-o- CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN -o-

a chain of memories

Axel and I wandered through the castle complex's thoroughfares, passing every type of person along the way. Playing-card men, rescued from the fragments of Wonderland, sat along the wall playing cards to pass the time. Centaurs, fairies, and demi-gods from Fantastic places stood idly chatting with ordinary men and women from ordinary worlds. As we got further from the crowd, I was horrified to see young children, a small rabbit boy and his bespectacled turtle friend, practicing with bows and arrows alongside the infamous Robin Hood.

We left them behind, walking across a quiet cemetery on the backmost stretches of the castle grounds, in search of a secluded space. We were granted a small stonewalled church, occupied only by a somber mouse in a sexton's cassock and collar, playing the organ.

We tiptoed down the aisle, past the worn wooden pews and into a small confessional booth. It was a tight squeeze for the two of us to fit onto the bench that was intended for a single confessor, but that closeness was natural now. Desirable, even.

"So which memory are you looking for, exactly?" Axel asked. I tried not to be distracted by the way he idly stroked a lock of my hair. It was hard to think straight when I wanted him so badly, and for what I had in mind, I needed to be more focused than I'd ever been in my life.

I had explained my plan to him as we walked the castle grounds. I was inspired by what he had said to me in Scrooge's pub, that I could be capable of Namine's powers and more if I'd ever been able to complete my training as a witch. I thought, just maybe, I could search Axel's memories of Cale's training and find something that would give us an advantage in this final stand.

I frowned. "I don't know, exactly," I said. I placed my hand against his face. "I was hoping maybe I could, um, just have a look around in there until I see something that clicks?"

Axel cocked an eyebrow. "Uh-huh. So I should just… open the entirety of my mind for an untrained witch to 'poke around' in?"

"Yup. Pretty much."

He shrugged, smiling at me. "What's the worst that could happen, I guess? We're all supposed to be dead by sunrise anyway. Just don't mess up my hair."

He grabbed both of my hands and squeezed, filling the small space around us with the warmth of magic. We weren't in the church anymore, or even in that world. The atoms of our bodies dissolved to liquid, floating between the planes of existence. I felt my own thoughts and consciousness drift into the background and the landscape of Axel's memories became a solid vision.

The first where was the castle garden of Radiant Garden, though it was impossible at first to discern when. It was perhaps the only feature of the castle that remained untouched by the many transformations and upheavals.

But then I heard Gran, singing, holding me as a toddler in her lap like the very first memory I ever recovered. That was the first time I saw Axel again, I realized. He had unlocked it with his arrival.

I watched as her wrinkled hands eclipsed my small ones, guiding me in the motions of a spell, singing the incantations in that secret language of witches.

From across the garden, a younger woman clicked her teeth in disapproval before lifting her teacup from the wrought iron table she sat beside. Mom, I recognized, remarkably. I could see traces of myself in her… the curve of my own cheekbones, but slightly worn with age, her eyes blue like mine but glimmering with wisdom I didn't have yet.

"Wreckless," censured my mother. It was haunting to hear her voice, a vibrant tone that had been missing from my life. "You've got to stop spoiling her. She's too young to play with magic."

Gran laughed indulgently. "Nonsense, dear. Can't you tell she's gifted? Isn't that right, little one?" She kissed my cheek and I giggled. "The witch who would be queen."

Cale, five years old, removed his attention from throwing rocks at the pond and gave my grandmother a doubtful look. "Are you sure about that, Gran?" he questioned. "You really think Princess Pouty Pants is old enough for magic? She's not even potty-trained!"

Clearly, Axel's ability to tease me endlessly had been ingrained in him from Cale's earliest words.

I wanted to see more of my own lost childhood, but this was too far back for answers. I concentrated on future moments, searching for Ansem's reign and the horror it brought. Cale's training and the witches' rebellion was the lesson I sought.

I pushed on through time and saw Gran's face again, older and worn. She was no longer the indulgent, pleasant grandmother of my baby years, but a weary and determined soldier in war. I felt a gasp of shock as she slapped a thirteen-year-old Cale across the face. I felt the sting as though it touched my own flesh.

