Roxas panted heavily as he ran down the empty, cold corridors. He had no idea where the hell he was going, but he could hear Axel's boots clomping loudly behind him, pushing him to keep moving at all costs.

But he forgot how tired he was, and how much pain he was in, and his energy quickly drained away, the adrenaline pumping through his body not enough to keep him going. The stress on his body was just too much.

Roxas' legs nearly gave out as he skidded around a corner, but he was saved from dropping to the ground when a black portal opened directly in front of him, and he slammed into the slim form of Zexion, sending the both of them careening to the floor.

Zexion grunted when he hit the ground, smacking the back of his head against the stone, and Roxas landed on top of him.

The two Nobodies laid there for a few moments, before Zexion opened his eyes and stared up at Roxas, who was looking down at the man below him.

He had a few moments of thinking trying to comprehend what had just happened, his head spinning slightly from the impact. He looked down at the Nobody underneath him for a few seconds, before he realized where exactly he was, and who he was lying on top of. With a squeak of fear, Roxas literally flew off of the robed man, and slammed himself up against the wall furthest away.

Zexion stood up slowly, ignoring the throbbing of his skull, and brushed the dirt off his coat. Perhaps it hadn't been a good idea to appear in front of a panicked boy who was in the middle of an escape attempt. But the moment was already over, and there was no point in thinking about it, so Zexion shooed the thought from his mind and turned to glare at Axel.

The redheaded man had caught up with the two of them, and was laughing annoyingly loud at the scene, his face turning slightly red.

"Thanks for stopping him for me, short stuff!" He said, trying to control his snickering.

Zexion honestly had no idea what the idiot found so funny, so he decided to ignore the spiky-haired Nobody as he glanced around him, searching for the potion bottle that had been knocked out of his grasp. He found it lying just a few feet away, and he walked over and picked it up, examining the glass for any cracks. When he didn't find any, he sighed and turned towards a cowering Roxas against the wall.

"I have returned with the potion." He told the blond, holding the bottle out for the shorter boy. Roxas didn't appear to hear him, and just continued to stare at Zexion with wide, fear-filled eyes, so Zexion stepped closer to the blond, and repeated what he'd said. "I have returned with the potion."

Roxas blinked at Zexion, who looked like he really didn't care that Roxas had just tackled him to the ground. Then, his eyes trailed down to the glass bottle he held – the same bottle that he had earlier.

Then, Zexion's words actually registered, and he couldn't help but gape. What the hell was wrong with this guy? Roxas had just tried to escape, and the only reason he couldn't was because he was too tired, and in too much pain from his attack on him earlier. Yet, here this man was, trying to give him a potion, of all things. It was the weirdest thing, especially since the guy had nearly killed him with his surprisingly powerful fire spell. It had hurt like hell, and Roxas hadn't stood a chance.

The corridor was oddly silent, and Roxas turned his head to look at Axel, who had finally silenced his laughter. "Ah, that was great. Zexy, you sure know how to make a guy feel better, don't you?"

Roxas' eyes shot back to Zexion, who was just staring at Axel blankly, though this time his eyebrows were furrowed in what looked like confusion.

"I…don't think I will ever understand you, VIII." He said, his brow smoothing out as his eyes flicked back over to Roxas. "Will you drink the potion now?"

Roxas wasn't sure what to say – other than 'get the hell away from me, you emotionless freak!' – but he didn't want to piss the guy off, even if that was starting to seem like an impossible task. But then he remembered that these guys are crazy, and he pushed the thought away.

"What the hell do you guys want from me?" He demanded, glancing back and forth between the two men. He watched as Axel sent an odd look to Zexion, still snickering slightly, and as Zexion (who just ignored Axel) watched Roxas watch him and Axel.

Then, the stoic man shoved the bottle of liquid closer to Roxas. "Drink it." He ordered quietly, holding the bottle just inside Roxas' reach.

Roxas looked down at the bottle, staring at the swishing contents warily. "…what is it?"

"It's a potion," Zexion explained, his expression still not changing. That guy's lack of emotions was really starting to freak Roxas out. Did he ever change his expression, except for tiny little movements that required almost no muscle movement? "It will help with the pain."

Roxas stared down at the bottle sitting innocently in front of him, the eerily glowing blue liquid swirling around inside the glass.

"Just drink the potion, Roxas." Axel urged, the serious tone in his usually cheerful attracting Roxas' attention, "It'll make you feel better."

