Chapter Two
Roxas sat down on the edge of a cliff overlooking a valley. Not the safest of perches perhaps but he and Axel used to sit on the edge of the clock tower in Twilight Town and that was a lot higher so it didn't really bother him. Then he turned to his still standing friend and said
"All right, Axel. We're safe for now, so tell me what you know."
"Well" Axel began as he moved to sit beside Roxas "I don't know all that much to be honest with you. Xemnas and Saix aren't exactly gold mines of information"
"Yeah, I've noticed" Roxas said feeling the need to add his two cents.
"I thought you had. Anyway, the reason you can wield the keyblade is probably because your somebody can too." Axel said
"Really?...but why can't I remember?" Roxas interjected
"You know Roxas, it's kinda hard to explain things to ya, when ya keep interrupting me" Axel pointed out
"Sorry, Axel. Go on, I'll be quiet"
"Sure you will" Axel said a bit sarcastically "Anyway, your somebody is a kid named Sora. He managed to regain his human form shortly after being turned into a heartless, I'm guessing that's why you can't remember him." Unable to contain himself Roxas interjected enthusiastically
"Really, does that mean I can meet him? Where is he, can we go find him?"
"Settle down Roxas" Axel said "Sora's not in a condition to meet anybody right now"
"What why? Is he sick of something?" Roxas asked
"The or something" Axel answered then he took a deep breath "You see, the organization used a girl named Namine to wipe Sora's memories so they could use him as their puppet."
"What? That's horrible, why would they do that?" Roxas exclaimed
"Well, to be fair Marluxia and Larxene were trying to use Sora to take over the organization so I'm not exactly sure, how much of it is technically the organization's fault."
"Didn't you try to stop them?" Roxas asked
"I did, I freed Namine and Sora was able to defeat Marluxia and Larxene but by then Namine had already managed to rewrite Sora's memories, so now she's trying to put them back the way there were before he entered Castle Oblivion. For her to do that, though she had to put him to sleep somewhere nobody could find them."
"Wait, what about Lexaeus, Zexion, and Vexen, were they in on it too?" Roxas asked
"Vexen was, to some extent, he thought the whole memory wiping thing was an interesting experiment"
"Was everything an experiment for him?" Roxas asked
"Pretty much" Axel answered "Apparently Marluxia wanted Vexen out of the way, so he ordered Vexen to kill Sora, but Sora killed him instead. Lexaeus and Zexion tried to get control of Sora's friend Riku, he's a keyblade wielder too. So they could use him to protect themselves from Sora but after Sora killed Marluxia they tried to kill Riku."
"But he killed them instead didn't he?" Roxas concluded. Roxas knew that as a former organization member he should be angry at Sora and Riku but he found himself unable to blame Sora or Riku for what they did. They were simply defending themselves, if the others had simply left them alone nothing would have happened.
"Yeah, he did" Axel replied "Anyway, now nobody knows where Sora is sleeping or when he'll wake up."
"Wait, he's still asleep?" Roxas said
"Yeah, apparently Namine is finding it harder to restore memories than it is to change and or destroy them." Axel replied
"Wait a minute, who is Namine and how does she have that memory power anyway?" Roxas asked
Axel sighed again "have you ever heard of the princesses of heart?" he asked
"Huh, who're they" Roxas replied confused
"No, I didn't think so. The princesses of heart are the seven maidens with the purest hearts. One of them is a girl named Kairi, who also happens to be a close friend of Sora's. When she lost her heart, instead of turning into a heartless, her heart lodged itself inside Sora's heart. Then when Sora lost his heart you and Namine were both born."
"So Namine's a nobody like us? Is that why she has that weird memory power?" Roxas said
"I guess" Axel shrugged "That's one of the things Vexen was trying to find out."
"So then, why did the keyblade chose Sora and Riku as wielders?" Roxas asked
"I don't know, like I said Roxas, I don't have all the answers" Axel replied Roxas stood up
"Okay, if I can't meet Sora, I can at least try to learn more about him. I think I remember seeing his name on one of the leader boards in Olympus Coliseum, we can start there." Roxas declared. Yet again, Axel sighed he should have seen this coming
"All right, let's go" He said as he too stood up but before either of them could open a path, they heard footsteps approaching. They turned around and saw a woman with long brown hair braided into a pony tail and wearing a pink bow and a pink dress.
"Hello" the woman said as she approached them "I don't think I've seen you two around before"
"No, we're new around here, my name's Roxas and this is Axel" Roxas replied Axel waved slightly from behind Roxas
"I see, well it's good to see you. My name is Aerith." Then her expression turned thoughtful
"Something wrong?" Roxas inquired
"Roxas, I don't know if I should say 'pleased to meet you' or 'nice to see you again'" Roxas was completely taken aback by that but before he could formulate a response Aerith continued "There's something about you, that seems very familiar to me, like we're friends that simply haven't seen each other for a while and yet I'm certain that I have never seen you before. It's very strange"
"Uh huh" Axel said stepping forward "if you say so, come on Roxas" then he grabbed Roxas' arm and began to start pulling him away from the crazy lady.
"But-" Roxas began to protest but Aerith cut him off
"It's all right, I have to go too. My friends are waiting for me, but you should come by sometime. We're usually at Merlin's house. See you later." Then she waved at them and walked away.
