Ns: So next chapter. You are getting a lot this time because i forgot to upload last week which I feel bd about.

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom hearts or any of the characters related to Kingdom Hearts

Chapter 10: Friendships

"Wake up!"

Everything was so silent, so dark.

"Please, wake up!"

Why should she? Her body was heavy and there were so few thoughts. Everything was peaceful, there was nothing here. It seemed illogical to wake up.

"X'ero, don't do this. Please wake up!"

That voice belonged to Zexion, she recognized it now. She had to follow it. Using all her willpower X'ero forced her eyes open to see Zexion kneeling in her bed with what seemed to be a white cloth covering his mouth. Before she could asked what was going in, she breathed in. Her head immediately felt dizzy again and her vision began to blur.

"That idiot!" The symptoms were too familiar to her. She scanned the rooms and saw, the blue bottle standing on the table without a lid. She quickly signaled Zexion.

"The blue bottle and the yellow one." She managed to gasp.

Zexion was quick to react, he jumped over something lying on the floor and grabbed the two bottles and then hastily returned to X'ero. She mixed the contents of the bottles together and a colorless but a very strong smelling aroma filled the room. Zexion gasped and tried to cover his sensitive nose. X'ero could understand him, the smell was rather strong even for her normal functioning sense of smelling, but it cleared her head and her body began to feel lighter.

"So why are you here?" She asked as she began to feel normal again.

"When I woke this morning I smelled something unusual from your room so I thought it better to check it out."

"I'm surprised you could smell it - it's supposed to be undetectable for the nose."

"I have a very sensitive nose and you used me as a guinea pig once when we lived in Traverse Town. Remember?"

"Yes, that is true." X'ero did remember doing something like that a month or two after meeting Zexion for the first time. "It's good you came, though, or else I might have ended up sleeping for weeks. Thank you."

Zexion reacted in a strange way; his blue eyes widened a little and it felt like he moved a little closer.

"You smiled," he said. "You actually smiled." He sounded like it was something he never had seen before.

"I can't have smiled!" X'ero protested waving her hands in front of her face. "I mean: I wasn't trying to scare you away or plotting something sinister or... anything, really."

She swore she could hear Zexion sigh and then he suddenly continued to act weird by placing one of his hands on top of hers.

"X'ero, you are a very intelligent girl, but your logic is much strange in certain areas."

"My ... logic?"

"Yes..." Zexion said and moved a little closer. "When I said you smiled I didn't mean your usual 'disaster'-smile. I meant a real smile?"

"A... real smile?" X'ero was not sure she was capable of such a feat.

"Yes," Zexions other hand moved slowly towards X'ero's face. "You seem to have a very strange idea about human interaction."

"What has that to do with anything?"

"I was just wondering," Zexion said. His hand brushed against her cheek. "How you would interpret it if I..." Zexion's face was extremely close. "tried to..."

A groaning sound disturbed them. X'ero moved away from Zexion and looked over the edge of the bed to see Saïx waking up on the floor.

"Saïx is still here?" She asked surprised.

"Yes, it was when I found him knocked out on the floor and you lying still in the bed I assumed that it was serious." Zexion dryly commented.

Saïx slowly rose from the floor, he looked around confused.

"Why was I on the floor?" He asked.

"Because you nearly put us in a permanent coma." X'ero answered. Her normal 'disaster'-smile back on. "Have you never learned how to behave around poison?"

"That wasn't a part of my education." Saïx said. "Now if you will excuse me, I have duties to attend to."

The two other Nobodies watched as Saïx, still a bit groggy, left X'ero's quarters.

"You know I have been bothered about something for a while now." X'ero said. "You told me Saïx had an ally in the Organization, but he doesn't seem to be allied with anyone here."

"Apparently he left the Organization." Zexion said.

"Saïx was allied with the traitor?" X'ero asked surprised. "But that is compromising to his position. That sounds so unlike Saïx."

"Well," Zexion said in smug tone. "If you want to be a master manipulator you have to be able to predict the actions of foe and allies alike. Saïx failed at that. You have to know who to trust."