Roxas still just stared at the potion, not quite ready to drink something that the guys who had knocked him out were trying to give him. Besides, it could be…

"It isn't poisoned, if that's what you think." Zexion assured him, reading Roxas' thoughts perfectly. And if that wasn't just as freaky as the guy's emotionless persona, Roxas would eat his Keyblade.

"Why the hell should I trust you?" Roxas demanded. "Either of you?" He added when he saw Axel's smug expression.

Axel's eyes flashed, an emotion Roxas couldn't identify disappearing behind a mock-hurt expression before Roxas could try and decipher it. "Because, Roxy…we're just trying to help you."

"Take it." Zexion demanded calmly, pushing the bottle closer, "Or I will force it down your throat." Roxas almost laughed nervously, thinking the steely-eyed man was just kidding, but then he looked at the completely serious (blank) face, and remembered that this guy obviously did not kid.

"He really will do it." Axel affirmed, nodding in agreement to his own statement, "He's way more of a sadistic bastard than I am."

When Roxas still didn't take the potion, Zexion cocked his head to the side, his bangs falling away to reveal a second, steel-blue eye. "Do you think I won't do it, XIII?"

Roxas swallowed, but took the potion from Zexion's hand, his fingers brushing against the man's cool skin. He was startled by the sudden harshness he showed him; before now he seemed to be a bit more… not really nice, but more gentle about things towards him. Zexion was starting to seem like the safer one to be around. But his sudden threat made Roxas realize he was indeed just as dangerous as Axel.

"Drink it all, Roxy!" Axel instructed at the same time Zexion said, "It will help you more if you drink it all."

Roxas stared blankly at the two men, who were now glaring at one another (well, Zexion's eyes were narrowed slightly…), then back down at the potion, before returning his gaze to the two cloaked men.

"W…why do you want to help me?" Roxas asked, interrupting before the two went at each other's throats again, "I don't understand."

Axel broke his staring contest with Zexion (that he gonna lose, since he swore the jerk only needed to blink once every few hours), and turned to Roxas, grinning in a completely honest, friendly manner. "'Cause I'm your friend!"

"I have no reason to do otherwise." Zexion stated calmly.

When Roxas still didn't drink the potion, Axel's smile softened, and when Roxas looked at his emerald eyes, he saw warmth in their depths. "No one's gonna hurt ya, Roxy."

Roxas stared at Axel for a few moments, before looking back down at the potion miserably. He really did not want to comply and drink this strange substance they gave him, but he really didn't have a choice. Pulling the cork out of the potion bottle, he placed the lid against his lips hesitantly, and gulped down the – surprisingly – tasteless liquid. It was thick, and felt weird, but it didn't taste bad, and Roxas was already beginning to feel better as the liquid went down his throat, a tingling sensation being left behind.

"Good job, Roxy!" Axel exclaimed, grinning cheerfully.

Zexion stared at Axel with an odd look in his usually dead eyes, but then he blinked, and the look vanished. "He's not a dog, Axel." He finally said, his tone bland.

Axel glared and stepped over to Roxas indignantly, patting him on the head to spite Zexion. Roxas jumped at the sudden contact, spilling some of the potion on the floor.

"Now look what you've done, Axel." Zexion quickly retorted, his steely eye gazing indifferently at the blue liquid on the ground.

Axel, who had snached his hand away as soon as the boy reacted so startled, scratched his head, staring at the same spot as Zexion. "It's your fault, Zexion."

Both of Zexion's eyebrows raised. "I fail to see how this was my fault." He spoke almost accusingly.

"You annoyed me." Axel said matter-of-factly, shrugging his shoulders.

"You appear to be more of an idiot than usual today." Zexion said as he snapped his fingers nonchalantly.

Axel laughed, scratching at his spiky head unconcernedly, not insulted in the least, "I'm just messin' with ya, Zexy."

Roxas watched the two taller men bicker warily, not wanting a fight to break out with him in the vicinity. Then, a black monkey/mouse looking thing popped up out of nowhere and Roxas found himself too absorbed in the 'what the fuck' feeling to care about what the other two did.

It was small, black, had antennae, and large, yellow eyes; eyes that were staring up at Zexion, waiting.

"Clean up this mess." Zexion ordered, pointing to the blue liquid on the ground. The black thing disappeared, then reappeared a second later with a little towel in its tiny hands. Then, it stepped forward and actually started dabbing at the mess with the towel.

Roxas stared at the black creature with wide eyes until Axel's question of, 'Feelin' better now, Roxy?' startled him into finally looking away from the thing.

"What the hell is that?" He demanded, pointing accusingly at the black thing was finishing up its cleaning duties.

"It is a Heartless." Zexion told Roxas, dismissing the black creature with a wave of his pale hand.

