Roxas was jolted awake by the closing of a car door. He looked around. Oh! He had fallen through that tunnel! …into the backseat of a truck? Roxas rubbed his eyes. It made no sense whatsoever. He moved his limbs a bit, wondering why he didn't feel sore from falling.

He noticed that there was a photograph in his hand. It was a picture of Sora. Roxas rubbed his eyes again, and brought the picture up to his face. Sora was smiling, which made the corners of Roxas' mouth turn up just a bit.

"Sorry it took so long," said the man in the front who had just gotten in the truck. He latched his seatbelt, and the driver started up the truck. They crossed a rather rickety bridge slowly.

"Just up ahead is the village," the man driving the truck rolled it to a gentle stop. They both had thick Spanish accents, and as far as Roxas could see, were in some kind of uniform.

The car sat for a moment, until both men turned to look at Roxas expectantly. What did they want him to do? "I'll uh…go have a look around?" Roxas said uncertainly, opening the door. This seemed to satisfy them and they both turned back towards the front.

"We'll stay and watch the car," the passenger said, with a little chuckle. "Don't want to get any parking tickets." The driver laughed at his joke.

"Right…parking tickets," Roxas said nervously as he stepped out of the car. It was a little bit chilly, so he pulled his leather and sheepskin jacket tighter around him. It clanked against the straps around his arms. He opened the jacket again to look down at himself. He was wearing a pretty heavy duty belt, with pouches and pockets he had no idea what they contained. Roxas noticed a knife in the shoulder strap.

"Good luck," one of the men said, jolting him out of his exploration of his own belongings. Good luck? He wasn't sure why he needed luck, but he wasn't happy he did.

Roxas looked back at the truck. "Geeze, who are these guys?" he muttered.

The guy rolled down his window. "Did you say something?" he asked. Roxas shook his head and closed the truck door, looking around. His belt suddenly began making a crackling, buzzing noise and he pushed his coat aside to look.

Ah, there was a radio there. He pulled it out of its case and looked at it curiously. The little screen was flashing 'Incoming Transmission.' He fiddled with the buttons a little and suddenly Zexion's expressionless face appeared.

"Roxas," his voice came out of the speaker. "I hope you can hear me. I'll be your support on this mission," he informed him, as if it were rather important.

Mission? What mission?! He looked at the photograph in his hand and turned it over. It read 'subject: Sora.' To rescue, right? Was this part of the Labyrinth, too? "Loud and clear," he replied to Zexion. "Is this still…or, I thought…" he looked at the photo again. "So…the subject is Sora?"

"That's right," Zexion replied. "He's the son of the President, so try and behave yourself, okay?"

Last time Roxas checked, his Father wasn't the president. Well…the President of the PTA maybe. But that was hardly important enough for an elaborate rescue mission with a cool jacket and a knife.

It was Sora who was in trouble, though. "Either way, they picked the wrong guy to kidnap." Roxas replied firmly.

"I'll try to find more information on them from my end as well," Zexion promised.

"Good," Roxas said into the radio, rather determinedly. Zexion looked like he didn't have much else to add. "Talk to you later," Roxas ended their conversation awkwardly. "Uh…Roxas out," he added as an afterthought, before turning the radio off and shoving it back in its holder.

Roxas took a look around and started slowly down the path he had spotted previously. It was quiet, the only thing he could hear was a bit of wind and the leaves rustling. He gulped a little, feeling a shiver inside of him. After a little distance, he saw a house on the left. It looked incredibly shabby, but he figured that it couldn't hurt to go inside and ask whoever was living there if they knew anything.

Roxas climbed the rickety steps and saw that the door was open just a crack. He pushed it open all the way and walked inside cautiously, hearing every creak of the rotting wood under his feet. Everything looked so dirty and diseased, he was close to covering his nose in disgust. He heard the crackling of flames from the nearby living room, and heard the deep coughing of a man stoking the fire.

Roxas approached him cautiously, careful not to alarm him. "Uh, excuse me. Sir?" Roxas gripped the photo of Sora in his fingers.

The man stood erect and turned around ever so slowly. Roxas had to keep himself from withdrawing at the dirtiness and horrendousness of his face. "I was wondering if you might recognize the guy in this photograph?" he asked, holding it out towards him.

