Chapter 2 – Rough Introductions and Unwanted revelations

Lyrics in this chapter:

Nature's Law – Embrace

Anything for you – Evanescence


The dark red haired girl strolled along the well worn path in a cheerful little island town. She remembered Sora finally, and was hoping for his swift return with Riku. A sigh escaped her parted lips, how long had she been waiting for anyway? She'd lost count of the days; life didn't seem as exciting as it did when they were around…

"Kairi." An unfamiliar voice came from behind her; she spun around to be met with a flame red haired man dressed in a long black cloak.

"Who are you?"

"A friend of Riku and Sora's. I've been sent here to take you to them."

"Where are they? Are they alright?" Kairi asked desperately

"Sora's fine. He's in a deep sleep though; Riku's definitely seen better hair days…"

"A deep sleep?"

"See, when he sacrificed himself to save you, and became a heartless, a strong Nobody was born from him, called Roxas. Now Sora can't be fully restored until Roxas is part of him"

"I see…it's not really fair on either of them is it?"

"We've got a solution though, you help Roxas and Riku gather hearts with use of a keyblade by exterminating heartless, and we can give them their own hearts, and connect all the worlds together as one big one."

"Anything. Take me to them."

"Whoa, you're not going to say goodbye to your parents or anything?"

"They can wait, and they'll understand I'm sure."

"Alright then, don't say I didn't warn you, now come with me" he raised his hand and the corridor appeared again "Don't let go of my hand while we're going through here, you got it?" The teenage girl nodded and gripped tightly at his hand, the two slowly entered the portal, knowing the fight that lay ahead of them was going to be difficult. "You ready for all this? But don't think me cruel for not being in this for Sora's sake, I'm only in this for Roxas' wellbeing."

"I guessed as much. How do know him anyway, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I knew him when he was in Organisation XIII, we were pretty good friends, barely seen without the other nearby. Well, he left the Organisation in search of why the keyblade chose him. I found him again back where he had loved being before, a place called Twilight Town; they're currently there now."

"Roxas leaving must have hurt a lot, since you were so close"

"I thought he was turning his back on me initially. I went nuts and basically trashed everything in my room except for a picture of the two of us at the beach one day." Axel smiled to himself subtly "The strange thing is, us Nobodies aren't meant to have hearts, therefore not feel anything, but there's something different about Roxas, he seems to have emotions...and whenever I'm with him it feels like I do too"

Kairi looked up at Axel with a small smile and nodded to herself, "You seem to have no trouble with being happy, you wouldn't be smiling otherwise"

"Nobodies can sometimes remember what it's like to have emotions, so we just mask them. Demyx is a prime example; but then again that loon seems to think that Nobodies do actually have hearts in some way" Kairi laughed back at Axel's last comment. "In any case, before we can join them in Twilight Town we need to go to Hollow Bastion, I have to speak with Leon and the restoration Committee there."

"Alright"

"What's bothering me is that you haven't questioned me...you're...too trusting of someone like me"

"I'm not sure why, but I get the feeling that I can trust you, you seem sincere." Kairi paused and looked at Axel with a glance that stared right into his very existence "In everything you say. Especially about Roxas. You love him even if it's not possible for Nobodies to feel anything." Axel choked and stopped walking, looking at the girl dragging his left arm forwards. "Don't we have somewhere to be?"

'This is going to be a long trip' he thought sighing.

---

"Goddamn this damned machine and its damn technical faults!!!" Cid barked, kicking the hard drive with a hefty boot, rattling the system.

"You're just going to make it worse by doing that" Leon's slightly melancholic voice came from behind the blonde man.

"Shaddap, I know what I'm doin'" Cid gritted his teeth tightly around his cigarette, now not sure whether to snarl at the computer or the arrogant kid. Leon sighed a bemused (if slightly guilty) smirk snuck across his face, his hand moving up to his face to cover the redness in his cheeks due to his containment of laughter. "'an you over there can quit gigglin too!"

"I'm saying nothing" Cloud snorted shaking his head

"s' the look on yer face that says it...Now, what can we do with you?" Cid turned back to the computer grumbling.

"Guys, there's something outside that's really weird!" Yuffie burst in the door flailing like a distressed chocobo.

"What is it?" Cloud asked looking up from his leaning spot.

"Calm down before you carry on, I'm not good with raging oestrogen." Leon took hold of the short wutai teen and sighed.

