Of Steel

Rating: T

F/N: This is my first Kingdom Hearts story. Please don't expect it to be perfect.

Summary: That day that Roxas met DiZ, that day he was supposed to join bodies with Sora, he ran away from the Haunted Castle—from the Forest, from Tram Common, and from the outskirts of Twilight Town. In doing so, he meets Yen Sid, the wise wizard who lives in the Mysterious Tower. Yen Sid gives him a dark cloak—intended to hide his identity, and Roxas escapes to the outside world with enhanced abilities and a form of transportation. In exchange for this freedom and privilege of sorts, he has to free all of the worlds of darkness before someone finds out his true identity. The moment DiZ and Rku—I mean, Ansem's Heartless, finds out his identity, he will be forced to return to Sora's body. If Organization XIII finds out he is roaming around free…well, they will take him back by force or destroy him. As it is, he already has a red-headed stalker following his every move.

Warnings: None

Enjoy.

"Sora…"

A young boy lied down on the sand, eyes closed, before he slowly opened his eyes to show the most brilliant auroral eyes known to man. He blinked once, no, twice, before he stood up and then fell right back into the gritty sand. He lied there sluggishly for a moment before he was startled by the blue eyes of a prowler. The young girl laughed as he stuttered:

"Don't scare me like that, Kai—"

Click.

For some reason, there were many breaks in this series of events, in this chain of memories. Because of this, memories scattered everywhere, sliding up and falling down, skidding side to side, and then finally bumping into another memory. The next thing that was floating through the chain was that of the same brunette running alongside with a close friend of his: Riku.

The older silverette seemed to have a huge advantage over the young brunette, but he would rather tease him than to beat him—teasing brought a challenge, while winning simply brought bitterness, sadness, and a little resentment.

"Giving up already?" Riku taunted him lightly with a small smirk on his face. But Sora didn't say anything. He was too preoccupied in winning against his rival.

Before the dream could any further, the chain broke, and the memories clicked yet again. Another part of the chain lied before the boy's eyes, another memory. A deep and supercilious voice thundered in the boy's head, and somehow it managed to circumvent all psychological barriers he may have had, attacking his soul directly with contemptuous words.

"You understand nothing."

The male voice took prominence above all else, including the memories that he had saw before—that of the young brunette and his friends. Those sweet and nostalgic memories of friendship that had flitted at his eyes before were now defenestrated and brutally cut into a hundred pieces. And it wasn't like the boy was going to go back to that time, either. It wasn't like he could pick up the broken pieces of friendship that the voice brutally cut and glue it back together. Those memories were intangible, and all he could do was move forward.

So he did.

As another chain began to appear before the boy's eyes, he was greeted with the sadistic face of pain. Maybe it was because the last chain broke the weaker chain that existed before it. Maybe it was because the voice shook up his soul and he was still shocked about it. But I didn't matter what the reason was, I was still there. And god, could he feel it.

Hate. Bitterness. Envy.

It was the nitty-gritty things that gave birth to this ugly, turbulent feeling. The pain was almost tangible; he could almost feel its grip holding him into place.

But it wasn't over yet.

The voice began to die down with time, along with the searing pain that accompanied it, and what replaced it was a world full of wonder. Traverse Town—the world of wonder, was a place where people united, where things were gained and not lost.

The boy met a tall man, Squall, better known as Leon, and an eccentric girl named Yuffie. There, he also met another young woman, a woman who appeared young to the unaided eye, yet seemed older. She went by the name of Aerith, and was a calm and relaxing woman. It was those three that told him about these "Heartless", and how they took people's hearts.

But this union—or reunion, was cut short when a white duck with an attitude and a somewhat sagely dog crashed down right down on him. Not the boy, but the young brunette in which the boy was seeing through.

After that, through the boy's eyes, the brunette came to some sort of agreement with the other two animals.

The last chain—the blue chain—disintegrated when the young brunette known as Sora curved his lips into a grin as he exclaimed:

"Okay, I'll go with you guys."

This is how the story began…

A young boy flung his body out of his bed with a nervous expression splattered on his face. His aquamarine eyes were wide with shock, fear, and a little bit of confusion.