"Yep." Axel agreed, nodding his red-topped head enthusiastically, "You kill 'em and collect their hearts. That's how it works."

Roxas continued to stare at the spot the creature, the Heartless, had just cleaned, a frown pulling at his lips. "A…Heartless?"

"It is a creature that is left behind when a human loses their heart." Zexion explained patiently, crossing his thin arms over his chest. "A Heartless is born when a human's heart is overcome with darkness. They are shadow creatures, born from pure darkness."

Axel nodded, "Yeah. What he said."

"And…you can control those things?" Roxas asked, thinking back to the black thing and its big, glowing, yellow eyes.

"To a certain degree." Zexion said, closing his eyes.

Axel stepped closer to Roxas and grinned. "Yeah. We can each control different kinds of Heartless. Like, I can control the Assassin Heartless."

"Oh…"

Roxas didn't quite get it, but he figured that Zexion had probably dumbed the explanation down quite a bit already, and that it wasn't possible for it to get any simple. So, he just nodded and tore his gaze away from the now clean spot.

"Shall we head back to the room?" Zexion asked a few minutes later, opening his eyes and looking around the corridor, "It would be…troublesome to be found by one of the others."

"Yeah, good idea." Axel said, nodding in approval. Zexion ignored him and opened a dark portal. "Come on, Roxy. We can answer any questions you have back at the room."

"Step through it." Zexion instructed, gesturing to the black hole in the middle of the air, "Axel. Help him."

Axel grinned and grabbed Roxas' arm, pulling him into the inky blackness of the portal.

Roxas was surrounded by darkness on all sides; he couldn't see a thing. Wherever they were, the feeling was suffocating, and it was giving Roxas a nasty headache.

Before it got any worse, a hole of light opened in front of him and Axel, nearly blinding Roxas despite the short amount of time he'd been in the darkness.

Axel pulled him through the hole of light, and he stepped out into the room he'd woken up in.

Zexion stepped out behind them, and closed the portal with a wave of his hand. He then turned his steely eyes to Roxas and examined him, making Roxas squirm under the man's gaze.

"Are you in pain?" Zexion finally asked, blinking his eyes up to Roxas'.

Roxas frowned and glanced down at himself, just now noticing how torn and bloodied his clothes were. "Jeez! What did you guys do to me?"

Axel shifted uncomfortably, an expression incredibly similar to guilt coming over his features. "Well…you see…what happened…you didn't…uhm." looking away, he scratched the back of his head. Yeah."

"I believe I healed you and retrieved a potion to help you with your pain." Zexion informed Roxas, staring at him with something Roxas could only assume was disapproval, "Are you complaining?"

Roxas swallowed, choosing not to answer Zexion's question, and instead ask one of his own. "But…why bother healing me? What is it that you people want?"

"You to return to the Organization." Zexion stated without even a second of hesitation.

Axel nodded in agreement, grinning widely at Roxas. "Yeah! We need you, Roxas! You're one of us."

"So you've said…" Roxas said, glaring distrustfully at Axel and Zexion.

Axel laughed, holding his hands up in a placating manner, "Come on, Roxas! Don't you believe me?"

"If I say no, will you try to kill me again?" Roxas asked, nervously gripping his torn and bloodied shirt.

Axel adopted a torn expression, dramatically slapping his hand over the spot his heart would be – if he had one, that is. "Ouch, Roxy! Again? I have no idea what you're talking about."

When Axel failed to answer the question, Zexion sighed and moved passed the other Nobodies to stand near the couch. "He will not." He assured the blond, plopping down on the arm rest, "Though we will not let you go."

Roxas sighed, his shoulders drooping. "I don't know what to think…"

"Well," Axel said, skipping over to sit on the couch, and gesturing at the spot next to him, "you ask, we'll answer. Come on over, Roxy."

Roxas hesitated, but decided to comply for now and walked over, but didn't sit next to the redhead. Instead, he pulled the chair the man had been sitting in earlier further back from the couch, and sat down in that. "Okay… Why won't you let me go, then? What if I don't want to be a part of your Organization?"

"You are already a member of the Organization." Zexion informed him, "You are Number XIII."

"It's a, 'once you're in, you're in for life' kind of thing." Axel added, leaning back into the cushions of the couch, and stretching his legs out. His relaxed attitude was starting to get under Roxas' skin.

Roxas looked down miserably, his fingers playing the hem of his ruined shirt. "I don't remember being one of you…"

"You will – eventually." Zexion assured him, and Roxas really had no reason not to believe the guy. He hadn't lied to him, yet. In fact, they'd both been pretty straight forward about information.

