He was sure that something was wrong, he kept hearing this whirling noise to his left, he could still feel his being in one piece; but that wasn't possible, he was gone, dead, disappeared from the world of the living and should have no real memory or conscious.

So why was he hearing a whirling noise? And why did it feel like he was sliding to the right?

He opened his green eyes and found himself looking up to a rather high roof top, copper bars ran across it, and as he moved to sit up he saw what was making the whirling noise. A large machine; an engine even.

What the hell is this place? He thought to himself, thoroughly confused, looking around himself trying to figure out what happened, did he get a second chance? Was that possible for a Nobody?

"What?" A man, with brown hair that was spiked up, wearing a suit and trainers; came up to him cautiously; "What?" He looked as confused as the Nobody felt, shaking his head in disbelief; "How did you get in here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing. I'm pretty sure I should no longer exist," He stated and the man looked at him, before he brings a small metal thing and pushing the button.

"Where's your heart?" He asked as he looked at the small metal thing completely baffled by this turn of events; "Why don't you have a heart? That's not possible…"

"I'm a Nobody, we don't have hearts," He shrugged, carefully watching the man who put away the metal probe.

"A Nobody? There are more of you?" The man sounded interested but he shook his head.

"Were, like I said we don't have hearts, we don't have feelings, we don't care about anything or anyone…" He trailed off, knowing that, for him at least, that part was a lie. He did care, he had cared, his feelings had been hurt when…

"I'm the Doctor," The man introduced himself, pulling the Nobody out of his musings.

"I'm Axel, got it memorized?"

"A-X-E-L," The Doctor smiled; "Got it,"

Axel smiled slightly, this man should be interesting, even if his name was a bit, odd; "The Doctor? That's your name?"

"Yea,"

"Really? Did your folks run out of ideas?" Axel said, not able to get over his name and wondering how he managed to get it.

"Well, it's a bit of a story, but I was given the name the Doctor, my people…" He paused, the pain of such a memory evident in his eyes; "Well, it was a tradition that they used to do, to gain such a name,"

Axel may not have had a heart, but he knew that he had to leave it be. Instead he looked around the room once more while the Doctor looked at him, a long black coat, insanely green eyes, like they could glow in the dark, red hair in such a style that no human could ever create, it was spiked up and probably had so much hair gel that it would take a good long time to wash out. Then he noticed the upside down tear marks, were they purple or red? He couldn't tell, up they were under each eye and somehow added character to this… Nobody.

But what is a Nobody? How did they come into being? The Doctor thought to himself as he watched Axel go towards the control panel and moved quickly to make sure he didn't touch anything.

"So, eh, what happened to you?"

Axel looked at the clear engine that was moving around before he spoke, for a moment the Doctor thought he wasn't going to say anything at all.

"I was protecting a friend," He looked down at his gloved hands; "He made me feel like… Like I had a heart. I did some things that I needed to make right,"

"You said you shouldn't exist,"

"Yea, I put my whole being…" He paused and corrected himself; "My whole Nobody into one last attack to get him through to save his friend,"

"Your whole…" The Doctor trailed off; "That's not possible. You can't have died, the TARDIS doesn't… can't revive people back to life,"

"Yea, but I'm here aren't I?" Axel pointed out and the Doctor nodded, although he still found it puzzling, it wasn't possible.

"All right, but what are Nobody's?"

As Axel explained how Nobody's came into being, the Doctor felt he had a clue as to what the TARDIS was up to.

"You said that you were protecting your friend? You began to feel emotions that are connected to the heart because of him, that's why the TARDIS picked you up, or I guess that's why, you've got a second chance,"

"A second chance?" Axel repeated, unsure how to take it, something that should be good news for him wasn't; if anything this was now unknown territory for him, what would he do? Organization 13 was gone, or in the process of going, he wasn't sure he could go back, not without people trying to capture him.

"Yes, you did something selfless, not many people do that, even those with hearts," The Doctor said and let out a breath; "So, are you wanting to meet up with your friend?"