"What…was that?" The boy blinked once, twice, before he turned his attention to the window where the almost tranquil scenery was. Doves flew in packs of five and ten and the grand bell on the station building chimed abruptly, signaling a new day.

The boy rubbed his blond hair through the tips of his fingers before he got out of bed with a small "umph". His eyes glazed over his surroundings, which so happened to be his messy room that he never liked to clean up. His clean, white socks were scattered everywhere, on his desk, on the floor in a pile, even on his bed. His neat, black socks that he used to go on occasions were in one place, but they were in the wrong place—on his doorknob in a ball. Shirts hung around loosely, almost as if they were searching for a home, and his undergarments were all over the floor.

After picking up one of the shirts, a pair of clean (?) pants, and a boxer that was solely hanging on the back of his chair, he started to head down to the main part of his house.

Right. HIS house.

He never had parents—or even a family, but he never thought it weird, because his friends and their family always took care of him. But when he thought about that dream, the idea of how it was somewhat abnormal came to him. But he waved it away like a fly in front of his face. This was how his life was like. He couldn't get shook up about it because of some popcorn dream.

He approached the messy kitchen, and quickly fixed himself something to eat. Bread and cheese was fine for him, but he also took out a jar of jam in case he was extra hungry. Though he probably wouldn't be, because he also had milk, orange juice, yogurt, and not to mention the cereal that was already poured out…

He had quite the appetite. But after what will happen today, he might need every calorie from that food.

Roxas didn't think about his dream much after that, but when he arrived at the "Usual Spot", his hideout that his friends created, it came back to his mind rather quickly.

"You guys, I…" He wanted to tell them about how weird his dream was, how he felt as if he knew those places that he never saw before, and smelled those places, and fought those creatures that seemed to lurk in the dark, but he never got a chance to.

All of those things that he wanted to say remained silent in front of them. He approached them rather carefully, as an irritated look was on both Hayner and Pence's face. As for his female friend Olette, she just looked a tad bit…upset.

"Damn! They think they can get away with anything," the hot-headed blond grounded out through the spaces of his teeth. He punched his fist, looking like he was ready to beat up something…or someone. Roxas stopped in his tracks when he saw him.

"Wait, what happened?" Hayner, the hot-headed boy, only glanced at him briefly before continuing.

"That bastard…Seifer…he friggin' framed us for something we didn't do…and now the word is spreading…" Roxas only cocked his head, puzzled by the random occasion. Framed for what? It wasn't like anything has happened recently…

Temporarily, Roxas put aside his own worries and asked him, "What did Seifer accuse us of?"

Hayner grimaced as he slammed his hand on the small ledge next to him.

"He accused us of stealing _, that's what." As Roxas still remained puzzled at Hayner's statement, Pence sighed and muttered,

"It would be easier to show him, especially since we can't say it." Fumbling through his pockets, the chunky boy finally found a photo, which contained himself, Olette and another boy there whom Roxas did not recognize.

"This is what he thought we stole. Well, not this exact thing, but it was like this."

"It seems they took the word _ too," Roxas added with a small frown.

"No kidding," Hayner mumbled under his breath. Roxas heard it, but he tried not to take offense to it because he knew that his friend was stressed. Only, that didn't work out, and the bitter words repeated itself in Roxas's head. But before he could get carried away, Hayner suggested:

"We should go into Tram Common."

"Why?" At this point, Hayner was exasperated, and he was one step short of yelling at Roxas. But he didn't, because Roxas was out of the loop, and who could blame him?

"Why else? We can find out who really stole those _ and clear our names off the radar. Then we can pound that dick Seifer into the ground." As Hayner bitterly left their Usual Spot, Olette and Pence followed. The three of them looked like they belonged together, almost like they were family or something. And although he was a part of that group as well, he felt a twinge of loneliness when he felt something akin to a barrier set up between them and him.

He was still in thought when Olette called out to him.

"Roxas?" The blond boy looked up after staring in space for so long.

"Aren't you coming? Hayner and Pence are waiting for you up ahead."

