Axel passed the never ending hallways in the Castle That Never Was. He had nothing better to do, as the rest of the Organization had decided not to let him join their "Inner Circle". It was so hard to be the new guy.

Axel had tried to form friendships with the other members, but Xemnas was too busy, Xigbar was too obnoxious, Xaldin - well... wasn't exactly pleased with Axel, Vexen thought he was stupid, Lexeaus wouldn't say a word to him, Zexion would look up at Axel with an annoyed expression on his face when he tried to talk to him, and Saix pretty much hated him for no apparent reason. I guess that's life Axel thought, or non-life... whatever.

His room was okay, with a small four poster bed in the corner, covered in black attire. There was a tiny fridge for Axel to keep a bit of food in and a small bathroom with a closet on the far wall. He had a T.V. that sat on the ground (there was no where else to put it) and a laptop which currently was also on the ground.

Axel was tired, even though he had done next to nothing the entire day. he went into the bathroom, pulled off his long black cloak, slipped on a pair of basketball shorts and some random t-shirt, then walked out and plopped on his bed. His thoughts started to rearrange themselves into a nice pattern in which Axel could more clearly thing about all that had happened in the past month and a half.

He had been just an average guy, at least average for where he was from. Axel had lived in Notre Dame and had been a street preformer, specifically a firebreather. "Come See the Amazing Ael!", all the signs had read. He was the best of the best, and it seemed like nothing could bring him down. Then, late one night while Ael had been walking down the street, he was ambushed by mysterious black creatures, who he now knew were called Heartless. Everything went dark and then there was nothing.

Axel opened his eyes. He'd been here for over a month, but the memories still followed him. Sighing, he turned on his side, I just hope tomorrow is better. Sleep soon came and The World That Never Was went silent.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Axel groaned as the infernal racket had ceased and the sound of another voice came from the other side of the door way.

"Yo! Axel! Are you up?" the voice said.

"Uh... sort of..." Axel said as he got out of bed. He walked over to the door and opened it. On the other side stood Xigbar, who now stared at Axel with his one working eye.

"You'd better get ready ASAP." Xigbar said, looking incredibly bored.

"Why?"

"Well, you don't wanna be late for your mission-"

"I HAVE A MISSION?!"

"Uh, dude, I just said that."

"This is great!" Axel slammed the door shut, ran to grab his clothes, then realized he had no idea where he was going and what he was going to do there. He walked back and reopened the door.

"So... where am I going?"

Xigbar smircked, "I thought you might like to know that. Well,. the Superior says your headed to Atlantica."

"Atlantica?"

"Yup, and..." Xigbar turned to look at the clock, "You'll be leaving in approximently five minutes."

"To do what exactly?"

"Hmmm, I think the Superior said your supposed to get some sunken treasure chest. It probably has something Xemnas wants in it."

"Okay... thanks."

Axel turned back into his bedroom and got dressed faster than he had ever dressed before. I finally have a mission, maybe things will be better from now on. Once fully dressed, he ran out the door, down the hallway, and straight into the Superior. Xemnas glarred at Axel, who had fallen to the ground.

"Souldn't you be on your mission?" Xemnas asked with a slight smirk.

"I was just about to leave." Axel said, getting up.

Xemnas made a nodding motion with his head toward a black portal that had just opened up. Axel walked through it, but not before giving Xemnas a cocky wave. Well, he'll miss me... Axel thought sarcasticly.

Running through the dark abyss, Axel felt his body change. First, he could no longer feel the ground beneath him; it felt as if he was just suspended in air. Then pressure inclosed him, is this water? And suddenly, Axel sprouted a tail and was plopped into the middle of an ocean. Crap, it is water. Why couldn't Xigbar have told me that Atlantica was underwater!? I'm doomed. Axel, having the powers of fire, was already weak from all of the water. I better just not run into anything I'd have to fight.

Axel looked around him, and noticed something else. Not only did he have bright red hair, but his new tail was bright red as well. And everything around him was some shade of blue. He was the most noticable thing in the entire ocean.

"Well, this sucks..." Axel said to no one in particular.

"Um... excuse me, are you okay?" a soft voice asked from behind him.

