AN: Hi guys! This is my first attempt to publish fan fiction, and the first piece I've written since... I dunno, in years. I surely appreciate all the comments you have, both + and -.

The language is harsh because, well, I wanted Roxas to sound more mature (for him, he is). Also, he has every right to be pissed - basically everyone he ever knew, except for the Twilight Gang, did nothing but pissed into his porridge.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Heaven knows I wish... But nay, Square-Enix does.

I – The Keyblade's Chosen One

He had been baffled enough to stop his attack when he had felt an energy wave to wash over him. The next thing he had noticed was that the cheering crowd had suddenly fallen silent and frozen, like time had stopped for them. But right now all he could think about, all he saw was the undoubtedly threatening thing he was facing.

The white creature danced dangerously in front of stunned Roxas. He could just stare at it for a moment, eyes widened with shock and confusion. He nearly dropped his struggle bat in disarray. This isn't happening, thought Roxas, what the hell's going on?!

"That's not Vivi," Seifer had spat out before storming out of sight. "Trash him!"

It most certainly was not Vivi, Seifer had got that one right, Roxas thought. He was beginning to feel pretty damn scared when more enemies appeared out of nowhere, surrounding him.

"Again?!" Roxas felt panic rising inside him. What could he do? He needed something to defend himself with. The struggle bat would be of no use.

Instantly, the bat transformed into the Keyblade. "Again?" Roxas questioned out loud, obviously puzzled, but quickly let the initial surprise go as he remembered the situation he was in. He readied himself for the seemingly unavoidable battle and took a wide step back to lower his stance.

The first enemy launched directly at him, aiming for Roxas's torso. Not a very smart move, thought Roxas. That was the technique Hayner often used when the two of them sparred, he was pretty used to it. Roxas quickly dodged down onto his left, simultaneously slicing his blade horizontally, hitting his enemy straight into its side. The creature let out a strangled croak before vanishing into whiteness, trembling.

Roxas looked up – only to see that another creature was about two steps from him, readying to strike down to his head. He rolled out of the way as a heavy punch landed into the ground where he had been just a moment ago. He let out an exasperated sigh and lifted his weapon into a new strike. Adrenaline was rushing through his system, his heart was racing with nervous excitement. "Leave me alone!" Roxas roared as he jumped forward towards the nearest enemy, raised his blade above his head and brought it down to the creature's head with force. Another enemy vanished.

He hadn't been fast enough. Roxas let out a pained cry and fell forward into the ground as another creature kicked him hard into his back. Roxas's hands and knees met ground and he felt the stinging pain when skin peeled off of them. Ignoring the feeling, Roxas rolled onto his back, gathered his small weight onto his hands and easily kicked himself up again.

Just in time. He raised his blade instinctively to block the incoming attack, only inches away from his forehead. Roxas grit his teeth when the sting in his hands returned, but he had no choice. He gripped his blade firmly and managed to throw his attacker off balance with a strong push. In an instant he resumed his attack and finished the enemy off with a swift, diagonal swing across its chest.

Just one left.

The last one didn't move for a while, it just kept dancing from side to side about ten steps from Roxas. Although its eyes were not to be seen, Roxas got the feeling it stared at him. It was unnerving. Seriously unnerving. He stood up to his full height and pointed the Keyblade threateningly towards the thing.

"Who are you people?" he snarled at it. "What the hell do you want from me?!" he yelled as he quickly resumed his battle stance and sprung towards the enemy.

This time the thing had expected it. It had observed Roxas, studying his tactics. It blocked his direct attack, and the Keyblade gave out a metallic screech as the hard surfaces collided. Roxas hadn't anticipated that, however, and was thrown back a step – just enough time for the creature to land another well-aimed kick into his left side, just below his ribcage. Roxas's vision went black for a split second as he let out an exasperated breath of pain. That hurt!

He collected himself in time to barely dodge the next attack. He took a quick step to the right just as the creature's metallic arm, followed by the rest of the creature's body, swung closely by him, close enough to cut a shallow wound into his left arm.