The blond almost snared…almost. Hayner just finished giving him something akin to a tongue lashing, and now he wants him? But Roxas didn't voice that; all he said was:

"Yeah, I'm coming." A big smile appeared on the brunette's face as she started to retreat to where her other friends were.

"Great! Then I'll see you there!" Just as quickly as she came was just as quickly as she left, and Roxas was alone again. He was about to take a step forward to meet his friends, but at that moment he felt eyes look down at him. He actually stepped back and glanced around to see if someone was there, but when he saw that there was nobody there except for his paranoia, he shrugged his shoulders uncertainly before continuing to Tram Common.

The darkness seemed to wrap itself tightly against the man's body, but said person waved it off, and it dissipated into the nonexistent wind. He started forward into the next hole he made; leading to a certain town, but then a voice stopped him.

It was the voice of his very old—and now cold—friend.

"Axel, wait." Almost as if time had screeched to a screaming halt, the red-headed man froze. He turned around momentarily, meeting the blue-haired man's gaze. Said man was cold; his eyes were of ice, and he had a scar on his face from an accident. He was an aging man, because it was shown through his eyes, but he appeared young. He was also a very guarded man; he never did things unless he was ordered to, and he never trusted anyone. But maybe that was partially Axel's fault…

"What is it that you want, Sai'x?"

"Where are you going?" It was a rhetorical question, because he continued. "Thirteen has deserted us, and until we either find him or gain more members, we cannot afford to lose another."

"What does that have to do with where it is that I am going?"

"Xemnas has entrusted me with the task of watching everyone's moments," the other man bit out irritably. "Until everything has stabilized again, we cannot move. That does include you, Axel, as you are a part of the Organization."

"I want to try and see if I can bring Roxas back," Axel answered carefully, watching his moments. He knew that if he said the wrong thing, Sai'x would report him to Xemnas, and only god knows what would happen next. He glanced back at the portal of darkness, counting his lucky stars that it hasn't closed on him yet.

"This has not been approved by Xemnas. We cannot count that Roxas will—"

"I won't talk to him, then," Axel rephrased, his desperation starting to peak from the surface. "I'll simply observe him, and then report back to Xemnas with time, I can meet him, and convince him to come back. That isn't against the rules, is it?"

There was nothing the blue-haired man could say to that, and so he sighed. If Axel managed to successfully bring back Roxas, he could convince Xemnas that Kingdom Hearts would be completed a lot faster with his help. And it's not like there is a Nobody of their status just lying around somewhere, saying, "See me here?!"

Maybe it is for the best that Axel does this.

"Fine," he finally responded, grimacing at the brightness that suddenly appeared in the red-head's eyes. "But I will report this to Xemnas, and anything you do will fall on your shoulders, and your shoulders only. Do I make myself clear?"

"Loud n' Clear." Axel started to make his way through the darkness, only looking back at his old friend once, who had started to retreat. Not worried at all for him, Axel concentrated solely on getting to Twilight Town, which was a little ways away.

Using his senses, Axel breathed in the thick air, and then he remembered: Twilight Town wasn't real. It was his creation. With a heavy heart, Axel forced himself through the barrier that was set up at the edge of this world, and he began to flit through the walls and buildings that were blocking him. Finally, he could spot a blond-headed boy that looked similar to Roxas. But his demeanor was all wrong. Roxas got angry, but he was never a hot-head. This blond boy was angry, and his caramel eyes displayed it like a trophy on a pale wall. Axel scanned that group carefully: a chunky boy with spiky hair, a brown-haired girl with a lot of sense and the care of a mother, and…ah. There he was.

Roxas was there, listening to the other three kids, watching, observing…and cringing. His blue eyes were in slits, and his mouth was pulled downward in a frown. And suddenly, Axel wanted to hear what they were talking about—if only to understand why his best friend was frowning so hard.

