Real Life doesn't have a second chance or continue screen. So what happened in those universes where Sora lost his heart during the game?

xXx

It was strangely anticlimactic. It had just been a run-of the mill outing, go to a random world (Hollow Bastion, in this case), take out heartless, come back, rinse and repeat. Except this time it hadn't gone according to plan. Sora had just overstepped the slightest bit too much, thrown himself forward just a tad too far right when a heartless could take advantage, and just like that, he was laying on the floor as his heart slowly floated out of his chest...

Donald watched it all in slow motion because he'd been battling his own overly-large hoard of the creatures and one of them had a hold of his staff and they were somehow immune to his magical lightning.

Goofy had been off on the other side of the square, busy with his own battle...

And there was no one to save him.

"SORA!" Donald yelled, panic running through him. It happened just as it had before. All they were missing was the giant, black Keyblade sticking out of his chest.

Donald sent an over-powered ice spell at the heartless he'd been battling and forgot about the rest of them. He already had his cure spell building, but his friend's body was already fading.

No, No, NO! This wasn't supposed to happen!

"Get back here, Sora! You can't break your promise!" Because he'd promised Kairi and them and the king and Riku and who knew who else that he'd figure all of this out—that he'd keep fighting until they found a way to stop all of this.

But his plea worked just as well in the Hollow Bastion town as it had in the Hollow Bastion castle.

Donald was really getting to a point where he hated this world.

"Sora!" Goofy yelled in horror, having heard Donald's cry and coming over to see what he could do.

Nothing.

There was quite literally nothing they could do.

And then there were the heartless to consider. They hadn't taken a break simply because the entire hope for the world had suddenly ceased to exist. Donald backed up against his old friend as the heartless crept closer and closer.

"What do we do now?" Goofy asked worriedly as he hid behind his shield.

Donald didn't know, but that wouldn't exactly be the best to say in a situation like this, so he wracked his brains as he eyed the approaching hoard. Finally he glanced up at Goofy.

"We defeat these guys, and then we tell the King. He'll know what to do."

"Gawrsh," Goofy said with that troubled expression that said he'd already seen a problem with Donald's suggestion. "How will we find the king?"

Well, he hadn't been too difficult to find as of late...perhaps Leon or Merlin would know?

"We'll find him," he said, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. "But before that, we have to take care of these guys."

Which, as usual, turned out to be much easier to say than to do. Donald didn't realize just how much they'd begun to rely on Sora and his Keyblade. He'd have to remedy that somehow when they got out of this.

He downed another Ether just as he swung under the mace-like fist of one of the large, blue ones that had just begun to appear. The spiky round ones that looked more like giant tanks than heartless. Maybe if they could get to the Postern and whatever was beyond that to Leon...or should they turn back and try for Merlin's place?

He didn't know.

All he did know was that he and Goofy couldn't stay here unharmed much longer. He heard his companion gasp in pain and threw a potion at him.

"Thanks, pal," the Captain of the Guard said, relief evident in his voice, but they were running out of their resources and might well be joining Sora soon if something didn't—

It came out of nowhere. A blur of color and a cling of two objects clashing. Donald cringed away for just a moment before looking behind him to where the sound had come from. He saw the end of a claw from one of the Neoshadows just inches from his beak. Not for the first time in his life, he was thankful feathers covered his face as otherwise he would have blanched.

Then he realized what had stopped it from getting him.

A Keyblade.

Held by a human.

Donald's eyes followed the shaft up to the figure, whose back was turned to him, and couldn't help his bill from dropping.

It wasn't Sora. He could tell that right away. And yet...

The fight continued with far better odds now that another Keyblade wielder had jumped into the fray. They made short work of the remaining heartless, much to Donald's relief. He leaned forward, taking in and letting out a deep breath as the last heartless' heart vanished into the air.

That was when the kid turned and looked back at him with a scowl, throwing his Keyblade over his shoulder.

"I can't believe it! What has that idiot gone and done now?!" he asked angrily.

Donald and Goofy could only stare.

xXx

"So, you're Sora's nobody?" Donald asked skeptically. The kid had explained things...but that didn't mean he believed it for a second.

"Just like those Organization guys?" Goofy asked.

The boy, Roxas apparently, scratched the back of his head. It was such a Sora-like gesture that Donald almost found himself reevaluating his opinion.

"Yeah, I guess. I'm just glad I remember everything this time."

"You guess?" Donald asked.

"Actually, he's part of the Organization," a familiar voice rang around them. The entire group looked around before turning towards the sound of the rushing of wind signifying an opening into the realm of darkness. A few feet down the path, a red-haired man with purple triangles on his cheeks stepped out. He wore the black, Organization cloak and a smug grin on his face.

The Keyblade that had vanished out of Roxas' hand returned in a heartbeat, but he looked hesitant none the less.

"Axel."

"Is that any way to greet your best friend?"

"Wait, you're with the Organization?" Donald interrupted their exchange worriedly as he glanced back at Roxas.

"You guys are friends?" Goofy asked, looking as confused as ever.

"No," Roxas replied firmly.

Axel frowned. "That's not very nice."

