Author's Note: So this runs parallel with what rar just posted. Well, sort of. More or less. I forget where exactly the cutoff is. Enjoy the double-whammy of Axel!
And they both promptly burst out laughing when they saw Joseph dangling from the chandelier. There was also a Vexen Replica (Number 5 again) who was yelling at him to get down.
"I don't have to listen to you! You big ol' meanie! You let Saix destroy Patrick! Patrick only had a cold!"
"Replicas shouldn't get sick!"
Joseph let go of the banister, pulling off a backflip in midair. He landed on the table and stuck his tongue out at 5.
Axel resisted the urge to applaud.
"You've never been around kids then!" Joseph said.
And he ran off, farther into the Castle. Well, he started to anyways. He stopped himself mid-run. He backpedaled and turned around.
"I forgot the WINNER sticks!" he shouted.
He started running back off toward the Hallway of Bedrooms. Somehow, he managed to dodge every Vexen, Larxene, and Marluxia Replica that dove for him. Xigbar's Clone had situated himself on one of the couches and was thoroughly enjoying the whole show.
Axel and the other Axel just watched the kid go.
About three Larxenes and two Vexens tore after him.
"Should we help the kid?" Axel asked.
The other Axel shrugged.
However, before either of them had a chance to run after him, a few laser bullets hit the ground behind the angry replicas.
The two Vexens stopped short. The Larxenes took a bit, but they got the message too.
"Leave the poor kid alone," Xigbar's Clone declared. "I like him. Let him get his WINNER sticks."
"But he's a mistake!" Larxene S shrieked. "And mistakes should be destroyed! Just like that…"
Q put a hand around S's mouth.
"Do you want Riku to show up and slit your throat?" she hissed.
S bit her hand, which quickly turned into them pulling each other's hair and scratching each other. Xigbar's Clone rolled his eyes and shot off a laser bullet into the fray. It hit Q in the foot.
"Oi! Watch it!" she shouted.
"Don't go hurting each other. Though it's amusing for the rest of us to watch…"
"It's not like Riku can even hear us," S whined.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Joseph muttered, shoving a whole bunch of WINNER sticks in his pockets as he walked out of his old room.
"What do you mean?" Q asked, suspiciously.
"Riku always knows when you're talking about Namine. Always."
"Remember G and N?" H hissed. "Riku appeared out of nowhereand killed them both!"
Joseph snorted.
"You know anything about that, kid?" Xigbar's Clone asked.
"Nope," Joseph said, tossing a WINNER stick up in the air. "But it certainly sounds like something Riku would do. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have somewhere else to be. Catch me if you can!"
He pulled a star shard out of his pocket and activated it.
"We should follow him!" H said.
"And where do you suppose he went?" 5 asked, glaring at her. "He had a star shard, he could have gone anywhere."
"He's still in the Castle," 31 said.
"How do you know?" S asked, sneering at him.
"Star shards make different sound when they go-off world as opposed to staying in-world. He's still in the Castle somewhere."
"How do you even know that?" Q asked.
"Does it matter?" H asked, sounding very bored. Though, this might be because she was putting up a different demeanor now that Bloodroot had shown up.
"We're forgetting the part where we have an experiment child running around in the Castle," Bloodroot said. "He's going to start causing problems any minute now."
One of the doors burst open and 37 ran out.
"Someone's broken into the Computer Room!" he shouted.
No one seemed to react for a moment.
"Wait, you sleep?" Xigbar's Clone asked.
No one answered him.
"I thought L did that all the time," H said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I gave her privileges," 37 muttered.
Every single Larxene and Vexen (aside from 37 himself) grimaced. Even Bloodroot and Xigbar's Clone frowned a little.
H even went as far to make puking noises. 37 pointedly ignored her.
When no one else made a move to go save the computer, 37 cursed and tore off.
"Who wants to follow him?" Bloodroot asked.
Xigbar's Clone shrugged. "I'll go. But not because I'm helping 37, but because this might be fun. I've been wondering how well Riku can stand up to my guns."
He disappeared.
"Riku's here?" S asked, her face going white.