That was the worst mistake it ever made. While attacking Roxas, and missing, it had turned its back towards Roxas, if only for a moment. Roxas took the offered chance and plunged his Keyblade furiously deep into the creature's shoulder. It shrieked – a dry, searing sound that was like cutlery grinding against a porcelain plate. Bewildered, Roxas dragged the blade downwards, across its back as the creature turned into white smoke and disappeared.

Roxas couldn't move an inch. He breathed heavily trying to calm himself. He was angry, furious even. The urge to fight still bubbled inside him. His body and mind were tense with a twisted lust for blood. He snarled out of sheer instinct to kill before he got killed himself. Slowly he managed to calm down and his battle energy drained out of him, leaving behind only helplessness. He blinked several times as he observed his surroundings.

Dead quiet. All still. All the people had been frozen in their place like a collection of extremely high quality wax dolls. Roxas didn't know if they were dead or alive. He couldn't move. He couldn't even breathe. He opened his mouth to speak, to call out for his friends, but he was interrupted as a new sound echoed from behind him. Someone clapping hands. Roxas instantly spun around to locate the source of the sound, partially ready to defend himself again, in case that someone turned out to be hostile.

The person wore a black, full-length leather coat and its hood was pulled over his head, completely covering his face.

"Roxas. Alright. Fight, fight, fight!" The tall and slender figure stopped clapping and started walking towards the struggling circle. Roxas stared at him with an angry expression settling on his face. He subconsciously tried to appear dangerous, and studied the intruder to determine whether or not Roxas could trust him. At the moment, he most certainly didn't. Who is this guy? How did he know his name? Did he do this?! It was damn difficult to evaluate anyone without seeing their faces, however.

"You really don't remember?" Why should I? "It's me. You know, Axel." The man removed his hood, revealing the wildest-looking bright red hair Roxas had ever seen. The man had sharp features, and under his emerald green eyes, he had some kind of triangle-shaped markings. Roxas eyed the stranger warily.

"Axel?" Roxas spoke with a questioning tone, raising his eyebrow. The name said completamento nada to him. Although, deep down, he felt like something moved inside him, but he ignored it.

"Talk about blank with a capital "B". Man, oh man. Even the Dusks aren't gonna crack this one." As he said it, two flaming wheels with sharp-looking spikes appeared in his hands. Taken aback by his sudden action, Roxas hurried to demand:

"Wait a sec! Tell me what's going on!" He had decided this stranger was worth being afraid of, and his sudden outburst gave him desperate kind of courage.

Axel looked around casually. "This town is his creation, right? Which means we don't have time for a Q&A. You're coming with me, conscious or not." Axel took a fighting stance and readied his weapons. "Then you'll hear the story."

Roxas watched in horror as Axel whirled his weapons around, obviously just playing with them for now. Fearful expression rose to his face and he took a couple of desperate steps backwards. He wanted to run. He eyed the formidable weapons in the redhead's hands, really not wanting to get to know them any better. He could practically feel a fiery spike sinking into his flesh just by looking at them. He took another step back.

He was stopped short, however, when the air around them suddenly became alive. It bent as bursts of energy, matter even, traveled trough the air, circling them. Luckily, the sudden change in the atmosphere took Axel by surprise as well. He lowered his weapons and looked around for the cause of the disruption.

Oh, you gotta be shitting me.

Roxas really was in a bender. His emotions changed from "scared shitless" to "extremely annoyed" in the second Axel lowered his weapons. What was with this guy? He didn't understand it, any of it. He felt frustration rising inside him, and as he glanced downwards, he remembered the Keyblade he was still clutching in his hand. This... this thing was the reason for all of this. It had to be. All of the weird stuff had started happening since this thing first appeared. He brought the blade to his eye level, never turning his studying eyes from it. Suddenly, he hated it. With all of his might, he hated it. Enraged, he threw the blade as hard as he could towards Axel's feet. It missed him by several feet.

"What's going on?!" he demanded, pissed off and overwhelmed.

Roxas didn't know whether to laugh or cry when the discarded weapon immediately reappeared in his hand. Oh, fucking marvelous, he thought. He stared at the blade with anger and despair. He didn't want it. He didn't want any of this. He just wanted his fucking life back! Was that really too much to ask?

