First KHII fic, I've tried to make things as unique and original as I can as well as put as many details as I can remember into them. My dreams are very vivid, but I have trouble remembering all of the little details.

Cold. That was the first thing she noticed. It was not a sharp, biting cold, but rather a faint chill to the air as though autumn was on its swift way to the land around her. Her body, oddly enough, was strangely numb, as though all her emotions and feelings had been chilled and eventually frozen by the sharp edge to the air. Though on any other day she would have been instantaneously disturbed and freaked out by this erratic turn of events, today this felt.. like home. Turning over with a slight groan of protest from stiff muscles, the second thing she noticed became apparently. A splash of cold water, minute in size but still noticeable, flecked against her nose. Rain pelted onto the surround surfaces from a grey, angsty sky, the light cool and silvery as it slipped through the rain clouds like delicate, dainty swallows amongst their feathered kin. Even as this thought slid from her conscious, the droplets began larger, though their frequency never changed, and she was reminded again of just how dreary and cold this world was.

It was then that she realized what she had thought a split second before standing; or attempting to stand, really, since all she had achieved was a crouch due to an intense headache that had cropped up. Disregarding that for the moment, she took the next logical route of thought. This place felt like home. Why was that? What did the tall skyscrapers, dreary, rain-filled streets, overcast skies, and foreboding castle hold for her? She had never been to this place, had never dreamed of it, had never even seen something that may have had an influence on what she was seeing at this point in time. Perhaps it all really was just a dream, a figment of her imagination brought forth from reading a book right before going to sleep. Yup, that had to be it. Stupid of her to continue to do that, it only served to make her dreams even weirder than they already were. This... place was proof enough of that, with its spooky, looming presence. Still, this had to be the most realistic and vivid dream she'd ever had, even by her standards. Even the sidewalks and roads were perfect.

Hesitantly at first, for she was unwilling to become one of those ever cliché Hollywood females that always walked right into the path of the monster or villain, she started off towards the castle. It seemed the best place to go, after all, structures like that were never built without reason, especially ones like the one currently looming over the rest of the town.. place.. thing. A huge monolith like that was made to resist countless ages of wear, the owners of it would not leave it unoccupied without a very, very good reason. In fact, she doubted if such a fortress was even penetrable by humans. It was certainly formidable looking, so wouldn't the owners have an equally good defense set up to match such a hostile look? Shivering slightly, though her mind wondered why her body was reacting so fearfully when she did not feel scared, she continued at her slow pace, hazel eyes glancing about suspiciously in the shady alleyways.

It wasn't long before the first something had caught her eye, a flash of yellow flickering into life. Before she could get it into her sights, however, it had disappeared with a soft click, as if someone had pulled a trigger or lever. It only happened once, and had occurred so quickly, that she believed she had all but imagined it. Needless to say, she was quick to find a section of pipe from one of the alleyways that felt good in her hands, packing it over her shoulder as she continued to march along to some random tune. Before long, she had begun to sing Animals by Nickelback, anything to break the heavy silence only punctuated by the soft patter of raindrops. Out of reflex, she reached for her MP3 player, surprised to find that it was still there. For some reason, she hadn't expected it to be right where she had left it, though upon retrieving the device, she was bewildered to see that it wasn't her MP3 player. Or at least, it didn't look like her MP3 player. Her's had been black with silver buttons and the battery cover was missing, but this one was silver with black buttons and a cover. Turning it on with utmost suspicion, fearing it was some twisted trick like the cassettes in the Saw movies. But when the device had booted up, she was surprised to see her music, all 173 tracks, present and accounted for. Once she had determined that nothing was wrong with her MP3 player, not counting the new battery cover and the slick new look, the head phones were cheerfully plugged in, the wires threaded on her shirt to protect it from the rain, and the "brain" of the device shoved back into her jean's, and the piano version of Those Who Fight was swiftly on its way to lightening the mood.

