A/N: This story came about because I was upset at one of the final cutscene in KH 365/2 Days, in which Organization XIII Roxas (My all-time favorite KH character) was killed by Riku. WHY, Square Enix, WHY?! So, yeah. This is basically an AU, but not, in which something happened instead of him just dying and going back to living in Traverse Town. By the way, I know what happened at the end of Dream Drop Distance, Roxas telling Sora that it had to be him, blah blah blah. I don't care.

Heart of Shadow Chapter I

Roxas felt a mild heat on his face, and blinked open his eyes to see sunlight filtering through the trees. He rubbed his eyes, and stood up. He looked down, and noticed that he was back in the clothes he had worn before becoming a Nobody.

"What's going on?" He muttered to himself.

He looked through the dense brush, and noticed a tower in the distance. As he started toward the path, He summoned his Keyblades…. Or Keyblade.

"What the….. Why can't I summon Oathkeeper?" He said to himself.

The Keyblade he could summon, Oblivion, made short work of the forest brush. As he made his way to the tower, he saw a few people sparring with what he thought were Keyblades. He questioned out loud what they were doing and how they wielded…Keyblades…..

Flashback

Roxas saw a familiar face…Axel? That's who he thought it was, but…..He could barely remember anything. "Are you gonna eat your ice cream, or not?

Flashback Over

Roxas shook his head to clear it, starting to remember what had happened previously. He noticed Oblivion had vanished from his hand, meaning that he had lost concentration. He looked up upon the toll of a bell, and noticed all of the people who had been training in the yard were rushing inside. He walked down a small, well-beaten path towards the front door of the tower. As he got closer, the last of the Keyblade wielders turned around and noticed Roxas.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm….Roxas…." He said in reply.

"How did you find this place?" She said, "Only Keyblade wielders can find it!"

In response, Roxas summoned Oblivion.

"Ackk!" She stumbled back in surprise.

Roxas de-summoned his Keyblade, and asked her a question: "Where am I?"

She looked like he had just asked why the sky was blue. "This is master Yen Sid's tower, of course."

"Could I meet with…..Yen Sid?"

"Doubtful. He's cooped up in his study most of the time." She replied, "Besides, if you don't have the permission of King Mickey, you can't stay here."

"Why not?" Roxas shot back.

"No idea."

"Whatever…." Roxas said, a plan already forming in his head.

3 Hours Later

After night fell, Roxas began walking back to the tower. As soon as he got close to the tower, he was stunned as a black feather hit his face. He looked up, only to see a muscular, well-built figure land on the roof he had planned to climb up to.

"Well, that puts a damper on my plans." Roxas muttered in an annoyed undertone.

Roxas saw the figure slip in a window, and promptly decided that this was his chance. After using his Keyblade as a stair for his foot, he was able to de-summon it and climb the rest of the way. When he got to the window the figure had gone into, he looked inside and noticed a figure with two demonic wings sprouting from it's back speaking to someone he assumed to be Yen Sid. Roxas listened in, intrigued.

"Cloud, where is this 'Keyblade Graveyard' you speak of?" Yen Sid said to the being, presumably Cloud.

"Here's a map I drew up, hopefully it's useful." Cloud said back.

Roxas accidentally hit his hand on the window. Cloud whirled around, drawing a gigantic broadsword with the blade partially wrapped in cloth. As Cloud flung out his wings, Roxas stumbled and fell off the ledge. As he hurtled toward the ground, he summoned Oblivion and slammed it into the wall of the tower. Roxas continued sliding, and Oblivion was cutting away the cobblestone that made up the wall. Roxas looked up to see the being, Cloud, hurtling towards him. Roxas yanked Oblivion from the outer wall and performed a midair flip to slam into Cloud. This didn't work, because Cloud expected it and slammed back with even more force, breaking Roxas's concentration and dismissing Oblivion. Roxas then plummeted to the ground, creating a decent sized crater.

"That didn't work…" Roxas muttered.

Cloud flew down, crashing down about thirty feet away from Roxas. Roxas stood up, and rushed at Cloud, shadow energy swirling around his hand and summoning Oblivion. Cloud hurled his sword at Roxas at such high speeds it was just a spinning blur. Roxas flipped over it, and landed in front of Cloud. Roxas swung his Keyblade as hard as he could, causing Cloud to bring up his hand and catch the blade an inch from his face. Roxas stumbled backwards, and Cloud hurled Oblivion off into the distance. Roxas noticed it vanish in an aura of Shadow, and knew he had obviously lost his concentration yet again. Roxas got off the ground, and used one of his preferred abilities, Firaga. A large fireball slammed into Cloud, causing him to be flung into a tree. Unfortunately for Roxas, that tree was where Cloud's sword had ended up. Cloud tore it from the tree, and rushed Roxas.

Yen Sid stepped out, and raised his hand. He hurled a blast of Light energy at the combatants, and they both were knocked unconscious.

"Aqua… Come help me clean these two up and put them both in separate areas of the infirmary."

Surprised to hear about Aqua? You'll be more surprised with the rest of the chapters.

-Ace