After a while, he got the gist of it: someone blamed him and his friends for something they didn't do, and now they have to prove that they are innocent. Connecting the fact that they can't even say the specific word of which they were accused of stealing, it is most likely the work of a lower Dusk. Those guys would take anything and make it into something, Axel mused to himself, because they don't know the difference. It was around this time that the hot-headed blond and his friends left, leaving Roxas by himself. The boy was still deep in thought, and that, Axel thought to himself and smiled, hasn't changed.

He watched as the girl from before came back from wherever she was to call out to Roxas, and watched as his friend reciprocated. But then as he was about to follow her, his clear blue eyes became alert and started to scan the area, darting this way and that. Vaguely, Axel wondered if something had happened to him.

"He wasn't this paranoid before," he muttered as the boy shrugged it off and started to run.

As he started to reach the top of the "hill" leading to Tram Common, Roxas looked back quickly and gazed right into Axel's eyes. But then he shrugged it off and started his fast running pace again. As soon as he was gone, Axel started to chuckle, and that chuckle transformed into a huge laughing fit as he realized what happened.

"You won't sense me that soon," he said out loud, but more to himself.

"Though I'm pleasantly surprised you sensed anything at all."

Roxas kept on jogging until he reached the Tram Common, where Hayner was waiting impatiently for him.

"You're late," he barked out, pointing an accusing finger at his friend. "What the hell were you doing like that?"

The blond boy shrugged. "Sorry."

Thankfully, Hayner didn't say anything else, which gave Pence a chance to explain the deal…or the situation, as it were.

"We need to clear up our name," Pence started, "but more importantly, we need to clear your name."

Roxas sputtered. "M-my name? Why my name?"

"Because," Pence paused, scratching his head, "They all think that you stole the _" Again, Roxas sputtered.

"Yeah, but why?"

"I don't know. But maybe we should ask the shopkeeper in charge of the store. He seems pretty upset." And so they did. All four of them. When they approached the counter, the man looked like he was about to smile, but that smile dropped right off his face and smashed onto the ground.

"Oh, hi Roxas. I didn't think you would do such a thing…"

"I didn't steal them, sir," he replied quickly. "But we are trying to find the culprit. Do you have any idea to what it is that is stolen?" The man started at him for a while, and then shook his head.

"I don't know. But maybe you should ask the lady in charge of the jewelry store. She might know something." He stuck his head out of his window, and pointed towards the young girl across the street—literally. Without further ado, the four gave their thanks and walked over to the next shop. Like the first, the lady started to smile at her customer, only for that glass smile to fall and break into a million pieces. All that was left was a frown, a distasteful frown at that.

"Roxas, I believed in you. Why would you do that?" Hayner was about to open his mouth, Roxas saw it. But he said again like what he said to the man across the street: "I didn't do it, ma'am. It's not very fun accusing me of something I didn't do, y'know?" After a pause—a very long pause—the young woman finally replied, a soft smile on her face.

"I believe you." Roxas was about to give his thanks and ask if she knew what was stolen, but then she cut in. "But I think you should talk to the old lady across the street." She pointed to the old lady at the regular store, and then nodded. Roxas, again, gave his thanks before jogging down to the older lady. The other three followed him; if anything were to happen, they would defend Roxas's case.

"So far it's been going okay," Hayner whispered in his ear as Roxas moved a little away from him, "but we haven't had any clues about who might have done it."

"He'll come up in due time," Roxas replied with a whisper. "For now, I think we should just convince people that we didn't do it."

As soon as they got there, the older lady asked shakily,

"Have you seen my cat around?" Almost simultaneously, all four of the teenagers glanced up at the roof, watching as the old cat licked itself and purred.

"Uhh…." Seeing as the other three didn't do anything, Roxas took it upon himself to grab the cat from the roof of her store and hand it to her.

"Um, ma'am, about the stealing…" She didn't even let him finish his sentence; she knew exactly what he was going to say and cut him off.

"Yes, I already know. You are too much of a good child to do that." Roxas could only grin and respond with a readily "Thank you."

Axel stalked the alleyways, the sidewalks, and even near that place. But there was no sign of Roxas. Thankfully, after looking for some time, he found him and his friends with another set of teenagers—and damn did they look mean. One of them was a burly tan man—a bit weird looking, who wore a tank top and jean pants. The girl, Fuu, had silver hair and cat-like eyes. Her way of speaking was strange, but it was nothing compared to the tall guy in front of both of them.