"There's a big portal of darkness I think out there, and two people are coming out of it!"

"The Organisation!"

The blonde and brunette grabbed their swords, flew out the door and stood in their preferred fighting stances; they watched a very slow approach of a tall skinny red head with hips that could rival Jessica Rabbit and a vaguely familiar looking dark red haired girl.

"Leon, Cloud, good to see you two again" the girl chirruped "Don't worry about Axel, he's with me"

"Kairi?" Leon dropped his stance and stood up straight.

"Better memory than I give you guys credit for"

"Pshhhhht" Leon waved his hand around dismissively, "What're you guys doing here through a door of darkness though?"

"Is there a problem with my method of transportation?" Axel spat. "Not everyone can travel by Gummi ship!"

"He's stressed." Cloud's eyebrows raised quickly then dropped again. He too rose to his normal height, "come on in, you'll have a fun time trying to tell what smoke's coming from what in there though"

"What're the options?" Axel snerked

"There's the: very abused computer, Cid's cigarette or Cid's ears, take your pick for which sounds more appealing, amusing, silly, believable...whatever"

The two travelers joined the smiling and entered. There was a haze among the rafters, just as they'd been told, the two looked to the blonde man hammering at the keyboard; he had to be in his late 40's.

"Cid, this is Kairi and Axel" Cloud announced their presence, only to be greeted with a caveman style gruntish hum, his arm in a sort of waving motion and not even turning to look at them.

"Wow, is he always this articulate, or is caveman natural?" Axel raised an eyebrow displeased with the lack of communication.

"Shaddap you!"

"Shut up yourself, I'm here from the Organisation, we've had a change of plans and need your help" Cloud and Leon drew their swords again, baring their teeth, assuming he'd kidnapped Kairi and made her say everything was fine. "Put them down, I didn't kidnap her, Hyne's sake...We're planning on merging all worlds together. We need you guys to destroy all heartless here while me, the rest of the organisation, Riku, Kairi and Roxas get rid of them."

"What about Sora?"

"Oh him? Yeeah...minor technicality there. He's currently in a deep sleep in twilight town because without Roxas he can't be whole; however I'm not going to surrender him that easily, this way we in the organisation can get hearts of our own and Sora will be good and dandy again. Got it memorised?" He was met with blank glances with jaws hanging open silently screaming WTF? "I'm not repeating myself" Axel's top lip jerked in annoyance, his hands rested on his wide hips at an angle.

"I thought Xemnas was hell bent on engulfing the worlds with darkness..." Cid said slowly.

"He was, but then I pointed out to him, as Riku had told me, that if he doesn't have an equal mixture of darkness and light, then the world will collapse in on itself"

"Just a little technical flaw then"

"You could say that, so what do you say? Gonna help or what?"

"I don't think we should trust you" Leon frowned

"I think you should. Because this way all worlds are connected and you can see Almasy again."

Leon choked "What?"

"Yeeah, you heard. So verdict?"

"I say we're good"

"God, because you're not hung up or anything" Cloud shook his head looking at Leon disbelievingly. "Shut up, if all worlds are one then it makes it a lot easier, being economical and all"

"Yeah you just can't wait to get bedded by that git again can you?" Cloud grumbled at his friend's apparent lack in taste of men

"Can we move on please?! Look point is Axel's onto something good. It'll be like before the heartless were ever here"

"Damn it kid you're yankin on the heart strings, really. I'm not convinced by this act Jezebel here's playing"

"Again with the frigging hips," Axel fumed, "Yes, I have larger hips than the average guy, but that doesn't mean they're like Jessica Rabbit's!"

"...Jezebel means yer a hooker ya crazy dumbass"

"Why am I hooker??"

"Ya look like a guy I know who was. Let's hear some of these technicalities" Cid sat the wrong way on the chair, leant forward and studied the redhead scrutinising his every move.

"I've only got 40 minutes so you'd better listen well."

---

"So...what's going on with you and that Axel guy Roxy?" Hayner poked the blonde in the hips gently rather than his usual merciless kidney rupturing way. He seemed anxious about something.

"I'm...not really sure" Roxas for once didn't complain about being called Roxy, he was too deep in thought to be able to make heads or tails of much. "But I'm going to be going away for a while with those guys...so that all these other worlds can be connected, and it'll be one world."

"Wow, that sounds really cool" Hayner leant back on the lawn. "How long will you be?"

