I blame an adorable picture I found on DeviantART for this chapter. But it gave me a chance to have some fun with the rules I have made to this universe.


"About time we got a vacation." Axel remarks right after Saix has put up the poster stating they got said vacation, his friend gives him a deadpan stare. Axel chuckles, well aware that it's not Saix deciding when they get a vacation day. "What made the big man decide we needed a day off?"

Saix walks away from the poster, his eyes to the city outside. "I am unsure, but whatever it is, Xemnas and Xigbar are leaving the castle. I was supposed to accompany them, but I gave the excuse I was too busy with the paperwork."

"Sounds like you dodged a bullet of plain boredom," Axel says.

"Indeed," Saix agrees, they leave the Grey Quarters and walking towards the rooms of each member. "I take you're going to waste the day sleeping."

Axel laughs, "You know me. Unless…" he smiles to his friend. "you have something in mind?" He stops when Saix does, his friend's gaze goes to the dark city below, and Saix next words catch him off guard. "Do you ever think about home?" Axel watches him for a moment, hesitates before walking up beside him, "Have you?" he asks in return.

Saix is quiet for a long time, trying to sort out his thoughts. "Lately, my mind has been repeating memories to back when we were humans." He turns to his friend, asking, "Do you remember the garden? We used to mess the up the flowerbeds when playing with those stupid Frisbees of yours."

"Hey, they were awesome!" Axel exclaims exaggerated but does follow his friend down memory lane. He chuckles though it's a sad one. "I wouldn't have it memorized if I didn't remember, but I wasn't sure if you ever thought about home."

"I've tried not to, but it's getting harder." Saix admits, those memories are painful for him, and that's the only good thing of not having a heart. They can't feel the pain of knowing their home has been utterly destroyed. "Part of me wants to go and see how... but, why should I go to a place that holds nothing other than bad memories?" He turns away from Axel, musing, "Be reminded of everything I have lost?"

"You haven't lost everything." Axel reminds him, feeling bad that his friend is thinking about home and being painfully aware that it's gone. Saix turns to him, and it's always such a comforting sight of seeing teal instead of the yellow. "I'm still here." His friend smiles ever so slightly and Saix turns his gaze to the sky where Kingdom Hearts can be seen where he says: "Makes this miserable existence durable."

The sounds of footsteps and both turn to who is approaching. Turns out to be Roxas. Axel gives the boy a smile. "Oh, hey, Roxas. Hear about the vacation? About time we had a day off."

Roxas, however, is utterly at a loss at what it means to have a vacation. "I've never had a vacation before," Blushing when Saix chuckles at his words, at least the man is understanding: "You do not remember your human past." Roxas wish he could be like Saix and Axel, it would spare him from this embarrassment. "What's my job during vacation?"

"What's your— Roxas, you're really missing the point." Axel exclaims in amused disbelief of what the boy is saying. He turns to his closest friend, who decides to come to Roxas defense: "For him, this is the first. So why don't you enlighten him?" Axel rolls his eyes at Saix's suggestion but turns to Roxas and explains the teen, "Vacation is where you can do what you like, there's no one to tell you what to do today."

Roxas is quiet for a moment before saying in a low voice, "But… I don't know what I like..." hoping for some answers on what to do this vacation, Roxas asks Axel and Saix. "What are you two gonna do?"

Axel crosses his arms, smiling "I am going to sleep and once I'm done with that, roll over and sleep some more."

"Don't you spend enough time in bed already?" Roxas asks.

"Apparently not." Saix replies dryly, Axel gives him a look and since his friend is being a smartass, he demands Saix plans for today, "Alright, smart guy, why don't you tell us your plans for today?" hopefully it's not going back to the ruins of their home.

Pondering for a moment, Saix turns his gaze back to the sky, only one thing he is sure of; he is not going to spend the vacation here. Staring at the black sky, he realizes there is something he has been missing; stars. At least he knows a world that offers him such a sight. "I'm going off-world to see a real night sky." he answers.

"Real night sky?" Roxas repeats, confused about what Saix meant, Axel is the one who explains: "Yeah, before he became the second-in-command, Saix was quite the night owl." – what's a night owl?

"I spend enough time here, so I am leaving for today." Saix answers, moves to leave, but a sudden idea makes him stop and ask, "Why don't you join me? It would be different from what we usually do."

It does not take long to decide on that part. The bed's call is not tempting enough for this change of scenery, "sure, I'm game." Axel replies, turning to Roxas. The boy is a bit confused, but with a genuine curiosity in his eyes, Roxas nods with a smile. "Okay."

They find Xion and like Roxas, curious about the idea. Saix opens a portal and brings them to an entirely new world. It is quite unlike the others she and Roxas have been to, this world is a vast and beautiful forest. It's night here, so all of the stars are out as well as the moon, lighting this forest up in a manner that makes it look very mysterious. Xion stares wide-eyed at the sight, does snap out from it when Axel grabs her hood and pulls her back: "Careful there, squirt, it's a long way down." Only there, she realizes how close she was to the edge. "Eek!" She back quickly off and ends up stepping into Axel.

