27

Writer Note: I apologize for the dead zone I've been in. Things haven't been too good over here, BUT, the bunch of people who sent me messages telling me to get off my butt, I feel I have a responsibility to do so. And, if you've been keeping up with KH2 news, this story is already WAY obsolete. However, there are a few elements that have changed that I will incorporate into the story. You'll see. A little short, but a short update is better than none I suppose. For those who can't place the timeline, we are currently between 5 and 6 years before Kingdom Hearts.

Axel

Months, years, who knew? My world gone, countless others with it, and black robed guys fighting Heartless. That's the sum of what I'd learned through that time. I was coming home through the market, but I had more or less come to terms with my world being destroyed. I had more or less come to terms with the fact that I may never be able to meet these black robed men and teach them a lesson. Don't get me wrong, if one walked up to me in the street, I'd cut his throat out before thinking about it. But that wasn't going to happen, or at least, not until the Heartless targeted this world. Luckily, I was able to get my mind off things. I even now had an officially-unofficial girlfriend. I wasn't taking things so serious anymore, and my best friend, Demix, and I had even started a little musical duo, and we performed at cafés and places like that. I was actually feeling happy. And it had been a few weeks since Heartless or anything of that nature had entered my mind.

But that changed very fast.

I was just walking by a vendor, he was making a sale to a man in a red and white robe, with what appeared to be bandages all over his face. The salesman smiled and thanked him for his purchase just as I passed them. And I heard two words that froze me in place.

"Thank you."

It was familiar, and a feeling of death and cold swept over me. I couldn't figure it out at first why those two words made me feel so frightened. But I did realize it; it was him.

That same brown robed man who had raised his arms to the sky, and pronounced the world's destruction, and apparently what marked the start of this sort of "war". I turned around but he was already headed down a corner. I took off after him, but tried to stay concealed. Something was different, and before I charged after him, I wanted to make sure he was alone. I didn't have a weapon on me, I'd long since stopped carrying it in a relatively harmless place like Twilight Town.

The man went down the alley, I crouched down and followed, trying to keep myself covered at all times. He opened a door and went inside, I heard it click behind him. I peered inside a window, he was talking to a few people, a woman, a child, and there was someone else there too, a younger woman, but I noticed she was wearing all black, a long robe, not unlike those the stories had mentioned. Then, suddenly, she disappeared. In a flash of…darkness…I suppose. That's the only way to describe it. Well, I made my stake out, trying to figure out what was going on. Demix would have to wait for another day for band practice, this was far more important. As dusk fell, the door opened, and out came the red man. He started walking in the other direction, and I stepped out into the street, "Hey, you, remember me?"

He turned his head to the side, casting his exposed eye's gaze at me. "I don't believe we've ever met before," he said, and turned, and continued walking.

"You can't fool me!" I shouted at him, "You're the one who was my home 3 years ago! You wore a brown robe, and I saw you commanding those Heartless, you can't fool me, I know that voice, it still haunts me to this day."

Without looking back to me, he softly said, "In that case you should forget you saw me, and leave this to your imagination. I can assure you though, it was not I you saw," and he began his slow amble to wherever he was headed.

This got me pissed. I clenched my fists and ran straight at him, "Don't you turn your back to me or you'll get hurt!" and I swung with my right at the back of his head. He simply side-stepped it, if you could call it that, side-floated was more like it, his movements were so fluidic for someone all bandaged up and slow moving. I looked to my left and saw him, and brought my left around in a swipe from my front, "Take this you!" and before I knew what happened, he was in front of me, his hand locked around my right wrist, preventing me from using it. Great…I'm so out of practice, if I had kept up my training I'd be able to crush this guy. I remember when I could do that kinda stuff… I reached up with my left hand, grabbed his shoulder, raised myself up and kicked at him with both feet. But even while my brain was still sending my body these actions, he flipped me over his head as I became airborne and I landed in a bag of trash, my head cracking against the wall of one of the buildings, sending me into a small daze.

"Please forgive me," he told me as he bowed his head, "your wounds do not appear too serious, so I shall leave you now." With that, he began his walk again.

I struggled to my feet. My wrist was numb where he had grabbed it down to the fingers. It didn't bother me, I still had to try. "Where are you going, buddy? We were just dancing," I said as I clenched my fists again. My anger was rising, like it did in the old days. I was so infuriated at the audacity of this guy. He was kinda like me. Made it a shame I hated his guts. This was it, and I ran at him again, swinging with my left fist this time. Rather than dodge, he held up his palm to catch my fist, and at the last millisecond when I saw this, I tried to put even more force behind it. When I made impact, there was a sizzling sound as dark light shot out where out hands impacted, surging all around us.

In his good eye I could see him react in surprise, but before I could make a second move, he grabbed my wrist, pulled me toward him, and hit me at the base of my skull, knocking me unconscious.