The dirty man looked from the photo to Roxas' face. He shouted something at him gruffly, waving his hands towards the door. Roxas recognized it as Spanish, but like hell he had ever paid attention in the little bit of Spanish he had taken freshman year. The only words he recognized were 'what' and 'here'.

Roxas backed off from the angry man and put his hands up defensively. "Sorry to have bothered you," he said. The man turned back to the fireplace, disgruntled. Roxas pocketed the photo of Sora for safekeeping, and out of the corner of his eye, watched the man pick up the axe. He thought nothing of it, until the man suddenly lurched at him, swinging the axe wildly.

"Ah!" Roxas yelled, ducking out of the way as fast as possible. He backed up almost to the window. He dropped his hands, scared as the man recovered from his missed swing. Roxas' hand brushed against the holster on his leg and he looked down.

Gun? GUN?! Why the hell was he carrying a handgun? Roxas looked back up, and saw the man advancing on him ever so slowly, axe poised to strike. With no time to think, he reached down and took up the gun clumsily, pointing it at the man.

"FREEZE!" Roxas shouted. The grizzled man continued to advance, the intent in his eyes rather obvious. "I said, freeze!" Roxas cocked the gun to try and make his point.

It didn't seem to phase the man. In fact, he suddenly picked up speed, throwing his arm back as if he were about to throw the axe at Roxas.

Roxas pointed down and shot the man in the leg. He was surprised his hand was so steady, and even more shocked that he actually landed the hit. The man made a gurgled noise, but did not fall. In fact, he grabbed his leg only for a second, before straightening back up again to attempt to hurl the axe.

Hands still stinging from the recoil, Roxas quickly cocked and shot again, this time in the stomach. The man made another injured groan, but continued to advance. Roxas squeezed his eyes shut and shot at his head. When he'd opened his eyes again, the man lay still on the ground.

Roxas had zero time to process the situation. He was experiencing a mild case of hyperventilation, his heart beating wildly in his chest, hands trembling in disbelief. The sound of a truck starting outside made him jump and dash to the window, bending to look through the broken blinds. A truck careened from the path he had been on, and he heard gunfire, before it crashed into the officer's truck and ran it off the road. There was shouting and Roxas glimpsed a man standing in the yard. He yelled something that Roxas understood as 'There he is!'

"Shit!" Roxas whipped around, in full panic mode. His radio suddenly buzzed again, and he ripped it from its case, thrilled to see Zexion's face.

"Everything okay?" Zexion asked, rather calmly, but with the tiniest urgent undertone.

'Everything is absolutely NOT OKAY!!!' Roxas wanted to scream at him. "T-there was a hostile local. I had no choice but to neutralize him. There are still others surrounding the area."

"Get out of there and head toward the village. Take whatever means necessary to save the subject," Zexion demanded.

"U-understood," Roxas sputtered, shoving the radio back into his pocket. He spotted a staircase and made a mad dash towards it, taking the steps two at a time. The bedroom upstairs was even more disgusting than the downstairs. A red box sitting on the nightstand caught his eye, and he picked it up. It read 'Handgun Ammo' on the front. Thank God that guy had only come at him with an axe and not a handgun. Roxas looked at the gun in his own hand, and figured the man downstairs didn't need it anymore. He pocketed the bullets in one of his many pouches.

Roxas cautiously approached the window to look out. Three men were lurking in the yard, seemingly uncertain as to whether they wanted to enter the house or not. Roxas tried to control his breathing as he stood at the windowsill and decided what to do. He needed to get to Sora, and if everyone down there was in his way then…he looked at his handgun.

Roxas took a deep breath and pulled out his knife, using it to break the window. Surprise attack from above, best choice. He climbed out of the window and dropped off the roof as fast as he could, rolling upon impact with the ground to lessen the shock of landing. He immediately sprung to his feet and wondered how the HELL he suddenly had these kinds of instincts and skills. Roxas was immediately assaulted by a man with a pitchfork. He lifted his gun and shot him in the head as precisely as he could. It seemed to be precise enough, because at such close range, the man's entire head exploded. His lifeless body walked a step or two before collapsing onto the ground.