"Do you trust me?" X'ero asked while looking slightly away. "Can you predict my actions?"

"Of course I trust you," Zexion said. "And I know how you usually react."

X'ero looked at her hands. She couldn't help but think about her alliance with Marluxia and Larxene, what if she accidently endangered Zexion by her actions, was that betrayal? She closed her hands. No, now she was doing it again. She couldn't allow herself to let another person change her actions in a new direction. If she did that, she was as weak as her Somebody had been. Her friendship with Zexion was a friendship of the mind - not of the heart, so it should not be able to chain her down.

"Zexion," she said. "I'm glad we met after becoming Nobodies."

"What?"

"If we had met before losing our hearts, my heart would surely have destroyed our relationship."

"We have a relationship?"

"Of course, we are friends, right?

"I know, I meant." Zexion looked away. "What kind of friends exactly?"

"There exists different kind of friendship?"

Zexion sighed.

"We better get to the Grey Room."

"Wait," X'ero said, hurriedly following Zexion. "What was that about? You usually explain yourself." Zexion didn't answer.

"You know you have been acting very strange lately." X'ero complained, but Zexion still ignored her.

"This door is far too small," X'ero establish as she examined the small door in the Bizarre Room in Wonderland. "We will never fit through. My hand won't fit through."

"We are supposed to drink from one of this," Saïx said, pointing to one of the small bottles standing on the table. "Then we will shrink."

Truth to be told Saïx still had a headache from that sleep potion and he was not eager to begin drinking another magical drink anytime soon. X'ero, however, acted like nothing had happen. Apparently she wasn't troubled by the whole affair. Saïx closed his eyes and tried massaging his temple - if only that damn headache would go away.

"Saïx, are you all right?"

"Yes."

"... I don't believe that. You have a very pained expression."

"It's none of your concern."

"Kneel!"

"What?" Saïx opened his eye and looked at X'ero. Surely he had heard her wrong.

"Kneel, I said!" X'ero repeated herself, so he heard hear correctly the first time.

"Why?"

"You are taller than me." X'ero's eerie smile crept back on as her eye began to glow. Saïx kneeled down one knee; he didn't want to deal with an ill intended X'ero right now.

X'ero placed a hand on his forehead.

"So you have a headache," she noted. "How about your body: Is it heavy?"

"No." Saïx wondered if X'ero was scanning him - if she was he couldn't tell. She proceeded to check his eyes by dragging his eye lids up. It was not especially pleasurable.

"Your eyes are fine too." She said. She took her pouch and handed Saïx a yellow bottle.

"My sleeping potion is meant to be drunken – not inhaled. It is actually more dangerous when inhaled because you don't notice the symptoms until you succumb to the poison and that can produce unknown side effects."

"How reassuring," Saïx said while he looked at the bottle she had handed him. "And what is the side effect of this one?"

"It's a general antidote to most of my poisons, but don't drink too much it is a little toxic in itself. "

"Again: How reassuring."

X'ero ignored Saïx sarcasm and he took a short sip from the bottle. Like the last thing she had forced into him it tasted horrible, but it got rid of the headache.

"Thanks," he said as he attempted to hand the bottle back to her, but she refused accepting it.

"You should keep it. Who knows it if you get poison with something from my room again? Besides this was my fault."

Saïx was mildly surprised at X'ero's words. As far as he remembered, he had forced the drink into her.

"I mean you were right." X'ero tried explaining. "The sleeping potion did help me to a dreamless sleep. I should have administrated it myself. I was acting completely illogical."

"... I was in the wrong too. It was not my intention to harm any of us."

"Good - Now show me how to shrink." Was it Saïx imagination or was X'ero being eager about something?

"Are those cards?" X'ero asked disbelieving as they watched the two guards standing at the entrance to the labyrinth.

"Yes," Saïx said. "Are we looking for a heartless this time?"

"There are a lot of heartless here, so I assume...yes."

"Shall we look in the labyrinth or the forest?"

"The forest, I think."

Because of his affinity to the moon, Saïx always chose to arrive at night in the worlds where the Organization knew the sun and moon cycles beforehand, and thus, thanks to the dark, it was not hard for them to sneak past the cards and into the wood.

