Xiggy rocks. Right on up there with Axel, Demyx, and Zexion. Not as bishonen, but he's cool. Like Cid Highwind.

Xigbar was dead. He had been killed by Sora in the World That Never Was. That should have been the end of the story, as being a Nobody he should have ceased to exist. Dissolved away into nothing, never to be seen again.

Instead he was laying on something hard and rocky while someone poked him in the head with a pointy implement.

Groaning, the Freeshooter opened his eye and glanced around, taking in what he could while his supposedly deceased brain attempted to sort everything out. The rocky stuff was, unsurprisingly, rocks in a funny blue color that Demyx would have instantly dubbed gay. In any case the rocks making up the ground were blue. And the rocks in the walls were blue, and the rocks in the high ceiling of the cavern he was in were blue. The roof also reflected a deep red glow from something else in the room, and judging from past experience Xigbar would have to say it was probably fire related. The poking on head finally stopped and he took the opportunity to sit up. From a better vantage point he could see that he had been right about the fire, which was in the form of a big fiery lake. On its shore was an out-of-place lifeguard station. Why would you need a lifeguard if you were dead?

"Oi."

Xigbar turned and looked over to his right to see the poking culprit. It was obviously a demon of some kind, though still could still loosely be called a man. It had dark red skin, pointed ears, and a long thin tail. Its legs ended in hooves, and a small pair of horns protruded from its forehead. A tall three-pronged pitchfork was in its hand; the pointy end splattered with something dark that Xigbar wasn't too keen on finding out what it was. All that you would expect from a demon. What was really weird was the blue palm tree-print shirt, cargo shorts, and white sun hat it wore, not to mention the large white blob of sunscreen on its nose.

"Yeah?" Xigbar asked, standing up and giving his ponytail a ritualistic tug. The demon lifeguard raised an eyebrow.

"You're supposed to be dead," it commented. Xigbar shrugged.

"So? You're a lifeguard for a lake of fire," he pointed out.

"And your point is?" It had him there. "Anyway, have you seen a blonde teenage girl running around down here?" Xigbar fixed it with an one-eyed I-can't-believe-you're-so-stupid look.

"Now how could I do that if I wasn't conscious until you stabbed that oversized salad fork into my brain," the Nobody snapped, crossing his arms. The lifeguard glared at him and without moving a muscle summoned up a portal into darkness.

"Alright wise-ass, get out."

---

In the Olympus Coliseum, things hadn't been going so well for Bob's mob. To put matters simply, they had run out of things to do. There was only so long you could beat on one another before it got old or ugly. So now the mob members were taking a breather while trying to figure out what to do next. Suddenly, the answer came to them like a load of bricks falling from the sky.

Actually, the description wasn't too far off.

Xigbar stood and brushed himself off. Surprisingly he was relatively uninjured, considering the fact that he had just fallen from very high up after the demon had kicked him out of wherever it was. In his opinion, this was a definite improvement. At least he was outside now instead of being inside an evil cave of blue rocks and fiery doom. During this time Xigbar had failed to notice the large crowd gathered in the ruined Coliseum, though his attention was quickly drawn to them when one suddenly yelled at him. "Hey you! You're one of them black-cloaked guys, ain't ya?"

Xigbar glanced down at his hoodie and raised an eyebrow. "Uh, no, this is a clown suit. You guys are just stupid," he said sarcastically, tugging at the fabric.

Another of the mob members leapt to the forefront of gang, pointing an accusing finger at the Nobody. "Don't be pulling any 'mind tricks' on us! We know you're in league with those other guys!"

Xigbar sighed and palmed his forehead. It was like working with Demyx and Marluxia at the same time. "Ok, let's say for all intents and purposes, I do know the guys you're talking about. So what did they do?"

"One of your 'buddies' pulled an axe on our greatest hero, and tore him limb from limb!" The second guy wailed, pointing over his shoulder. There was a guy sitting on the stone steps, his arms and legs taped up but otherwise appearing fine. Xigbar raised an eyebrow at the mob guy.

"But he's alive," he pointed out. The first guy cackled at the sky. "He said he was dismembered, not dead! Stupid!" The whole mob began laughing maniacally in an irritating fashion that reminded Xigbar of Axel when his weenies roasted right.

"And there's usually a difference?" Xigbar asked. "Never mind. Look, where exactly did my 'buddies' go?" The mob immediately stopped laughing, and to Xigbar's unease picked up their pointy implements of doom.

"Oh, you ain't going nowhere," the guy with bad grammar said, menacing closer to the Nobody. "You're standin' on our leader, and you're not gonna just jump in them dark portal-things like yer friends."

