Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Everything Else is fictional.

A Distant State

I can't believe I have to do this, but the Organization is angry enough as it is. Then again, it is my fault. I gave him that book I found to help with his boredom when we can't go places. I was just attempting to help him pass the time…Orel Myshton's 'Climatic Glory'…

Axel stands before the shut door of his friend, Roxas. "Roxas, why's the door to your room locked?" the visitor calls out. No response, he pounds on the door feeling irritation pulsing throughout his brain. "Hey, can you hear me? You're pissing everyone with being shut up with that book?"

"But you gave it to me to read, remember?" a voice replies from within the room.

"Yeah, but that was for down time! Open the door now! We got a mission to do!"

"No, I'm busy."

"With what?"

Squeak, the sound of bed springs signals that its owner is leaving his position while footsteps from within inform Axel his friend is coming to talk. The visitor freezes as Roxas pops his head out, showing scars on his face with one black eye.

"Making paradise," says the room owner.

"What happened?" Axel whispers. Snapping out of his still state, he touches the face of someone that feels like an alien. "Did you do this to yourself?"

"The scars upon my face meant none to me, God could not take my utopia from me, I'd be both heaven and hell forever."

"What?"

Roxas swings his room door back, revealing the lighting in his room is dim. "Problem?"

The word hit our visitor, but his brain is too anxious for a good reply. "What?" Axel says, shaking his head and finally gets the question. "Problem? No, there's none."

"Then why are you bothering me?"

"We have a mission."

"And I told you that I'm busy making paradise."

"Look," the visitor replies, finally getting his brain back up to speed, "We have to go, or else the organization will come down on both of us."

"What for?"

"That stupid book you've been reading for the past two weeks."

"Huh?"

"I gave you that book, the dark epic poem I found during a mission two weeks ago, Orel Myshton's 'Climatic Glory,' remember?"

"The best book ever written. Soon, I'll achieve what he couldn't."

"Yeah, but ever since I gave it you that day, you haven't left your room. So, what the heck is going on?"

From dim to black the room goes, moonlight from outside gives illumination. "There would have to be rules, commandments that only I would follow, leader and follower as one is what I'd become."

The visitor grabs his friend's arm and attempts to pull him out. "Come on, we've got a mission to do," Axel says, but Roxas counters with a strong opposite pull into his room. The door slams shut and our guest watches his host lock up. "What is wrong with you?"

Roxas turns around with a smile that sends out uneasy vibes. "I have to ask something?"

"What? Roxas, I'm not here to play games."

"So, you like being a teed off."

"'Like being teed off?' What are you talking about?"

"All our lives, the Organization has told us what to do, how to live, breathe, eat, we are nothing to them."

"Roxas, you know that's not true."

"Then why do you look mad?"

"Because 'you're' teeing me off."

"Your face says one thing, but in the darkness of your eyes, I see lies and a sense of longing for freedom from those that shackle us," the room owner walks over to his bed. He picks up a small book with the cover of a man standing on a cliff with a flare gun in his hand as he stares off at an ocean. "Orel Myshton felt like he was in chains, but had a one man utopia."

"'Had?'"

"The sea took it from him and now…"

"And now…"

Roxas turns around, chuckling and tosses his copy of the dark epic to his pal. "You'll have to read it, it's very, mind relieving."

Axel takes the book and tosses it aside. "No thanks, I don't like to read."

"Neither did I, but we had so much down time two weeks ago, that I found reading to be something that can transform our thinking."

"So, you like to read?"

"Yes, but mainly Orel Myshton's 'Climatic Glory,' I've read it non-stop, twice."

"Have you been sleeping?"

"Of course, sleep is important and every time I dream, my utopia calls to me to build it."

The guest looks away, closes his eyes and groans. "This is ridiculous."

"So you see that being in chains is a pain?"

"No, I see that giving you that book was a bad call."

"You shouldn't beat yourself up, I'm not mad, only you are."

Axel turns, ready to scream, but he looks down to his pal's boots, seeing blood stains on them. "I need to get you some help."

"Why?"

"'Why?' Would you look at yourself? You've got scars, bruises and more on your body I'm betting."

"What? I was just acting out my favorite parts of that dark epic?"

"You were what?"

The host reaches into his sleeve, pulling out a small knife. "I didn't have the same inanimate objects as Orel Myshton so I left the room one night to 'borrow' something I could use for one of my favorite scenes."

Fearing something tragic might happen, the guest holds out a hand. "Give me the knife Roxas and we'll have a good long talk, ok?"

"But its mine until I'm done role-playing."

"We can do it together later, ok?"

The room owner busts out laughing. "Yeah, right, like you're going to join me in my little fun. You yourself said you had no interest in that book."

"Look, there's no reason to hurt yourself. If there's something wrong with the organization, we'll talk to the boss about it, ok?"

"You care, don't you?"

"Yes, yes I do, now put down the knife and slide it over to me."

"Then why don't you read a little of that book for me?"

"What?"

Roxas takes the knife, strokes the blade lightly and gently runs it around his neck. "I'm a bit afraid to cut on my neck, but its in the book, would you mind reading that part for me? It should help change my mind because I really don't want to do it."

The guest picks up the book, stares at the cover with shaking hands but opens it and begins to flip through the pages. "Where is it?"

"Chapter 6: Ghosts of The Inanimate: Part 7, last line."

"The branches had bruised my body, the rocks cut my face, and now the leaves, smallest of all things, had cut my neck," the visitor reads out loud to his friend. He looks up seeing his buddy examine the knife as he were a seagull looking at a shiny thing. "How was that?"

The host drops his knife, slides it over, but as it glides, Roxas runs, skidding to shove the knife into Axel's leg. "You did excellent," our room owner says as he hears his pal let out a loud scream. "Too bad that it isn't enough to live in a one man paradise."

Axel falls onto his back, crying loudly with tears falling down his face. "Why? Aren't we friends?" he turns his head and sees on the left wall a large painting of the book's cover, but on the cliff is his pal. "What did that book do to you?"

The host stands up, pulls out the knife and stands over his friend. "My name, it is, Glory."