Chapter Two: A fight is coming

Plot by Axel--Of--Flames

Written By DarkDeSkull

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Roxas cracked the fingers in his hands, and sighed happily. Axel smiled at him, and Roxas smiled at Axel. Roxas glanced around at The World That Never Was, a bit surprised to see it hadn't changed.

"Welcome back, buddy." Said Axel, ruffling his companion's hair. Roxas smiled back at him.

"Good to see you too, Axel." He said, and he ruffled Axel's hair, much to his protest.

"Stop it! You'll ruin the spike!" Axel said, just very happy to see his friend again. Roxas's playful expression settled into one of complete seriousness.

"Why are the Neoshadow's attacking here?" He asked, and realization dawned in Axel's eyes.

"Oh, right! You weren't 'here' for that." Axel said, grinning wickedly to himself.
"I killed that Maleficent chick after waking up in the Realm of Darkness. She was trying to take over the castle." Roxas took a step back, shocked.

"D-Does this make you the new Superior?!" Roxas asked.

"Exactly." Said Axel, gesturing with his hands. Roxas nodded a bit.

"Nice." He said, playfully punching Axel in the shoulder. "Does this make me Number II?"

"Ah… No," Axel said to a now (slightly) saddened Roxas. "I eliminated the rank thing. It caused too many problems. Like, people killing each other to move up in rank." A small 'Oh!' escaped from Roxas's lips as he agreed.

And so Axel decided to take Roxas to their planning room in The Castle that Never Was. It was at the very top of the castle, where the door to Sora's final battle with Xemnas was. Now, however, it had a covered roof, and wasn't as cold.

"So, we're trying to figure out what to do before they strike." Said Axel, sitting down.

"Why not just attack them while they're still forming?" Roxas suggested.

"We can't, they've got this protective cocoon thing. It's stronger than diamonds." Said Axel, who was thoughtfully drumming his fingers on the desk. "…I was thinking we could launch an air strike on them, or something. We could use Gummi ships."

"If we're going to use Gummi ships, we should only use them as a barricade. Honestly, they're hard to control, weak, and have annoying repetitive music playing on it. We'd go insane before we actually hit anything. We should probably fight on our own, we're strong enough." Said Roxas, and Axel nodded slightly.

Suddenly, Demyx burst in the door, a serious expression on his face.

"Axel, we've got company." He said. Axel stood up, and ran over to the window.

"The first wave." He muttered, staring at several small Neoshadows that were scampering around. Demyx had summoned a portal and ran into it, Axel and Roxas followed.

---

Axel pushed ahead of Demyx, chakrams in hand. Roxas had summoned his Keyblade, and was already going after a group of Neoshadows, and Demyx's water clones were dancing around a bit, smothering and effectively drowning some heartless.

Zexion was over on the side, cornered by two Neoshadows. One lunged out as him, and was quickly burnt to a crisp.

"Thanks Axel." He said, panting a bit.

"No problem." Axel said, as Zexion looked over to two Neoshadows about to attack Demyx from behind.

Taking out his lexicon, he sucked the heartless into it, earned Demyx's voiced appreciation.

"Thanks Zexy!" Demyx said, forcing heartless away with a thrust of his sitar.

"That's Zexion." Said Zexy- I mean Zexion, as he hit a heartless on the head with his book. It fell to the ground, dazed.

Axel summoned a large wall of fire, and wiped out a large bit of heartless as Roxas rolled out of the way and began fighting another larger crowd of heartless.

---

Soon, the four met in the planning room again, all tired, all the heartless that had appeared were defeated.

Roxas sat down, panting, and leaned his head again the table. He felt a hand grip his shoulder, and looked up to see a worn out Demyx smiling at him.

"Hiya Roxy! When'd you get here?!" He said, waving slightly. Roxas smiled a bit, and Axel answered Demyx.

"I brought him back." He said, leaning his chin on the table. Zexion was, eerily, fine. He seemed to look at the group in front of him with slight disgust.

"How can you be tired?" He asked.

