Heart's Song

I ran; ran as fast as I could towards what had been the centre of my focus for months now – maybe even years – it was hard to keep track of time any more since the worst day of my life. It was definite though, that today was the day I was meant to return to this place. She said that if I was here today, if I followed what my heart told me; then my time spent in the shadows watching would not be wasted. That was some kind of sick joke; it was a well known fact that we didn't have hearts. Yet what passed as my heart said to run, to run faster than possible to that room with the high while ceiling, white walls, and a white floor. In a way that place was the start of everything; it was where I first saw him – where everything started to change.

There was nothing that could slow me down, not the heavy full length cloak or the oversized boots. If I'd had time I would have left them behind instead of spending extra energy, but I couldn't stop running I was so close that room was almost within my reach. I skidded to a halt in the large white room, my movements quieter than expected. Catching my breath, I glanced around the room. It was empty, emptier than I'd ever seen it – normally there would be others here, lounging or waiting for the next thing to do. And I had blended in easily, even though I wasn't one of them – well, kind of.

Footsteps echoed from the hall at the other end of the room, and I felt my body slip into a defensive stance. A boy entered from the other door and I almost collapsed; he was here and he was alive! He was alive! Then my eyes fully took in the boy's appearance, something about the boy's appearance making me question my first assumption. Looking at the boy now was like looking at something you thought you knew but didn't really.

"Roxas?" I stepped towards the boy, listing the details of his appearance. His hair was light brown, spiked, bright blue eyes, and he was wearing some red and black monstrosity; definitely not Roxas. This was the other boy, the Keyblade wielder. "No. You're Sora."

Even from a distance I could tell that the cloaked figure on the ground was hurt, hurt worse than he would ever let on. He never let it on that stubborn fool, but I'd spent too long following him to think that he wasn't in serious pain. From the moment I saw him that first day, I knew he was one to follow, to believe in, and today I failed him. Another clocked figure stood over him, a weapon glinting in their hand that was easily identifiable as a Keyblade, and I immediately threw away all thought of simply following.

"Stay away from him you bastard!" I screamed, pushing the figure back, my hand itching to summon my weapon and take him down. "What did you do to him?"

"Humph, where is it that you Organization freaks always seem to come from?" The figure said smugly, turning away from me to examine his weapon. Seeing that Keyblade up close now, in the hand of another with the Organization cloak, just brought up more questions than answers. I was about to open my mouth and comment on his wearing of the Organization cloak, but thought better of it; I had my reason for wearing their cloak too.

"Why did you attack Roxas? How is it that you are able to wield a Keyblade?" I hesitated for a moment before adding, "Are you the Keyblade Master 'Sora'?"

The cloaked man turned his head towards me, and I was sure that if his eyes weren't blindfolded they might have been wide with the emotion 'shock' or 'disbelief'. His silver hair shone in the 'moon' light of this world's permanent night, and I shook my head looking down at the unconscious Roxas. From what I had overheard, he was meant to be the Keyblade master's Nobody; the Keyblade master had to look similar to Roxas. Kneeling down next to him, I checked that he was still breathing, luckily he was maybe I hadn't failed him as badly as I'd thought.

"Who are you?" The silver haired man suddenly asked. I looked up at him, curious to the suddenness of the question.

"I am..." I couldn't remember who I was, not even a name. The only thing I could remember was that I swore to oversee the Keyblade master's nobody, until I faded away. "I'm a shadow. Nothing more."

"Are you another member of the Organization?" Sora asked me. It was hard to look at him, his resemblance to the nobody I had failed was painful. I knew I had to look at him though, like I knew that a organic heart was beating in my chest.

"No, I am not one of them. Did you get them all? Are they all gone?" My mouth spoke without permission, but I couldn't care now, if the Keyblade master was here then the Organization won't care to notice me no matter the attention I drew.

"Yeah, they are gone." I couldn't tell what emotion that was on the boy's face. Was he proud that he'd taken them down? Was Roxas' revenge effecting his emotions? There wasn't much time for me to analyse the emotion, because soon the boy was smiling again, like Roxas had in his last days.

I'd never seen a nobody pull off 'real' emotions so well before. Roxas was always displaying emotions now, as he spent his days in the virtual Twilight Town. DiZ had set this place up, like a copy of the real thing I was told, not that I've ever been there. Here was more important than there for me, here was where he was, so it was where I had to be.

"What are their plans for today?" A voice buzzed in my ear. Possibly my only annoyance with this world was that I could be contacted at any time without warning.

"Just the usual," I muttered knowing that they'd be able to hear me no matter how quiet I spoke. It was a condition of my staying here, that I was to be contactable at all time, unable to have a secret conversation (even with myself), and I had to spy on Roxas for them. Those were small prices to pay for my stay here though.

Normally in this situation, you would believe there'd be a reply, but there never was. This wasn't a polite chat between two people, I was only useful as a puppet to them; it would have bothered others and as a nobody I wondered if I should really be this different from normal people.

