"Next, plug the white one into audio output," Axel read from the manual.

"Which one's audio output?" Demyx wondered, his head popping out from behind the television. "Is it this one?" He tried plugging the white cord in where he thought it went. The room filled with a loud burst of static.

After both boys could stop covering their ears, Axel ordered, "Let me do that. You just read the instructions."

They switched places, Axel going to the television, and Demyx sitting on his bed. Axel easily found the right plug for the white cord. The next step was easy. Plug the red cord into the other audio plug on the PlayStation.

Then, Demyx tried to read the next step, "Put the square thing in the AV MULTI OUT connector." AV MULTI OUT sounded more like "aavm you'll tea oot."

"What the…is that?"

"Aavm you'll tea oot," Demyx repeated.

"Let me see that," Axel commanded, grabbing the book from Demyx and reading the instruction. "Oh, that," he realized. He plugged it in, and everything was finished. They put the game in, and Axel sat down on the floor with the controller to play it.

"Hey, why do you get to play first?" Demyx demanded. "It was my idea."

"Because, I'm older than you," Axel teased.

After three minutes of watching Sora dreaming that he was falling, Axel pointed out, "This is almost the same as the dream Roxas told me about."

"What dream?" Demyx inquired.

"A couple nights ago, he came into my room and told me he had a dream like that…that's all."

"Hmm…odd," Demyx noted, seemingly pondering the connection.

Then, the playing of the game could actually begin. They were suddenly occupied with time consuming tasks such as collecting fish, coconuts, and logs, and chasing these dorky looking creatures named Donald and Goofy. That part was beginning to annoy Axel, since they were constantly two feet away but could never find each other. Just when he was about to cuss out Sora for being so stupid, they heard a knock at the door.

Urgently, he paused the game as Demyx changed the channel. Then, Demyx threw an extra cloak over the PlayStation, and Axel opened the door with the sound of Spanish soap operas playing in the background. Upon seeing Axel open Demyx's door, Xigbar was about to ask what he was doing there, until he noticed the ruffled hair, wrinkled clothes, and exhausted look. Axel blew a piece of hair out of his face in expectation of what Number II might say.

"I won't ask," Xigbar began. "Where's Demyx?"

"Demyx," Axel called back into the room as he disappeared behind the door, "it's for you."

A moment later, Demyx entered the doorway soaking wet. "Dude, why are you all wet?" Xigbar questioned, gesturing widely.

Looking down at himself, Demyx replied unsurely, "Uh…I'm not."

"Oh," Xigbar said skeptically, "okay then. The Superior asked me to tell ya you've got rounds tonight with Zexion. That's all. I'll let you two get back to whatever you were doing." Then, he left allowing a very perplexed look to come across his face. What were they doing? Something was really wrong.

Demyx went to sit down again as Axel wondered, "Why are you wet?"

"Well, when you went to open the door, you knocked over my fountain, and I had to throw myself in front of it so it wouldn't spill over the gaming system," Demyx explained.

"You have a fountain in your room?"

"Yeah," Demyx scoffed, pointing to where it once again stood. "I guess we never really were friends." As he started the game up again, he added, "Oh yeah, you'll have to play by yourself for a while tonight. I've got rounds to make."

It was close to midnight, and Axel was trying to defeat a monster known simply as the "Trick Master." He was beginning to grow tired—and watching Donald sleeping unconsciously as Sora fought wasn't helping any. Nor were the crazy circles he had to run in to survive. Finally, though, the thing died, at which point it was revealed that the reason they had been fighting—Alice—had disappeared yet again. Frustrated, Axel leaned his head against the bed, letting the controller fall to the floor.

Just then, Demyx came in announcing, "I'm back."

"Good," Axel sighed, "it's your turn."

Demyx easily complied, continuing their game through Deep Jungle and Agraba, back to Olympus Stadium, and then handed the controller to Axel because he was too brain dead to keep playing.

As Axel took up playing once again, he complained, "Hand it over you game hog."

Slurred from his fatigue, Demyx explained, "I jus' knew I wasn't gunna be able ta beat the higher levels than that, so I did the ones I could."

Axel rolled his eyes and entered the next world: Atlantica. Even after 15 hours of nonstop gaming, neither one could help but laugh at the three heroes' disguise for the world. Sora was a mermaid, Goofy was a turtle, and Donald was an octopus. It was quickly apparent that the game had gotten much harder. They suddenly had to fight all the hard stuff at the same time as they had to swim.

