Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has read and enjoyed this already :) You're making my day here. This is me, uploading a chapter at ridiculously early times because I can't sleep for reasons I'm not going to get into. (Trust me, they're not bad.) Anyway, I will stop wasting your time and let you read.

Several Months Previously-Twilight Town

"I don't suppose you remember where you came from?"

xx

He looked to be in his early twenties. He had spiky red hair and bright green eyes. He wore a red shirt and black pants under a tattered black cloak. One pant leg was tucked into his boot, the other was not. And though his clothing looked like he'd been through a fire of sorts, his body showed no signs of trauma. The man sat up and rubbed his head, confused as to how he had gotten here. He looked at his surroundings. He sort of recognized the place, but not really. He tried to think about how he had gotten here, but all he could see in his mind's eye was a blonde-haired boy with the most intense shade of blue eyes. He sunk back down to the ground, feeling lightheaded.

A girl came up to him, she was in her late teens, with brown hair held back in pigtails and emerald green eyes. She wore an orange sundress and carried a school bag over one shoulder.

"Hey," she said, leaning over him. "Are you okay?"

He opened his eyes and squinted up at her. She was not the face he wanted to see. He didn't really know who it was that he wanted to see, but it was not her. Who was that boy?

"I guess so," he said, finding his voice.

She smiled when he said that, knowing that if he could talk, he was not so bad off.

"Do you know how you got here?" she asked.

He closed his eyes and tried to think about that again. A new image flashed through his head: a lot of fire and these white, shell-like looking creatures. However, this image didn't appear to answer how he was now here. Wherever here was. He opened his eyes and shook his head.

"Well, let's try an easier question then," she said, trying to hide her frown. "Do you know where you are?"

"This place looks familiar," he said. "I feel like I've been here before. But I honestly couldn't tell you the name of it right now."

"You're in Twilight Town," she said. "You're more or less in the place that me and my friends all hang out at on the weekends. I don't normally stop here on my way home from school, but I saw this black corridor-looking-like-thingy and I came to investigate. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you fell out of a wall."

The man started to sit up, feeling weird just lying there, and feeling okay enough to sit up. However, he only got as far as propping himself up on his elbows before he got lightheaded again. What had happened to him?

"You say that as if people fall out of walls often," he said, still having enough energy for a sarcastic comment.

"Actually, I've seen it a few times," she said. "Ever since the heartless first started coming, strange things have been happening around here. You just learn to go with it."

Heartless. He knew what those were. He vaguely remembered fighting them, he could summon chakrams and…fire? And he could fight them. He shook his head, not quite sure if that memory was real or fantasy. Normal people couldn't control elements, could they? But there was a reason why he was fighting the heartless. They had something that he wanted… Or something that he had once wanted.

"I'm Olette," she said, extending out her hand. He sat up all the way so he could shake it.

"Axel," he said. The name felt burned into his memory, but it felt false somehow, as if it wasn't entirely his identity.

"Pleased to meet you," she said, getting up.

"Pleased to meet you as well," he replied, accepting her offer to help him up.

"I feel like I've met you somewhere before," she said.

Axel felt warm inside. It was an odd feeling, one he had not felt in a long time. (How he knew that, he did not know.) But something about her remembering him made him feel like he'd accomplished something great.

"That's good, right?" he said.

She frowned. "Not necessarily. The person you remind me of was not good."

Axel frowned. "Oh."

"Well, earlier in the school year, a girl I once knew was kidnapped and dragged through one of those black portals by a man who looked somewhat like you."

"That wasn't very nice of him," Axel said. "Did you try to stop him?"

"He evaded our every move."

Another memory flashed: he was walking toward a dark corridor, dragging something behind him. It was imperative that he do this. He would be able to see his friend again.

Was he the same man Olette remembered? No way. There was no way. Was there? Why would he ever do such a thing?

He was getting a headache from trying to remember everything. He rubbed his temples.

"Come on," Olette said. "Let's get you some new clothes and a place to rest. You look like you could use some."

"Yeah," he said. "I suppose I could."

"I don't suppose you remember where you come from?"

"Actually, I do. It was called Radiant Garden, but it has long since been destroyed."

"Heartless?" she asked.

"How'd you know?" he asked, smiling for some reason.