The sun was setting over Twilight Town, flashes of red and gold lingering on the winding streets and the houses that lined them. Rising above the buildings like a guardian was the hulking form of the clock tower, it's yellow face reflecting the dying light, the arms that held it's many bells spread out as though to encompass all of the town.
A black cloak whipped around the corner and footsteps broke the silence as a boy ran into the plaza, panting for breath. he headed for the steps leading to the clock tower, but then he slowed, finally stumbling to a halt, gazing up at it.
Roxas hung his head, clenching his fists at his side.
"Where did I think I could go?" he whispered angrily. "What a joke."
What had it been worth, he asked himself, escaping the castle? It wasn't like there was anywhere he could run to. And it didn't mean anything if he did it alone. What about Xion, and Axel? No, he thought, shaking his head. Not Axel. Axel had lied to him too many times, broken his trust. A pang of something pierced his chest, and he put his hand over where his heart would've been if he had had a heart. He wasn't supposed to be able to feel anything, right? So why did he hurt when he thought of how Axel had kept things from him and lied to him? He pictured the red-haired man smiling, holding out a sea-salt ice cream. Just as quickly, he shook the image away. Axel had betrayed him and Xion. The two of them were on their own.
Xion had run away again, but Axel had been instructed to bring her back. Maybe even now she was back at the castle! that thought was enough to bring a smile to his face, but it quickly slid off. Even if he and Xion were together again, where could they go? The Organization knew about every world there was. They could track them down easily.
But then he froze, his blue eyes widening as a thought occurred to him. The Organization was always discovering new worlds, right? What if he discovered a new world and went there with Xion and then covered up his discovery so the Organization couldn't find them? Then they'd be safe!
He turned away from the clock tower and glanced once at the red sun, sinking in the sky, before he raised his hand and opened up a dark corridor in front of him. He plunged forward, into the portal, the darkness curling around him before it disappeared.
He stepped out of the corridor into one of the sharp angular hallways of the Castle That Never Was. The portal behind him vanished, and he was just about to run up to Xion's room before he heard the sound of another dark corridor opening. Roxas quickly ducked behind a pillar and peered down the hallway.
Out of the portal staggered someone familiar. Axel! Roxas felt his adrenaline spike when he noticed that Axel was carrying Xion. He had gotten her back!
Axel had only made it a few steps before he collapsed, Xion tumbling out of his arms and sprawling across the floor. The portal faded away as Roxas ran down the hallway, falling to his hands and knees beside Xion.
"Xion!" he cried, bending over her. He lifted her head with his hand and leaned down towards her face. Warm breath fanned across his cheek and he almost fainted with relief. She was only knocked unconscious then.
He glanced at where Axel lay on the floor, then quickly looked away. Roxas didn't have time to worry about Axel. Besides, Axel would be fine. He had been walking just a minute ago after all.
Just then he heard a weak voice call his name.
"Roxas..." Xion said quietly, her eyes barely open. "Leave me here. Get away from here. They're going to make me destroy you. They'll reprogram me. I won't have a choice."
"I'm not leaving you, ever!" Roxas replied. "I've got a plan for us to escape where they can't find us!"
She nodded slowly as he explained his idea, her eyes shutting again.
"That could work," she murmured softly. "I know where we need to go to find a new world. I don't think I can get up though..."
Roxas swept one arm under her knees and the other around her shoulder s. pulling her up against his chest, and standing up. Xion weakly raised one arm and opened up a dark corridor. With one last glance at Axel, Roxas turned and walked into the portal with Xion.
They came out of the darkness into a vast room that Roxas had never seen before, bookcases lining every wall except for one, where a huge screen was suspended, lights winking all across it. Beneath it was a desk, white like everything in the Castle, with more books scattered across it.
A flash of green light caught his attention and he looked down at Xion to see that her eyes were fully open now. His met hers, and he shivered for no reason.
"I think you can put me down now," she said, with a small smile. "I cast a Cura on myself. I'll be fine in no time."