"Again," she said tiredly. "You must try harder. They must never know who you really are. If you want to get close to them, they must not see the Light shining in you."

They were hiding in the dank, concealed basement beneath Cid's house. Gran had stayed with him for years, protecting him, training him, and now she was preparing him for his greatest challenge yet.

Cale sighed, unmoved by the pain of her hand. "I'm sorry, Gran. It's just hard when deep down I don't really want to hide who I am. I'd rather be out there with you and the other witches. I want to fight for our home, you know I can!"

Gran held his shoulders, firmly but with love, and looked straight into his young eyes. "Ansem thinks that you are dead, just as he assumes of Kairi. No one will know who you are. If we can just hide the witch in you, you are our only chance of getting someone on the inside. You still have a light to shine, my child. That is so much more important than just another body on the battlefield."

Cale nodded. With a deep breath, he concentrated once again on casting the glamour that turned his blond hair unrecognizably red, his blue eyes green, and raised two black scars on his cheeks. Most importantly, it disguised the truth that was in his heart.

"Hello," he practiced, in a voice that sounded more like Axel's than Cale's. "My name is Lea, your highness. I've come to ask for an apprenticeship."

Gran clapped in approval. "You are ready, my son."

I watched and ached, in Cale's skin, while he lived for years among Ansem's apprentices, pretending to serve and admire the man that had destroyed both our lives. He could never let his guard or glamour down, participating in their horrific experiments of the heart, feeding information to Gran all the while. I felt a deep mourning for the agony that plagued Cale's young life, while I was a blissfully oblivious child on Destiny Islands.

The guilt drove me, unbidden, to the last moments of his life. I was on my back now, bones twisted in agony, blood dripping from a wound, feeling exactly what he felt on the cold stone floor of Ansem's laboratory.

He had been discovered, and it was his closest companion Isa who stood over his body. Isa was seething with betrayal, breathing hard as he clutched his sword in anticipation of landing the fatal blow.

"Isa, no," Ansem's cold voice commanded from the shadows. He stepped forward and placed a patient hand on the blue-haired teen's shoulder. "A human death will not do."

"He betrayed us!" Isa cried. "He led the resistance right to the door! They could have ruined everything."

"Indeed. And a heart as brave as that could prove useful… we must set it free, don't you see?"

Ansem snapped his fingers and a Heartless appeared, snarling and drooling. Hungry. It leapt at Cale's helpless, bleeding body, and I shuddered as I felt the life snuff out of him. His heart dissipated, and somewhere in the Corridors of Darkness, a powerful heartless was born. Somewhere else on a faraway plane, in a World that Never Was, an even more powerful Nobody was born.

Cale's death, Axel's birth. It was heartbreaking.

But there was no time to pause or mourn or wonder; I began to spiral deeper, sifting through endless images of Axel and his journey as a Nobody, until finally I was in his memories and no longer Cale's.

This one was recent. He was walking along the late night streets of Radiant Garden. It was only a few weeks ago. Suddenly, I knew the exact night, because as he leaned against the streetlight, staring at the entrance of the Wailing Bagpipe, I walked out of the door.

My memories of that frightening walk back to the castle, how I had floundered in the face of my first Heartless foe, became clear. I watched through Axel's memories as he followed me home, hiding from view, and I watched his signature fire spell from the shadows destroy the Heartless that had almost choked me to death.

I had followed, knowing in my heart it was him, and he evaded me quickly, ducking into the abandoned servants' quarters and slamming the door shut behind him.

The interior was covered in cobwebs and dust, the humble parlor lit by a single oil lamp. The warm yellow light revealed, in addition to the normal furnishings of a commoner's house, symbols etched in black along the moulding of the ceiling.

King Mickey sat perched in a squashy green armchair, Master Yen Sid standing close to the wall behind him.

"What's the word on Scrooge?" Mickey asked, fingering the embroidery of the armrest and frowning.

