Okay, so I'm new at this whole writing thing, and this is my first attempt at fanfiction. Please review!
I remember it like it was yesterday, when I first met him. I had no idea that my life would never be the same again, if you could even call it life, seeing as I shouldn't exist, but then, neither should he, or any of the Organization for that matter. That's the thing about us Nobodies: we're not supposed to exist, but we do anyway. I guess we're just rebels that way. Anyway, when I first saw him, I thought he was the victim of one of Vexen's "experiments". All ragged and acting like a complete zombie, he could easily have been one of the replicas Vexen enjoys making, he did look eerily familiar... but who would he be a replica of? Probably just some innocent person he encountered on a recent mission. Xemnas introduced our new member as Number XIII, Roxas, claiming that he was the Keyblade's chosen one or something like that. What I wanted to know was why the Keyblade would choose a zombie like this kid, but that soon changed when I got to know him.
For the next few days, I saw Roxas around the castle a lot, usually accompanied by another member of the Organization. The poor kid looked like a lost puppy sometimes. I wished there was something I could do for him, but I wasn't sure what there was to do. Then I remembered eating sea-salt ice cream with my friends as a kid. Perhaps introducing him to something normal would help him feel welcome, and maybe open up a bit. To tell the truth, I missed having something fun to do with friends ever since Saïx and I fell apart. I found Roxas in the Grey Area that afternoon listening to Demyx jamming on his sitar and singing. He was watching intently, like he had never heard music or even seen a musical instrument before. He probably hadn't. I sat on the couch nearby and listened for a bit. Demyx continued to sing. He was a good musician, and he worked hard for it. If only he could work that hard on his job in the Organization... I applauded Demyx for a bit and then realized that Roxas was just sitting still. "Roxas, when somebody finishes a performance, you're supposed to clap for them." I explained. "Oh." He mumbled and then began to clap slowly, unsure of whether he was doing it right or not. "Do you like it?" Demyx asked. "It's just a cover, but I've been working on it a lot lately." "Yeah, it's great! What do you think, Roxas?" I hoped Roxas liked music too – it would be another bit of normal life to help him get used to the Organization. "Yeah... it's really good." he replied. "Wow! Thanks, guys!" Demyx replied, looking a little embarrassed – he was used to the rest of the Organization begging him to stop playing his music. "Well, I've got to go. They gave me another "eliminate the giant heartless" mission. Would it really kill them to give me an un-violent mission every now and then? I could be great at recon!" he walked away continuing to mumble over his job. I looked over at Roxas, who was trying to imitate the motions of playing the sitar. "Hey Roxas, you up for some ice cream?" I asked. "Ice cream?" he replied. Did this poor kid know anything? "Yeah, come on – I'll show you." I opened a Corridor of Darkness and led the way through.
We arrived in Twilight Town, the safest place I could think of to bring him. I bought two sea-salt ice creams from the vendor at the train station and we headed up the stairs to the balcony at the top of the building. The station building was tall, and there was no rail on the balcony, but I knew Roxas would be okay after training with Lexaeus for the past few days. Anyone would be extremely fit after just one training session with him. I sat down on the edge and watched as Roxas carefully eased himself into a seated position next to me. "Here you go." I said, offering him one of the ice creams. "It's called sea-salt ice cream. Got it memorized?" He took the ice cream and stared at it for a while. "Yeah. It's cold." He finally replied. I laughed. "Of course it's cold. That's why they call it ice cream." Roxas stared at his ice cream some more. "Oh... What do I... do with it?" he asked, looking over just as I took a bite of my own ice cream. "Never mind, I see." he took a bite. I'll never forget the face he made then: surprise, happiness, and a little bit of brain freeze all mixed together into one priceless expression. "It's sweet... and salty." We continued to eat in a silence broken only by the occasional bird flying by or laugh faintly rising from the children playing below. This was the time of day that the town was named for. In this world, the sunset was so purely red that everything was tinted with its unique light. There is no other world with a sunset quite like this one. I laid back and stared into the red of the sky. "Axel," Roxas whispered "the sunset... it's beautiful." A smile made its way across my face. "Yeah, it is." I hoped Roxas would continue to improve so he could enjoy more of the little pleasures in life. I wanted him to be able to enjoy life, unlike some of our comrades who mostly just alternated between work and rest. That had to be a miserable way to live.