"I don't know; however long it takes. But once we're done, then we'll all be in the same world" Roxas leant back to join Hayner; he twisted his body to be on his side looking at the slightly taller teen.

"You know I want you to be happy dude, right?" Hayner said quietly.

I'll live with never knowing, if knowing's gonna change,
I'll stop the feeling growing, I will stay away,
Like a broken record stuck before a song,
A million beginnings, none of them the one.

"Yeah, course...what's up?" Roxas shifted closer looking down into Hayner's brown spaniel like eyes.

"It's nothing; I just wanted to let you know, in case you didn't already" Hayner lied.

"Oh. You know I want you guys to be happy too"

"I'm not talking about Pence and Olette. This is just my opinion. I don't like Axel."

"Why not?" Roxas thought this seemed a little out of the blue

"Because of what he did to you, if he really cared about you, he'd think about what you wanted" Hayner shot up, propping himself on his elbows, frowning heavily and not once breaking eye contact.

I wrote him letters and tried to send them,
In a bottle I placed my hope,
An SOS full of good intentions,
Sinking, will you give in to me,
Don't make me wait,
You build me up, knock me down,
But I will stand my ground,
And guide this light that I've found

"He has been, that's why he left in the end, and he's doing this so that we can all stay together"

"You're so naive Roxas. He doesn't care about us three; he's only interested in you. As far as he cares we could die with this world."

"How can you say that?" Roxas felt his temper flaring

"It was written all over his face; look at how roughly he was treating you!"

"He didn't mean to get that angry, he's already apologised."

"Big freakin whoop, who's gonna stop him next time he goes off on one? Who'll be there to protect you?"

"I can take care of myself Hayner!"

"Not with him you can't!" Hayner sharply grabbed Roxas' shoulders, his temper at its peak "You turn into bloody putty in his hands, just under his touch, everyone can tell it but you two, you two are head over damn heels for each other" the dusty blonde's eyes were beginning to get watery and his speech erratic "It's so, painful to watch you two so bloody obliviously stammering and blushing and giggling around each other, I can't stand to see you there with him!"

"What?" Roxas' eyes widened, he finally clicked what it was all about. Hayner paused and dropped his grip on Roxas, sharply looking away.

"Forget it, I'm going home." Hayner pushed Roxas aside and rose to his feet, Roxas for a brief second thought he saw tears streaming down the dusty blonde's face. Hayner sharply wiped his face. "See you around."

"Hayner!" Roxas yelled after "Dude, let's talk about this!"

"Do what you want with your lover boy. I know where I stand, but just know that I will get you back."
Roxas watched the teenager storm off; then soon his quick pace turned into a flat out bolt.

"This is way over my head..." Roxas sighed as he slumped back.

--

Hayner slipped on the dampened pavement by the small stream, scraping his knee in the process, his swearing could be heard from the other end of town.

"What did you do to yourself this time loser?" Seifer loomed over the dusty blonde, with more visual scanning Seifer noticed the teen's damp eyes. "Jeez, you're crying about scraping your knee? How gay are you?"

"Fuck you Seifer I'm not in the mood." Hayner hissed back

"Shit's hit the fan then?" Seifer's smug expression softened for a second as he offered his hand to help the younger teen up.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Not one to hit someone when he's down, surprisingly, last time I did I got this" the blonde pointed to the scar across the bridge of his nose. "Aggressive lil bastard he was, a little bit like you, but he spoke less, maybe why I prefer him as a rival than one who opens his mouth without thinking about it. You're more like chicken woos than Leonhart anyways..."

"Who are these people anyways?" Hayner grumbled as he dusted himself off

"People I used to know, a place called Balamb Garden before I moved here, once we were all done we went our separate ways, well myself and Leonhart at least, the others stayed there." Nostalgia reeked in his tone

"Do I know him, this Leonhart guy?"

"Nah, we went somewhere else called Radiant Garden, not sure what happened to him really" Nostalgia had faded into some form of ache from what the younger teen could tell. "Anyways, you should go get that looked at." Seifer finally said after a long silence.

"Sure. I take it you don't want anyone to know you were nice?"

"I'd beat the idea out of their head eventually; that is of course if they believed you" Seifer patted Hayner on the shoulder and carried on his hike up to sunset hill leaving him totally befuddled.

"Who's Leonhart..?" Hayner shook his head; he had other things on his mind right now.

Hayner's room seemed dull and gloomy; the positioning of his room was in constant glare of the eternal twilight of the town. So naturally he had to keep it down if he was going to sit at his desk.