After another hour or so, Axel was finally done with the world's "boss" Ursula—that cheat book had helped them a lot. All of a sudden, a clock started beeping in the room. It surprised Demyx—who had been playing his sitar—causing him to strike a sour chord and shoot a geyser out of the floor beneath him.

Axel looked around the room for a while before asking, "What's that for?"

"It means we're late for breakfast," Demyx answered, once again soaking wet.

"Late?" Axel complained, forming a portal to the cafeteria, "Why can't you set it two minutes earlier and show up on time?"

Both boys entered the cafeteria through the same portal. Axel was once again flustered looking, and Demyx once again soaking wet. Everyone stopped eating for a second to look at them. Embarrassed by all the stares, both sheepishly went straight to their chairs.

Xigbar leaned over to Vexen who was sitting next to him and whispered, "See, I told ya something was up with those two."

Roxas had been upgraded to Saix's old seat—himself being replaced by one of the fan-girl part members—so Demyx noted, "Hey Roxas, the three of us finally get to sit together, just like we always wanted, right?"

Harshly, Roxas simply replied, "You're late."

Luxord turned to Axel and clicked his tongue as he wondered, "Are you two pretending to have hearts again? So inexperienced."

"Oh get over yourselves," Axel stated, standing up from his seat so everyone could hear. He pointed to Demyx as he continued, "He told me he had to follow one of us around everywhere, so I agreed to it. Do you have to turn everything into an over exaggerated drama?"

"Number VIII," Xemnas began, "return to your seat." As Axel complied, he continued, "Number VIII speaks the truth. By now, most of you know what Demyx did against us, and now you also know the punishment. He had a point, and that is why you see Roxas before us here today still, but what he did was also wrong, and he thus must be watched carefully. That is a responsibility to be shared among the entire organization."

That ended the conversation. In fact, it ended all conversation for the rest of that breakfast. Afterwards, Axel quickly got up and walked away—his steps still keeping their usual relaxed pace. Demyx looked around for a couple seconds and then followed Axel back to the video game. At first, Axel went back to the controls, and Demyx to the cheat book, but upon reading the information on Halloween Town, Demyx decided it would be easy enough for him.

He hopped down to the floor where the controller could actually reach, and mentioned, "This level should be easy enough for me. You can do the three after this."

"Oh, fine," Axel agreed, in a slightly bad mood because of breakfast.

Demyx was right, though, Halloween Town was really easy. The next level—Neverland—wasn't too hard either. Plus, it made Axel happy again because he got to learn how to fly, and he flew around in crazy circles until he felt better. Once Sora had beaten his own shadow—and a few other things—they moved on to Hollow Bastion.

Sora and Riku met again there, Riku starting the conversation with, "So, you finally made it. About time. I've been waiting for you. We've always been rivals, haven't we? You've always pushed me, as I've always pushed you."

Confused, Sora could only interject, "Riku…"

"But it all ends here. There can't be two Keyblade masters."

"What are you talking about?" Sora wondered, still lost.

"Let the Keyblade choose…its true master." He reached out a hand, and Sora's Keyblade instantly dissolved, to reappear a second later in Riku's hand. After examining the key, Riku continued, "Maleficent was right. You don't have what it takes to save Kairi. It's up to me. Only the Keyblade master can open the secret door and change the world."

"But that's impossible. How did this happen? I'm the one who fought my way here with the Keyblade!" Sora complained.

"You were just the delivery boy. Sorry, your part's over now. Here, go play hero with this," Riku finished, throwing him a stick and walking away.

"What!" Axel exclaimed.

Then, even Donald and Goofy left, following Riku since their orders had been to follow the Keyblade.

"No way!" He shouted, throwing the controller to the floor. "After nine levels of fighting my way all the way here, you're just gonna take it away from me like that! Without even a fight! I could beat you now; I know it. You dirty bastard, give me my key back!"

Demyx looked at him curiously for a second before commenting, "Well, you're really starting to get into this game."

"Am not," Axel countered, picking up the controller and grumpily continuing to play.

Just before dinner, the game ended around thirty hours after it had started. "Well, dang," Demyx stated, slightly let down.

"What?" Axel wondered.