"Well it's not like we're always so fucking calm." Said a portal, or rather someone who emerged from a portal. Xigbar, who was looking a bit pissed off. "You don't even really fight! And another thing- Roxas! Lil' dude, you're back!" Xigbar's angered expression changed into one of happiness.

Roxas waved slightly, and wiped sweat off his face.

"Xigbar, you look exhausted! What happened?" Asked Demyx, rushing over to his fellow member.

"You try fighting off an air strike." He said, still grinning. "You all don't exactly look great yourselves, except for Zexion, but he's not natural." Xigbar chuckled at his own joke.

"They have Gummi ships?!" Said Roxas, who was a bit startled by this information.

"Air strikes." Muttered Xigbar.

"…Why don't we build a barricade around the Castle as a shield?" Said Zexion, as heads turned to face him. "Why don't we make a defensive maneuver first?" Axel stared at his, crossed his arms over his chest, and thought a bit.

"Yeah." He said, nodding. "But out of what."

"Why not out of Gummi ship materials?" Suggested Roxas. Axel's eyes sparked with inspiration.

"That's brilliant! We could use the heartless's Gummi ships for parts!" Axel said, waving his hand around thoughtfully.

"Can't. Heartless ships fade like heartless." Said Xigbar, and Axel looked down a bit, sad and puzzled. Inspiration soon hit Roxas.

"I'll be right back!" Roxas said, jumping up and running into another room. The other members stared curiously after him.

Running down the stair, he turned a bit into a well hidden hallway. He ran into it, ran all the way down it, and turned into a room at the very end with an 'XIII' carved above the room. However, the word 'Roxas' had been burnt on the door. Roxas smiled at that, and shoved open the door.

Dashing in the room, he ran over a set of drawers and began rifling through it. He threw aside cloaks, photos, a small cat charm that he glanced at curiously then quickly threw aside, and random souvenirs. He growled a bit in frustration. He moved on to the second drawn, and immediately grabbed something with a happy 'Aha!'.

Folding it up, he ran out of his room, into the hallway, up the stairs, and then back into the planning room.

"Here, I made this." He tossed the folded up paper onto the table, and Axel grabbed it. Roxas leaned back a bit, and Axel began to unfold the paper.

"…Is this a model for a Gummi ship?" Asked Axel, staring at the plan. Roxas nodded slightly, as Demyx moved over to Axel to look over his shoulder.

"What? Lemme see." Said Xigbar, who stood up as well.

"Roxas, when did you learn to do that?" Axel asked.

"Sora would do it every so often, I just combined a few designs that were high on defense." Roxas said, passing it off as something any normal kid could do. Axel stared a tit, surprised. "It's a pretty flat design, build for hiding the pilot, speed, and defense. We could easily just turn it into a wall."

"Where would we get the materials for it?" Asked Zexion, who was now flipping through his Lexicon.

"Traverse Town." Said Roxas, almost sadly. Demyx looked over at Roxas questioningly, being the only one to notice this. Axel and Xigbar were taking turns eyeing the design.

"Let's leave A.S.A.P." Said Axel, now trying to get every detail of the design down.

"What's wrong Roxas?" Asked Demyx, bending over slightly to Roxas's height. Roxas sighed a bit.

"Sora has a lot of memories from Traverse Town. They kinda interfere with my own… I can't really do anything while I'd out there, but-."

"So stay here, don't worry, we can get it done on our own!" Said Demyx loudly and cheerfully.

"Uh-huh." Muttered Axel, who was writing down a list of material. He let out a small yell as Xigbar snatched the blueprints out of his hand to get a better look at it.

"Hey, lil' dude, where are we going to get this stuff?" Asked Xigbar, and Roxas perked up a bit.

"Um…" He paused a bit, and lightly tapped his fist against the bottom of his chin to think. "…They're this guy who lives in a small house in the first district… Geppetto I think." He nodded a bit.

"All right then." Said Axel, folding up the list he made and standing up, allowing Xigbar to keep the blueprints. He summoned a portal, and walked off into it, Xigbar following him

"Keep watch Roxy!" Said Demyx, who waved slightly, then followed the others in the portal.

Roxas decided to sit down, and rest a bit. Resting his head on his hand, he closed his eyes to think a bit.