"The short of it? He's drunk," Axel answered flatly. "Doesn't seem like he poses much of a threat. He got your message from Donald about the Transit and then they had it out. Kind of hard to know most of what they said, ducks quacking, you know. But it ended with Donald saying he was taking the girl, Webby, away from him to stay with Daisy at Disney Castle. Then the old man popped him in the face, Donald knocked him out with a gravity spell, took the girl and bounced. Scrooge came to a few hours ago and he's been drinking and whining in the bar ever since. He had a visit from Launchpad and the gargoyle, too."

He left my name out. Was that on purpose? Was he protecting me?

"What did he tell them?" Mickey prodded nervously.

"Told them about the fight, and the Transit shutdown, but mostly he's just been chugging whiskey and waxing philosophical about the 'good old days.' By my estimates, he's probably blacked out and passed out by now."

Axel's levity didn't seem to have much of an impact on Mickey, who still looked worried and despondent. He looked questioningly to Master Yen Sid. After their silent exchange, Yen Sid gave an ominous nod.

"We'll have to contain him, I'm afraid," Mickey said with finality, earning an eyebrow raise from Axel. "For his own safety, of course."

Axel shrugged his shoulders. "Seems a little aggressive coming from the infamously chipper mouse King, but hey, whatever. Am I done here?"

"I was hoping you'd be the one to bring him in, actually." He and Yen Sid were both watching Axel's reaction carefully.

Axel rolled his eyes. "Of course you were. Look, I'm not like all your other minions and cronies… Spying on Scrooge was a one time favor. I've got no dog in this fight, you understand? I only came here in the first place as a favor to Naminé."

"And yet you stayed," Master Yen Sid interjected, examining Axel with his wide and terrifying eyes. "Living quietly in the wreckage." He pointed to the symbols painted on the wall. "And in the abandoned home of witches, no less. What did you hope to find here, I wonder? Something to remind you of who you were before?"

Axel folded his arms, face stoic. "Hardly. I'm not the sentimental type. And no offense to the dead, but I kind of prefer being me. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?"

"As you like. Still, there is enough human left in you to make you care for your friends. For Naminé. Enough to keep a promise. Enough, perhaps, to have at least a passing interest in the fate of all worlds?"

"Where's this going, old man?" He tapped his foot impatiently, squirming just slightly under the intimidating gaze of the master.

"We need your help, Axel," Mickey said. "Cale's warlock medallion contained instructions for an ancient spell that was used hundreds of years ago to end the first Keyblade War. We need to know what happened to it… and then we need you to complete the spell."

Axel barked in laughter. "Yeah right. Maleficent's stockpiling an army of Heartless, reopening Kingdom Hearts, and you want me to be your hero? First of all, I don't care what Cale was capable of, I ain't no real warlock. And even if I was, the kind of magic you're talking about is master level shit. It would take an entire coven to pull that off. And even if I was, through some miracle, able to pull off that kind of spell, you're forgetting the most important thing, I don't care. And I won't do it." He held up a hand to stop Mickey's immediate protests. "No, don't bother trying to pull at my heartstrings, okay? Don't have any."

With a sad sigh, Mickey glanced back at Yen Sid, who simply grinned. "Well," Yen Sid responded, clearing his throat loudly. "I'm afraid that you don't have a choice."

Out of the shadows of the kitchen, a snarling gargoyle woman appeared in answer to Yen Sid's subtle cue. Axel yelped in pain as she pounced on him, laughing as her claws ripped through his cloak and spilled blood onto the warped wooden floor.

"Slowly, Demona," Master Yen Sid instructed her. "We don't want him dead. Not until he gives us what we want, at least."

Demona cackled and threw back her mane of cherry hair, baring her fangs as she slammed the blue flesh of her fist into Axel's stomach. "No problem, boss," she answered huskily. Then, she brought her lips to Axel's ear and hissed lowly, "Hold tight, darling. I've got centuries of practice in torture and no deadlines to speak of. That pesky sun that gives so much trouble to the rest of my kind? I've already squared that one away."

She laughed as she pinned him to the wall. She started by using her claws to flay the flesh of his fingers, one by one. Axel's screams were so piercing and desperate that it was clear how I hadn't heard anything when I pressed my ear to the door of this place those weeks ago; only some kind of magic spell could hide sound like that.

