"What the hell?" Riku looked at the ship on the monitor. It had taken a drastic turn from its set location and had started heading off in another direction, closer to the darkness. This world, although it was not as close to the darkness as The World that Never Was, was still very close. He had been to that world once during his travels and there was certainly nothing worth visiting there and no one lived there, that much he was sure of.
"Chip! Dale! How much longer until that ship is ready?" Riku called out, never looking away from that monitor.
"About fifteen more minutes, why?" Chip asked, poking out from some little crevasse that Riku had failed to notice.
"I think we have a problem," Riku explained, motioning Chip forwards. "Look at how much they changed their course just now, and worse yet, look where they are headed."
Chip's eyes got huge as he looked at the screen. H jumped off, shouting to everyone to hurry up, that they had to get the ship going as soon as possible, though he did not bother to explain why.
"I knew that I couldn't trust that asshole!" Riku bellowed, pounding on the machine.
When Sora came to he found himself sitting in a cage in the cargo hold of the ship. Before, Axel had told him that his friend had a large dog that he wanted Axel to take somewhere at the end of his stay. The dog was anything but nice so they needed the cage to transport him. Now he felt like an idiot for believing that story. There had been so many clues that something was not right, that Axel had lied to him, but he had overlooked them all. He had even forgotten that Axle had not sent out any letters, and thus had no way of even telling this friend that they were coming.
The ship shook, sending the cage from one wall to the other. Sora held on for dear life, screaming as he moved around the cargo hold. Finally the shaking ended and Sora realized that they had landed. The door to the cargo bay opened up and Axel appeared.
Axel did not look Sora in the eye, he couldn't bring himself to. The boy had trusted him so much, he had fallen into his trap so pathetically. Near the end, Axel had almost wished that Sora would see through him, realize that the trip was not a good idea, but that had been false hope. He had blinded Sora with things that the boy had never seen before, it was no wonder things had ended up the way they did. Now he had to go through with his plan.
A group of heartless appeared to carry the cage. Sora screamed at the top of his lungs, but Axel would not even look at him. There was hardly enough room in the cage for Sora to move even an inch, there was no way that he could summon the keyblades. He fought back, rocking himself from side to side, trying to throw the heartless off balance, but it was to no avail. It was over and he knew it.
"Ah, Axel, I see you that kept up your end of our bargain." An all too familiar voice said as they entered another room.
"Maleficent!" Sora yelled out, fighting even more.
"Now now boy, no need to struggle, you will meet your end either way. Heartless, bring him here!" Maleficent ordered, motioning to a table in front of her. "I think that it is almost funny how easily you trust people who used to be your enemy. I guess you wont be doing that much longer, now will you?"
She laughed, pulling her staff high in the air and casting a spell on Sora's body. He felt his arms and legs grow limp, but he was fully awake. The cage opened up and the heartless dragged him out of there, pulling him towards a machine that he had not been able to see before.
"You see that, boy? This machine will turn you back into a heartless, something that I am not usually able to do on my own. Once you are out of the way, I will be able to retain my former glory. All of Kingdom Hearts will be mine." Maleficent cackled, motioning for Axel to strap him in.
"I'm sorry Sora," Axel said quietly, standing by his side, hesitating,"But I had to do this."
"Why? What sort of hold does she have on you? You could have told us, we could have made her leave you alone!" Sora looked up into his eyes, pleading as Axel began to tighten the restraints one by one, making escape impossible.
"No, Sora, you have it all wrong," Axel looked away, not able to stand seeing Sora's face anymore. He began to hook the restraints, strapping Sora to the table. "I'm the one who contacted her."
"But why? What do you have to gain from me becoming a heartle..." Sora stopped, realization hitting him like a brick, "Roxas…"
"I'm sorry Sora," Axel said quietly, tightening the last restraint and stepping back to watch the process, "but I can't stand to be away from him anymore. I love him, I need him, I hope you can understand that."
Maleficent flipped the final switch, sending the machine into a frenzy of humming and grinding. Lights flashed, buttons lit up, and gears turned. Sora laid there, his arms and legs freed fromthe spell, but now he was trapped by those restraints. He twisted and turned, freighting all that he could as the machine warmed up, ready to separate his body and heart once more. The tight restraints cut into his skin, sending small trails of blood trickling down onto the table he was tied to.
"No, don't fight, don't hurt yourself," Axel warned him, trying to hold him still.
"Don't touch him, I don't know what this machine will do if someone is touching him." Maleficent warned. "I didn't create this machine, so I have no idea how to fix it if something goes wrong."
A loud sound came from the area right outside of the room, a ship landing. Everyone turned to look at Riku ran in the room, his keyblade out.
"Riku!" Sora shouted, so happy to see him. Now that Riku was here he was certain that he was no longer in any danger.
"You certainly put up a valiant effort getting here so quickly," Maleficent smirked, waving her staff again, sending up a wall of green flame separating Riku from where they stood, "It is really a pity that you are so useless. And now you can watch as your precious Sora's life gets drained away, turning him into a mindless shadow heartless!"
Riku fought against the wall, pounding it with his keyblade, but he only got knocked back. "Axel!" He shouted, "You asshole!"
"I did what I had to do," Axel said, emotionless. "I need Roxas."
"You don't need him, you just want him you selfish asshole!" Riku screamed, attacking him verbally since he could not do anything physically, "All you care about is yourself, you never cared about Sora or anyone else in your life. It has always just been you. You, you, you, you, you!"
"Shut up!" Axel screamed back at him, sending fire towards the wall. It hit the green flame and dissipated, much like Riku's attacks. "You aren't any better! You took Roxas away from me to get Sora back, how is what I'm doing any different?"
"Sora was the original! That's why!" Riku argued, pounding against the wall with all of his might.
"Yeah, and dipshit got himself turned into a heartless, he lost out, end of story! He should have died right then and there, but he didn't. Both he and Roxas were alive and well until you came along." Axel's voice strained, he tried to scream louder, but his voice could only handle so much torment. "There is nothing that you can do now, so just get over it! I'm setting things back to the way they should have been all along!"