Xigbar blinked, then glanced down at the man he was standing. "Oops! Didn't notice you down there! Now, you said they jumped in some dark things, right?" With a smirk he waved one hand through the air and opened a portal into the darkness. Giving the mob a quick salute, he jumped into the doorway and out of the Coliseum. Leaving an angry mob to sort out among themselves on just how they were going to punish Steve. And they had a whole selection on pointy implements to use.

---

Destiny Island. After the whole incident with the Heartless and the later similar occurrence with the Nobodies, Sora had found himself on his quiet island home from so long ago. He had also managed to drag back Riku this time, and hopefully they were getting somewhere on trying to boost the silver-haired teen's self-esteem. Sitting in darkness hadn't helped much. Right now, though, the Keyblade wielder was taking a short nap on the beach under the bridge to the small island where the Paopu tree was. It was the only place on the island that had enough shade. Unfortunately, he was interrupted from his nap by a shower of sand that proved that you couldn't trust the weather man.

Coughing and sitting upright, the brunette knocked some of the sand off his face and chest while looking around for the culprit. A flash of something orange and furry attracted his attention, and Sora leapt to his feet with the intent of chasing the whatever-it-was. The thing had buried itself in the sand, leaving only the lightly-colored tip of its tail sticking out. Creeping forwards slowly, Sora sneaked up to where the tail was and gently lowered himself to his knees. Counting to three in his head, he suddenly reached down and grabbed the tail.

And was almost immediately knocked out as the creature leapt out the sand and delivered a roundhouse kick to the side of his head.

---

The first thought Roxas had was that his head hurt. The second though he had was that he was actually Roxas and not Sora.

The former Organization member was laying on something warm and gritty that was also inside his clothes. Around him was the sound of the sea and of seagulls screaming in the air, and Roxas had to guess that he was on a beach. No, not really guess. More like make an educated assumption with a ninety-nine point three percent chance being right. And someone was throwing sand at him.

Clear blue eyes popped open as Roxas decided that he had spent enough time laying around. He was indeed on a beach (five points to himself!), facing a limitless expanse of ocean in front of him. It was then that his head decided to cheerfully remind him that it hurt, and he winced as he put up a hand to touch the painful area. The sand had stopped falling, and he looked around to find the culprit sitting next to his right leg, staring at him intensely.

It was a cat-like creature with orange and cream fur and very deep green eyes. It's mane was bright red, and it gave a little squeak when it made eye contact with Roxas. The thing was sitting on it's haunches now, but the Nobody could tell that it would walk upright. And it was staring at him. Shrugging the animal's gaze off, the blonde instead turned his attention to figuring out just where exactly this beach was. However, he was having a hard time focusing as a pair of large green eyes loomed at him from the corner of his vision. Finally he let out a frustrated sigh, rounding on the creature. "What do you want!"

The cat-thing squeaked, frightened by the boy's sudden outburst and falling back on it's tail. Still it continued to stare at him expectantly, like he was supposed to do something. And it was then that Roxas noticed the two small, blue-green marks under each of its eyes, tattooed into the fur and skin below. The Nobody's mouth literally dropped open, and he could have sworn that the creature adopted a smug look as he stuttered.

"A-Axel?" It squeaked in response and tackled the Dual Wielder, apparently happy that they both weren't dead anymore. Or were at least together. Roxas stiffened and awkwardly petted the creature's head, finding it very disturbing to think of it as his best friend. After a while it stopped hugging him and scooted back a few feet, giving Roxas back his breathing space. He eyed it warily. "So, Ax, what the hell are you?"

Axel cocked his head and shrugged, squeaking and pointing to his head. Roxas blinked, then realized that he was asking if he was ok. "Yeah. Wait, did you dropkick Sora and knock me out?" Axel stared at him and seemed to consider it. It certainly looked like that's what had happened. Roxas stood and stretched, quickly followed by the cat-whatever Axel was. "Well, we better get outta here before Sora's friends come poking around and find us. Can us still open portals?" Axel glanced up at him, then struck a dramatic pose with one paw flung forwards in an "open-sesame" stance. Nothing happened. Roxas laughed as the creature dissolved into a fit of high-pitched squeals of rage, and the blonde Nobody opened a gateway himself. They both disappeared into the darkness.

And that's that! Quite a bit shorter than previous chapters, but I didn't have much to flesh out. Sorry. At least we caught up with three characters this time!

What is Axel? He's a moomba. WTF? Moomba?

Yup. Moombas were these cute little creatures in Final Fantasy 8 that look a lot like Red XIII, minus the fiery tail. Just look it up on Google image search. Now, why a moomba? Well I could have turned Roxas into a chocobo, but you see them everywhere. I have plans for a moogle (evil laughter). And besides, did you look them up? They're adorable! In the game itself they make these cute squeaking noises! -loves things that squeak-

Eh, get over it. He's moomba and a very hot moomba at that.

In our next chapter, Demyx and Zexion meet up with Marluxia, who needs to stop drinking the tea…

Until then!