Somewhere in the real world, my physical body was trembling as I watched and lived Axel's horrible memories of being tortured by the gargoyle named Demona. The enemy King Mickey had supposedly sent us to stop. It was as unbearable to relive as it must have been for Axel to experience, and it only came to an end when he screamed out one surprising word.

"KAIRI!" he shrieked, blood flowing down both of his arms. His cloak was shredded and ragged. His eyes were blackening with bruises.

Demona paused her torments. "Say that one more time?" she prompted.

Axel spit blood to the ground and heaved a deep breath as the torture stopped. "He gave it to Kairi. When she fled Radiant Garden, he sent the medallion with her. That's all I know, I swear. I told you, I'm no warlock. There's no way I could cast that kind of spell."

Demona looked to Yen Sid. Mickey, I realized, had left the room, unable to watch. "Is that what you were looking for, boss?"

Yen Sid contemplated for a moment, looking unmoved by Axel's beaten, bloody body. "Yes," he said at last. "I think that will do. This sheds some light on something I feared… and on an opportunity I had not considered."

He straightened his wizard hat with two hands, and then waved his arms in a grand spell-casting motion. Axel's wounds were healed moments later. With a second spell, Yen Sid had replaced his bloody robes with fresh ones.

Demona clicked her tongue. "Well, that just takes the fun out of things, doesn't it?" she sighed.

"Mickey, get back in here, please," the master commanded, and obediently, Mickey returned only a few minutes later. Yen Sid shook his head at him. "If you can't stomach the reality of what we must do, my apprentice, the road ahead is only going to be more difficult. I'm afraid we are going to need to pause our designs momentarily. Axel is quite right- without his heart, he is not capable of casting the spell as we'd hoped."

Mickey was crestfallen. "Then who? How long must we wait? Every day that we let Maleficent's strength build, we are sacrificing more lives to the cause."

"A necessary evil," Yen Sid answered simply. "In the meantime, you will keep Axel with you. You and Merlin will train him in the solare witch way as thoroughly as you can until the time is right to bring him to the Thirteen."

"The Thirteen? But I thought we needed them for-"

"All in good time, Mickey. All in good time. You were always too impatient for your own good. You must learn to step back and see the larger picture."

"You're forgetting that there's no way I'm going to help you," Axel piped up wearily, finding his voice at last. Demona growled at him, yanking him back by the hood of his cloak.

Yen Sid smiled. "That's quite enough, Demona. You are dismissed." As Demona shrugged and left the house, Axel stepped forward to move on Yen Sid, but was caught dead in his dastardly gaze. "My poor Axel. As a being without a heart, you have very little defenses against my brand of magic." He rubbed his hat again and prepared himself for a spell. "And I think you'll find it is very easy to change your mind…"

As Master Yen Sid waved his fingers, I could feel the unreal sensation of him prying the memories from Axel's fragile mind. The torture, the plot, all buried deep until I had found my way inside to unlock them.

Axel blinked. "So…" he said slowly. "Sorry, I zoned out. Where were we?"

"The king was just asking for your help," Yen Sid answered, in a gentle, almost jovial tone. "Merlin will help you to tap into Cale's warlock powers in exchange for your joining the King's Thirteen."

Mickey nodded, all signs of distress on his face cleverly masked. "It's so good of you to accept, Axel. You'll make amends for the things you've done ten times over."

In a daze, Axel found himself nodding along. "Ah. Yeah. Well… you know. Not like I've got much else going on. Besides, it's been awhile since I had a good fight."

The three of them ended their conversation with cordial laughter and pleasant goodbyes, Axel to begin his journey without ever knowing the horrible truths he had uncovered or the abuse he had endured.

I couldn't believe how close I'd been to this moment… if I had only bothered to open the door, to stick around, to try and peer into a window, would I have known all this all along? Could I have intervened, and helped Axel?

But then, I probably wouldn't have wanted to. I wouldn't have understood. I would have been on Mickey and Yen Sid's side; I would have believed any excuse they may have offered, because just a few short weeks ago I could still only think of Axel as an unfeeling enemy. Strange how our experiences change us. They shine a light on all we thought was black and white only to reveal an undulating sea of gray.