Axel spoke when Roxas refused to avert his eyes from his weapon, "Number XIII – Roxas, the Keyblade's Chosen One." Was that mockery in his voice? The Keyblade itself seemed to think that way since Roxas felt an irritated white, burning wave of heat in the blade and heard a metallic chink as Axel spoke those words. And although Roxas detested his ungodly tie to this weird object, at the moment he realized that the weapon and he had a common enemy. Hence, he accepted his fate for the time being and gripped the handle firmly again.

"Okay, fine! You asked for it!" he spat out as he took his fighting stance and swung the Keyblade back. Axel readied himself for a battle as well.

Metal collided against metal with a high-pitched cling, and Roxas managed to direct the incoming attack to his side. Axel had swung towards him with full force, and the block threw him off balance for just enough a while for Roxas to sidestep out of the way and away from the redhead.

Roxas knew he was in serious trouble. Axel was a deadly skilled professional, a one man killing machine if he wanted to, he could tell just by looking at his perfected technique. The only thing that had saved Roxas, he knew, was the fact that this time Axel apparently wasn't planning on killing him. He had said he wanted Roxas to come with him, and that, Roxas could only hope, hadn't meant in a body bag...

He dodged at the last second as a flame wheel was sent flying towards him. He could feel the heat on the weapon as it flew by him.

"Hahhaa. Just like the good ol' times, eh, Roxas?!" Axel laughed cheerfully at him. "Great, isn't it?" Another wheel flew towards Roxas, but this time he hit it aside towards a wall. It sank about two inches into the concrete and stilled there. "Pheew. Nice. You haven't rusted a bit." Axel smirked at him as he summoned his weapon back.

What the hell was he talking about? "Shut up!" Roxas barked back at him, trying to appear confident and threatening. The truth was, he was getting tired. He tried not to let that show, but Roxas couldn't help but wonder how long he could go on with the fight. Axel didn't seem tired at all. If the fight would go on for much longer...

It didn't. Suddenly, a masked character appeared out of nowhere. Axel noticed him first, followed by Roxas. The person was tall and scary-looking, and was wearing a wine colored cape and a matching mask that covered his entire head, save for his mouth and eyes. "Huh?" Roxas exclaimed out loud, involuntarily. What was with the outfit?

Axel's whole aura got a hateful edge as the intruder entered. "So it was you," he stated venomously. Elegantly like a wildcat he jumped backwards to regain his posture, summoned flames into his weapons and threw them towards the man. The masked man didn't even blink as he calmly observed the burning hell-wheels approaching him and getting blocked by a shield of white light. The man didn't seem to care about the redhead, and instead turned to face Roxas.

"Roxas." His voice was deep and loud, and made a shiver run down Roxas's back. "This man speaks nonsense." This Roxas hadn't expected, and he was even more puzzled.

"Roxas, don't let him deceive you!" called Axel from the other edge of the circle. Roxas wasn't quite sure, but he could swear he could hear a hint of panic in Axel's voice. Why?

"Roxas!"

"Roxas!"

Roxas, Roxas, Roxas, Roxas...

It was too messed up, Roxas couldn't take it anymore. He didn't know what to think, except that he wanted out of this situation. He didn't understand at all, and couldn't believe anything any more. It was all too much. He took subconsciously a few hesitating steps back, trying to run away. The air had started to live again as invisible creatures made of energy swam by him. The men's voices roared in his ears. How could he know who to believe: the guy who had nearly killed him in the fight earlier, or the one wearing a mask who had come out of nowhere to claim the other spoke nonsense? He shut his eyes and brought his hands to his ears to try to block out the world. Oh, he wanted to escape it, wanted something reasonable. He briefly thought of his friends. Hayner. Pence. Olette.

He didn't know what else to do. "Hayner! Pence! Olette!" he called out to his friends.

He was standing in the struggling circle, surrounded by a cheering crowd and holding his struggle bat. He opened his eyes and took in the sight of Vivi falling to the ground.

"What- what just happened?!" exclaimed a voice through the speakers. Everything was... back to normal? What the hell had happened? Through a confused haze Roxas could tell that Vivi slowly got up and walked away from the arena as his friends came running to him, hugging him and congratulating him heartily...