((A/N: This is a present for my beloved moxieangel! Thanks for taking care of me this semester 3 Also, this has nothing to do with any of my previous stories. It's set in the same universe as "Tension" and takes place a little bit after ^_^ ))

DISCLAIMER: *points to self* Starving college student. If I owned KH, I'd be rich, and certainly not starving. I'd probably be eating boatloads of sea salt ice cream instead of boatloads of 10 cent ramen. I'm just sayin.

RESCUE ME

Axel swerved, shouting in annoyance as yet another Heartless sent an ice spell at him. "Back off!"

His chakrams swirled, manipulating the fire surrounding them to engulf the attacking Heartless. In a matter of moments, all threats were neutralized and he found himself alone in the streets of Port Royal.

'No idea why the higher-ups sent me here… You'd think they'd send Demyx on an easy mission like this… but whatever. At least I'm done early.' Axel grinned in imagined excitement. 'I'll go pop in on Roxy and see how his mission is going.'

Luckily, his boyfriend had been assigned to Twilight Town, so the redhead was more than used to teleporting there at the end of his own missions. He wasn't surprised to see that the town had barely changed, if at all. The only thing that seemed out of place was the swarm of Heartless heading his way.

"Kingdom Hearts!" he swore. "BURN!"

The creatures were much weaker than the Heartless he'd been battling earlier. Therefore, they were easily eliminated, allowing Axel to continue his search for Roxas. After almost an hour of searching, Axel still hadn't found the blonde. By this time, he was more than slightly concerned.

"Roxy… where are you?" he slumped to the ground in defeat, resting his head against the wall behind him. Suddenly realizing how foolish he sounded, he added another statement. "Not that I'm worried, or anything…"

'Except you totally are.' His mind chided him.

"Okay, fine. I'm worried. This place is way too quiet and there's no sign of Rox anywhere. I'm worried."

In that moment, he felt a strange sensation, as if an invisible hand was reaching into his body and pulling him in a specific direction. He fought it for a moment, but the feeling only intensified.

"Guess I should listen to my gut on this one…" Axel shrugged, ceasing his internal struggle. "I'm coming, Roxy."

The feeling led him down the train tracks and far into town, farther than he usually went. To Axel's dismay, the place was flooded with lower-level Nobodies and Heartless of every strength and type.

"Kingdom Hearts… What'd they do to you, Rox?" Breaking into a sprint, he followed a set of Dusks through the town until they passed a seemingly empty alleyway. The same feeling from earlier seized his body, causing him to stop in the opening. Once again, Axel decided to trust his gut and went down the alley, chakrams in hand.

The alleyway was for the most part empty. However, as he followed it down, he found swarms of Shadows lurking in puddles on the ground, making the entire scene darker.

"Get away from me, ya creeps." Axel muttered, setting his chakrams on fire for good measure. "Alright… Where is he?"

The alley was surprisingly long, with several twists and turns that eventually led him to the entrance of the abandoned underground tunnels of Twilight Town. He did not even hesitate before heading down into the depths, ignoring the swarms of Heartless that seemed to be following him. Strangely though, they did not attack, merely followed. This oddity was forgotten, however, as soon as Axel saw what was waiting in the dark caverns.

A large flower-like Heartless with creepy tendrils of darkness serving as vine-like tentacles took up a majority of the room, surrounded by several smaller versions of itself. Wrapped firmly in a few of it's appendages was an unconscious Roxas, whose Keyblade lay on the ground several feet away.

"Roxas!" Axel shouted, rushing toward his boyfriend.

"Ngh…" was the only response he got as the vines tightened.

"No, no, no…" he shook his head. "It's okay, Rox. I'm gonna get you out of—"

His statement was cut off as the creature seized him, pulling him away from the blond. Growling angrily, Axel twisted in its grip to face it.

"What? You wanna piece of me?" he laughed. "You don't know who you're messing with. The name's Axel. Got it memorized? Good. 'Cause you're about to… BURN!" With a single word, flaming chakrams appeared in his hands, swirling as he threw them at the creature. Not giving it a chance to respond, he attacked in rapid succession, only stopping occasionally to add more fire to his already-flaming weapons. Before long, he felt the vines around his body loosen, and he sliced at them until he was free. He launched another flame attack at the Heartless before hearing a familiar voice.

"It's over!"

With that shout and a slash of the Keyblade, the creature vanished in a puff of smoke, taking the smaller ones with it. Roxas fell to his knees, breathing heavily.

"Rox! You okay?" Axel hurried to his side, wrapping an arm around his shoulder to support him.

"Y-yeah. I'll be fine." He smiled weakly. "Is it just me, or are the Heartless getting worse here?"

"There are definitely a lot more than there used to be." Axel nodded. "It's almost like they know something is about to happen… Something bad."

"You're right… But can we just leave and let Saïx deal with it?"

"Hey, sounds good to me." The redhead kissed his forehead gently. "Let's go home."

"'Kay… And Axel?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for rescuing me."

"Heh. Anytime. I'm here for you, no matter what. Got it memorized?"

"You know… I think I do."