It came to be that because of this much more optimistic mood swing, she wasn't nearly as doubtful and wary of the next sight than she could have been. As she stared upwards at the gigantic, static-filled screen, the first thought that entered her mind was if the residents of this place watched the Super Bowl on that TV. It did look like a giant, high-definition, plasma screen TV, after all. The soft, gentle static noise coming from the skyscraper was soothing to her, a random jolt of memory shooting through her mind told her that the noise reminded her of the fan she kept in her room that was run in winter and summer, both to provide cool air and a calming sound that she could fall asleep to. As abruptly as the jolt had left, several more went in their place, fuzzy memories of people she should have felt attached to, but could not. Very confusing, her muddled mind managed to put together, the discomfort that had accompanied her "visions" leaving as the memories settled back into their proper places. Instead, another thought dashed about, demanding to be noticed. Who am I? What am I?, it wailed, running back and forth in a panic as it tried to find answers, but could not. Instead, a rather distanced thought struck her. How could it be panicked when she felt nothing related to that? Logic overruled this ironic statement, instead going back to the Who and What question. The who was answered readily enough, a name sparking to life as soon as she began to question herself. Irenx.. She was Irenx. The what was not answered and Irenx knew it would remain so for a while and was content with that, instead focusing her energy on walking off towards the castle once again at a steady, slow pace, neither hurried nor hampered.

'Remind me again why we're here in the rain watching some chick check our Memory's Skyscraper. Its really dull, you know? I mean, hell, sitting there listening to Xemnas blabber on and on about Kingdom Hearts is even more interesting than this.'

The owner of the voice glanced over at the person next to him, shifting slightly against the wall that currently served as his lounging post, arms crossed as his foot tapped impatiently, waiting for an answer. Geez, why did he always get stuck with this guy on missions? Didn't he have anything better to do than sulk about and watch for new kids? Like play Halo 3 or something the guy had always struck hi mas the video gamer type. He, himself, could name a hundred things more interesting than sitting her watching that girl inspect Memory's Skyscraper. What did she find so interesting about it anyway? He'd seen it hundreds of times, you could see it from most windows in the castle too, the usually static-filled screen didn't seem that interesting to him. Sighing, he glanced up the clouds, rewarded with several raindrops splattering against his sharp features, and scowled. He really hated days like this. The normal drizzle was all fine and well, but when it got to be full-out raining, it was just miserable. Good weather for Demyxs at least. A gloved hand reached up to tug his hood back down over his face, the water hitting it with soft taps on the sleek, waterproofed leather. When he was not answered by his silent companion, he opened his mouth to prod at the older man, but was silenced at the man spoke rather gruffly.

'Shaddup, Axel, there's another one. Soldier this time.', he growled drawing Axel's attention to the fact that he, indeed, had caused one of his laser guns to manifest itself and was currently honing in on a Heartless that was ready to appear. Finally, with a soft blip, as the silencers had been engaged on the gun, a crystalline, pinkish-purple laser shot out across the sky, its trail streaking faintly after it. On the ground, a heart sprouted form the ground, all but ignored by the girl as she whirled, pipe at ready, as she searched for a possibly imagined foes. Axel had to snicker. Man, oh man, this one was pretty unobservant with those headphones on. One more sucker to trick and pull pranks on; awesome. The current thirteen were getting a little boring. Was to be expected, of course, since it was terribly dull to pull the same pranks over and over. He was a little to lazy to go and look up more of them, after all. Pity, since he was so good at pulling them off. Ah well, he'd had someone new to get at it looked like. Pushing off from his perch, he stretched momentarily before eyeing the next set of buildings, green eyes half hooded. At last he turned to the sharp shooter.

