Chapter 4

"Brother,"

"What do I do?"

"You're late. What took you so long?" The mysterious figure asked. His voice surprisingly very similar to Reno's…

"Reno? I thought you went back down to your bar. Why did you change your clothes?" Replied Kadaj.

"Who's 'Reno?'" The man turned around and crossed his arms. "Whoa, wrong guy. Who are you?" He asked after he took a good look at Kadaj.

"Me?" Kadaj asked, a little shocked at the other man's lack of manners. "My name is Kadaj, and you?"

The man removed his hood, revealing red hair and piercing green eyes.

"The name's Axel, got it memorized?" He said as if he were taunting Kadaj.

"…Yeah." Kadaj replied.

"Hey, did you see a guy around here dressed up kind of like me?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Great." Axel said rather sarcastically and let out a deep sigh.

"Sorry." Kadaj walked away from Axel and sat on the edge of the roof.

Kadaj closed his eyes as he sat. He felt relaxed as a nice breeze passed by. A couple minutes later, he started feeling a little uneasy. He felt like something or, someone was missing. He realized he wouldn't be able to be at peace until he found his older brother.

"Brother, where are you?"

He opened his eyes after a few more minutes of thinking. He then noticed something in the distance. A large group of shadows surrounding two people, Sora and Riku. Kadaj instantly got up, this time it looked like too much for two people to handle. Kadaj was going to help, but someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

"What's the rush?" Axel said sarcastically.

"Axel! We have to-"

"They can take care of themselves, don't worry." Axel interrupted with a smirk.

"What's wrong with you, there's too many for just the two of them!"

"I told you, they can take care of themselves."

"What makes you so sure?" Kadaj asked him in a menacing tone, as he took a few steps away from him.

Axel snapped his fingers. "Trust me, I'm pretty sure."

Kadaj looked back at Sora and Riku, a little shocked at what he didn't see. The large group of shadows he saw a couple minutes ago was gone. He turned back to Axel, who still had a smirk on his face.

"Hate to say I told you so, but-" Axel started, but before he could finish he had a double bladed katana at his throat. Axel looked up at Kadaj's face. He could already tell that he wanted an explanation.

"No need to get violent, I can explain." He said, as he slightly raised his hands to show that he didn't have a weapon of his own.

"Then start explaining." Kadaj demanded, using the same tone as before.

Axel started by telling Kadaj about the shadows and that they were called "Heartless." He knew a lot about what was going on with the Heartless so it took a while to explain. Then he started saying something about "Nobodies." Both were the results of what happens when a person loses their heart.

"…So, you're a 'Nobody?'" Kadaj asked, trying to make sure he understood what Axel just told him.

"That's right." Axel replied.

"Why would you make the Heartless attack Sora and Riku?"

"You've seen those giant keys they use, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Every time they use their keys to kill a heartless, a heart is released. When there's enough hearts, they'll mass together and form a place called 'Kingdom Hearts.' and when that happens, I can get my heart back."

"There isn't another way to get it back?"

Axel thought for a moment. "I can always take someone else's heart."

"But, if you do that, then that somebody would turn into a heartless won't they? You wouldn't do that…would you?"

" Who knows, I might get tired of waiting for Kingdom Hearts."

"You can't do that."

"Why? It's because it's wrong, right? Because it makes them suffer, right?"

"…"

"If Sora and Riku don't fight anymore heartless, it might be the only way."

Kadaj thought for a while and the two of them didn't say anything to each other. Kadaj was thinking about helping him, but he also thought that something bad might happen if he did. Axel only waited for him, as if he already knew that Kadaj was going to offer to help.

"…Is there anything I can do to help?" Kadaj finally asked.

"Why would you want to?"

"Well, because I know what it's like, when you know that something important is always missing."

"There's really nothing much you can do."

"Are you sure?"

"Just keep an eye on Sora and Riku for now."

"I will."

Kadaj left back into the hotel to go to his room, leaving Axel behind. Axel stayed on the roof and took a few steps to get back to the edge. He looked back down onto the street, when he heard a voice from behind him.

"Axel." The voice said.

"It's about time you got here, what do you want Saïx?" Axel turned around and saw a man wearing a black coat. He had long blue hair, yellow eyes and a distinguishing scar shaped like an X on his face.

"Why did you tell him?" Asked Saïx.

"Why not? He could be useful." Axel replied.

"That is true, but why lie to him about taking someone else's heart? You know we can't be complete just by doing that. We have to find our own, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. You don't have to remind me."

"Then why?"

"Just a little motivation for him. Anyway, I don't think one little lie is going to hurt."

"Well then, just remember that if he gets in the way, you'll be responsible for him."

"I know, now what did you need to ask me?"

"How have Sora and Riku been doing against our heartless?"

"Not so well, I keep losing track of them. Whenever I send the heartless after them they run away whenever they can."

"I guess that is expected from them."

"It's getting annoying, can't someone else take over for now?" Axel said as he crossed his arms.

"What happened to Demyx? He's supposed to be helping you, right?"

"Don't know, really. Last time I saw him was when we split up to look for Sora and Riku." He said with as he shook his head.

"Where did he say he was going to look?"

"Somewhere in the hotel. I don't know why he's taking so long."

"He could be somewhere on the first floor."

"What's down there?"

"A bar."

"How did you know that there's a bar?"

Saïx didn't answer, but said something else. "When you find him, tell him to stop fooling around and you can take a break for a while." Then he turned around, walked away and disappeared into the shadows. Axel turned back around and scanned the area below.

"Great, where'd they go now?" Axel searched for Sora and Riku for a while, and then gave up a few minutes later. He let out a deep sigh and turned around to go into the hotel. He thought to himself, "Well, I might as well go and find Demyx, maybe he's down at the bar like Saïx said…"

He put his hood back entered the building and made his way down to the first floor. He could hear music as he went further down. It gradually got louder as he approached the bar. He finally made it to the first floor and entered the bar, and found his blonde haired friend playing a blue sitar on a stage at the back of the bar. Axel let out another sigh.

"Demyx what the hell were you thinking?"

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy, Square Enix and Disney do.