Fateful XIII

Chapter 12

Got it Memorized?

Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own kingdom hearts. If I did, Axel wouldn't have died; he's a sarcastic guy, and I can appreciate good sarcasm. Of course if he didn't die, then this here chapter would be moot.

Sorry about the wait, but I can't keep up the daily updates. I want to take my time with the story, and one day just isn't enough time to put this all together effectively. I hope you guys understand.

On a better note, I'd like to give my personal thanks to Dark ruiku for a good ol' review. Thanks a bunch to all those whose reviewed, put this story on favorite and alert lists, and just all you readers in general. You guys make writing this worth it!

Roxas fell to the ground with a loud 'umph', and the Threshold of Light pointed right into his face. Hikari stood victoriously above him with an overjoyed smile. After dozens of matches above the plateau –all of which Roxas won- Hikari finally emerged victorious. Oddly enough, Roxas wasn't mad; instead he felt pride in the fact that he was able to teach her so much so fast. It wasn't all him though, she was a quick learner too. As he got up he wondered if this was how his dad felt when he was training him.

While he was thinking things over, Hikari was jumping around excitedly.

"I finally won; I finally beat you, WOO HOO!"

"I better watch out, I might finally have some competition for my job," he joked as he brushed his pants off.

He almost lost his balance when she crashed into him and gave him a lung crushing hug. Seriously, he was having trouble breathing.

"Thank you so much Roxas; you're a great teacher!"

At this point Roxas was actually turning blue, which lucky on his part because if he weren't being suffocated at the moment he was sure there would be a lot of blood rushing to his face.

"T-trouble breathing…need air," he croaked.

"Oh, sorry," she giggled, looking a little embarrassed herself.

"Oh…now this is just such a touching moment," said a new voice.

They looked over at the elevator, and saw Xelskyr walking towards them. He had his usual small smirk on his face and had a sack over his shoulder. He came up and put his arms around them both.

"Now who else here feels all warm and fuzzy inside all of a sudden, cuz I do," he said, his voice practically dripping in sarcasm.

"Oh great," mumbled Roxas.

The Nobody backed off and crossed his arms.

"Okay, who wants to tell me what happened?"

"Well, we now know there's definitely someone controlling the heartless," said Hikari, getting right to the point.

"Good job then, any info on who he or she might be?"

"We didn't get a name, but we did get a good enough look at him. That, and we've seen a few of his fighting moves too," said Roxas.

"You didn't fight him did you?"

They were both silent and refused to make eye contact.

"Oh, come on, I expected that sort of thing from Roxas, but I though you'd be a little smarter Hikari!"

"Hey, it wasn't our idea, he attacked us," protested Roxas.

"Alright whatever, well I'll gather up everyone whose here and you can tell us everything. For now though, you two head down to the lounge and wait."

"Right," they said in unison.

With that, he disappeared into a dark corridor and was gone.

Within ten minutes, most of the group was already in the lounge. It helped that Nevax, Becxal, and Venxdi were already down there, and that Roxas and Hikari bumped into Axnes and Elkxyse on the way. Five more minutes of waiting and Xelskyr arrived with Hyrxs, Aehxcilm, Rhcxis, and Tevesix. Onjasx, Xealx and Ranxao were all on assignment at the moment, so they'd be briefed later. Everyone took a seat except for Roxas, Hikari and Xelskyr, mostly because they were going to head the briefing, but also because there weren't really any seats left. At least not any that didn't involve sitting next to Aehxcilm, and no one wanted that pleasure.

"Okay guys, quiet down! Roxas and Hikari have some info that I think we should all hear, so pipe down," the Nobody shouted. A few seconds later, everyone had stopped talking and turned their attention to Roxas and Hikari.

"Go ahead guys."

"Alright then, I'll just get to the point. There's definitely someone controlling the heartless, and we ran into him while we were away," said Hikari.

"You said you got a look at him," asked Xelskyr.

"Yeah, we didn't see his face, but he had a black trench coat, a pair of black jeans, dark purple shoes, and he had the old heartless emblem on a necklace. The weirdest thing was though; he said he knew you Xelskyr. He called you by name and everything."