'Hey, Xig, think the one two blocks down would be good?', he asked casually, pointing at one of the sky scrapers across the street and a ways down. Xigbar glanced at the building speculatively before drawling calmly, 'Naw, dude, I was thinking four blocks down 'cos then we could just watch her come towards us and then also have her go past us. Less effort, y'know?' Axel had started to debate further when without a word the other Nobody summoned a portal and stepped through, leaving just raindrops and air for the hot-headed pyro to argue with. Harrumphing grouchily, it always seemed like whenever he was spoiling for an argument and a battle everyone just walked off, he snapped his fingers loudly, not waiting for the portal to fully form before following his ally onto the other rooftop.

Ten songs and a half hour later, it seemed like she had been walking forever. Couldn't that stupid castle hurry up and get closer? It just sat there and loomed over her, daunting and distant, without a care for how she cursed it so in all its unwillingness to appear before her. Grumbling something unintelligible to herself, Irenx glanced about her person warily, pipe poised to knock something around. For the past few minutes, the feeling of being watched had only grown stronger and more persistent and it was beginning to grate on her already frayed and cracked nerves. It was like looking for something that was just out of sight, something that begged and called to you, but refused to manifest itself. Coupled with the fact she was thirsty, but had yet to find a clean pool of water, this made for one seriously irritated teen. Something told her that irritation added to her current mood would only lead to more ire and grumpiness so, with a determined stride, she marched towards one of the shop fronts, looking about for a place where the water had pooled. Back and forth she searched, at last finding a pool of water that had collected on some plastic that had long since been washed clean by the constant drizzle. Some would undoubtedly question the safety of drinking from it, but it seemed quite alright to Irenx. Lowering her head, she quickly sucked up the moisture, glancing about frequently like a hunted antelope, as though she were prey upon the savanna instead of a lost soul amongst this seemingly empty world. Once finished, she found her thirst slaked and her outlook in a much better stance. Her eyes darted towards the castle, mentally counting the number of blocks to go until she had finally reached it. From what she could see, it was only maybe five blocks left. Good, she was finally close to getting an answer to what she wanted to know.

Her pace quickened, seeing something ahead of her. But the rain continued to slap her face until she slowed, scowling up through water drenched bangs at the clouds. Her MP3 player had long since been put away to stay safe and dry within her pocket, she wasn't about to risk it being broken - despite her old one having gone through the wash once and surviving - so soon after getting an apparently revamped version of her old, dependable Nextar. While at first she hadn't minded the rain, it had only been a soft drizzle, it was now starting to really get going. She would have simply said "hmm, alright" and huddled underneath a roof had it been daytime, but now that darkness was truly falling, she was starting to get antsy. She never had and never would like nightfall unless she was in her own home where she knew what and where everything was. Out here in a strange, new world, she was feeling, or rather remembering, her subconscious told her, distinctly apprehensive. The patter of raindrops was soothing, but the chill was getting worse now and beneath the layer of gentle tapping, faint noises wrecked havoc upon her sensitive senses, adrenaline starting to pump through her veins to ready her for a threat. Irenx's grip on her pipe tightened minutely, eyes narrowed against the water and to see if she could discern any shape amongst the growing blackness.

Suddenly shaking her head quite firmly, she scolded herself round and round for being scared of things that didn't exist. Even this seemed to be more and more senseless as time went on, now hurrying to get to the next block, then shuffling along as she passed through a place cloaked in shadows. At last she reached what she had spotted, a clearing in the buildings that harkened to her like the light at the end of the tunnel. Hurrying out into the open space and away from the claustrophobia-inducing skyscrapers of the city, she skipped to a halt before the chasm that opened up before. She glared up at the so-close-yet-so-far-away castle, then down at the space separating her from it. She should have known. All good castles had huge ass motes, didn't they? After a few minutes of pondering, Irenx had concluded two things.

1) There was an invisible bridge across.
2) There was no bridge at all.
3) This was a weird dream.