Axel shook his head; "I can't, I don't know how long I've been gone, it wouldn't be far on Sora either, he needs to live a normal life. I was his Nobody's mentor, Roxas, who's gone now," He sighed; "I guess I don't really have a place to go to,"

"Ah, I know how that feels. It's just me and this TARDIS," The Doctor gestured around him, although he wasn't sure if he wanted to have another companion, after what happened to Donna… He didn't want to go through that again.

"TARDIS," Axel repeated.

"Yea, it can take us anywhere and anytime," The Doctor was about to suggest that it could even take Axel to meet Sora later on in life, but he had a feeling that the Nobody wouldn't want that, not right now.

"Time? Any time?"

"Yup, anytime, it's a time machine," He smiled at the look the red head gave him; "Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, just one rule. We can't interfere with what's going on,"

"Observe only," He said and rolled his eyes; "Sounds boring, but all right, lets go,"

The Doctor grinned as he pulled the lever and Axel fell over; "Opps! Sorry! You need to hold onto something!"

"Bit late with that warning!" Axel snapped back as he stood up and held onto the bar behind him.

"Barcelona all right? Not the country, the planet,"

Axel just looked at him; "I've never heard of either, but let's do it," He grinned and the Doctor laughed, he had a feeling that Axel might not be like his past companions.

XXX

The red haired man had no idea how long he'd been with the Doctor, but he knew that his time was coming to an end.

Not as in his death, he'd done that before, he knew what to look for, but his time traveling would soon be coming to an end. He didn't know how he knew, but he did.

"Midgar Edge," The Doctor said as he looked at the small screen on the console and Axel looked at it.

"Midgar?"

"It's a city… Well was, the people have rebuilt it on the outer edge of the city, hence the new name, Midgar Edge," The Doctor explained.

"Imaginative," Axel stated as they left the TARDIS.

As they walked along the street they found a bar called 7th Heaven.

"I hope they do tea, " The Doctor said as he opened the door and noticed that no one was inside apart from a woman who was cleaning glasses; "Er… Excuse me?"

The woman looked up and smiled at them; "Oh, I'm sorry, please come in," She put the glass and towel down to gesture them inside.

"Do you have tea?" The Doctor asked and the woman raised her eyebrows before she laughed.

"That's a rare request, but yes, we do tea. One cup or…" She turned to look at Axel and let out a gasp; "Reno?"

"Axel," He corrected her; "Got it memorized?"

She blinked at him in surprise, then as she looked closer realised that it was indeed someone else, Reno didn't have such bright green eyes, nor did he have tear drop markings on his face.

"Sorry, you just look alike," She apologised again; "What would you like?"

"I'll have a tea as well, never really had one before," He said and she nodded going away to get two cups.

The two sat at the bar area, the Doctor looked at the dark haired woman who was serving them carefully, she appeared friendly and polite but he got a feeling that if either of them over stepped the mark she would have no problem with dealing with them in a rough manner, as most women who own bars were like, but he was curious as to who this Reno person was; "Excuse me, but who is Reno? A friend of yours?"

"No, not really," She place a jug of milk and a bowl of sugar in front of them as the kettle boiled; "It's a long story, but he works as a Turk, he's kind of like… " She frowned unable to think of a way to describe them; "Gangsters I guess, they used to do anything to get people out of the way of ShinRa, but lately they have been getting better, they've been protecting people in the city instead. It's like they have turned a new leaf," She laughed; "That doesn't answer your question though, Reno is one of the Turks, he's actually the second in command, although no one knows how he managed it,"

"Turning a new leaf," Axel repeated the phrase and smirked; "I can relate,"

She poured the hot water into the tea cups, the tea bags already in and passed them over to the two, allowing them to decide how strong they wanted their tea.

As she did so someone else came into the bar.

"Tifa ya got any beer yo?"

