Part Three

"Who's Xigbar?" asked Mia, a bit confused.

"He's from the organization.." Roxas replied.

"But.. How could that be?" asked Sora. "I thought we BEAT those guys!"

"So.. This guy.." Mia began. "He's from that group you mentioned?

Axel sighed and nodded.

"I thought they were long gone." Roxas frowned.

"Well, apparently their not, if what's his face is back.." Mia stated.

"'What's his face?'" asked Riku, an unimpressed look on his face.

Roxas couldn't help but snicker at the ridiculous name.

"Well, whatever he's planning, I'm sure we can handle it." Sora said with a shrug.

Axel looked at him in shock and horror.

"No, you guys need to stay here." he stated firmly.

"What?" said everyone else in shock.

"But Axel-"

"No.." Axel frowned, interrupted Roxas. "This is something I have to do on my own.."

Mia looked from Axel to the others and back again.

"Okay," she started. "Is there something going on that we don't know about?"

Axel turned away from her, his gaze resting back on the window.

"Axel?"

"What?" he said, a bit harsher than he had attended.

Soon he sighed.

"Sorry.." he muttered softly.

Mia responded by placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. Axel snapped his head up to stare at her.

"Why can't you just tell us what's really bothering you?" asked Mia, concerned.

"Because.." replied Axel. "I don't want any of you to get hurt.."

Riku, Sora, Roxas, Kairi, and Mia all looked at him in confusion. Mia let out a breath, now beginning to become a bit impatient.

"Axel, I swear," she started, becoming annoyed. "If you don't start making SENSE-"

"You know what? I don't have to put up with this!"

Axel stood from the bed and forced his way out of the room. Mia went to hurry after him when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Let him go.." Sora frowned.

"Why are you guys not going after him?" Mia demanded, her expression turning to that of anger.

"He obviously wants to be alone.." replied Sora.

"Sora, if we just leave him alone, he might go and do something STUPID!"

"How would YOU know what he would do?" Riku asked, stepping toward them.

"Because people who are in need of HELP are prone to do stupid THINGS." Mia replied.

"How would YOU know?"

Instead of answering Riku's question, she instead turned to look at Sora. Seeing this, Riku, Roxas, and Kairi turned to look at him as well. Seeing everyone was now staring at him, Sora sighed.

"Well.. Actually.."

Sora trailed off but soon began to speak again.

"When I was in the other world.." he began slowly. "I.. Well.. I saw something that.. It just.. I.."

Sora stopped talking, now feeling like he may have already said too much. Mia walked over and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"It's okay, Sora.." she assured him. "I'll just explain the more important part of what happened.."

Sora stared at her for a moment before nodding softly. Mia smiled and nodded in response and soon turned to look at the others in the room.

"The point we're trying to get at, is that Sora was overwhelmed and when he ran away, I went after him.." Mia explained. "And it was a good thing I did.. Otherwise, he would still be stuck in a muddy pit."

Riku and the others stared at her and Sora in shock at this news.

"So.. If you hadn't found him.." started Riku in shock.

"He wouldn't have made it back here." Mia concluded.

"But, Axel's DIFFERENT." Roxas argued. "He wouldn't just run away."

"You don't know for sure," Mia replied. "If someone is in as much pain or fear like Axel was.."

She trailed off as she turned back toward the direction Axel had gone.

"Then we gotta DO something!" Roxas said, his concern becoming even stronger than before.

"Which is WHY we're going to go after him." Mia stated as-matter-of-factly.

With that being said, Mia quickly made her way out of the room with the others following close behind her.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Axel continued his walk through the forest, his mind reeling at the thoughts of his dreams and what they could possibly mean. His thoughts soon went to his friends and the arguments they had about said dreams. Why couldn't they just understand? Didn't they know he didn't want them to get hurt? Axel soon stopped walking and turned to look toward the sky.

"They always got to make things DIFFICULT.." he grumbled to himself.

There was a slight breeze that blew through the forest, lightly tussling the end of his cloak. Axel closed his eyes as he tried to clear his thoughts, wanting more than anything to figure out what all of this could mean.

The sudden snapping of a tree branch suddenly snapped him out of his thoughts and Axel stood perfectly still. Axel stood where he was as a chill ran down his spine. He could sense someone watching him from somewhere within the forest.

Axel continued to stay where was, waiting for whoever was watching him to walk closer to him. As he heard another snap of a branch, Axel spun in place, hands raised and Keyblade at the ready.

"Whoa! Axel!" Mia held up her own hands defensively. "It's just US!"

Axel looked at her and then turned to look at Riku, Roxas, Sora, and Kairi and soon he relaxed.

"Can't you guys just give me a BREAK?" Axel groaned after a moment.

"Axel, we want to help you." Sora said, a look of concern on his face.

"Well, forget it!" Axel replied. "I don't want ANY of you guys involved.

"Axel, why are you so freaked OUT about this?" asked Mia.

"Look, I don't know, okay!?" Axel nearly shouted. "All I know is it has to do with.."

Axel stopped as his eyes grew wide.

"Castle Oblivion.." he muttered.

"Castle Oblivion?" Mia echoed.

Axel remained silent

"Seriously Axel, what's going on with you?"

Axel was about to respond, but stopped as a sense of unease began to wash over him. He could feel something wrong. Something was watching them from the shadows.

"Axel?" said Sora in confusion.

A chill ran down Axel's spine as he sensed something was lurking within the shadows of the forest. He then felt something zip just past his face, and winced as he felt something graze his cheek from the right. Axel turned toward the other direction. Noticing the gash appear on his friend's face, Roxas ran toward him.

"Axel!"

"Get DOWN!" Axel shouted.

Roxas and the others were caught off guard as Axel used his Keyblade to send up a shield of fire, which burned whatever projectiles sped toward them from within the trees. As Axel lowered the shield of fire, he glared out toward the forest. His eyes went wide as the shape of man, dressed in black with long hair pulled back into a ponytail. Though he wore a black patch over his right eye, it was easy to see his eyes were an eerie golden yellow color. A large, jagged scar ran from his chin up to his left eye.

Author's Note: I'm extremely sorry for taking so long to update.. I had been extremely busy.. I'll try to get more up soon..