He walked over and leaned against the wall, searching his memory for anyone who looked anything like that. Without facial details, it wasn't much to go on, but it was a start at least. He'd need more information.

"Did he say anything about me specifically," he pried.

"He said that he unleashed the heartless to bait you out, and that you were an old friend, course I'm sure that was just sarcasm."

"Anything else at all, even something that wouldn't normally seem important?"

He already had a hunch, but he wasn't willing to accept it was him yet. He'd been dead for two years now, he watched him die personally.

"Oh, there was one more thing," Roxas suddenly remembered.

"Well…what was it," asked Elkxyse impatiently.

"He said the reason he was doing this was because he had a goal in mind, but felt that it would be more fun if he earned it by forcing you to try and stop him, he said you were the only one who could stave off his boredom."

That was it, there was no more debating it; that sounded just like him. Somehow he must have survived the last time they fought two years ago, this was not good. If he was back, then this was too dangerous for even most of the Fateful. He was the only one who could deal with this, him and maybe Xealx.

"Xelskyr, you okay," asked Hikari.

"Not really."

"So…does that mean you know who this guy is," she asked again.

"Yeah, but I didn't think I'd ever see the guy again."

They all stayed silent, waiting for an answer that might not even come.

"His name…is Kysrel."

"Kysrel huh, so who is he," asked Roxas.

"I'd rather not say at the moment, just know that we need to take him out as soon as possible, otherwise we're looking at a lot of deaths, and even more damage."

"He said something else to me, he said that he wanted to meet me in Radiant Garden in a week."

Xelskyr gave him a perplexed look.

"Why you?"

"I dunno, he just said to be in Radiant Garden a week from now, or there'd be consequences. I think he might try to go for my family if I don't show."

He put a hand on his shoulder and gripped it tightly.

"Don't worry, I'll get someone to watch them. Becxal; you're off on a little tropical vacation!"

He sighed and put away his book. "Fine."

"I'm not too worried about my mom or dad, they can handle themselves, but my sister is really little, so just make sure she's okay."

"I'll keep you in the loop, just watch over his sister for a while, hopefully it won't take too long," ordered Xelskyr.

He nodded and disappeared into a corridor. Meanwhile Xelskyr turned to the rest of the group.

"Alright guys, I'm not about to explain everything just yet, but I just need you to trust me and do what I ask!"

Everyone nodded...okay, obviously one person did more of a snort than a nod.

"Now first of all, Hyrxs, I need you to keep gathering info; anything at all you can get. Venxdi, you're going with him. Axnes, Elkxyse, I need the base defenses upgraded as much as possible. Rhcxis, keep training Hikari the same you have been. Tevesix, Roxas, you're with me, we've got some special training to do. Everyone else, all missions are suspended until further notice," he ordered.

"What do mean by 'special training'," asked Roxas.

"You'll see, just come with me; Tevesix, you to, get a move on."

Roxas looked back at everyone else, who were either moving about to their various tasks or back to whatever they were doing. Hikari was just standing there in the mess of everything, and as much as Roxas would've liked her to come along, he knew better than to argue with Xelskyr when he seemed to be the only one who completely understood the situation. With heaping dose of confusion and curiosity, he followed the two Nobodies out of the lounge.

After a few elevator rides and a bunch of identical hallways, they passed by the Ops Lab and went through a new set of doors he'd never gone through before. On the other end was a massive room, but it was completely bare; no paint, no equipment, no carpeting, just a bare metal room. Xelskyr took his usual position; leaning his back against the wall. Meanwhile, Tevesix sat in front of the door Indian style and and pressed his palms together so it looked like he was praying.

"Which should I summon," he asked.

"Number eight, he's the only one I can think of that wouldn't try to instantly kill him if we gave his spirit free will," he said, never taking his eyes of Roxas.

"Get into the center of the room kid," he ordered calmly.

Roxas just complied, deciding it was better to just trust him than make an argument out of it. Once in the center of the room, Xelskyr raised his hand and created an energy barrier around the him and most of the room, making it into an arena of sorts. Meanwhile, Tevesix was chanting in what sounded like Latin, or something close to it. Eventually he started to get a greenish aura around him, and some wind was kicking up.