Oh, wait, that was three things. Shrugging her shoulders, she picked up the nearest medium sized object and smirked. Time to test out theories one and two. Using a rock was definitely smarter than just running out across the expanse after all. Turning to face the chasm, she gave the rock a light toss, fully expecting it to hit against the bridge and bounce a bit. But as it reached the spot where she had expected it to land, it just kept falling and she rushed forward to watch its descent. Blinking nonchalantly, Irenx straightened and absentmindedly pushing her bangs back. Hm. Guess it was and even better idea to use a rock than she had originally thought. Even as she thought this, a voice behind her pointed that out also. 'Well, at least you didn't walk on it yourself.' Whirling with a ferocious expression on her face, Irenx's eyes widened as one of her back feet slipped off the edge. How cliché, her brain intoned, to fall just like one of those helpless females in the movie. Expression contorting into one of disgust, she threw her weight forward, landing on one knee, but swiftly rising to face the two masked figures.

The one on her left, the same one who had spoken before judging from his voice, 'Darn, I was hoping you'd be one of those damsels in distress. Would've been kind of nice to pull you up.' Irenx noted immeadiately from the tone of his voice that that was not so. Joy. How she loved to deal with sarcasm that wasn't her own. Instead of voicing this though, she didn't have a chance to, she waited as the other spoke. 'Quit giving her shit, dude. Kinda my job.' Again her mind went to work decoding the voice. Older, definitely male, possibly someone who spent most of their time at the ocean hanging ten. The more lightly built, teenage sounding one seemed to give his friend a look of mock hatred, but was silenced as Surfer Dude continued. 'But y'know, Axel, that's off topic. Hey Chicklet, what's your name?', he called over to Irenx, hooded head cocking.

Bristling at being called "Chicklet", Irenx felt is was time to blow off some steam. Hands on hips in the classic "You're-about-to-get-your-ass-chewed-out" position, she raised herself to her full 5' 4"-ness and let loose. 'First of all, Mr. I-Surf-Too-Much-For-My-Own-Good, I am not a "chicklet". And that doubles for you, Sir Unruly. You're lucky that you were being sarcastic about the whole damsel in distress thing, otherwise you'd be finding out just how hard I can swing a piece of pipe like this. My name won't be given out until I know your names and can actually see your faces. If I'm going to sit here and be drenched, by god someone else needs to know just how miserable it is. And I'm hungry and thirsty and tired and cranky and ready to rip someone's balls out through their nostrils.', she seethed, glaring swords, not daggers, but swords, at the duo. What she wasn't expecting, however, was for Surfer Dude to stand there and laugh.

Upon seeing Irenx's Doomsday expression, however, he waved his hands at her, still shaking his head with concealed laughter. 'Naw, naw, don't go all Larxy on me, chicklet. Its just, if you looked more like him and were male, I'd think you were the little man. He glared at me like that too, didn't he, Axel?', he chuckled, elbowing his companion less than gently so that Axel scowled invisibly within his hood. Sighing and crossing his arms, Axel shook his head fondly, staring at his feet. When he spoke, his voice was saddened and almost..remorseful. 'Yep, that he did.', he mumbled, his mood swinging around like a woman on PMS. Not that Irenx could blame him; this "little man" person must have been very close to Axel. Loosing a best friend was never fun, so she could sympathize. However, she cleared her throat and said pointedly, 'Hoods.' For a moment, Surfer Dude stared at her blankly before sighing and muttering something that sounded like, "Yeah, yeah, whatever." Flipping back his hood with a single hand, Irenx could honestly say she hadn't been expecting someone looking like they had just walked out of Pirates of the Caribbean to underneath that hood. 'Name's Xigbar, kiddo, and don't stare. Makes ya look like a creep.', he said good naturedly, his one good eye, a bright yellow, closed half way as a huge yawn crossed his face.

