Dear Thena,

I don't mean to bother or trouble you...I mean, with my pointless letter. But I thought you might care how I'm doing. How am I doing? Actually, I'm really confused. I can't explain this strange sensation...I feel empty. It's really new and strange. I feel like nobody. Like I'm just here with no purpose or emotion. Like I don't belong with other people. I'm not sure where I am. It's nothing like Chicago here. I feel so lost. I really hope that I can find out where I am by asking around. But there are no people in sight. I guess I'll just keep travelling until I finally find someone to tell me where I am in hopes of sending this to you, Thena. That's all I have to say for now. Please respond so I know nothing happened to you like what happened you me.

Love,

Lea

There, thought Lea. I'm finally done. Lea had written "Love" simply as a formality. He didn't really feel it. He couldn't. Now I need to send one to Peter. And he started writing again. He wrote the same thing for his brother. He wished they would get these letters. They were all he had now. He started running in a random direction. There's bound to be a town sooner or later, he thought. Lea did a lot of thinking. He wasn't necessarily a silent type. He just didn't have anyone to tell his thoughts to, and didn't want to waste his breath. He started getting tired. Why is it so gosh dang deserted out here? He didn't know. He didn't care, either. He couldn't care. Finally, he saw a bar on the horizon. Sure to be a city skyline. Not just a city, but a big one. With suburbs and taxis and those hot dog stands on the corners. He wondered why it was randomly there in the middle of the nothing he was running across. He stopped. He looked to his left and saw a lush forest. He looked to his feet and saw grass. He looked to the sky and saw clouds. But then he looked to his right. Barely visible, there was a road. And cars buzzing across so silently he couldn't hear. They were that far away. He hoped that these cars were headed to the very city he longed for. Chicago. That's where Peter and Thena were. He hoped and continued on to the city.

About an hour later, after breaks of walking and sitting, Lea was in the city. He read the clock up above. 1:44 PM. That meant he had plenty of time to find the post office. He walked past windows that were mirrors on the storefronts. He stopped and looked at himself for the first time since he woke up, and rubbed his eyes. He walked up to a window and stared hard at himself. What the cake is that? he thought. He rubbed his cheeks. No good. He looked at his hands. Then the germiphobe reluctantly licked them. He rubbed his cheeks again, but no such luck. They were tattooed. Stained. Unremovable. The black, upside-down teardrops were stuck to his face. He sighed to himself and treaded on.

Lea found a post office at last and learned where he was. It was a city called New Life. "What state?" he asked the woman behind the counter. "State? Ha!" she laughed. "What in the name of Joe is a state?" And then Lea knew. This world was not his own. He wouldn't be able to mail Thena and Peter their letters. They wouldn't be able to know where to find each other. "Wait," said Lea. "How many cities are in this world? Do you know, erm..." He squinted at the name tag. "Jeanette?" "Well," said Jeanette. "There is only one on this world. That's New Life. But there are three on the other worlds, I believe." "Other worlds?" Lea was confused. Then someone in a black cloak walked into the post office.

It was a man with a handsome face, but his hair was gray and his eyes an amber-yellow. The mystery man held up a small, red, beeping device and looked at it. "Hello, there," said the man. "My name is classified. And you, redhead?" Lea looked at the man sarcastically. "I'm hungry," he said. "Then you should come with me." The man reached and lifted Lea by his soft-orange vest. Then he pressed a button on the red device and the woman passed out. He put it in his pocket and reached again, this time opening a sort of portal. He started to go through. All the while, Lea was screaming things such as "I have to find them!" or "Let go you big monster!" But the man proceeded.

Lea woke up in a strange room. It was painted white. "Ouch..." he groaned. He was on a really tough mattress. It was white too. Everything was white. He looked down to the foot of the bed. He was wearing black boots with silver soles. He got off the bed and looked in a mirror. He was wearing a cloak just like the mystery man's. He looked at the door. The sign above it read "VIII." Eight? thought Lea. What does THAT mean? So he walked out and ran into a blue-haired boy.

The boy looked about Lea's age. And really familiar. "Lea?" asked the boy. "Is that you?" How did this guy know Lea? He didn't know. "How do you know me?" The boy stared at Lea. "Oh, Lea. I thought you'd have this face memorized by now. After all, you made me memorize yours. And I'm your best friend." Lea remembered in a flash everything that happened in Chicago. The man with a knife-gun, his siblings, his best friend. "Isa?" "Yeah." Then Lea was his old self in a way. "Isa, it's rather careless to get dragged into this sort of thing. How'd you manage, you blue-headed control freak?" "Well...I kind of lost control..." Then Lea looked closely at his best friend's face for the first time. There was a big "X" across the center. "Isa...I wish I could be sorry." Then Isa said, "Come on. We have to go." And he pulled Lea down the hall by his hood. This was the only normal thing that had happened, so Lea didn't say anything.

"There you are." It was the man from the post office. "Thank you, Saïx. You can go." Isa dropped Lea's hood and went back down the hall. "Ow!" shouted Lea as his head hit the floor. The echoes in the hallway were startling. "Lea, I believe?" asked the man. "I hope so. If not then Saïx is more stupid than I thought." "Saïx? Why do you call him Saïx? Where am I? Who are you? Why am I here?" Lea didn't like this setup at all. "I'm Xemnas. You're Axel. Welcome to Organization XIII, currently standing at eight members and two decoys. You are the eighth member. Element, fire. Weapon, chakrams." "What does this all mean? Why am I so empty?" "You're a Nobody now. Lea is dead. Therefore, you're Axel." "Who are the decoys?" "Two Nobodies with no potential in ranking in the Organization. Expert and Xanthe." "Expert? What kind of name is that?" "I'll see you around, Axel." Then Xemnas left.