Twilight sky, cotton candy clouds, and Ansem - no, Riku, she had to keep reminding herself - disappeared behind a smoky veil of black and blue.

She was no stranger to the Dark Corridors, having been in them numerous times before. It was thrilling, in a way. They'd been her means of travel with DiZ when they first escaped Castle Oblivion - the first time she'd ever been outside the confines of its labyrinth of white walls. Unbeknownst to her what their ultimate destination was at the time, she daydreamed, bright-eyed, about what they might find on the other side. Would it be some sort of tropical isle? Maybe an arid desert laden with bazaars and the rare oasis? Or perhaps an underwater realm populated with rainbows of fish and all kinds of other sea creatures as far as the eye could see? These were, after all, just a fraction of the many places she'd seen among Sora's memories.

Naive was just one of the many words she could have used to describe herself. It had been foolish of her to expect great sights, or even think that she was worthy of any sort of adventure with the task she had at hand. The mansion may have been in a different world, but every morning she was still greeted by the same white walls and the same boy whose life she'd stolen a year away from.

She got a taste of what life outside those walls might be like during those last seven days. In a race to finish getting Sora's memories back intact, she had to get out there, get in touch with Roxas. The virtual Twilight Town was just as beautiful as she imagined the real one was, perpetually bathed in the same reds and yellows of the setting sun that she'd always see illuminating the lawn and broken pillars littering the view from her window. She kept having to remind herself that none of it was real, that Roxas was the only thing that truly existed in that digital realm.

The warmth of his hand in hers when she'd when she reached into the darkness after him…

What looked like pain in his cerulean eyes, when she repeated DiZ's words, that he was never meant to exist…

...Everything about him was real, genuine, despite what DiZ said.

And he still was, even though his physical form disappeared after he finally rejoined with Sora - like hers would when the inevitable time for her to rejoin her own Other would come, too.

At least, that was what she believed.

But that didn't appear to matter to DiZ now that Sora was awake again. His memories restored, Naminé's calling was fulfilled, and he had no need for her anymore. She was useless, only a nuisance now at best. Riku's mercy was the only thing keeping her alive now. And so, here she was, alone in the Realm of Darkness.

"So, just you and me from here on out, huh?" Alone with Axel.

This wasn't her first time getting acquainted with the fiery redhead. Their first meeting pre-dated the events at the Castle and the domino effect that occurred thereafter. He had been the captors that held her hostage to do their bidding, who'd convinced her to use her powers to cause the whole mess in the first place. Though, Axel wasn't quite like the others.

He'd set her free to move about, allowing herself to follow her...whatever the driving force behind her decision-making was. And it was because of him she'd met Sora in the flesh in the first place.

She hadn't seen Axel since then, so meeting him again now was quite strange. Much had transpired since then, that she was aware of. Restoring Sora's memories meant she'd had to sift through Roxas's as well, and she'd seen, over the year, how the light and flickering flame of their friendship had grown.

What Axel was feeling now, if anything at all, she couldn't quite say. His expression was hard to discern; gone was the playful, rather arrogant mask he always wore around the Castle, revealing solemn emerald eyes set above those tear-shaped markings underneath.

"So…" she began rather awkwardly, their words echoing despite the lack of walls or structures in this realm.

"Thank you."

"Huh?"

"For taking care of him." He looked up, quickly noticing her puzzled expression. "Of Roxas."

"Nobody would miss me." Roxas's back was turned to him, barely visible under the cloak of his Organization uniform and the looming night sky of The World that Never Was. Axel's face grew wet, but it was the pitter-pattering against the concrete streets that told him that rain had begun to fall.

It was foolish of him to think the sensation hailed from anything otherwise - he would have needed a heart to cry, after all.

He could only stand and watch as his best friend disappeared into the night rain, chasing after the answers he hoped resided in its mist. Answers that Axel already knew, but couldn't relay himself.

Cowardice was what a Somebody might call it.

"You did the thing I wanted, but couldn't bring myself to do," he continued. "Not until it was too late, anyway." He looked straight into her indigo eyes. "You had the guts to tell him the truth."

She pushed strands of her wispy blonde hair behind her ear, finding herself needing to take a step back under his rather intense stare. "Only because...it was what he wanted. Even though..." The pained expression in those cerulean eyes flashed in her mind once more. "...it ended up hurting him."

"He deserved to know." Axel's shoulders were slumped, gaze averted. "He deserved to make his own choice in the end."

"As do we all," Naminé agreed, clutching her sketchbook close to her chest. A few somber moments passed between them.