Roxas nodded and set her back on her feet. She immediately ran across the room to the desk, green light occasionally shimmering around her as the magic did it's work. He found himself missing the heat of her body against his, but he pushed aside that irrelevant thought and joined Xion at the desk.
"What does all this mean?" he asked, staring up at the screen.
"It shows all the worlds we know," Xion explained, pointing at the various symbols. "See, there's Halloween Town, and Neverland and Olympus Colosseum..."
"What's that mean?" Roxas interrupted, pointing at the farthest top corner of the screen. There was another symbol there, but it was in black, with no lights near it.
"There's a sheet of paper here with that same symbol," Xion exclaimed, bending over the desk to read it. "Apparently that symbol stands for un-discovered worlds that are non-Disney."
"Non-Disney?" Roxas repeated.
"I guess all the worlds that we have visited have been in some way, Disney worlds. It must be some form of classification," she mumbled, still scanning the sheet of paper. Suddenly her eyes widened and she stabbed at the paper with her finger. "This is it! It says here that Non-Disney worlds cannot be opened except by someone with a keyblade!" She whirled around to look at him, a smile spreading across her face. "We can escape!"
Roxas opened his mouth to answer, but suddenly the door to the room burst open and a horde of Dusks streamed in, lunging straight for them.
They moved impossibly fast, one surging towards Roxas, arm outstretched. He braced himself for the hit, but it never came; a keyblade flashed out and blocked it, trembling with effort before pushing the Dusk back.
Xion stepped in front of him, both hands gripped tightly on her keyblade.
"Unlock a Non-Disney world!" she called over her shoulder. "I'll hold them back!"
"I can help you!" he said, summoning his keyblade in a flash of light.
"No!" she yelled, striking back two Dusks. "Roxas, we don't have time! If the Dusks are here, that means that Saix will be here any moment! You have to unlock it now!" Her keyblade whistled through the air and sliced through a Dusk's midsection, 'causing it to evaporate. Another Dusk leaped through the disintegrating remains only to be knocked back by Xion and flung into a group of it's fellows, bowling them over
"But-" Roxas protested.
"Now!" she pleaded, turning to glare at him. While her back was turned, a Dusk sprang forward. Roxas jumped in front of Xion, into the air, swinging his keyblade down to smash into it's skull. As it dissolved, Xion whirled around and surged back into the fight. Her eyes met Roxas for a brief second, and he nodded.
Roxas ran back to the desk, his eyes fixed on the black symbol at the top of the screen. Although he didn't know what he was doing, some strange instinct made him raise the keyblade and point it directly at the symbol. Summoning every ounce of power inside of him, he roared,
"Unlock!"
A shaft of light burst from the end of the keyblade, searing into the symbol. When it hit the screen, a white halo shot out from the spot, blasting back the Dusks. The light was so pure, so brilliant, that Roxas had to turn his head to the side, squinting in the glare. He could see Xion shielding her face, her eyes squeezing shut, but then the light faded.
Roxas opened his eyes and turned to see a portal open in front of him, almost identical to the dark corridor, except that this one was a brilliant red, scarlet wisps dancing around the edges. He had opened a portal to a Non-Disney world!
He spun to face Xion, a smile beginning to spread across his face, when suddenly the air seemed to split open behind her and Saix lunged forward out of a dark corridor, his face twisted in rage, his hands reaching for Xion.
Roxas grabbed Xion's hand and pulled her towards him. She landed on top of him, fingers splayed against his chest, the two of them toppling backwards into the crimson corridor. The last thing Roxas saw before the portal closed around them was Saix's outstretched hands just missing Xion's boot.
Then they were swallowed by the red.
"Hey, are you alright?"
Roxas slowly opened his eyes to see a hazy mismatch of colours. Wherever he was, it was loud. Voices and strange noises overlapped and blended and reverberated around him. His vision slowly cleared and above him he saw the face of a girl with black hair. At first he thought it was Xion, but then he realized that this girl had glasses and was wearing different clothes. And she was holding what looked like a stuffed-
"Is that a pig?" Roxas asked dazedly. The girl's eyebrows knit together and then she glanced down at the animal she was holding.
