking him in the back with his keyblade. Axel was tempted to turn around and smack him, but he knew that Sora liked the silver haired man, so he had to be nice to him.