"Yeah." Axel cut in, nodding at Roxas with an annoyed expression, "That's what I was trying to tell you earlier, but you spazzed, for like, no reason."

"Perhaps it was the manner in which you delivered this information that caused Roxas to…'spazz,' as you say?" Zexion suggested dryly.

"Hey!" Axel protested, pointing a finger at Zexion, "All I did was try to talk to him! Not my fault he attacked me."

Roxas glared at Axel, but gave up trying to argue with the thick-headed jerk. There was no point to it, and the guy would never admit to being wrong, so why bother?

"There was no reason for you to retaliate, or get so angry in the first place. You must learn to control your temper, Axel, before you really do end up killing him." Zexion said in a lightly scolding tone.

Axel shook his head furiously, pointing an accusing finger as Roxas, "He's the one spazzing for no reason! All I wanted to do was talk, but no, he had to try to kill me!"

"…what?" Roxas asked, not believing how ridiculous Axel was being. He couldn't quite tell if Axel was just picking on him, or if he was actually serious. Of course Roxas would freak when some random guy starts talking about all this weird stuff that he doesn't understand.

"You let your anger take control of the situation." Zexion pointed out quietly, his tone still lightly scolding, "You're the older Nobody, you should have more control than that."

"You!" Axel yelled, suddenly turning his fiery emerald gaze to Roxas, making him jump, "Roxas! You attacked me. Of course I had to retaliate!"

Roxas was confused, wondering why Axel was making such a big deal out the situation. Zexion just calmly sat on the arm rest, inspecting his nails as if he wasn't giving a talking-down to Axel.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Axel shouted, glaring at the dumbfounded, confused expression on Roxas' face.

Roxas' eyes widened, and he held his hands up, trying to calm the redhead. "Okay, okay! Fine, whatever."

"So you admit it." Axel said, his anger dissipating immediately, "You attacked me for no reason, whatsoever, and I was right in retaliating? Okay."

Zexion sighed, standing up and shaking his head. "I promised Demyx that I would see him when I returned, so I'm going to go do that now. You two…settle your differences." And with that, he opened yet another portal, stepped through, and was gone in a matter of seconds.

Roxas, realizing too late that the level-headed one was leaving, reached out pointlessly, "Wait! Don't leave me here with him!" But Zexion was already gone, and it was just Roxas and a seemingly bi-polar redhead with the ability to control fire.

Great.

Roxas glanced over at Axel hesitantly, jerking back in surprise when he caught the man smiling creepily at him.

"So," Axel said after a minute of just staring at Roxas, "what do you wanna know? Any questions?"

Roxas was about to answer when a sudden wave of dizziness assaulted him. One hand grabbed the chair to keep from falling out of it, while the other latched onto his head, confused. "Uhn…wha?"

"Oh. Guess the potion's finally kicked in, huh?" Axel asked, scratching his head.

Roxas stared back up at Axel, shocked, before another wave of dizziness forced him to squint his eyes shut so he wouldn't have to watch the room spin. "Wha…what was 'n tha'?" His words slurred together, and he found it hard to concentrate on what he was saying.

"Eh…I don't know. You'd have to ask emo boy." Axel told him, watching Roxas curiously.

Roxas didn't reply, couldn't reply. His head was spinning so fast he was finding it difficult to remain sitting up straight. With a gasp, his body fell over sideways, but before he could hit the ground, arms wrapped around him, and picked him up, dropping Roxas on something soft – the couch.

He would have freaked out about being manhandledf Axel, but he was simply too dizzy, and instead just allowed himself to sink into the cushions of the couch, clutching his head. "You…you sai' it woul' jus' relieve th' pain…"

"I never said anything about the potion, other than telling you to drink it." Axel reminded him.

Roxas groaned, trying to will away the dizziness with no success. "Uhhhhn…I din't need it…"

Axel sighed, shrugging his bony shoulders in a helpless way. "Guess you'll just have to sleep it off. We can talk later. Not like you're gonna be going anywhere, anyway."

"Why…cn't…you jus' le' me go?" Roxas asked dazedly, feeling himself fade from consciousness.

"Because…I need you, Roxy…" Axel said sadly.

Roxas only managed to get a 'wha…' out before the darkness of sleep overtook him, and he was dead to the world once again.

Axel stared down at his friend's slumbering form, a sad smile curling his lips. He reached down and patted the blond softly on the head, before he stepped back, and plopped down into his chair, ready to wait for as long as needed to for the boy to wake back up. To have his best friend back.