"Speak of the devil," Tifa said softly and nodded over to the other man; "Yes Reno, grab a seat,"

Reno sat down next to the Doctor, not really considering taking a seat gap between them all he thought was getting some alcohol into his system as soon as, but to the Doctor this was the perfect vantage point to check to see if what the woman had said was true. He looked at the man out of the corner of his eyes and gawped. Reno, red head, although messy and spikey like Axel's in the front, was tied back in a long ponytail at the back; he had red facial markings under his eyes and had green eyes, although nowhere near as bright as Axel's.

Tifa place the beer in front of the new comer who looked at what the other two were drinking.

"Couldn't go to a café?"

"This place looked nicer," Axel said and took his first sip of tea before adding a bit of sugar to it.

"Meh, better off with beer in a place like this,"

The Doctor and Tifa looked at each other, even their voices were similar, not exactly alike though, you weren't likely to get them confused if you knew them, but it was uncanny.

"Do you have a job today?" Tifa decided to try and make conversation with Reno.

"Not until later tonight yo," Reno said as he gulped part of his beer down; "Think its going to be rough,"

"Why?" The Doctor asked.

"Just one of the newest gangs that have turned up, causing a bit of problems in certain areas," Reno shrugged; "Still, it's better than not doing anything,"

"Involves fighting and it will always be a good day," Axel added and Reno laughed.

"Hell yea,"

The two finished their teas and as the Doctor began to pay Axel and Reno just looked at each other for the first time, however unlike the other two they were indifferent to how they looked so alike, in fact they didn't even seem notice how alike they were.

"Good luck with tonight," Axel said and Reno nodded.

"Thanks,"

"We'd better get going," The Doctor waved goodbye to them and they left the bar.

"Reno, that guy looked…" Tifa began once they were out the door and the red head smiled.

"I know yo, but there can only be one with my amazing personality!"

X

"Did you notice how…"

"Yea, couldn't miss it, but it was only slight, nothing really obvious," Axel said to him with a shrug and then stopped before they went into the TARDIS; "Doc, I've got a feeling you're going to go on your own again," He decided that he had to say this now, he could easily go back to the bar and maybe if he was lucky the woman there would help him find some kind of a job; "I figured that…"

The Doctor smiled sadly at him; "Yea, yea, I kinda… I was going to let you go. Something is coming and… And well, I don't want you to be part of it. It'll be dangerous and I won't live through it, but I don't want you involved in it,"

Axel looked indignant; "Why not? I've protected you…"

"I know, but this time, this time it's different, I have to be alone on this," He looked defeated as he spoke; "I can't let anyone get hurt,"

"All right," Axel backed away from the TARDIS; "I'll stay here,"

"Wait, what? You can't…" The Doctor began and Axel grinned.

"I can't go with you and you can't take me back to Destiny Islands. I think we know I am not exactly a Nobody anymore," Axel stated; "I still don't know what, but I know I… I'm feeling things now, I have emotions, maybe… maybe I also have a heart,"

"Axel I…" The Doctor paused; "What about seeing Sora again? What about…"

"He has to move on, its not fair on him to have his past, a former enemy to be on his doorstep," He shook his head; "I think I'll be okay here, that woman from the bar… Tifa I think her name was, she could help,"

"Yea, yea she could," The Doctor felt rather awkward, when Martha left him it was because she knew that she wasn't going to get him as she wanted, but Axel was different, this wasn't to do with him wanting a relationship; although the Doctor had no clue to how the Nobody had his relationships, but maybe with him only learning of his emotions it was friends that he needed, nothing deeper and the Doctor was glad to be one of his friends in his new life.

"Well, better get going, take care Doctor," Axel said with a slight wave and the other man waved back watching the red head move out of sight.

Wait… He called me Doctor! He thought in surprise, although Axel was gone he laughed and went into the TARDIS to have another adventure, unaware that the red head was going to be recruited with another red head and that he would return to save one of them from deaths door.

XXX

Prequeal to The Wounded Man; which features the 11th Doctor, Rory and Amy.