Then a greenish portal appeared within the arena, almost like a giant spectral blob slowly taking form. After a few seconds he could see the basic form of a human, and it slowly became even more defined and detailed. It was definitely male, and pretty tall by the looks of it. As it solidified, he got some of the finer details. He was skinny, pretty lanky; and he had spiky red hair. He wore a coat like the Fateful, but his was all black. Something that really caught his eye were the identical tear shaped marks under both his eyes.

He'd heard enough of his dad's stories to know he was with Organization XIII.

He just stood there with a vacant look on his face, like he wasn't really there. His eyes looked almost soulless, and he wasn't moving an inch, he wasn't even breathing.

"Alright Tevesix, give him his free will."

"On it," he replied.

Once again Tevesix began to chant in Latin, and this time he glowed a bright blue. At the same time, the red-head in front of Roxas began to glow blue as well. As the aura faded, he suddenly seemed to come to life.

"Oooh...what did I do last night, I feel like crap," he groaned.

He was rubbing one eye with his hand, and he was using his other to look around the room.

"Where the hell am I?"

He looked over at Roxas, who caught his eye. He looked familiar in more ways than one.

"Hey kid, who are you?"

"Uh, my name's Roxas, who are you?"

He stared at him for a second, then started laughing to himself.

"What's so funny," he asked, a little offended.

"I know I've probably been out for a while, but you're not Roxas, he rejoined with Sora," he said, still laughing.

"I know, but you're thinking of the wrong Roxas, I'm actually Sora's son," he explained.

His laughing immediately ceased, and his expression showed one of shock and confusion. He walked up to him and leaned down like he was inspecting him; he circled him and rubbed his chin.

"Huh...yeah, I see it now; you do look a lot like him."

"Uh, look; I don't mean to be rude or anything, but who are you?"

By this time he was in front of Roxas again and he had a hurt expression on his face. "You mean Sora's never talked about me?"

"Well I won't know if you don't tell me your name," he said, a little annoyed.

He stood up straight and tall, towering over the fourteen year old by at least a foot. "The name's Axel kid; A-X-E-L, got it memorized?"

"Ah, now I know who you are! You're the guy who kidnapped my mom once!"

"Your...mom? Kairi is your...mom," he asked, almost like he was stifling another laugh.

"Yeah."

He started laughing again, a little louder this time, but still relatively quiet.

"Okay, enough chit-chat in there," yelled Xelskyr.

"Hey, who are you?"

"I'll tell you later, right now, I need you to fight Roxas."

"What," they both asked in unison.

"I figure a good way for you to get stronger, faster, is to fight the best of the best, and that's the Organization. I started with Axel here because he's the only one who I could trust not to try and kill you."

Axel turned to Roxas and summoned his Chakrams in a burst of flames.

"Alright, if it helps your training, I guess I could help out. Plus, I wanna see just how much Sora's taught you; if you're anything close to him, then this'll be fun," he said with a grin.

Roxas summoned Oathkeeper and took his fighting stance. In the back of his mind, Axel smiled; there was a little piece of his best friend in the kid after all. His Chakrams started spinning rapidsly, and flames rose up from the ground and the floor became ember-like.

"Get ready kid," he shouted.

"Don't worry about me, I'm more worried about you!"

Axel laughed a little more to himself.

"Alright then, here I come!"

He rushed forward, his Chakrams spinning in his hands. "Burn baby, burn!"

Aren't you happy? I gave you some new info on the big baddy. Kysrel is his name, and he's one bad mofo, I should know! I'm not telling you any more about him for the moment, just know that there's a bit of a back story here. More info will be revealed in good time my friends.

On a happier note; Axel's back! Yes, this promises to be an action packed match that you won't want to miss! I'm gonna take my time with this one, so to give you the best fight scene work. This won't be on the same scale as when Kysrel and Naruto fought each other, but it'll still be cool.

Check back often, I might get the next one up sooner than I predict. Reviews are always welcome, as everyone knows, so send em' though!