Quickly, Axel turned around, and was face-to-face with a wide-eyed, ruby-haired, mermaid with a green tail. She looked around nervously, then said, "Hi, I'm Ariel. Are you lost?"

Axel thought about it for a moment and then truthfully said "Yes," and then untruthfully added, "I'm studying sunken ships, would you happen to know if there were any near by?"

Ariel's face lit up, "Oh, yes! I know where a very mysterious one is, and..." she leaned in closer to Axel, "It's said to have sunken treasure upon it."

Bingo, Axel thought.

"Could you be so kind as to lead me to it? Even though I'm sure a fine young mermaid, such as yourself, has much better things to do." Axel said, pretending to be flirtatious.

Ariel giggled, "I would LOVE to lead you to the ship." and away she swam and Axel, with his poor swimming skills, sort of followed.

After swimming for half and hour or so, Ariel triumphantly called, "Here it is! The magnificent shipwreck of The Heart!"

"The Heart?"

"It's the ships name." Ariel paused the exclaimed, "Oh, I've got to go! Daddy want's me to sing at the feast tonight. Goodbye... uh, what's your name?"

"Axel, A-X-E-L, got it memorized?" Axel filled in the blanks for her.

Ariel nodded, "Well, bye Axel! Good luck with your recearch!" and she swam off.

Man, she was stupid...

Axel went to the side of the ship and saw that it indeed did say, The Heart on the side of it. But when Axel looked closer, he realized that next to the word "Heart" was the faint remains of a "less".

"The Heartless." breathed Axel.

The Heartless was suprisingly well made. He could tell that it had gone down in a battle, as it had a huge hole in the side of it, most likely caused by a bomb of some sort. I wonder what kind of treasure this ship was shot down for? And with that thought, Axel swam up to the top of the ship and easily found a way into it. Once inside he saw a large chest in the middle of the room. Well, that was easy... He was about to open it, when-

"Hey! What are you doing here?! This is my hangout!"

Axel, tired of dealing with people, turned around. There, floated a brown-haired, green-eyed, blue-tailed, merman with a guitar strapped across his back. His arms were crossed in front of his chest and he looked really ticked off.

"Um, hi. I'm studying ship wrecks. I didn't think anyone would mind if I looked around." Axel lied, but he could tell from the merman's face that he didn't believe him.

"Then why are you looking so closely at the treasure?" he inquired.

"I was just checking out the inside of this ship."

"Your a treasure hunter!"

"No..." Axel then decided it was stupid to be arguing with a stubbern merman. Axel bent down to grab the chest, but the second he touched it, several Heartless appeared. Axel summoned up his chakrams, but the merman had nothing to fight with.

Axel couldn't call fire upon anything, but he could fling his weapons around. He had bashed three of the Heartless into oblivion when he realized that six heartless had decided to surround the merman. The merman, quickly thinking, took off his guitar and started ramming it into the Heartless.

The battle continued, but the more Heartless they defeated, the more that came back in their place. Axel soon realized that is was hopeless. He grabbed the treasure chest and swam out of the ship, calling "Come on!" to the merman below. The merman was blocking a Heartless's blow with his guitar, when another, larger, Heartless hurled into the side of it, shattering it in the merman's hands. He looked up at Axel, with a pleading look in his eyes. Axel wanted to help, but couldn't. He opened up a portal and traveled through, the sound of a merman's painful scream growing ever fainter.

Once back in the World That Never Was, Axel rushed to the castle to give Xemnas the chest. When he made it to the door to Xemnas's meeting room, he ran into Zexion.

"What do you need Axel?" Zexion asked, leaning indifferently against the door.

"I need to see Xemnas." Axel said, "I have his treasure chest."

"He's busy right now, I can't let you in."

"Busy with what?"

"A new Nobody appeared a few minutes ago. Xemnas is thinking about putting him in the Organization."

"Yes! I won't be the new guy anymore!"

Zexion simply rolled his eyes. "You can sit out here with me and wait for Xemnas to let people come in."

And so he did. Axel sat down next to the chest and across from Zexion and waited, for a very long time. After who knows how long, Xemnas walked out of the room with the new guy. Axel leaned forward to get a look at him and was astounded by what he saw. It was the merman.