"This forest is amazing." X'ero suddenly said. There was a bounce in her step and a higher pitch in her voice which wasn't forced on.

"What's going on?" Saïx asked. Her comment seemed a bit out in the blue.

"Can't you feel it? This world is vibrating with magic." She placed her hand on an enormous mushroom. "It's so creative; I have only ever known destructive magic. This mushroom... oh and that flower... and that one..." X'ero was now running around in the forest, seemingly scanning the flora. Saïx had never seen her so enthusiastic. He himself couldn't feel it, but he had never been keen on the magic abilities. But just because she was good a magic it didn't give her an excuse to act so... unusual.

"We have a job to do here," he reminded X'ero in a sharp tone.

"I know," she said, sounding a little disappointed. "But could you do me a favour?"

"A favour?"

"When we are finished with the mission, can you give me some time to sample some ingredients from this forest? I would like to examine it further."

"Why?"

"Because it is magic! It is magic I have never seen before; I have to learn about it."

"...If we find the feather fast." Saïx reluctantly asked. He had no idea why he was giving in to her request - expect it wouldn't be a bad thing having her owe him a favour, even if it was just a small one, and it was different to see her so eager about something.

"Thank you, I really appreciate..." X'ero froze. Just like Saïx she had seen something moving on top of the large toadstools.

"Was that a heartless?" Saïx asked as he summoned his claymore.

"No," X'ero summoned her gloves. "I don't think so. One of the cards?"

"Only if they suddenly got very agile." Saïx said. "I think it went behind that three."

The two nobodies looked at each other and nodded, signaling that they were ready for the fight.

"If you are an intelligent creature show yourself," X'ero demanded. Two wheels-looking weapons of fire flew through the air, heading straight for X'eros head. She ducked just in time as the burning weapons turned in the air and returned to their sender. Saïx grip around the claymore tightened.

"Axel," he just said.

"Aren't you sharp today?" Axel said mockingly as he appeared. "But then again, so have you always been."

Axel was still wearing black, but it was no longer the Organisation cloak. Instead it was just normal black clothes. At least Saïx hoped it was normal clothes and not some kind of magical fairy-enhanced clothes like the keyblade master's.

"Who is this guy," X'ero asked Saïx.

"A traitor." Saïx answered.

"He is that Axel?" X'ero asked. Saïx couldn't help but think what exactly Zexion had told X'ero about Axel.

"Yeah," Axel said. "You better have it memorized, Greenie."

"... My name is X'ero."

"Zero, huh," Axel looked at her. "And what are you, Zero? Another one of Vexen little experiments? A newly created weapon? A new improved way to gather hearts?"

"W... what?" X'ero seemed confused. Saïx hastily moved in front of her.

"Stay back," he told X'ero. "This has nothing to do with you."

His actions weren't lost on Axel.

"Are you protecting her? Then I guess that she isn't just a thing to you?"

"X'ero is a true Nobody and currently she is important to the Organization's goal." At least her heartless was important, giving the fact that it had run of with the blue print.

"Really," Axel said and mockingly waved a finger at Saïx. "And you of all people are just out in the field doing missions with just another Nobody. I leave the Organization for a few days and you change into a team player. Now - that's a surprise."

"It's not your business." Saïx readied his claymore. "You were a fool the moment you chose to reveal yourself... Lea."

"Original names: we are really being serious today." Axel snapped his fingers and all of the closed flower heads except one burned up.

"Why is he burning the flowers?" X'ero asked. Saïx shook his head. He wasn't really sure. Axel took a potion up from a pocket in his new clothes.

"These flowers are much nicer than most in the Organization – not that it says much." He threw the potion up to the closed flower head. It's leafs opened and Axel was surrounded by a white mist. Both Saïx and X'ero made big eyes as he grew back into his normal size. The last flower was quickly burned too, trapping both Saïx and X'ero in miniature size.

"Now" Axel laughed . "Now we are being serious...Isa."

Ns: Every time I read this fight I feel like Axel is kind of cheating.

Axel: The best way to win is never cheating-