Title: Levels To My Heart
Genre: Mystery/ Friendship
Level 0- Stumbling Upon Axel
A boy stood in the front of a clock tower, completely confused of where he was. Everything seemed to be spinning around him. He could barely feel his legs as he tried to keep his stance and make clear of what was happening. The boy was sure somebody was in front of him, but was not sure whether or not a red and black blob would make sense of that. Last thing he remembered was falling, and now he was here. He wasn't even sure where was here.
"Hey? You ok?" Asked the blob as it slightly shook the boy.
He closed his eyes and groaned, feeling nauseous. The boy leaned against the blob to keep himself from falling.
"Damn, we must be back where we started." Mumbled the black and red blob under his breath, looking back over at the boy to ask, "Hey, what's your name?"
The boy was thankful that he actually remembered his name as he replied, "Roxas."
"Well Roxas you should probably get off of me because we have a long day ahead of us. And as much as I want to spend it cuddling to a complete stranger I would suggest we get a move on." He explained.
Roxas opened his eyes and felt his stomach lurch as the light filled his eyes unexpectedly. The blond blinked several more times and looked up at what seemed to be a red-haired man. He stumbled back a couple of steps as he observed, "You have red hair."
"Wow, you must be really tired." Laughed the red-head, "As far as I'm concerned you're pretty short."
"Hey!" Replied Roxas, rubbing his eyes and looking back over at the red-head. Besides the fact that he had red hair he had a purple tattoo under each eye, and piercing emerald eyes. The boy stifled out a yawn and stretched his arms looking around at his surroundings and asking, "Where are we?"
"We are back at Level 0. The easiest level in the game if I remember it correctly." Swiftly answered the red-head, looking around at his surroundings as well.
A huge clock tower towered over the two with two bells hanging next to each other on each side. Underneath the clock tower was a huge sign over a building that read, Station. To the left was a corridor of buildings and in one of the walls next to it led to an underground stairway that read, 5.
"Who are you?" Asked the blond, Roxas.
The red-head chuckled to himself and put his hand through his hair replying, "I've been here for such a long time its still a miracle I still know my name."
"Which is..?" Coped Roxas, starting to get impatient.
"My name is Axel. A-x-e-l, got it memorized?" Asked Axel, tapping the side of his head and looking over at the blond.
Roxas shook his head and groaned, "I just want to get some sleep.."
"You can't get much sleep here, unless you want the Heartless to come again." Explained Axel, dreading that this was in fact true.
"The heartless?"
"You know what?" Realized the red-head shrugging and waving a hand in disregard to his question, "You can just figure it out on your own. It is considered cheating though for me to answer all of your questions so soon.. No wonder I got kicked back to Level 0 again."
Roxas had completely no idea what the red-head was talking about and sat up against the railing, giving out another yawn, "I just want to go home."
"Do you even remember where home is?" Asked Axel.
The blond wasn't even going to grace that question with an answer but when he actually thought about it, he really didn't know where home was. He had just appeared here, without any warning. All he could remember was his name. Roxas looked over at Axel to see him grinning, obviously knowing that he had gotten to the boy on that one.
"Fine I might not know where my home is." Said Roxas then adding, "But that doesn't mean I won't remember later, right?"
"You ask me."
"Your not really helping me that much." Sighed the blond, dangling his feet out into the open air as he looked out into the town he had found himself in.
The red-head seemed content with what the boy said and started walking away. Roxas could hear footsteps growing faint behind him as he tried to tell himself that following him would do no good. The blond groaned as he jumped off of the railing and followed after the red-head like a lost puppy.
Axel smiled as he looked over at Roxas, "What? I thought you said I wasn't helping you that much."
"Your better help than none." Replied the blond, knowing that he would never get out of here without a certain red-head's help.
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Laughed Axel, rustling the blond's hair as they walked. Roxas dodged the red-head's hand as he didn't want him to get any ideas that they were more than just acquaintances.
Roxas had no idea what was happening but it did seem that Axel knew most of the answers that were buzzing around in his head. If he had any hope to find his memory the red-head would probably be the best shot he had. Even if Axel was annoying the blond had to try to get on his good side. For if he did he might reveal more of the questions he longed to ask.
