Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters – they belong to Square and Disney.
Stare Into The Abyss – Chapter Nine
The sun had already started to rise over the town once more, casting an eerie orange glow over the area as Axel opened the door and stepped back outside, the others close behind him. There was an instant reaction, the Nobodies sprang forward, ready to attack…
...and stopped as they landed, crouching down low, their bodies twitching
"What are they doing?" Riku wondered as he studied one curiously.
"I don't know." Axel glanced around, surveying them. "Looks like someone called them off."
Sora walked past them, regarding the Nobodies warily. "Maybe we should leave before they decide to attack again?"
The others agreed, following him, but Axel waited a moment. He had a good idea who'd given the order for the Nobodies to stop. "I thought you said you weren't going to interfere?" He asked, but there was no sign of anyone else around and there was no reply.
"Are you coming?" Riku called back over his shoulder from further ahead. With one last check of the area, Axel reluctantly joined them. He wasn't pleased knowing that other people were in control of things, especially when it involved him. He wanted to know what the ever-mysterious Number Two was planning.
The streets were quiet, empty of people and the Nobodies. They arrived at the station undisturbed, only to find some of the Dusks were hunkered down around the train. These, unlike the others, were not so willing to let them pass by.
A small group of them lunged forward upon spotting them, bladed arms swiping madly at the air. Axel aimed a fireball at them, as it connected, they shrieked, dropping to the ground and writhing. He sent another wave of flames towards them.
Keyblade in hand, Sora rushed forward, knocking the creatures aside as he ran to board the train, his two friends behind him. Riku was cutting those in his way down as he slowly made his way to join them.
Axel set a ring of fire around a small group that gathered nearby before they could attack. With most of them out the way, he entered the vehicle as well.
"Any idea who gave us a little help back there?" Riku asked, as the train started moving.
Axel ignored him, leaning against one of the walls. The next part, he wasn't looking forward to. He had intended on doing this as fast as possible, the sooner Sora was finished, the quicker he could finally set about getting the boy to help him, but there was another reason he'd agreed to come back. Ask him what happened, how you became a NEO. Ask him how you died…Yes, he'd ask him, and depending on the answer, maybe he'd do a whole lot more.
The group remained silent for a while, until Axel noticed Sora watching him carefully. "What?"
Sora shook his head. "I'm wondering where it is I know you from. I suppose you won't tell me yet?"
"Does the name Castle Oblivion seem familiar?"
Sora frowned. "I woke up there… That's what the girl, Namine? That's what she called it."
"And did she tell you what had happened there?"
"No, she wouldn't. Is that where I met you? Why don't I remember?"
Axel couldn't resist grinning. "I think you'd enjoy hearing that from her more. Why don't you pay her a visit when we're done? I'd love to hear her explain that!"
Sora scowled but said nothing. The train was pulling up into the station outside the large residence.
"Does it feel good to be back home so soon Axel?" Riku taunted.
"Shut up." Axel walked up to the large front doors. He was surprised there was no one waiting for them. He'd expected more of a… welcoming. He turned back to face the others. "If you want me to help, we're doing this my way. Riku? You're staying here with Sora's two pets…"
"Hey!" Sora protested angrily.
"…and watching the train. That's our only way to leave, I don't want them sending more Nobodies to block it again."
Riku looked towards Sora for approval. The younger boy nodded reluctantly.
"What if you don't come back out?" Riku wondered.
Axel sighed. "Do you really have that little faith in me?"
Riku choose not to answer that. Sora spoke quietly to the rest of them, before he joined Axel outside the doors. "Ready?"
Axel pushed them aside, his weapons appearing in his hands as he entered. The entrance hall was empty.
"Where is everyone?"
Axel shrugged. While he found it odd no one was around, he wasn't going to complain. "Follow me." He knew where he wanted to go first. He led the way towards the back of the building, towards where the Superior would be. He realized it was probably not a good idea, he might not even get a chance to ask anything, but while he was here, he was going to try. He told himself it was as good a place to start looking for Sora's Keyhole anyway.