"So, you said there was someone you wanted to go see," Axel inquired, finally breaking the silence. Naminé looked up; gone was the glazed-over haze that clouded his features, replaced by the return of that impish grin he'd always worn around the Castle. The same mischievous look he'd given her the first time he'd let her go free… "Now who might that be?"

Her sketchbook was still turned to the page she'd been glancing at before, seated against the grain of that wooden park bench and under Riku's watchful gaze. The shadows of the Realm of Darkness now obscured the white space of the canvas that Twilight Town's setting sun previously illuminated, but the scribbled forms of Sora and Roxas still stood tall, hand in hand, in its center.

"Given the way things are, I think putting my munny on Sora's a good bet, wouldn't ya say?" Naminé let out a gasp, only suddenly aware of Axel's tall, lean frame looming over her.

"We made a promise," Naminé explained once she'd regained her composure.

"A promise, huh?"

"Yes. But..."

"When I wake up, I'll find you," Sora began, standing in front of the pod he didn't know he'd be spending his next year in. "And then there'll be no lies. We're gonna be friends for real. Promise me, Naminé." She remembered the warmth of his calloused pinky entwined with hers - a physical symbol of that promise, Sora had explained.

She'd smiled then, but that wasn't the expression she bore on her face now.

"You're going to forget making that promise," she'd explained to him. And though he denied it then…

"'Thank Naminé,'" Jiminy chirped, reviewing the memo he'd left behind before he'd been put to sleep along with Sora. Now finally awake, Sora simply stood between Donald and Goofy, the three of them shaking their heads, not a single spark of recognition in any of their eyes.

It had been foolish of her to hope otherwise, and yet the truth still stung. Part of her wondered what might happen if she did go through and reunite with him, but she knew better. If Roxas couldn't remember Axel, his best friend, while imprisoned in the Data Twilight Town, why would Sora remember her, now an insignificant speck who'd been more of a nuisance than anything in the time he'd known her?

But there was another promise she'd made, one that was already half fulfilled. Roxas had gone back to Sora, whole again, as Naminé had guaranteed. Now, she had to make good on the last half.

"Roxas!" she cried, staving off DiZ's grasp as he tried to drag her through another dark corridor. "We will meet again, and then we can talk about everything. I may not know it's you, and you may not know it's me. But we will meet again. Someday soon. I promise!"

If she ever wanted to see either of them again, this was not the form she could meet them in.

"Roxas isn't the only one who needed to go back to where he came from." Naminé flipped her sketchbook closed, now holding it against her stomach.

"Don't tell me…" Axel's jaw was clenched, his fists shaking harder and harder as she'd relayed her true resolve. "You're going to throw your life away, too?"

"A life that was never meant to exist in the first place. Just like Roxas's."

"You really believe that?!" She could have sworn embers began to glow and swirl around his body, his shoulders tightening even further. Still, she stood steadfast.

"I never had a right to exist. And by doing so...look what's happened. I messed up so much for so many people, and Roxas paid the price, too…"

"You were our prisoner!" Axel only grew more exasperated. "You only 'messed' things up because we told you to!"

"And you only told me to because of this power I have," she shot back calmly. "A power that'll be much better done away with now that Sora's memories are restored." Another moment of silence passed, though tension weighed heavily in the air. She held her breath when Axel opened his mouth once more.

"You've never actually had a taste of freedom before, have you?" Axel broke the silence once again. His tone was much calmer this time, devoid of the fiery passion she feared might burst into flames earlier.

She looked up at him, curiosity now simmering beneath her deep blue eyes. "Freedom?" she parrotted, the word leaving a foreign, indiscernible flavor on her tongue.

Now Axel was the one dumbfounded. Everything in her tone, her body language, demanded an explanation of the concept, and yet…

All his years as a Nobody had been spent serving under the Superior, until now.

A rogue agent, he...was truly free for the first time himself, wasn't he?

"Well," he began, his words now brimming with newfound purpose, "we're gonna figure that out together." He turned, his back now towards her as he began to step forward. "And I'm gonna bring him back. So he can taste freedom too."

"What?"

"Come on, you can't think it's fair? You and me, finally free to do what we want, while Roxas is trapped and hidden away? You say he made the choice, but you think this is what he really wanted?"

Naminé pondered over his words for a moment, finding herself not completely disagreeing. Had the circumstances been different, would Roxas have made the same choice?

Would she?

"...Even if we could, how would we - ?"

"We'll find a way," he assured her, tone full of resolve. Axel marched onwards, and Naminé was forced to decide whether or not to catch up with him.

What "freedom" truly was, Naminé still did not fully understand, but the choice behind her next step was hers to make.

A/N: I'm sorry I haven't been as active. Here's a piece I wrote the other day. Any and all feedback I can get is extremely helpful.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.

-Bliss