He wore a beanie hat with a character on the front with a sleeveless coat hugging his body. His face was scrunched up in disgust and amusement at the same time, and he was glaring at the four of them, which one of them held a camera in his hand.

"This deserves a little something," Pence whispered as he aimed the camera at Roxas.

"Smile!" As Roxas smiled for the camera (which completely exposed Seifer's face and defeat), a white…creature came, grabbed the camera out of Pence's hand, and ran off at the speed of light. It was fast, agile, and had a weird shape. Not only that, but it floated.

Everyone was still in shell shock about what they saw as they still looked from Pence's hand to the corner.

"Was that…the thief?" Hayner looked at Olette disbelievingly, but Roxas was the only one who took action.

"There's only one way to figure that out," he yelled as he ran after it. The rest of his friends called back to him, but he ignored it and ran at full speed to catch up with the creature. Axel, not surprised in the least, clicked his tongue as he watched Roxas slowly creep up on the Dusk.

"A Dusk," he muttered, following Roxas into the woods towards that place. "I knew it was something like this. Roxas can't fight that when he can't even call on his weapon."

Roxas finally stopped at a haunted house, where the Dusk stopped. Picking up a nearby stick to attack, Roxas charged at the Dusk, expecting it to fall down in pain, or something. But it didn't. It simply watched him as if Roxas was the strange one, and not it.

"What the heck?" Roxas stared at the stick, seeing that it did nothing to the Dusk. "Why can't I fight it?"

"Because, Roxas," Axel muttered, half-hoping that Roxas would hear him and half-expecting that he won't, "You need the Key Blade to destroy it; you only have a stick as your weapon."

Roxas glanced at his useless weapon in awe. "Why can't I fight it?" He turned to slash at its head; he aimed the stick at its teeth, but for some reason…

For some reason…he couldn't inflict any damage.

And for some reason, he could hear what the creature was saying…clearly. Oh-so-clearly.

Roxas stopped in his tracks as the white creature's voice hissed in his ear, and vibrated in his head.

"We have come for you, my liege."

"What?" Almost as if it were proving its point, the zipper that held its mouth popped free, and it started to…scream…calling its group over. In seconds, one white creature became two, and then three. Roxas only shook his head in frustration as the numbers in which he was dealing with became larger.

"Great," he growled darkly, "Two more?"

He was about to give up, about to throw in the towel and let fate have its way, when something stopped him.

Or rather, someone.

The brunette that he saw in his dream came before his eyes, and suddenly, a large key formed into his hand. Upon coming, it tugged forcefully at the creatures, who momentarily froze, and now are about to spring into action. For a moment, Roxas was in a daze, but with a shake of his head, he snapped out of it, and focused on the task at hand.

Task: Defeat these creatures and get the pictures back.

As soon as the key penetrated the last creature, a dozen pictures fell to the ground. It was at that moment that Pence cam running to him, huffing and puffing because of his size.

"Ro-Roxas. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he replied, a bit unsure. Was he fine? He didn't know. He just fought the equivalent to aliens and he's saying he's fine? He must be insanely fine or something…

"C'mon, let's go back." Pence smiled at him brightly, waiting for him to walk. Roxas nodded, grabbing the pictures on the way out, and heading back towards the forest.

It didn't take him long to get to the Usual Spot. But when he did, his friends crowded around him.

"Roxas! Did you get the thief?" The blond boy shook his head, and held up the pictures.

"Oh. You got the pictures! Nice going!" At that, Olette gasped.

"You said the word 'picture'." Roxas handed the pictures to Pence, who passed them around.

"So…what was the thief like?"

"Well…" Roxas tilted his head. He couldn't say that there was no thief; he wouldn't and couldn't be able to explain the white creature that took away the camera from Pence. But at the same time…he felt as though he shouldn't say anything.

He stared at the eager faces of his friends before he quickly averted his eyes from them with a flicker.