"What a weirdo" Axel muttered once she was out of earshot. It had to be all that pink, nobody who wore that much pink could possibly be in her (in this case) right mind. Roxas however stared after her. Strange at first she seemed like a total stranger but after she mentioned it Roxas began to feel like he knew her before to. Axel opened a path to Olympus Coliseum
"Roxas" Axel said, snapping Roxas out of his thoughts "Come on, let's go." He motioned toward the portal
"Right" Roxas said and stepped through with Axel following right behind him.
They entered the small chamber (don't remember what it's called) before the arena
"Hey, Phil" Roxas greeted the satyr. Phil turned and said
"Oh, hey Roxas, who's your friend?"
"His name's Axel, say Phil can you tell me about that Sora guy on the leader boards out there?"
"Sure, he's a kid that with brown hair…and other than that he looks just like you, are you guys cousins or something?" Phil responded
"Something like that" Roxas replied "but I haven't seen him in a long time."
"Oh, well anyway. He's a pretty good fighter, heck he even beat Herc one on one. He's a bit over eager though, tends to rush into things without thinking, and gets himself in trouble. Travels around a lot too. He hasn't been by here for a while though, now that I think about it." Phil said
"Is that it?" Roxas prodded hoping to hear more
"Yeah, all I know, sorry kid." Phil replied
"Okay, well thanks for your help" Roxas responded and turned to leave
"Whoa, now hold on." Phil said. Roxas turned back to Phil and said "what?"
"You didn't think you were gonna get away that easy did ya. You'll never be a real hero if you don't knuckle down and train." Phil answered Roxas sighed
"Okay, okay I get it" and the satyr but him through his paces several times, much to the amusement of a certain redhead who sat and watched from the stands. After what seemed to Roxas like forever Phil said
"Ok, kid ya done enough for today, now go home and get some rest." Roxas nodded while he tried to catch his breath. Axel came up to him "Not one word" Roxas snapped at him. Axel just gave him a 'who me?' look and headed back into the small room. They crossed the room and headed out the double doors. On the other side they ran into Demyx
"Roxas, Axel, hey guys" Demyx said and then walked over toward them like nothing had changed at all.
"Hi Demyx" Roxas replied warily. Although he wasn't part of the organization anymore, he still didn't want to fight them unless they made him. So if there was going to be a fight Demyx would have to start it, but since it was Demyx probably not.
"Wow, cold" Demyx said "Did you guys really leave the organization?"
"Yeah, we did" Roxas answered not offering any details
"What? Why would you do something that crazy, do you guys have death wishes or something?" Demyx asked
"No, Demyx. I need answers and the organization was not going to give them, to me so I decided to leave and find them on my own." Roxas stated
"What about you Axel, what's in this for you?" Demyx said to the redhead
"Roxas is my friend, he needs somebody to watch his back" Axel replied doubting that Demyx would understand
Demyx didn't really know how to respond to that so instead he addressed Roxas "Roxas, you really should get back to the organization. Xemnas said that if you come back voluntarily he may be willing to let it drop since this the first time you've done anything wrong."
"Yeah right" Axel scoffed "and pigs might fly if they had wings"
"Axel's right" Roxas agreed "I made the mistake of trusting Xemnas once; I'm not doing that again. Besides even if he decided to just let it go, Saix won't not after the beating I gave him."
"Roxas, think. You really don't want to get on the organization's bad side" Demyx warned
"Forget it" Roxas declared "I'm tired of being kept in the dark. I'm NOT some mindless robot that goes around just blindly doing whatever he's told. I'm done with that and the organization so tell Xemnas to find himself a new keyblade wielder because I'm not going back there and you're not gonna make me!" By the time Roxas finished that sentence he was shouting
"Whoa, take it easy Roxas, I'm not gonna fight you" Demyx tried to mollify him and then he turned to Axel "What about you Axel, do you agree with Roxas?"
"Roxas is my best friend. I'm not going back without him" Axel replied
"There you have Demyx. We've left the organization and we're not going back. So just leave us alone" Roxas said and then he opened a path and went through it. Axel, as he had said he would, followed him through.
"Guys, wait" Demyx shouted running after them but the path closed before he got to it. He knew it was futile to open a path of his own to try to follow them, the corridors of darkness were a labyrinth and he had no idea where they were headed "I hope you know what you're doing" he said softly. He liked them and didn't want them to get hurt.
Once he had stepped through the portal Axel saw that Roxas had taken them to Agrabah. "Roxas, what are we doing here?" He asked his best friend Roxas turned and said
"I remember there was a magic carpet here that seemed to think it knew me; maybe it thought I was Sora. We should find Genie and ask him about it."
"Wait, back up. Did you say magic carpet?" Axel asked certain that he had somehow misheard
"Yeah" Roxas nodded "Magic carpet"
"Tell me Roxas, why do you always attract the weirdoes?" Axel questioned
"Hey, if attract weirdoes and you're my best friend what does that say about you?" Roxas countered
"Touché, come on Roxas let's go find this magic carpet and genie of yours." Axel replied. Roxas smiled it was often that he came out on top in this verbal exchanges but he felt that this time he had.
"Ok, Axel" Roxas said being gracious in the face of victory. Axel smiled back and together the two of them began to explore the desert city of Agrabah searching for the aforementioned genie and magic carpet.