Roxas hardly had time to watch in horror as the man's body disintegrated into a gurgling, sputtering mess, leaving only some cash he had been carrying behind. A second man lurched at him with an axe, and he ducked, backing up swiftly and firing on both him and the man armed with a sickle next to him. They dropped to the ground in a matter of seconds, and Roxas waited a moment to catch his breath.

Sweating and shaking just a bit, Roxas pulled out the box of ammo he had taken, and reloaded his handgun. As he passed what once were the dead bodies, his eye caught sight of the dropped cash coins. He looked around, and finally decided to stoop and pick them up. Not like those guys would be needing them, anyway.

Roxas shivered again at the cold breeze, cautiously making his way along the path. He felt as if he was already going to be traumatized for life because of this experience. If this was somehow Riku's fault, he would be cruisin' for a bruisin' when this was all said and done.

Roxas passed a shack and stepped inside carefully. It was small, and smelled atrocious. He lowered his gun just a little, and pulled out his knife, curiously knifing open one of the boxes on the small table. He was surprised to see another box of ammunition, and decided to take it. There was also a curious little plant hidden away. It looked suspiciously like some kind of drug, but also suspiciously like a mildly medicinal plant that Axel's parents grew in their home herb garden. He picked a few of the leaves and stuffed them in his pocket anyway. Couldn't hurt.

Roxas turned to leave and was suddenly face to face with the corpse of a woman, hoisted onto the wall and impaled through the head. He covered his mouth as he caught sight of what was left of her face, and hurried out of the shack. 'Disgusting!'

Roxas hurried along the path a little faster, spotting another shack up ahead. He hoped there was something inside of there he could pick up as well. He felt no shame in the stealing, these people had tried to murder him for frick's sake! Roxas stopped short when he saw something move inside the shack. He crept along the rock wall and held his breath, aiming inside the window. The man inside was swaying back and forth. Roxas held his hand steady and shot. The man fell with a strangled cry, and Roxas heard the sound of his body falling to pieces. He let out his breath and proceeded into the shack, checking every corner.

Roxas got a bit more into it as he took out three men waiting for him on the bridge ahead. The whole thing was like a never-ending adrenaline rush. As he turned the corner, three men on a ridge above were alerted to his presence, and ran off before he could shoot any of them. He saw the village up ahead and gulped, darting behind trees and whatnot, so as not to blow his cover.

He heard his radio buzz once again and he snatched it up quickly.

"Roxas, how are you holding up?" Zexion asked flatly.

Apparently, emotional support wasn't the kind of support Zexion was going to offer on this 'mission.' "Bad question, Zexion," Roxas replied.

"Sorry to hear that," Zexion said, not the least bit of concern in his voice. "I'm sending you some bits of information. Hope you find it useful."

"Uh, thanks," Roxas replied, cutting off the transmission and scanning through the advice Zexion had sent him. Things like 'Don't walk, run!', 'Watch your back at all times.', and 'Shoot them in the head.', didn't exactly seem like golden nuggets of wisdom to him. He stuffed the radio back in its place.

'This is retarded. I feel like a secret agent in a frickin video game or something,' he thought in an irritated fashion. Roxas squinted at the open doors to the village, and groped around on his belt. Finding a pair of binoculars, he held them to his face and zoomed in on what looked like…

Ah! Roxas almost dropped the binoculars. It was one of the men that was in the truck with him only minutes ago! His body had been skewered and he had been raised up, now engulfed in flames as the villagers calmly went about their chores around him. Roxas felt mildly sick to his stomach.

Roxas hastily put his binoculars away and kept low, creeping around. He couldn't just charge straight in there, everyone would see him. Roxas didn't fancy an axe to the head. He spotted a small path to the left and darted into it, walking slowly and cautiously. 'Whats the plan Roxas, there's gotta be some kind of gameplan, yeah? This feels like…some sort of movie or…video game?' A game! What if it was a game!? A game that was part of the Labyrinth? Yeah! Once he cleared this game, then he'd be able to rescue Sora!

Roxas hardened his resolve. Now that the thought of it as a game-no. He KNEW it was a game, he could play without holding back. It didn't matter if the people got shot in the head, anyway.