"I don't know," he finally lied. "There isn't much to say."

"Aw." It was almost like they were in a movie, where the climax was supposed to happen, and instead it ended anticlimactically. Their expressions looked just like that.

He knew it wasn't right to lie, he knew he should have told the truth but….something held him back. What was it, he didn't know. Maybe it was the strange nostalgia he felt from staying with it.

Wait, nostalgia? From a stranger?

"Damn." Hayner bit his lip as he irritably snapped his fingers,

"Yeah, we got the pictures and yeah, we could turn them in and apologize. But how do we," he snapped, "prove that we weren't the ones who took 'em?!"

"Even more important than that," Olette interrupted calmly, "Is the pictures. Doesn't anyone notice something strange about them?" Everyone, including Roxas, leaned over Olette's shoulder to see what it is that she was talking about. Pence was probably the first to get it.

"They're all of Roxas," he stated with awe. He nudged said boy with his elbow, who proceeded to look through the pictures.

"Really?"

"Yeah," he said. "I mean, look at this one." He held up a picture with Roxas standing by the "Stuggle!" announcer.

"And this one." This time, Roxas was standing in front of a defeated Seifer, with a big grin on his well-developed face.

"And this one and this one…"

After looking at all of them, Hayner muttered, "It's almost like…they wanted to take the real Roxas…or something…"

"No way," Roxas shook his head, laughing it off. "I don't think so."

That conversation didn't stay long, though, as Olette stumbled on a picture featuring Roxas and a decent looking girl close together.

"Hey look! Roxas is with a girl! ~ You look so happy."

"Do not," he countered, a scowl growing on his face.

"Yeah," Hayner sniffed, feeling a bit jealous, "who'd want to go out with a blockhead like him anyways?"

"What?! Aw, thanks!" And just like that, all of the tension was gone, and they started to laugh their heads off.

"Hey," Olette said, her cheeks red with happiness, "let's go return these." Like before, the three of them started to leave, but Roxas stayed back because he felt that someone's eyes were on him. Again, he glanced around, feeling his paranoia rise out of the ground like before, but once he spotted no one, he simply shrugged it off and ran with the rest of his friends.

Once Roxas caught up with his friends, Axel turned back to the wall and made a portal of darkness with a flick of his hand. The thick air greeted him again, but he paused and sucked it all in before continuing onward. He was looking for that gate, that gate that led to the castle…

"Found it," he exclaimed suddenly as he pushed away the darkness to reveal a creamy, white wall. He felt the electricity flow through his body as he passed through, and then he met yellow-tinted eyes. The red-head only sighed tiredly as he continued to stare at him.

"Axel."

"I have to go to Xemnas, is that right?" He didn't even give the other a chance to speak; he simply walked toward the main part of the castle, where all the thrones lie, and where Xemnas was sure to be. As long as Sai'x said what he said he would, it won't be too hard…hopefully. But judging by the look he received from the man as he walked in there, he wasn't sure if that was possible.

"Number Eight." He adjusted himself on his chair, looking down at Axel with a bored expression. "I heard you went looking for our lost member?" One would have thought that as a simple innocent question, but Axel knew: he was searching for betrayal. After Roxas betrayed the organization, anyone in contact with him is bound to be thought of in a similar position as well. It didn't help that half of the members in the room were glaring at him.

He only swallowed as he started to speak. "Yes. I am trying to persuade Roxas to come back to the Organization. Of course, if you wish to drop this idea, I will," Axel quickly added, feeling the hostility thick in the air like molasses to a spoon.

"I see. So have you collected any data that we may use as a starting reference for this process? Surely you have not come back empty-handed." Honestly, Axel didn't want to tell him. He wanted to say that he found nothing at all, but if he did that, then some of the other members would be sent to Twilight Town, and then they would probably harass—or threaten—Roxas for information. He couldn't do that to him, especially since they have a terrible habit of dragging people who aren't even part of the situation into it.

The red-head scratched his head nervously, which was a terrible habit he picked up from Zack, an old friend of his, as he began to think of the right words to say.

"About Roxas…"

F/N: Review and tell me what you think.