The red-head led Roxas down Market Street and passed a couple of people. The blond didn't know what he expected when he thought that this town might be deserted. But whenever he looked at any of the people that were walking around they seemed to have a blank stare.
Axel could feel the blond's anxiety and said, "Don't worry about it. The people here are just fake."
"What do you mean by fake?" Roxas found himself whisper as he passed by more people, not wanting to alarm them. It was true though the people in this town did look a bit fake, robotic even, as if they did the same thing every day.
The two stopped at a Help Wanted billboard as Axel seemed to dig into his pocket. 2 gold shards came out of his pocket as he handed one of them to Roxas and explained, "1 shard of this gold is like 100,000 munny here."
Roxas looked down at the gold shard and asked slowly, "Is there a catch?"
"No.. Not at the moment at least." Grinned Axel, then watching Roxas's expression he added, "Don't worry about it. You'll need the money to get some food. Just keep the change when we get to the next Level."
"What do you mean by levels?" Asked the blond, tired of having to wait for all of his questions to be answered, "Where are we? And why am I here?"
The boy was stopped when the red-head placed a finger on his lips to quiet him and said, "I'll answer your questions in due time. Not now though."
Roxas felt like screaming but simply crossed his arms and asked, "What now then?"
"Well we should probably get some food first, then find a place to rest. I consider we stay at an Inn of some sorts though so the Heartless don't come." He looked over at the blond and mused, "You must be having a lot of fun aren't you Roxy?"
"My names Roxas!"
"My bad, Roxy." Laughed the red-head walking down the slight hill towards the food stand at the bottom "Oh and so you don't get lost or anything remember we are in Twilight Town right now."
"Don't worry I won't get lost." Sighed Roxas, slowly following after Axel.
Axel was already at the food stand when the blond came, talking to the girl at the stand. Even she looked somewhat fake as she smiled at the red-head, nodding her head to show she was listening.
"And we're going to need some bread too." Added Axel as the girl hurried to get the specified items. The red-head smiled as he looked over at Roxas and asked, "You want anything?"
Roxas shook his head, halfly because the girl already seemed busy enough and the fact that he wasn't really hungry. The red-head gave a quick concerned look over at the blond and turned back towards the girl, giving her the gold shard and getting change back in silver.
Axel took a bite into his bread and let it hang out of his mouth as he used both hands to grab all of the food he had bought. He looked over at Roxas and said, "A little help here."
The blond grabbed a watermelon and a bag of chips, following Axel under this archway and back out into the open space. The red-head suddenly sat down with his back against the wall and nibbled on his bread. He looked up at Roxas and said, "Come on sit down, I promise I won't bite."
Roxas reluctantly slid down the wall and sat next to the red-head, setting down the items he had been carrying in front of them. The boy watched the people walk around in what seemed to be the same circles. His mind was still thinking about what Axel had said about all of the town's people just being fake.
"Are you still worrying about what I said about the people being fake?" Asked the red-head suddenly, as if he was reading Roxas's mind.
The blond shrugged and opened the bag of chips in front of them, placing one in his mouth and then saying, "I wouldn't exactly worrying."
"Since your new I guess I could show you what I mean by that the people here are fake. Take this guy for example," Axel pushed himself off of the wall and took the piece of bread out of his mouth, "You see that he is walking in endless circles? Well watch when I do this." The red-head unexpectedly threw the bread at the back of the man's head. The man looked around as he rubbed the back of his head. Axel leaned back at the wall as he grinned, looking as if he never even threw the bread.
Roxas rolled his eyes and stood up also, looking up at Axel when he asked, "Why did you throw that at him?! How is that going to prove anything?"
"Watch." Replied the red-head, his eyes fixed on the man.
The man after a couple of minutes stopped looking for the person who threw the bread and walked in his endless circles again.
"You understand what I mean now?" Asked Axel, "These people are fake, data produced, which explains the reason why they walk in the same circles all day and night. They have no will or dreams they are as useless as Heartless if you ask me."
Roxas kept his eyes on the man, not wanting to believe what the red-head said was true. The blond gave up after a couple more moments and observed, "So what you are saying is we are stuck in a data world?"