A few days later, I walked into the Grey Area to see Roxas standing next to Saïx. I waited a few yards back, thinking that Roxas was receiving instruction or something, since that was usually Saïx's job, but then I noticed Larxene lurking in the corner with a complacent smirk. Either she was up to no good (like always) or I was about to receive some miserable task that she should have gotten. She had always been talented at getting her way. "Axel," Saïx began "I need you to teach Roxas here about his role in the Organization." So Larxene had escaped the task of teaching the new guy, and she had also dumped it onto me. Saïx continued to recite instructions. "Today you will teach him only the basics: how to use the Corridors of Darkness and how to behave in other worlds. Anything else is up to you, but be sure that you do not fail the Superior." Roxas tilted his head towards the floor a bit. "Superior?" He was still a zombie. "Roxas," I explained "the Superior is Xemnas. X-E-M-N-A-S. He's our boss. Got it memorized?" He merely nodded. "All right, well, we better get going." I said after an awkward pause. I received another nod in response. "You don't have to talk my ears off, you know. Let's go." I almost wished Larxene had gotten this job like she was supposed to. How was I supposed to figure out how to explain missions? I opened a Corridor of Darkness and was just about to leave when I realized that Roxas was staring at the new member who had been introduced that morning. "Roxas, Xion will be okay. Let's go" I had nearly forgotten Number XIV already. Weird... Maybe it was because Xion's hood was always up.
This time I decided to take Roxas to the tunnel ways underneath Twilight Town. They were usually deserted, so we wouldn't have to worry about raising any suspicion from the locals. "Okay Roxas, like Saïx said, I get to teach you about missions today. Missions are... well, they're... um… you know what, talking is getting us nowhere, let's just get our hands dirty. Follow me." I jumped up a couple of ledges and showed Roxas how to hang on to high ledges and pull himself up – skills that he would need to master if he was going to be useful to the Organization. Roxas followed me easily. "Is that all? Lexaeus taught me that." He said when we reached the top of the ledges. Lexaeus had trained him well: he was barely breathing hard and still looked like he had plenty of energy. "No, that's not all. You see, you can't just get through missions with physical strength – you have to use multiple skills if you want to be successful." I explained. "What skills?" Roxas asked. "Well..." I began, searching my mind for another useful skill. I found it. "You have to be aware of your surroundings." I continued triumphantly. "There's a treasure chest hidden somewhere in these tunnels. If you observe your environment well on every mission, you can find a lot of these. For today, there's only one, and I want you to find it." "All right." Roxas replied and set off to search every corner of the tunnels. I was just glad I remembered that chest that I had neglected to open on my last mission.
After what felt like an eternity of walking in circles, he finally found the treasure chest in a discreet corner of the tunnels. "Hey Axel!" he called. "I found it!" Sure enough, Roxas was standing next to a gold treasure chest with blue designs painted on the lid and the sides. "Good job, Roxas!" He continued to just stand there. "So... what are you waiting for?" "What do you mean?" he asked. "I found it, didn't I?" "Well," I began, realizing that he didn't know very much yet. "There's this thing about treasure chests. There's usually treasure inside." "So, you want me to open it, then?" he replied. "Yes Roxas, that's generally what we do with treasure chests. We open them" I explained, trying not to be frustrated with him. After all, he had probably never heard of anything we were teaching him since he joined the Organization. "Oh, and you can keep what you find in it." I added just in case he couldn't figure that out either. "Ok. What else are we going to do?" he asked after taking out the Potion that was inside. He probably had no idea what to do with it, but it would come in handy when he started learning how to fight. "Um, just remember to not do anything that would make anybody suspicious when you're in other worlds, or anywhere for that matter. Otherwise, we're done for the day. Good job Roxas." I was glad to be done explaining everything. Roxas mumbled something while looking at the ground. "What's that?" I asked. He looked up at me. "I said I could have done that blindfolded." He said, much more boldly this time. Something inside me cheered a bit. He actually had a personality other than "zombie"! "I dunno if I want a blindfolded zombie on the loose!" I joked. "Hey!" "I'm just picking on you. Hey, you've made a lot of progress lately. I'd say you deserve a little something extra. The icing on the cake, if you will." I hoped I could get him to continue to progress – the ability to form actual sentences was only one step. "The icing on the cake?" Roxas inquired with a slight tilt of his head. "Yeah, come on, I'll show you." I said as I headed towards the train station.
"Here you go!" I handed Roxas an ice cream. "Do you remember what it's called?" Roxas stared at the distinctly blue treat in his hand and pondered my question. "It's called sea-salt ice cream." I reminded him. "I told you that last time. Get it memorized, Roxas." He nodded and took a bite. "At least I remember the sunset." he said after a while. "Yeah, it's pretty amazing." I replied. "It'd be pretty hard to forget something like this." Just then, the fiery red sun dipped barely below the horizon. For an instant, it flung its vivid crimson rays across the world, making everything so intensely red that it was almost painful to keep my eyes open. The light faded away as quickly as it had come, leaving the town to darkness for the night. I hated to break the silence, but we had to get back to the castle before anyone started to think we had gone missing. "Well, it's about time we headed back." I spoke quietly, but my voice still echoed against the wall in the darkness. "Yeah." Roxas mumbled, still affected by the brilliance of the sunset. I opened a Corridor of Darkness and hesitated before entering. "Hey, Roxas, let's do this again after our next mission together." I thought I saw a faint smile through the dark. "Yeah."
Like I said, this is my first attempt at this. Please review, if this goes over well, I'll add some more chapters!