As he lazily yanked the chair out he slumped down with an audible thump, he opened his laptop up and clicked last played on media player. Everyone told him iTunes was better, he didn't care. His room was filled with the sound of When I Grow Up. His forehead hit the desk, he swore to himself he'd never like that song, but fate was a cruel mistress and made it so.

"I'm really over my head" he sighed. Looking over at his phone he heard it vibrating violently, someone was calling him?

Nonchalantly he picked it up, forgetting to turn the music down.

"Hey?" he asked absently

"Dude why did you run off?" Roxas winced; he could barely hear Hayner over the unbearable racket that was the Pussycat Dolls.

"It doesn't matter" Hayner snapped, his mood flaring again.

"...Why are you listening to the Pussycat Dolls..?"

"It was just on my last played...I um...think my mum was using it earlier..."

"I thought your mother said that they were totally demoralising the importance of women and the need for modesty?"

"...Yeah...she did..." Hayner felt like he was in the closet all over again. "Ok yes I'm listening to it on my own accord, but it was on last played." Hayner hit pause, the bass that was deafening Roxas finally ebbed.

"Look I think I know what this is about, but Hayner, if I choose to be with Axel, that's my own choice. You just haven't taken the chance to get to know him, actually give him a chance and then criticise. Just try and be happy for me...I'm sorry that I don't share the same feelings you do" Roxas was cut off

"What gave you the impression I liked you like that?" Hayner choked, covering his mouth "Don't get such a huge ego just because I don't trust Axel, you're worse than Seifer and Fuu"

"I-I'm sorry I thought-"

"No, you didn't. Just leave me alone dude." Hayner closed his phone and pulled his knees up on the office chair. He buried his face in his knees, damn him being able to read him like a children's book.
Anything for you
I'll become your earth and sky
Forever never die
I'll be everything you need

---

"So let me get this straight" Cid rubbed his temples "Xemnas is just fine bout lettin this happen? I thought he wanted to plunge the worlds into eternal darkness"

"I'm not particularly happy about this either, but at least he's providing us as help to get the worlds in a better state" Axel shrugged, his hands hadn't left his hips for the whole explanation "He says that being viewed as the God who saved the worlds is good enough for him. Not sure he's gotten over his whole god-complex thing"

"You know Jezebel, you are a lot like the guy I knew, you sure ya don' know him?"

"You mean Reno? No I wasn't him before I lost my heart." Axel shrugged, "He's somewhere in one of the worlds, met him on my travels, but I think he's still at Midgar."

"I see...'least he's ok" Cid sighed, "Well Jezebel, I'm convinced of your intentions, but not this Xemnas guy. Keep a close eye on him"

"Got that covered easily. Number 9 has more control over the second in command number 7 than Xemnas could ever hope for"

"Number 9 doin favours for 7?"

"Nah Saïx just has a soft spot for the kid, haven't a clue how he wound up with us, he's way too naive, if a little kooky. But right now we need to bring you, the people from Twilight town and The World That Never Was together to meet somewhere."

"Why not go to the king's world? We could easily have the meeting there" Kairi perked up

"Are you sure the king would approve of this?" Leon rubbed his chin in a stereotypical thinking pose

"Well whether he does or doesn't I'm going to go along with this anyway" Axel replied in a chirpy, yet sadistic, warning tone.

"Why not just congregate at Twilight Town?" Yuffie said shuffling slightly

"What?" Axel glanced over his shoulder at her

"Who said we needed to tell the King about any of this, undoubtedly they're just going to have some poor excuse that'll stop us doing it, like, it's the natural order for the worlds to be separate; maybe but it restricts adventure for non-existent Christ's sake!"

The group paused with slightly widened eyes at the Wutai girl's outburst, Axel smirked however.

"Look kid, leave the sadistic and socially unacceptable comments to me, saves your image. Like how you're thinking though. Even if it will reduce us to the mentality of children sneaking around their mothers while trying to fix the household appliance we accidentally broke"

"So will we tell him?"

"Sure. When we've gotten so far that he can't stop it" Axel chuckled, shaking his head. "So what does the jury have to say?"

"Whatever" Cloud was at this point smashing his head against the wall for the sheer randomness of the scene. "Where's Twilight Town, we'll meet you there?"