Roxas spotted a woman nearby shoveling hay. Alright, logically all he had to do was kill everyone in his area, to move onto the next area. Seemed simple enough, if not for the massive amount of people he had seen in the village. Well, he had to start somewhere. He pointed his gun at the unsuspecting woman, inching a bit closer behind the cover of a house.

Roxas shot her in the back. This seemed to alert her to his presence, and she turned around slowly, her pitchfork immediately becoming a threatening weapon. Roxas pointed the handgun at her and waited for her to come closer. After a second, he heard a deep groaning from beside him, and turned to be confronted by a man in a lopsided straw hat. Roxas jumped a bit and fired on him. He went down temporarily, but there were two more behind him! Roxas backed up and looked around frantically. Pitchfork lady was still coming, too! "Damnit!"'Gameplan, gameplan, what do I do?' Roxas thought. There must be some strategy!

Without thinking, Roxas rushed for the house in front of him, kicking the door open. He slammed it behind him and snatched a box of ammunition that he passed. Roxas tried to control his breathing, backing himself into a corner. 'Gotta keep my back covered,' he reminded himself, remembering the advice Zexion had sent him. There was a banging from the window on his right, as two villagers tried to get in. "Who ARE these people?" They would break the window soon, Roxas knew it. Until it was broken, he focused on the door, trying to shut out the screams of the villagers, crying 'There he is!' and 'Kill him!'

In a matter of minutes, the window finally broke, and Roxas pivoted swiftly from side to side, door to window, gunning down anyone that dared to come near him. After a while, they stopped coming inside, though he could hear the footsteps, the breathing, the growling. He waited quietly, for what seemed like hours for them to come. "What are they planning?" he whispered under his breath suspiciously.

Just as Roxas was wondering if he should venture outside the house again, he jolted a little at the loud bonging of a bell nearby. He distinctly heard the clanging of weapons hitting the ground, and of shuffling feet, and muttering of the villagers. Roxas kicked open the door and watched the back of the last villager retreat into what looked like a church.

"Where's everyone going? Bingo?!" What the hell? He thought you were supposed to kill everyone before the level was over?! Apparently not. He stood there, kind of unsure of what to do.

Roxas picked up his radio. Zexion must be somewhat like the help menu, yeah? He fiddled with the buttons until Zexion's face appeared. "Zexion, I have some bad news," he began, and continued when Zexion appeared to be listening. "I've confirmed the body of an…officer? Yeah. Something's happened to the people here. Its really weird stuff."

"Roxas, you need to get out of there," Zexion instructed. "Look for a tower, follow the trail near it."

YES! Leaving this village was EXACTLY what he wanted to do. He put the radio back and took a quick glance around. Yeah, he should definitely raid all those houses first. He took a few minutes to pick up anything that would fit in his pockets, along with a shotgun that he managed to artfully strap to his belt. Grenade? Hells yes.

He found the tower that Zexion spoke of and took off in that direction, stopping at the houses along the way. Inside one of them, he found a letter tacked to the wall. It was from the chief of the village, and included a description of his own identity, and pictures of himself. Roxas shook off the foreboding feeling he was getting, and opened the heavy door at the end of the path that was engraved with a creepy cult symbol.

Unfortunately, this path only lead him to another village, another onslaught of hissing, groaning enemies. Even after, he came across yet another village, only this time, the villagers had some kind of explosive. He hid, fearing for his limbs should the disgruntled men throw those sticks of dynamite any closer. If he could just…yes! He waited until he saw the man light it, and shot, and shot, and shot, preventing him from throwing the stick. Eventually, it just exploded in his hand, spraying the remnants of his body on the nearby plants and houses.

Roxas took a deep breath, convinced it was time for him to move on to the next village. That was just when he heard it, a deafening banging noise coming from one of the nearby houses. He reloaded his handgun, and crept inside cautiously. The banging increased as he ventured deeper into the house. Not really paying attention to where he was going, he felt his body hit a wire of some sort. "Eh?" he said, looking down at his hip that was tugging on the strain of the taught wire. He followed the line to a red box mounted on the wall, that was blinking furiously. His face fell. "Shi-

BOOM! Roxas was thrown back against the wall. "Owwww…" he whined, picking himself up off the floor. Geeze, that hurt. He checked his face to make sure his eyebrows hadn't been singed off. The incessant banging continued, and Roxas looked around. Hm. He spotted an opening, blocked only by a measly bookshelf. He moved to push it out of the way, decided he was too frustrated, and just kicked it until it fell to pieces.