He catches her, but not without getting all his air punched out. "Sorry!" Xion cries. He brushes it off, "No worries." and turns to Saix, he blinks but quickly smiles at seeing a familiar sight of his friend standing quietly, watching the night sky with eyes, like the moon, has a certain soft glow in them.

Roxas and Xion notice it too and both watch Saix in wonder of this subtle change. They hesitate, but an encouraging nod from Axel, they step over to the quiet second-in-command and look up to the starry sky.

"Whoa…" Roxas gasps; he has never seen that many stars before, then again, he has never taken the time to just stop and look up to a night sky.

"It's beautiful," Xion whispers.

Saix turns his gaze away from the sky and down to the two keyblade wielders, finding himself glad that they too can see the beauty in the night. Not sure why, but he starts to tell them what his grandfather used to tell back when he was a kid. "A saying goes; that every single star is a world, their light is what shines back down to us."

All of these stars… is a world? "There's so many." Roxas says and does wonder, "Do you think people are looking at the world we're in?"

"Maybe," Axel replies, sitting on the edge of this cliff, his green eyes are on the forest below and how the moon is casting its soft glow over this world. "Who knows, maybe you are staring right back at whoever is watching the stars this very moment." He blinks at how wide-eyed in wonder the two have become, and can't help but smile in how human they are acting. 'I never get tired of watching them.'

After a while of standing, the others decide to take a seat besides Axel. They watch the world's mysterious beauty in silence, broken at Roxas's question. "How did you find this world?"

"It's one of the worlds the Organization went to back in the day." Saix replies and after a moment of silence, he admits something strange about the reports of this world. "For some reason Xemnas lost interest in this world, reports states there's no Heartless here."

See, that's quite interesting, "Really? How so?" Axel asks but Saix shrugs, replying: "I have no idea; maybe it's protected." Oh, like Disney Castle? That's also one of the worlds where no Heartless can invade, making it useless to the Organization. It makes him wonder what kind of protection this world has?

Axel opens his mouth, but a sudden move from Xion makes him forget about it and instead turn to the girl who has a strange gleam in her light-blue eyes. "What's up Xion?"

Xion gets on her feet, listening intensely at the voice. Unlike the other one, this one isn't sad, but it sounds to be looking for something. "Hey! Can you hear me!" She calls out to the forest, catching her friends off guard.

"Xion, what the…?" Roxas asks. Axel and Saix both have a confused face of who Xion is calling to as well.

The voice hears her, asking if she can hear her voice? Xion calls back to this voice, "Yes, I can hear you!" this makes the voice quite excited and it asks where she is. Spotting something in the horizon, Xion waves. "Over here!"

"Who are you calling to?" Saix asks, blinking when the wind starts to blow, but not in a natural manner, he can feel magic in that wind, very powerful magic. Axel felt it too and along with him, jumps on his feet. Both summon their weapons at what Xion has lured to them.

Roxas is confused about what made Saix and Axel react that way, the wind felt strange yes, but nothing that cries danger. That thought is to be argued, for out from the forest, a huge purple cobra appears, using the strange wind to get up to them. This giant snake towers over them, it's ice-blue, with cat-like pupil are staring intensely down to them. Different shades of purple with a bit of green leaves bands are wrapped around its purple body, out from them, that strange wind is coming from. Roxas jumps on his feet and summons his keyblade. The snake snaps its eyes to him.

A keyblade? The cobra asks, so that legacy hasn't been entirely lost. Xion is not sure what she meant, only that this creature sounds relieved about this little fact. "I have a keyblade too," she tells the snake and shows it. The cobra eyes the other keyblade, but unlike with Roxas, she did not seems happy about her having a keyblade. This confuses Xion and before she can ask, the cobra tells her that if she and her comrades wish to leave this world, then Xion will have to unlock her true powers. "What do you mean?" She asks the cobra.

The flying snake does not answer; instead it suddenly strikes all four of them with its wind magic, and with a tail swipe, sends them all rolling down the cliff.

Down into the forest, dizzy from that crazy roll, which didn't make it better that two keyblade wielders are on top of him. "What was the deal with that thing?" Axel asks from his spot on the ground.

"It said something about my true power." Xion muses, not moving from her spot as she is too focused in her ponder what the cobra meant by that. "I wonder what she meant?"

"I notice it had the same armored heart symbol like the kangaroo, and only you heard its voice." Roxas points out and suggests his idea of what the snake might have meant, "Maybe you have some ability involving those creatures?"

"Hm... maybe." Xion muses, blinking when Axel suddenly says: "Cool, now would you two get off of me?" Only there she and Roxas realize they have been lying on him. Quickly getting up, "sorry," Xion says sheepishly.