"Well, if someone's raiding the castle, wouldn't you assume it's Riku?" the other Axel asked. "I mean, he is leading the Rebellion, isn't he?"
"Axel, why do you have your hood up?" Q asked.
"Does it really matter to you?" he replied.
"Wait a second, who are you?" S asked, pointing to Axel.
Keeping his cool, Axel calmly backed into a dark corridor.
"Something is amiss here," Luxord said.
Everyone turned to look at him. He was sitting on one of the couches, calmly shuffling a deck of cards.
"How long have you been there?" Bloodroot asked.
"That doesn't matter!" H hissed. "We have an intruder here! What if that was Riku?"
"If it was Riku, S'd be dead," Q said.
"Well, it was surely someone from their side!" H said.
"Well, we can already figure that it was someone from their side," the other Axel said, taking down his hood. "I mean, 37 did say that the Computer Room had been breached."
"You seem to know a lot about this, Axel," Bloodroot accused.
"Half of my recon missions are to keep an eye on the Rebellion," Axel spat back. "It's my job."
Bloodroot turned up his nose, still suspicious.
Larxene L burst out of another bedroom.
"I'm coming, sweetie!" she spoke into a walkie talkie. She paused a moment to glare at all of those in the Grey Area. "I don't see any of you helping!" she spat.
"37 has you, though!" Q said, her voice sickly sweet. "Go help him."
L disappeared into a dark corridor.
"I'm going to go see if I can wrangle the kid," Axel said. "He might just listen to me before he causes any trouble. I heard him muttering something about crashing a chandelier."
"What, this chandelier?" Bloodroot asked, pointing to the one above them.
"Yeah, so you stay here in case he comes back. I'll try to head him off. Since that sounds so much more preferable to Riku's blade in my gut."
With that, Axel disappeared into a dark corridor.
"Thought you might show up here," the other Axel said to his doppelganger.
"Well," he replied, reclining back on the bed. "I can't seem to figure out how to get to my own universe. And this seemed like the safest place, since we're the only two who can form a dark corridor here."
"Twilight Town's pretty quiet; provided Joseph's not there, since 37 has it rigged so that as soon as Joseph goes anywhere outside of Castle Oblivion, Berserkers start trying to capture him."
"Why does 37 need Joseph?"
"37 doesn't. Saix does."
"Why?"
The other Axel shrugged. "How should I know? It's Saix we're talking about."
"Do you want to go see what the boy's up to?" Axel asked. "I thought I heard you say something about wrangling him."
"Yeah, well, that involves finding him. Joseph knows this place better than any of us."
"I think I can cheat," Axel said. "My star shard's pretty good about taking me to where other people are. Except this last time when I showed up here. But, you know, I'm three for four right now."
"All right, let's see how this works."
Axel grabbed onto the other Axel's arm and activated the star shard.
They appeared in one of the many white and grey hallways of the Castle that Never Was.
"Yes, this worked real well," the other Axel said, raising an eyebrow.
"Wait for it!" Axel said, holding up a hand.
The sound of little footsteps pounding down the hallways filled the air. From around the corner, not one, but two boys ran. They hit the two Axels full-force. Joseph only reeled a little, holding his head a tad. Axel hadn't suffered much. He'd had worse things through his gut.
The other boy, however, hit the other Axel and went flying backwards. Instinctively, the other Axel went over and helped the kid up.
"There's another one?" he asked, flabbergasted. "I thought Saix…"
"Saix couldn't kill me, Sir," the boy said quietly. "He said I looked too much like you."
"Vexen did get my data!" the other Axel growled.
For sure enough, the boy had flaming red hair; though he had blue eyes—more like Zexion or Marluxia.
"What's your name, kid?" the other Axel asked.
"Toby, sir. I didn't know you had a replica."
"I'm not a replica," Axel said.
Just as he said this, Joseph added, "He's from a parallel universe!"
Toby's eyes went wide.
"I'll explain later," Joseph said, his voice positively brimming with excitement. "First we've gotta get that chandelier! It's on my bucket list!"
"Do you even know what a bucket list is?" Axel asked.