"That's what I think. But it's not just you and me there are nine others that are stuck in this stupid virtual world also." Explained the red-head, "And if you don't believe me still I could go right up to that man and ask what hit him and he wouldn't know what I was talking about."
The blond felt a sinking feeling in his stomach that he was going to be stuck here for a while. He groaned and put his head in his hands, "I just want to get out of here."
"We all do kid." Axel sighed and looked over at the blond, wanting to tell him the most important element of the game. But he couldn't. If he did then he would probably be erased from the game forever. And this kid really needed his help. Maybe he could find a way out of the game with Roxas. The red-head yawned and announced, "I am going to go get a backpack to put our stuff in. You stay there."
Roxas simply nodded and watched the red-head walk towards another store. He grabbed another chip out of the bag and realized when he looked up something was wrong.
Nothing. And by nothing, literally nothing was happening. Roxas looked over at Axel to see him in a paused stance. The blond felt scared and uncertain as he walked over to Axel to look at his face. Everything seemed to be frozen. Even the people were frozen in place. Roxas felt a chill go down his spine as he tried to calm himself down. He felt somebody else's presence behind him as he turned around to a blond-haired girl in a white dress.
"Roxas. I have been waiting to meet you, just once." She put up one of her fingers and smiled at the boy.
The blond had no idea what was happening and asked, "Do you know what is happening?"
"Yes, I know everything that has been happening to you Roxas."
"Then do you know how I can get out of this virtual world?"
"Yes."
"Can you tell me?"
The girl shook her head and looked down at the ground, looking genially sorry, "I can't. You have to figure it out on your own. But remember to never give up hope!" She finished by giving another smile as she waved and started to walk away.
"Wait!" Yelled Roxas, running after her, "What's your name?"
"Namine."
"Namine.." Repeated the blond, looking down at the ground. He was about to say something else when the girl vanished, and everything started to move again. The blond looked around to see that Axel was now approaching the store and that everybody was acting like nothing had happened.
Roxas was still shaking his head to himself when Axel came back with a backpack. The red-head stared at the blond peculiarly and asked, "What's wrong? Looked like you saw a ghost or something."
"It was a girl." Recalled the blond, feeling as if the memories were beginning to wear away as he spoke.
Axel raised an eyebrow as he thought of what the boy had seen. He looked over at Roxas and assumed, "You saw Namine?"
"Yeah, and I asked her what had been happening-"
"And she said that she couldn't tell you." Finished the red-head, and pretending to be Namine as he said, "And to, 'Never give up hope!'"
"Wait-? You know who that was?" Asked Roxas, in a more than interested voice.
"You can't go out with her or anything if that's what your thinking. She is just a stupid program that went haywire that's all. That so-called 'Namine' is just a mistake that this game just can't erase. She comes to most people in their dreams, but never to actually meet them on the spot."
"So she is just a virus?"
Axel shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets, "You could call her that if you want to." He took the bag off of his shoulders and started packing food into the bag, "The sun is coming down, and we should probably find somewhere to sleep for the night."
Roxas nodded and helped Axel put the food into the bag. Once they were done the blond asked, "Where are we sleeping anyways?"
"Where else?" Grinned Axel, "A local residence."
The blond raised his eyebrows and asked, "Is it just another random building in this so-called Virtual Twilight Town?"
"Now you're getting the hang of it." Smirked the red-head, leading the way towards a random house. He opened the door easily, as it was not locked. The house was dark to say the least but at least had a roof.
Roxas however wasn't so sure about going into somebody's house, "Maybe we should just go into an Inn or something."
"Naw," Replied Axel, laying down one of the couches in the house and looking over at Roxas, "What are you, scared?"
"No! I just don't think we should be in somebody else's house."
"I think the anxiety of the day is getting to your head." Yawned the red-head, rolling over on the couch, "Just get a good night's rest and we will be out of here tomarrow."
"I sure hope you can keep that promise." Muttered Roxas as he crawled up the stairs to go into one of the beds. He curled up into the blankets and yawned, falling asleep.
O/C: Hope you liked this chapter! I will be putting up another one soon! Reviews would be great!~