"Time to wake up."
A bucket of cold water splashed down over Sora's face. He started awake and blinked at his surroundings. A dirty lamp lit room. He looked up to see who had spoken. One of the Organization members: Axel.
It all came back to him then. Sora been trapped in a world in between, fighting countless dusks. Then when it seemed he wouldn't last much longer Axel came to finish him, or so he'd thought. Except he was alive, bound to a chair in some other world. He looked around the room for some clue to wear he was. It was strange, all the furniture looked like gigantic items. What he'd taken for a bucket was in fact nothing more than a thimble.
Was this Wonderland?
Axel sauntered forward. "How nice of you to join us, Sora," said Axel, "now we can get on with things."
Sora shot him a glare and began to struggle. It was useless, the ropes wouldn't give. "Let me go!" he shouted.
"Oh, you'll be gone soon enough," said Axel.
Sora tried to summon the Keyblade, but it was impossible with his hands tied. He had been captured by a member of the Organization, and was utterly helpless. No, that wasn't right. Axel had betrayed the Organization and was working for his own ends. He was the one who'd kidnapped Kairi.
"Kairi!" cried Sora. "I have to get to her." He renewed his struggle. This wasn't about him anymore, it was about helping his friend.
"Oh she'll be all right," purred Axel, "The Organization never really wanted her in the first place."
"Then why'd you take her?" asked Sora. He continued to strain against the ropes.
"Because I knew you'd come running," said Axel, "It's what friends do isn't it? If you love someone you go after them. In a way, that's what I'm doing. You took someone of mine and I want him back."
"What?" asked Sora, "I don't understand."
"Always slow on the uptake, aren't we Sora?" asked Axel. "Maybe you really are the same. It took him so long to figure things out, and once he had he couldn't bother to take the time to listen. Are you listening now?" Axel came closer and leaned over Sora, looking in his eyes. "Can you still hear me, Roxas?"
"Again with that name?" asked Sora. "Quit calling me that, I'm Sora."
"I wasn't talking to you," said Axel. He stood up and began to pace. "The other Organization members might not recognize the difference, but I do. You aren't the same as Roxas. He exists inside of you and I want him back."
Sora looked confused. "Who's Roxas?"
Axel sighed heavily. "You know how Nobodies are created?" asked Axel. "They must have explained that much."
Sora nodded, thinking back to Yen Sid's words.
"Well, when you became a Heartless a Nobody was created: Roxas," said Axel. "He returned to you, 'became whole'." Axel made quotation marks in the air with his hands, then pointed to Sora. "Now he sleeps somewhere inside your Heart."
Sora's eyes widened. Somebody else was inside his heart? Just as Kairi had been. Except that was different, her Heart had been inside of him, but Nobody's didn't have Hearts, so what was Roxas? How could he exist within Sora? How did Axel plan to get him back?
Axel will stop at nothing to turn you into a Heartless.
The Organization member's warning echoed from his memories. When a Heartless is created, so is a Nobody. To get Roxas back Axel would have to destroy Sora's Heart in process.
"You care about him right?" asked Sora. "If you really cared about him you wouldn't be doing this."
"Really cared?" asked Axel. He burst out laughing. "I don't care. I can't care. Man, I remember back when you first started to get it. You don't remember, but we've met before. I had to eliminate one of my fellow Organization members, struck him down right in front of you. Cold blooded murder. You looked so upset, so shocked. You asked, what are you? I think I'll tell you now. I'm something that can't feel anything. Not remorse, not regret, not love, because you need a Heart to care and I lost mine years ago."
"If you really don't care, why does getting Roxas back matter so much?" asked Sora.
"He...he's different," said Axel. "He made me feel like I had a Heart. That's gone now, fading like a memory. I need that feeling back. My Heart may be gone, but at least with him I feel like almost...somebody...I feel something instead of just...empty."
In that moment, Sora almost felt sorry for Axel, for all of them. Nobody's had no Hearts, they couldn't feel, but that didn't mean he couldn't feel sorry for them, just a little, now that he understood.
"Roxas," said Axel. Once more he looked at Sora as if he could somehow look straight into him. "I'd rather you be a wraith like me than go on like this without you. I know you'll be angry at me for ripping you away now that you're whole. Used to think I'd give anything to be whole, now I'd just give anything to have you back, even if it means destroying him. Then once you're a Nobody again you won't have the Heart to be angry, and we can go back how we were." Axel laughed then and stood. "He probably can't even hear me. Oh well then, dinner time."
"What?" asked Sora.
Axel grabbed the chair and started dragging Sora towards the door of the small room. Well, it really wasn't a door, more like a mouse hole.
"Funny thing about Heartless," said Axel, "they retain a bit of what they were sometimes. You certainly did. That's why I need to make sure you're completely gone. No way for Roxas to find you again. Larger Heartless will just absorb you. You'll become a part of it, instead of your own little shadow."
"You're going to feed me to a Heartless?" asked Sora. The idea of being absorbed, that not one bit of his consciousness would remain, frightened Sora more than anything ever had.
"You got it," said Axel. He pulled Sora outside, onto the cobblestone street. He saw Big Ben towering in the distance. He'd seen the clock tower before after visiting Never Never Land, but this was different. It was even bigger now, the whole world was enormous, as if they were no bigger than mice.
"That's why we're here," Axel continued. He set the chair down and backed away. "Heartless and Nobody's destroy each other on instinct, so training one to go after you and not me was tricky, but like I said, sometimes Heartless retain a bit of what they were."
Axel pulled out a large golden bell from the pocket of his coat. He stepped closer to Sora, and bent down to cup the boy's face in his hand before placing a gentle kiss on his lips. "I'll see you soon, Roxas."
Sora's eyes widened in shock at the touch, but Axel didn't see it. He'd already turned his back and moved away.
Then he rang the bell.
A shadow fell over the ally, silhouetted on the wall the shape of some enormous cat. The creature was heavy and lumbered under it's own weight. It's body hung low to the ground from it's fat, making it's thick legs seem stocky. Sora stared up at the creature, which once might have been a very fat, very fluffy house cat, somebody's pet judging from the blue bow set on a tuft of fur between it's ears, but now a Heartless. It was black as night and it's eyes glowed yellow. Not the normal yellow of a cat's eye but the solid glow of a Heartless's eye, and it was black not because it's fur was dark but because it's body seemed to be a moving, cat shaped darkness.
It hoisted Sora from the chair, easily tearing the ropes, and held him with one paw. He struggled, but it's grip was too tight. The Heartless opened it's massive jaws and dangled Sora above its gaping mouth.
Axel looked away.
"No!" cried Sora, "Please-"
Sora's words were cut short by the sound of loud gulp.
That was that. Axel approached the Heartless and it lowered her head to be petted. Strange for a Heartless to allow a Nobody so close, but Axel had fed her and in another life she'd once served a similar master. Someone who could have been an enemy or prey himself, but proved more useless since he provided plenty of snacks.
"Good girl, Felecia," said Axel. He petted the Heartless. "Did you enjoy that?"
As if in reply the Heartless let out a loud belch.
"So sorry, Sora," said Axel. For a moment, it was almost as if he meant it, but that moment passed. The Nobody turned and walked away, opening a portal of darkness. He had to get to Twilight Town. Regardless of what world they were in when their Heart was lost, Nobodies tended to be born there. Axel was sure he'd find the reborn Roxas waiting now that Sora was no more. Axel didn't feel bad for what he'd done, even if it meant he'd doomed the world, he didn't care, it didn't matter to him. Nothing did or could, but at least he'd have Roxas.