The corridors were just as empty. Was the entire place deserted? Did they not care that he'd just arrived back along with the keyblade master that they wanted dead? Why?
It wasn't long before he found his answer.
As they rounded a corner, another figure, around Sora's size, stepped out, a keyblade held in one hand.
Axel knew who it was immediately. "What are you doing?"
He spun around, summoning a second keyblade into the other hand. He froze, his gaze shifting to the boy standing just behind Axel. "…Sora?"
Sora blinked, confused. "Who… are you?"
Disappointment flashed briefly across the boy's face. "Has he not told you anything Sora? About us? I bet he never even mentioned there was another keyblade master, did he?"
"What are you doing?" Axel repeated, hoping to change the subject. There couldn't have been a worse time for this.
"I've come to put a stop to whatever it is your people are doing! Those white creatures… Those Nobodies are crawling all over town! My home!"
"Your home? You know as well as I do that isn't your real home…"
"It doesn't matter, it's close enough for me." The boy closed his eyes for a moment, when he opened them they were full of the anger they'd held when he'd met Axel earlier. His keyblades flashed as he tried to strike, but in the narrow corridor, there wasn't much room, allowing Axel to easily avoid them as he backed up. "Let Sora go!"
"Let him go? He came here willingly with me."
Sora spoke up, recovering from the shock of seeing someone else here wielding keyblades. "He's right, I came here to seal the Keyhole to this world. He agreed to help me…"
"Don't listen to anything he tells you Sora! He'll turn on you! You can't trust him!"
"We don't have time for this," Axel growled in annoyance, "so if you don't mind, get out of our way."
The boy tried to attack Axel again, but hesitated as Sora pushed in front. "Please, stop. I need his help."
"Sora…" The boy smiled sadly at him. "You really don't know anything about me?"
Sora shook his head. "What's your name?"
"My name?" He sounded surprised and for a moment said nothing. "Kaze…" He replied finally.
The sound of someone approaching from the corridor behind him stopped him from saying anything else. He spun around, gripping his keyblades tightly. An Organization member was standing before them.
"Axel." Araxiel hissed. "Good. Now everyone that needs eliminating are all in one spot. This makes my job so much easier."
Kaze turned towards Sora. "I can handle her. Go and seal that Keyhole. When you're done, come and find me ok? I have so much I need to tell you."
"Will you be alright?"
"Forget him." Axel said moving past and continuing on his way.
"Don't you walk away Axel!" Araxiel yelled. "Get back here!" She tried to push past, but Kaze held a keyblade in front of her, blocking the way.
He stared at Axel. "You're only alive because I'm letting you go to help Sora. Next time we meet, I won't let that happen."
Axel let out a sigh. Wonderful… "Come on Sora."
"He may need some help…"
"He'll be fine."
Sora relented, with one last look at the other boy, he left with Axel. There was no one else on the way to the Superior's room.
Axel realized the place must have been in chaos. With both keyblade masters here, they were sure to be panicking. Just what they'd feared… Only both of them had come at the same time. And him. He'd returned with them. Not only had he betrayed them, now it almost looked like he'd lead both the Keyblade Masters here.
"Are we going in?"
Axel looked up at the door in front of him. Something was telling him not to go in there, a little voice screaming it was a bad idea, but he ignored it. Pushing the door open he and Sora entered.
The Superior was standing at the back of the room, waiting for them.
"I'm disappointed Axel. But I am curious. Why did you come back?"
"You're going to tell me something…" Axel started.
"Where the Keyhole is? No, I'm not going to tell you that."
Axel shook his head. "Not that. I want to ask you something… about how I became a NEO."
"Axel?" Sora cried. "You said you'd help! This isn't what we came here for."
"I will help. Just give me a minute. This is important."
Sora fell silent, but Axel could tell by the boy's expression he wasn't happy.
"You're wasting time. You could of found what you wanted out already." His single eye focused on Sora pointedly.
"What happened to me? I want to know how I became a NEO."
A sly grin spread across the Superior's face. "Do you know how any of you became NEOs in the first place?"
"Not really…"
"He was the first. Or rather I was. I suppose you couldn't really call us the same person anymore."