Getting back up as well, Axel scans the forest for their remaining member, he spots Saix come walking over to them, having an intense frown on his face, one Axel knows his friend only gets when they are in deep trouble. "What's the problem?" He asks, and Saix shows by revealing that a large part of his cloak has been torn, meaning Saix won't be able to use the corridors of darkness. "Ah, I see the issue. No worries," Axel assures him and opens a portal "I simply go back and fetch you a—"

Seeing it in last second, Saix quickly grabs Axel, "Don't!" pulling the red-haired away from the portal, Axel gives him a good pretend to be confused. He points at Axel's side, revealing his cloak has been torn by that cobra's wind strike as well and before Xion and Roxas would suggest they leave. Saix walks over and checks those two cloaks, dammit... "Torn as well," Meaning none of them can use the corridors of darkness without seriously endangering themselves.

"Aw shit…" Axel swears.

"What's the big problem?" Roxas asks confused as to why Saix and Axel got so upset that their coats got a bit torn up, granted this is the first time it has happened. The Organization uniform is surprisingly durable.

"Roxas, these coats aren't just for show." Axel tells the teenage boy and just as confused girl. "They protect us against the darkness there is inside the corridors, without them, the corridors of darkness will destroy us." Both Xion and Roxas's eyes wide in horror, and Axel raises a brow when Roxas asks fearfully, "Wh-What about light?" Huh? Axel blinks but quickly understands the question when Roxas and Xion start getting surrounded by light, making the two jump. Axel lifts his own hand and if he could, he would've gotten one hell of a scare in seeing his shape is glowing. "Oh you gotta be kidding me…" The light intensified, blinding him and when it fades, Axel is finding himself in a completely new form— they all are. "What the hell?!" He jumps that this light now has turned them all into… deer.

Well, this is new, and yet Roxas does not find scary, it's hard when watching a reddish deer is yelling with Axel's voice. For some reason, he finds it hilarious and cannot help but laugh, more so when Axel stumbles over his own legs.

"Roxas, this is not funny!" Axel calls annoyed that the boy, now looking like a golden-brown fawn and is laughing at this world's idea of tormenting a stranded Nobody.

Tries to, but Roxas can't stop, "I-I'm sorry," he keeps laughing, "but it just looks so funny!" more so when Axel frowns looks so strange when he has a deer face. Roxas collapses onto the ground from his laughter.

Xion is laughing too, but also in a small observation she did to her fellow keyblade wielder. "Aww Roxas, you look so cute!" It makes Roxas stop his laughing, repeating her words flustered: "C-Cute?!"

Now it's Axel turn to laugh, for now that Xion mentioned it, "Yeah, you two look pretty cute as fawns." and turning to Saix who has been quiet this far. "Am I right?" Only to meet the funniest sight ever and it's his turn to bursts out laughing, which is quite the accomplishment considering he's a Nobody.

Saix is not amused, not only their torn cloaks make them unable to use the corridor of darkness but that this world's magic is such a huge troll that it made them into deer, which did that the antlers now on his head… got trapped between a bunch of branches!

"If you're done laughing." Saix shakes his head in an attempt to get free, but all that does is shaking some leaves off. "Get me out from this tree…!"

Xion and Roxas step over to help but pretty quickly realizes that it's not that easy walking on four and both trip over their hooves and rolls into the still lying down Axel. The now red stag shaped man starts laughing again with: "Welcome to the club you two." and the red deer turns to his still stuck friend, "We would, but as you can see; none of us can walk."

"Fantastic…" Saix grumbles, already regretting his choice from have left the castle. A hooting mixed with a bit of laugher makes them all look up, except Saix, since he's stuck. In another tree is a horn-owl, being the one chuckling at their inconvenience.

"Well, well, it's not every day one sees a stag taking care of the fawns." The owl remarks fly down to a rock nearby and greet Xion and Roxas. "Hello, little ones." A quick check, "Having trouble taking your first steps?" They nod, both staring in awe that the owl before them is talking. The owl chuckles and asks Axel, "You wouldn't mind if I taught them?"

"Not at all." Axel replies for it's not like he can teach them.

The horn-owl turns back to Roxas and Xion, and after a bit of explanation and practice, the two fawns are jumping around. The stag got up and walking as well, and only there, the owl notices the second stag, this one light grey, a rare color in the forest. And that one is stuck under a tree. "Quite the predicament you got yourself in there, my good sir." The owl chuckles, this almost white stag nods. The owl flies up to the branches keeping that one trapped and tells the red stag, "Now, if you take those," pointing at some of the lower branches and the owl grabs others with his talons, "I will take these."

Axel nods, and since he does not have hands, he instead grabs the branches with his mouth and on the owl's count, pulls. Saix gets free, but since he hasn't gotten the trick in how to walk, he ends up falling straight on his face. Axel really has to bite his lips so as not to laugh, still struggling not to laugh, he turns to the owl. "Thanks for the help." The owl nods and flies off.

Walking over to Saix, Xion asks the new light grey deer, "Are you hurt?"

"Nothing but my pride." Saix replies before he wobbles back onto his hooves, he turns to Axel, who walks over to his side with: "Let's show you how to move around."


Yeah, I did that and does not regret it! I did at first make this world being Pocahontas,' but after that adorable drawing of a deer Lea, I just couldn't help myself and changed the world.

Also, introducing a new OC creature. I won't say what's it called or why Xion is the only one able to hear them. It will be explained throughout the story.