I tailed Roxas as he went about his day, hanging out with friends, and stuff I was told were normal human behaviours. We were waiting in the sandlot today for his friends to show. It was one of the hardest places around here to be able to tail him and stay out of sight, mainly because it was such an empty area but also because I was still wearing the trademark clothes of the Organization. Roxas smiled suddenly, a bright happy smile, and for a moment I thought I'd been spotted until I saw his friends run up to him. It was a nice smile, one I was sure would have felt nice to have directed at you, if only I had memories to know how it feels.

I don't know what, but I wanted to hurt Sora, to wipe that stupid grin off his face. It was because of him that I had lost my self-appointed reason for existing. If he had just stayed a heartless, or stayed away from Castle Oblivion, then there would have been no reason for Roxas to disappear.

"Listen, Sora. There is a reason why you ran into me here, and why you came alone to this room; you have something to give up." His smile dropped slightly. "You can either do it willingly, or I'll be forced to do it for you."

We stood in silence for the longest of moments, before I dropped my head sadly. I removed the black Organization cloak, revealing my plain cargos and tank top, and summoned my weapon. Out of all the nobodies that could summon weapons, mine had to be the most boring, and lest focused on attacking. It was a normal blade for the most part, until it reached my hand, then it locking into a metal gauntlet that encased my right arm to the shoulder. Strapped to my waist was another, larger weapon, but I ignored it for the moment – charging Sora with my blade held out ready to slice through him.

The wind shifted suddenly in the desert world of Agrabah, ripping the hood from my head and throwing sand in my eyes. If I could feel the emotion 'hate' I was sure that would be what I felt every time I visited here. The midday sun constantly beat down, and sand got every where no matter what you did. Things always got worse too, this time I'd gotten lost out in the desert trying to follow Roxas.

I don't know whether I lost him, or I had lost myself...

Suddenly a blade came out of nowhere, swinging in a deadly attack, giving me barely seconds to avoid it. As I rolled away on the sand the blade moved for another attack, catching on my shoulder, a yelp escaping my lips. My eyes watered at the pain clearing away some of the sand so I could finally see the figure standing over me clearly.

"Roxas?" He hesitated for a moment, his Keyblade still held out defensively in front of him.

"Who are you?" Who was I? I didn't even know that, my memories failed that completely, perhaps my creator hadn't known who they were before...

"I don't remember... I'm no-one." His Keyblade lowered removing any current threat it held towards my life. That was a surprising... feeling, I guess I could call it, to be fearing for my own life. He looked down at me for a moment longer before offering me his hand. I took it and stood, brushing the sand from my Organization cloak.

"You're not a member of the Organization, are you?" I chuckled, nervously rubbing the back of my neck, before reminding myself of the one known as 'Axel' and stopping the action immediately.

"They took no interest in my existence on that world..."

Sora's Keyblade bit into my side, throwing my attack off balance, only managing to nick his arm almost harmlessly. I stepped back, and curse under my breath at being knocked off balance so easily. Could all somebodies be this powerful, or was it that a nobodies full power couldn't match up to even half theirs?

Stepping back further, shifting my weight, I tried to find a hole in his stance that I could take advantage of. Failing to find one quickly, I swung out with my blade again. This time the blades clashed and locked together.

"Why are you attacking me?"

"Why aren't you just giving up? It won't hurt for you and Roxas to become separate people again." He tensed then, and I took my chance to attack with the larger weapon. The tip of it swung up and pressed into his chest before he even had a chance to react.

"A Keyblade...?" I grinned, and pushed the black Keyblade harder against his chest. It only took it a moment to start glowing were it touched his flesh. Then, something bad happened, the Keyblade shock violently in my hand and exploded in a flash of light, throwing us both backwards. My shoulders and head slammed back hard against the floor, shooting pain through my body and causing my head to spin. By the time the spinning slowed I could hear footsteps moving towards me.

I had to stand up, better to die on my feet than to surrender on my back. Pushing myself up with my right arm, weapon still attached, I started to slip and went to put my left hand down. Only, there was nothing there, the whole arm was gone. Bad, bad, very bad – I was going to die, even with the Keyblade I had only a very small chance of winning, I'd known that from the beginning.

Standing I saw Sora watching me, and I hated him.

"What are you staring at? Why don't you just finish me off already? Do you enjoy torturing people or something?" I screamed at him yet not at him at the same time. Lifting my arm, I swung the blade dangerously out in front of me, putting everything I had behind the attack. Charging at Sora one last time, so angry that I didn't notice him hesitate, or see his Keyblade throw off my attack until I slammed back into the floor my blade slipping from my grasp and disappearing. He stepped forward and looked down at me with a sad face.

"Are you...? Would you like some help?" I saw his eyes glance at my lost arm, and I would have gutted him there and then if I had the energy left to summon my weapon.

"What happened? Roxas and I were friends, he was my best friend. Surely he still remembers that? Why didn't he stop you from attacking me?" I felt tears gather in my eyes, but couldn't care what they did. "The Roxas I knew wouldn't have stood for it if his friends were getting hurt. He was different from the others."

My body felt like it was fading away and I knew what was happening; death. I looked up at Sora and had to blink my eyes a few time, could I really see a second person standing over me? He bent down and grasped my hand.

"I'm sorry..." was all he said.