"It's a cat!" she said indignantly. "His name is ."
"Just leave them, Shiki," came a new voice, this one male.
The girl looked over as a boy appeared in Roxas's vision, with bright orange hair that spiked up in the back and a pair of chunky headphones hanging around his neck.
"I can't just leave them in the middle of the street, Neku," the girl told the new boy, before turning back to Roxas. "Are you and your friend okay?"
At her words panic gripped Roxas, and he quickly turned his head to Xion lying beside him, her eyes closed. Relief settled over him. She was still passed out from the portal ride, but other than that she was unscathed.
"I think we're okay," Roxas answered. The strange girl, Shiki, smiled and offered him her hand. Roxas took it and let her help him to his feet, noticing that the orange haired boy seemed extremely irritated by him touching her. He had "Back Off!" practically written all over his face.
Roxas ignored this and knelt beside Xion, gently shaking her awake. Her eyes opened slowly and the two of them stood up to look around their new world.
They were standing in an endless sea of people, boxy shaped buildings of every size and colour surrounding them and stretching off down the streets into the distance. Everywhere they looked, things flashed, shone, moved, and rumbled with companionable noise, so different from the static silence of the Organization.
"I'm Shiki Misaki," the girl with the stuffed cat said, stepping forward. "And this is Neku Sakuraba." She gestured to the boy with the headphones and Roxas could see in the gaze that passed between them why the other boy had seemed protective of her. Could this be what real people called love?
He suddenly felt a small, soft hand slip into his own as Xion stepped up beside him.
"I'm Xion, and this is Roxas," she said. "What is this place?"
"You don't know?" Shiki replied incredulously. "This is Shibuya."
"Shibuya," Roxas repeated, gazing around him. His eyes fell on Xion, and she smiled, squeezing his hand. He smiled back. "I think...I'm going to like it here."
Deep in the Castle The Never Was, Axel lay on his bed and stared blankly at his ceiling. Ever since Roxas and Xion had disappeared a few days ago, he had done little else but lie on his bed. He was going to go insane in this stupid little room staring at his flat, changeless, boring, white ceiling.
Why did he feel so empty? He had no heart to feel with. He had no emotions. But he couldn't help it. He missed the two of them. His throat seized up and he could barely breathe when he thought of them leaving him behind. It was his fault. He had screwed up, and because of that, he was alone.
His vision suddenly blurred and he jack-knifed to a sitting position, the sudden movement 'causing a tear to spill out of his eye and slide down his cheek. He swiped at his face angrily. He couldn't actually be crying, could he? That was something he hadn't done since he was a real person.
How could Roxas and Xion have done this to him?
The room suddenly lit up with a blinding light, searing out of a corner like a beacon. Axel froze in the glare, squeezing his eyes shut against the brightness. It faded abruptly, and Axel cautiously opened his eyes.
Out of the red portal that had suddenly appeared in a corner of his room stepped someone he hadn't thought he would ever see again. He was wearing different clothes, and there was something different in his eyes, but it was definitely him. Standing beside his bed, a small smile quirking his mouth, was Roxas.
"Hi, Axel," Roxas said.
"What the-I thought you and Xion escaped! What are you doing here?" Axel asked, jumping to his feet.
"You thought I'd just leave you behind, didn't you?" Roxas said, avoiding Axel's gaze. "Well, I'm nobody's puppet, I refuse to do what's expected of me anymore." He shoved his hands in his pocket and looked up at the red-haired man. "You're my best friend Axel, no matter what you lied about. I thought I could forget you, but I can't. I've got that memorized now."
Their eyes met and Roxas smiled, extending his hand.
"Xion's waiting for us," he said. "Are you coming?"
The empty space in Axel's chest felt like it was being filled with something warm and unidentifiable. The three of them could be together afterall!
"Heck, yes!" he answered, and he took Roxas's hand in his own, larger one. Roxas laughed and pulled him forward, out of the white, sterile, silent room of the Organization, and into the portal.
Into a new life.