"Nope, but I heard Vexen use it once," Joseph replied with a shrug. He turned to Toby. "Come on!"
"Wait just a second," the other Axel said. "You're running into a horde of Larxenes!"
"We can take 'em!" Joseph said. "19 is still gonna need a distraction."
"What about Toby?" Axel asked.
"He's going to help me with the chandelier. And then, I'm taking him to Castle Oblivion. Because, he shouldn't have to stay cooped up here."
Joseph beckoned to Toby and the two of them took off again.
"The star shard will be faster!" Axel called out.
"Oh! Good idea!" Joseph grabbed Toby's hand and activated the star shard. The two boys disappeared.
The other Axel massaged his temples. "I can only hope they get out of there all right," he said. "I feel oddly responsible for the kid—kids!"
"I think we all do," Axel replied, scratching his neck. "I'm also oddly flattered that Saix wouldn't kill Toby because he looks like you. And me, I suppose."
"I can't believe I didn't know about it!" the other Axel replied. "I mean, I know Saix and I don't share life stories, but, this, come on!"
Axel raised an eyebrow. "This is Saix we're talking about."
"He killed all the kids, except Joseph…"
"And if he couldn't kill Toby because of phantom emotions, would he admit that to anyone?"
"Ah, no. No, he wouldn't."
"Precisely."
"You know, I bet that's why he wanted Joseph. He only wanted Joseph dead because Joseph was a nuisance. If he was trying to get Toby a friend, he could easily rewrite Joseph to be a complacent little… Wow, Saix, that's low if that's what you were going for."
"Is it, though?" Axel asked.
"Rewriting Joseph? Of course that's low. I mean, everyone except him likes the kid."
"The Larxene Replicas…"
"They don't count because they're Larxene."
"Valid."
"The only thing worse he could do would be to Rewrite Namine. Because, well, that's just, cruelty at that point. Cruelty to Riku."
"You don't have to tell me. Even though they're both Somebodies in my universe, you don't even have to go there."
The other Axel snorted.
"So, should we go keep an eye on Joseph and Toby?" Axel asked, jerking a thumb in the direction the two boys had been running before Joseph had used the star shard.
"We're now risking my cover," the other Axel replied, frowning.
"Oh, good luck with that."
"How'd it work out for you?"
"Well, I'm the only one who made it out of Castle Oblivion alive."
"Same. Well, no one's seen Lexaeus, but, what can you do?"
Axel snorted. "Well, after Castle Oblivion, I just kept up appearances until I refused to either bring Roxas back to the Organization or kill him."
The other Axel's mouth dropped. "You were ordered to kill him?"
Axel shrugged. "More or less."
"Harsh."
"Tell me about it."
The other Axel thought for a minute. "I want to say that Luxord would make sure the kids lived."
"Still thinking about that, eh?"
"Losing Roxas, and Xion… makes you look out for the little ones all the more."
Axel patted the other Axel's shoulder.
"I wish you luck with Saix. It sounds like the two of you have more bad blood than me and my old friend. I can't promise you anything on how it turns out. But, if you both come back in the next life, try and make amends."
"Next life?"
"Sora killed Saix, I sacrificed myself for Roxas. We both came back as Somebodies. Unfortunately, by the time I finally got through his head, the darkness was too much."
The other Axel nodded. "I think I'm going to go make sure Joseph and Toby live. Just in case one of the Larxenes decides…"
"Go," Axel urged. "I'm gonna try and get back to my own universe now. I've had my fun."
The other Axel saluted.
"If you can, light a Larxene's cloak on fire for me."
"I will if I can make it look like an accident."
"I think you're the king of making things look like accidents. Provided you're anything like me," Axel replied, saluting back.
The other Axel nodded and formed a dark corridor.
Axel pulled out his star shard.
"Wait until I tell the others."
He pulled his hood back up and activated the star shard. Per his intention, he arrived in the Grey Area just in time to see Joseph and Toby pull the chandelier—right down on S's head. Axel snorted and activated the star shard once more to arrive in his own universe. It worked, for he found himself standing right behind Kairi, who was re-bandaging Sora's hand. Yup. Right place.