"Just to the right of your world when you first exit, can't miss it" Axel raised his hand and the Corridor of Darkness opened lazily, showing his lack of motivation. "I'll leave Kairi here with you guys, get her to Twilight town and I'll go see the others back in the Organisation."

Axel ruffled the dark red haired girl's hair, yawned then stretched, several of his joints clicking causing others to cringe at the noise, saluted a sayonara then trudged through the corridor.

"So...can we trust him?" Leon asked slowly

"I think so, he's doing this for love" Kairi replied calmly smiling.

---

Once again the Castle That Never Was was electrified with activity as the red head darted into Where Nothing Gathers, leaping up into his chair, panting heavily.

"You're 5 minutes late Axel" Xemnas finally spoke

"I'm sorry; I had to explain everything to them about 3 or 4 times" The remaining organisation members removed their hoods, showing their faces. "Vexen? Didn't I kill you?" Axel taunted with a smirk.

"You merely mortally wounded me. We have all survived what happened to us, so once again there are 12 of us."

"And what has become of our 13th member?" Xigbar smirked sadistically, mocking him subtly.

"He's currently living in the virtual Twilight town, but we have moved him into the real one, the real counter parts of his friends haven't noticed. He's doing just fine." Axel spat.

"Silence" Xemnas boomed, "What are we now going to do according to the Restoration Committee?"

"We all have to meet at Twilight Town. We're not going to inform the King until it's too late for him to stop us."

"And of DiZ?"

"Riku's dealing with him as we speak."

---

Naminé was hunched over her sketch pad scrawling lazily, now that there was little drama occurring she was fairly bored. She hated being cooped up in the mansion.

"Why aren't you working?" DiZ growled, yanking the blonde up by her arm harshly.

"Ouch! Let go of me!"

"You're meant to be restoring Sora's memories, why has it stopped at 40%?"

"I couldn't carry on; I can't tear Axel and Roxas away from each other. We have to find another way"

"They aren't real, they like you shouldn't even exist!"

"But we do anyway!" Naminé screeched, "We exist because we're here, you can see us, you can interact with us, and you can tear us apart physically and emotionally! We breathe and we can feel!"

"Don't spout such nonsensical drivel you silly little girl." DiZ let go of her arm and pushed her back into her seat, "Don't forget I took you in from the organisation, you could at least show me a little respect, unless you want to go back there"

"It'd be better than staying here working for you. But you can't afford to get rid of me, you need me here." Naminé spat, trembling at how close the masked man was getting.

"DiZ, step away from the underage girl!" Riku's voice echoed from behind the squabbling pair. "We're sorting this so that everyone wins, and we can't afford to have you ruining it." He pulled at his leather gloves tighter, clenching his fists equally as tight.

"So you're going to turn on me like Xehanort did?"

"I'm not doing this for the same reasons as him. I'm not planning to plunge the worlds into darkness; I want to bring them all together in a perfectly balanced world. The organisation is helping us in our endeavors, and you can't stop us."

"Such fantasies can't be made true, what about Maleficent?"

"Then we'll just deal with her too." Riku approached the old man with a slow malicious swagger reeking of murderous intent. "I've sat by too many days watching you treat the Nobodies like trash because they're not like us. If that's the case then, aren't you being any better than Hitler from the other dimension?"

"Is this how you two repay me for everything I've done for you?"

"I don't care about what you've done for me or Nami, you've pushed your luck too much. I may want Sora back, but I can't do it at the expense of another person."

"They're fooling you into thinking that they are real people"

"Who says that they aren't, just because they don't have hearts? They retained their human forms because they had such strong hearts, shouldn't we be helping them rather than just killing them?"

"That is the only way to help their kind"

"I've heard enough" Riku delivered a swift punch to the back of DiZ's neck knocking him unconscious. "They'll be arriving here soon Naminé, you'd better go introduce yourself to people."

Naminé stunned just quickly nodded grabbed her sketch pad and scampered out of the mansion as quickly as possible. "Then you'll meet your other half."

---

Seifer gaped at the sky as several large air ships landed on the outskirts of town, he hadn't seen ships like those since he arrived in this lazy little town; Gummiships.

"Gummiships..." Fuu said slowly also looking up

"Wonder who it could be, ya know?" Rai tilted his head.

"I have a fair idea, time to get back into our old attire if it's who I think it is." Seifer briskly walked off towards their flat, he couldn't see Squall while looking pre-pubescent, when in all reality he wasn't.

"Who do you think it is?"

"A few old friends."