"Who?"
"Ansem."
Sora gaped at him. "Are you saying… you were Ansem?"
The Superior seemed satisfied with his surprise. "In a way. For someone to become a NEO, they must willingly cast off their own body, and with it their soul. This is what you are." He looked directly at Axel. "When I came across another who had done the same, the one who you know as Number Two, I realized it wasn't a one off occurance, and decided to look further into it. The Nobodies were a result of our original experiments. They are what were created when we tried to forcefully separate the body and soul. Eventually we started finding more natural NEOs, those who had done the same as us. They all arrived in the same place, Twilight Town. As a world in between the others, it appeared this is the place that the body and soul were cast off to. Only it wasn't the Twilight Town that you know…"
"There's more than one?" Sora frowned.
"Not exactly. You'll see what I mean soon enough."
Axel was finding it hard to take everything that had been said in at once. "I did this to myself willingly? Why?"
"The same reason most of the others did. You wanted a second chance. You were running away, you were all too willing to agree."
"Agree to what?"
"Once there was myself and three others, I decided to build up my own… selection of NEOs. A loyal group of these unique individuals. I seeked out those who I thought would make a worthy addition to our ranks, from there it only took some convincing to get them to willingly cast off their body and souls. Some it did not work on, they wouldn't let go of who they were. They were taken and experimented on further, resulting in more of the Nobodies. We soon learned those who were natural NEOs had a connection with the failures, or rather the artificial ones."
"Just like you did with the Heartless…" Sora said, disgusted.
The Superior paid no attention to him, instead focusing on Axel. "Do you know what was so special about you? You came to me. It's amusing to think you're so desperate to get back those lost memories that you knew you'd be throwing away in the first place…"
"You're lying! I wouldn't agree to anything like that."
"But you did."
Axel felt his weapons in his hands. He wasn't even sure what he was doing. He ran straight at the Superior, hoping to strike at him, but as soon as he got close, he felt himself thrown backwards. The Superior stood over him, covering the distance across the room in a second, he picked Axel up with ease. "Such a waste…" He held him up, staring at him with from the one uncovered eye. He smirked and tossed Axel aside.
Axel hit the ground hard, he tried to stand back up, but sank to the floor, his eyes flickering as they tried to close. As he struggled to stay conscious, he heard a yelp of pain from Sora. Stupid… so stupid. He cursed himself. He knew the Superior was far too powerful, and now he'd probably pay for his actions with his life.
He tilted his head to the side, expecting to see the Superior standing over him again, ready to finish him, but instead, he saw him standing in the middle of the room, Number Two alongside him. There was a strange object next to them that wasn't there before, shaped almost like a mirror, with a reflective purple surface.
Axel barely registered what they were saying as he felt his mind shutting down.
"You agreed you would not harm him."
The Superior made a grunt of disapproval. "He'll live." A pause. "I suppose you'll want to take him and show him?"
"It is important for him to see. What will you do with the boy?"
"Take him with you too if you want. He's not the one I'm interested in. I'm going to go and, speak, with the other one…."
Whatever else they had to say, Axel didn't catch it. He felt a wave of tiredness.
He stopped fighting it.
Author's Note: Phew, that was a long one. I hope I've got the basic details of the NEO/Nobodies right there! And BHK has a name! If Sora is "sky" and they share a connection, why not Kaze – "wind/breeze"? I was debating over a few names for a while, but I went with that one.
Saddened Soul: Haha, poor Sora and his crazy ideas XD
AloneInDespair: Oh, I'm sure he'll make an appearance! ;) Just at the moment, I can't really squeeze him in with what I have in mind. And that scene is THE scene I'm really looking forward to!
ellenh92: Can't you put a good word in for me? ;)
Ginger Ninja: I really want to know what's so special about TT! I'm sure my idea about it (which will be added more to later!) is waaay off. And look - they met! They met! Briefly anyway.
One Winged Kuja: Thank you very much for reviewing! The chapters have gradually started getting longer, I think this one is the longest yet, but I shall try and keep them that way.