Roxas rolled his eyes. "The organization tried to replace me with another Keyblade wielder. They tried to use me to gather hearts and then intended to erase my very existence! There's no way I'm going back to them! And if you're with them..." He faded off and left the conclusion unsaid.

If anything, Axel just looked more confused. "I don't know where you got your information from, but that never happened."

Roxas deflated ever so slightly. "You wouldn't remember her, I don't really remember...but I did meet her and she told me everything."

"Now you're not making any sense," Axel pointed out sharply.

Donald watched at the two eyed each other, each tensing and getting ready for a fight. He decided that he (and hopefully Goofy because he didn't really want to draw attention to the two of them at the moment by actually speaking up and asking) would try and help Roxas if it came to that, but he still wasn't sure about any of this.

Then, to Donald's surprise, Roxas deflated and lowered his Keyblade. "Axel, are you really my friend?"

To the two spectators' surprise, the red-head looked away, almost as if he were pouting. "You just said I wasn't."

"If you're still with the Organization, because I will fight them to my last breath."

Well that at least sounded promising.

Axel shook his head, the two chakrams that had appeared in balls of flame vanished and he raised a hand to the back of his head. "You're still set on that? You know they'll send everyone after you, right? Do you really think you can fight them all?"

Roxas didn't answer for a few minutes and Donald studied him intently. Then Roxas looked down at the Keyblade in his hand. That was the first time Donald realized that the form of the key had taken on the shape it did when Sora fixed Kairi's pendent to it. No one else should have that Keyblade...

No one but Sora.

For the first time, he began to almost believe that Roxas was Sora's nobody.

And wasn't that a terrifying thought?

"I'll fight whoever I have to," Roxas said finally.

"Why?" Axel asked, sounding almost desperate. It looked real enough that it almost fooled Donald. Almost.

The blond boy sighed and put a hand on his chest. "Because for a little while, I was complete again. Those emotions—our hearts—fill a void that I didn't even know was there. We don't know it's there, and yet we do because we're trying to become whole again, even if we don't understand why." He glanced up at Axel again and his expression hardened. "I'm going to destroy all the heartless I can with my Keyblade. I don't care if they go to Kingdom Hearts or not, but I'm going to find the heartless that holds my heart and find a way to get Sora back."

Axel studied the shorter boy silently for a few minutes. Then he sighed and his hand moved to the back of his neck as if to massage it. "Yeah, that sounds like the Roxas I know. I try so hard to get you back and you go and do this. Somehow, I'm not surprised."

Roxas' eyes narrowed and Donald raised his staff.

"You sent all the heartless after us?" the duck heard himself ask angrily.

Axel turned his attention to him. "I may have redirected a few here and there, but they would have come after you anyway. As long as you're with him and as long as he has a Keyblade."

"So, what now, Axel?" Roxas asked, raising his Keyblade back into a fighting stance.

The red-head frowned for a moment. "I have one more question. What will you do if you ever get Sora back. Just give up and let him live your life for you?"

Roxas didn't seem to pleased with that idea but he scowled determinedly. "The first thing I do when he comes back is kick his butt for letting this happen again!"

The response was so unexpected that all of the other three just stared at him. After a moment he shook his head and spoke more softly.

"Besides, it's not like that. When he lives his life, I live mine too, because we're the same—even if I don't want to admit that I'm anything like that idiot. Besides, it's his life I'm living right now. Nobodies were never meant to exist, remember?"

"Now you sound like Naminé," Axel muttered.

"Naminé?!" Donald and Goofy said at the same time. Jiminy found his way onto Goofy's shoulder.

"You mean like the Naminé I have in my Journal?"

The cool look Axel shot them seemed almost disdainful. "Who knows?"

Donald was about to retort but Axel had already turned back to Roxas. "Your mind's made up, then?"

Roxas seemed to stand a little straighter—just like Sora did when he got one of those ideas into his mind—and nodded.

The taller nobody just shook his head, red spikes following the movement strangely. Donald never could understand why people liked to spike their hair. He'd never do that to his feathers. He thought it looked ridiculous

"I guess I'll just have to report that," he said as he turned around and walking casually towards a dark gate that had opened up.

"You mean, you're not going to fight us?" Goofy asked.

Axel paused and looked over his shoulder at them. "What kind of a best friend would I be if I tried to kill him every time we meet? I'll see what I can do and put them off for a bit longer, but you have to figure all of this out on your own. Got it memorized?"

And with that, he—and the portal—disappeared.

Leaving the three of them to stand in the strange area outside of Hollow Bastion in an awkward silence.

"So, uh," Goofy ventured after a few tense seconds of silence, "now what?"

Roxas sighed. "Now we go find your king. Maybe he'll know how we can fix all of this."

That had been exactly what Donald wanted to do anyway.

"Right," he said with a nod of his head. "Come on, Goofy." Then he turned to Roxas. "I'm Donald Duck. This is Goofy."

Roxas didn't look impressed. "I know. I remember everything this time."

And they'd have to get that story out of him later too.

"Yeah, but now we're introduced," Goofy interjected. "It'll make it easier to work together, a hyuk."

The blond eyed them both for a moment, but finally he turned around and his Keyblade vanished. "Whatever. We'd better get going, then."

xXx

Note: Continued in chapter 3