Axel was dying. He felt his consciousness fading as swiftly as sand, drifting into that dark tunnel which lead to the next life...or perhaps for a Nobody like him, nothing at all. Where did Nobodies go when they died? Without hearts, what hope was there for a life after death? I'm running out of myself thought Axel calmly After all those times faking it, this is what it's like to really die. Axel knew he had done well to help out Sora, even if it was for his own selfish reasons, but beyond that, no absolution came with death; no voice to tell him if he had done good in his life, or evil, or anything at all. There was no flash of realization, of appreciation or knowledge of any kind. Just the creeping feeling of his mind growing fuzzy and tuning out. But despite this lack of closure, Axel really only had two regrets as he dissolved into nothing, like so much ash. I'm sorry Roxas...I'll miss you...if only I had a heart to stop beating when I...

Then Axel, renegade member of Organization 13 was gone.

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Cool and damp. Axel could not see or hear but he felt...a clammy sensation of stubborn wetness that clung to his body and drenched without rain. Is this death? Wondered Axel. But he didn't really feel dead. He felt dizzy and uncomfortable, both were very mortal sensations. Axel flexed his fingers experimentally. There was the familiar crinkle of glove, along with a thick, wet noise. Axel swished his arm, and the noise grew tenfold. Wet leaves. Slowly, Axel opened his eyes. Far above him, a canopy of grim, green trees attempted to hide a grey sky. Thin streaks of thunderless, purple lightning crept from cloud to cloud like snakes. The alien sky was as strange as the trees themselves, which were nearly 100 feet tall, with skinny little trunks no larger around that Axel's palm. This trunks supported no branches, save the regular tufts at the very top. These trees had thin, smooth bark which was a peculiar shade of silver. Cautiously, Axel turned his head to examine what was beside him. The forest floor was blanketed in a thick crust of brown tree leaves, and the leaves themselves were obscured by a dense shroud of chilled mist.

With surprisingly little effort, Axel propped himself up on his elbows, then stood up with catlike slickness. The lack of difficulty was 'surprising' for the simple reason that Axel thought that death would have taken more out of him. And besides, Axel had left his world feeling exhausted, beaten and in a word, drained. But where ever he was now, he felt pretty much okay. Looking at the strange trees, the wet leaves and the monotonous sky split by occasional lightning, Axel asked the silent woods, "Where the Hell am I?" But it seemed that no answer was forthcoming.

There was nothing for Axel to do but drift through the infinity of the forest. It was a grossly silent place, with the mist holding all sound at ground level. Axel thought he heard a movement to his left once or twice, but it might have been his ears compensating for the silence. Despite the lack of underbrush in the strange forest, visibility was limited by the fog, which seemed to have the strange trait of thickening in the distance. Maybe I'm being followed...maybe I'm not. Whatever. Thought Axel, his small grin affixed to his lips. Of course he wanted to stop, to think about things, to figure out why he had died and ended up here. But questions would slow him down. When he found something to ask, he would get his answers. Until then, Axel let himself be ruled be curiosity and stored his fretting for later. But Axel was also no fool. Questions or no, he thought this new world was probably dangerous. What place isn't? He thought with a little grin. With an experimental flex of will, Axel called for his chakrams. Instantly, he felt their familiar weight in his hands. He called the twin weapons swam with fire, giving the surrounding mist a peculiar red glow. It occurred to Axel that his fires would have burned off any ordinary mist, but he was past attempting to apply the 'normal' rules to this place.

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Axel was not human, and he did not know weakness the way humans do. But after hours of wandering in the grey purgatory of the forest, even Axel's strength began to wane. As Axel began to feel the miles and hours in his calves and thighs, he remembered his last moments of life, the dull knowledge of overexertion, the ache of an empty body. Axel was not an easily rattled man, but the recollection of his own death persuaded him to stop. "Dandy place to make camp." Axel commented aloud to himself. Then he shook his head, sending the baubles on his cloak swinging like pendulums, "Great...this is how it starts...first you're talking to yourself, then your in some funny farm, convinced your Scarlet O' Hara or something like that." Grunting, Axel employed a trick which he had learned while the Organization was still house hunting. Taking Axel thrust his chakrams into a thin tree trunk, side by side to form a sort of platform. Leaping delicately onto the broad faces of the chakrams, Axel arranged himself so he was reclining on the chakrams with his long legs hanging off the side into open air. This method would have failed any other man with any other weapons, but Axel's chakrams seemed to have learned the trick to anti-gravity, and though they were clinging to the tall tree with the barest edges of their teeth, they would remain there, quite sturdy, until Axel demanded their release. "Not very comfortable, but it'll do." sighed Axel. Then he blinked, realized he had talked aloud to himself again, and added and angry, "Shit."

So Axel slept in the strange misty afterlife into which death had roughly cast him. The indifferent sky remained the same, flat grey, and the trees were not startled by even the lightest of breezes. Here, in this forest where nothing seemed to move or change, Axel was a lone Tinman; a fiery lost soul.