Roxas stalked into the room and looked around. The banging was coming from a large wardrobe in the corner. The person inside was practically breaking down the doors. They didn't particularly look like they needed Roxas' help to get out, but he reached over and flipped the lock on the wardrobe anyway.

The occupant came tumbling out in a jumbled mess, bound and gagged by duct tape. Roxas recognized him immediately.

"AXEL!?" How had Axel changed characters in this…in this…what? Story? What character was he playing now, still the goblin from the beginning of the Labyrinth?

Axel wiggled a little bit in his bonds and mumbled something frantically from behind his duct tape.

"Oh, uh," Roxas said, putting his gun away and quickly ripping the tape off of Axel's mouth.

"AH!" Axel shouted. "A little rough, don't you think?" he asked, rather suggestively.

Roxas turned a shade of red and quickly nudged Axel over with his foot, working on the ties that held his wrists. "You're…not like them?" Axel asked, cautiously.

Roxas shook his head, not realizing Axel couldn't see him. 'Like…the villagers?' "N-no. You?" 'Please tell me Axel isn't a Zombie!' He wasn't so sure if he could handle that.

Roxas dropped the rope on the ground, and Axel rolled over, sitting up. He rubbed at his wrists and his face lightly. He didn't answer Roxas' question, just looked over at him. "Okay, I have only one, very important question," Axel said, very seriously.

Roxas gulped. He didn't want there to be another catch to this game. He heard a ginormous growl from Axel's stomach. "Got any food?"

Roxas' face fell. Just like Axel. He looked down at the silly grin on Axel's face. This was definitely not like a videogame character. The character at this time would be asking for…a spare gun or a cigarette or something. Not food, with this silly look on his face.

Roxas searched his pockets. "Uhhh…I got gum?" he said, failingly. Axel looked rather disappointed.

Roxas rubbed his head thoughtfully, wondering what he was supposed to do now. At least in this situation, it looked like Axel would be staying with him for a while. He smiled a little at that thought. Even though he knew in the back of his head that this was just a game, it was SCARY SHIT. He'd never fired a gun before this, never killed anyone, and CERTAINLY never gotten practically blown to bits.

Just as he was reaching to call Zexion to ask him what to do, he felt a restraint on his wrist. He looked down to see Axel holding onto it, looking up at him from the ground. "Oi…have we met before?" he asked, rather seriously.

Roxas wasn't sure what to say. He didn't fully know himself if it was Axel or…another character. Yet, Axel seemed to remember him. "Axel, I…uh…"

The door suddenly burst open, and two growling, spitting villagers entered, followed by a man in a long, black trench coat.

Roxas stepped back in shock. 'Riku? RIKU?! Does he immediately associate himself with the villain?' There was no way this character he was now was not the villain character.

"Perfect," Axel said from the ground. "The big cheese."

"What?!" Roxas asked, incredulously. Riku had a bad boy complex, didn't he? DIDN'T HE? What was Sora thinking, really.

Riku stepped forward and stared Roxas down, with the arrogant smirk he always had on his face. Roxas narrowed his eyebrows. Frickin brother stealing smirking labyrinth torturing arrogant bastard! He charged at Riku, attempting to kick him in the stomach. He made a good show of it, but the kick didn't phase Riku at all.

In fact, Riku grabbed hold of his foot, and Roxas panicked for a moment, dreading being thrown into the pile of sharp metal objects he had seen somewhere across the room. Riku wouldn't actually…!

Roxas felt his leg twist as he was hurled backwards, landing directly atop Axel, who crashed into a pile of sandbags behind him. The last thing he remembered was seeing the pained look on Axel's face before Roxas' head dropped onto his chest and he fell unconscious.


Don't miss next time: "The President's Son and Dr. Salvador!"

PS: The story is actually complete. I'm just uploading it in increments because I've never gotten to do that before. (Reviews would encourage me to upload faster?)