Irenx waited a moment for Axel to introduce himself, but it didn't seem that the nobody was going to be inclined to share his name and appearance with her. Of course, Xigbar was more than happy to give Axel a swift kick to set him straight. Literally. One rubbed soled, black leather booted foot raised up with amazing flexibility for a man his age, Xigbar planted a firm kick onto Axel's rear, sending the teen stumbling a few feet before turning to snap irritably, 'Axel.' Jerking his hood back long enough for Irenx to get a look at his face before flicking it back up to hide from the rain, he spat, 'Got it memorized?' Xigbar rolled his eyes dismissively at his subordinate. 'He's a sourpuss when its raining like this, makes it worse when ya mention the "R-word" around him too. So, kiddo, what's your name?' She would have made another tirade about not being a kiddo, but Irenx decided against it and settled for being polite.

'I guess I'm Irenx.' She shrugged nonchalantly, and then started off with a rapid-fire series of questions. 'What is this place? Is this a weird ass dream or something? Where is my MP3 player? What is the year? Why am I here? And why the hell do you guys get nice waterproof trench coats and I have to be all sodden and chilled?' There was hundreds of others she could have asked along with those, but she tried to narrow it down to the main ones. To most people, those questions would seem irrelevant, but they all made perfect sense to Irenx, even if their order was a bit wacky. For a moment, the two males just stared at her, then Xigbar teased with great boredom, 'Those are more like somethin' you'd ask Zexion, but I guess I'll answer them. This is The World That Never Was, it is not a dream, I have no clue about your MP3 player, its September of 2008, you're here because you're a nobody and you're about to be assimilated, and we get them cos' we're cool like that. They're Organization XIII uniforms anyway, so we have to wear them on missions.' Axel held up a hand to stop the next outburst of questions and took it upon himself to explain the vague parts of Xigbar's answers.

'A Nobody is the body and soul of a person who has lost their heart to darkness. We lack hearts, so we can't feel emotions or anything. As for anything you were carrying when you became a Nobody, its morphed itself to fit the new you, as Marluxia would say. So that's probably why your MP3 player is different. Xigbar and I are here to take you to Xemnas, he's the one who has been giving us orders to keep an eye out for new Nobodies. So, the quicker you stop jabbering, the faster we get out this rain and the quicker you get answers.', he huffed, flickering sparks of emerald abruptly flashing in the darkness of his cloak. The glare was returned by the equally irate Irenx, her own hazel eyes meeting Axel's nearly neon green for a second before she looked away and up at the huge monolith above her.

Sighing heavily, she grumbled something about not reading before bed time and then, more loudly, 'Fine. I'll come with you both. It's not like I had a choice to begin with anyway.' Judging from the wide grin from Xigbar and the vaguely amused, but still grumpy air from Axel, Irenx knew she had been correct. Lovely. 'So..', she began hesitantly, 'when do we jet?' Blank stares were blank. 'What?', she asked, confusion coloring her voice. At length, Xigbar snorted, 'I can't believe you used the word "jet". But we leave..' Behind him, Irenx's interest immeadiately peaked by the event, a dark portal opened and began to swirl. '..right now. All you do is walk through it.' Bouncing over to survey the portal, she stuck her hand into it, eyes narrowing at the faintly tickling sensation before she flinched aside as Axel whisked past her and through the portal, creating a ripple-like effect in the otherwise glassy surface. Glancing back at Xigbar, who seemed to be waiting rather patiently, she slipped into the portal, finding the effect of all the darkness around her rather comforting actually. At least until one impatient Nobody decided she was taking too long to pass through it. A gloved hand grasped her wrist, Irenx immeadiately trying to jerk away out of reflex, but the grip was strong, but loose and once she noticed it was Axel, she relaxed slightly. He tugged at it gently, grumbling, 'You're slow, come on.' Rather grumpy, she still allowed the red-head to lead her out of the comforting, mothering darkness and into a room bright as new fallen snow.

With the air of one well used to the stark walls and sanitary feel of the place, Axel droned, 'Welcome to The Castle That Never Was. And no, you're not allowed to draw on the walls with sharpies.'