"I got excited when Maleficent told Riku he could find just Kairi's heart out of all the others, but turns out her heart was in Sora and not in Kingdom Hearts, so we can't use that plan, and Sora didn't even release all of Kingdom Hearts. That was no help at all."

Axel smiled mischievously, pulling something out of his cloak. "That is why I bought Kingdom Hearts II too. It's the one we really needed. You just have to play the first one first."

Excitedly, Demyx lunged toward the game, exclaiming, "Let's play it!"

"Not yet," Axel corrected. "First, we eat dinner."

"But my clock hasn't—"

"And we're not going to be late," Axel interrupted.

This time, they managed to walk into the cafeteria completely normal looking and take their assigned seats. Xaldin was still setting the table, and he handed thirteen forks to Demyx noting, "You know this wasn't supposed to be like house arrest, don't you? You can leave your room."

Demyx just smiled sheepishly and started passing out forks as Larxene commented, "He's probably just afraid to hear what we think of him for it."

"And what do we think of him for it Larxene?" Xaldin wondered, knowing she was the one with the strongest "emotional" opinions about people.

"Personally," she began, "I respect him now more than I ever have." Then, she turned to Demyx himself and continued, "I never thought you had what it took to stand up for Roxas, or survive the Island, but you did both. And you fought me…but that doesn't mean that I'm not mad at you."

Surprised, Demyx raised his eyebrows at her comment, but remained silent. If he said anything, he'd probably give something away. Pretty soon, everyone had arrived for dinner. It was served, and went on completely normally—with Roxas being the exception, of course. He spent the entire time involved in the conversation of Marluxia and Luxord, on the other side of Demyx and Axel from him. Axel and Demyx just ate as fast as they could without seeming suspicious so they could return to the room.

Hallom's eyes opened slowly. Where was he? Looking around the room, he knew it was a place he'd never been before. When had he fallen asleep? Passed out, actually, he remembered suddenly. Taking a deep breath, he tried to sit up in the bed he was laying on. It was slightly painful still, but he realized he was feeling much better. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, slipping on his shoes, and once again glancing around the room, searching for where all his effects were.

A girl with brown hair sloppily pulled into a braid walked through the door, surprising Hallom as she greeted cheerfully, "Good morning boy. Are you feeling better?"

Instantly backed against the wall, Hallom questioned, "W-who are you?"

She smiled as she replied, "I didn't mean to frighten you. I'm Aerith. Your friends brought you here because you needed my help."

After thinking for a moment, Hallom asked, "Y-you know…Nehemiah?"

"Yes," she agreed. "In fact, he and his friends have come here for my help many times. It seems they're always getting themselves hurt. I've never seen you before, though. How do you know Sora?"

"Sora?" Hallom repeated, confused.

The two boys had immediately started on Kingdom Hearts II when they got back to Demyx's room. After watching another very strange opening scene involving Sora's odd dreams, both boys were shocked to know the game started with Roxas being the main character.

They hadn't played for very long when a voice behind them demanded, "What are you doing?"

Axel and Demyx looked to the door and saw Roxas standing there inside the room. He hadn't knocked; he just entered. His question hung dauntingly in the air for a moment before he came over to them, examining the television.

"V-video games," he stuttered, his voice momentarily returning to its normal tone. "Xigbar made it seem like it was something bad." He frowned, his mind flashing back to Sora's house and playing his various games. It was fun. These two Nobodies were his friends, right? He…he…he asked, "What game is it?"

Axel glanced to Demyx for a second before answering, "It's a game about you Roxas. It'll help you get your memory back. This is…how you became one of us. For you, Roxas, we'll start it over, and you can watch…your whole life."

He frowned again, a complex battle fighting in his mind. Something was telling him he shouldn't, but he was telling himself that he should. Unsurely, he cleared away a spot on the floor and sat down commenting, "I want to know."

They started the game over, even letting Roxas play most of the parts. He stayed for quite a while, until they got to a part where he had to fight Axel. Looking curiously to the real Axel, he inquired, "W-why am I fighting you?"

Axel looked at Roxas, then the game, and then thought back on his memories of the moment before beginning to reply, "Because you—"

"Oh, it's late," Roxas realized, suddenly standing up. "I…I…clean your room," he finished, instantly switching back to the evil, grumpy Roxas and leaving the room. Demyx and Axel looked at each other for a second before mutually deciding to play all the more diligently. They had a friend to save.

Levels passed, and hours flew by. Breakfast came and went, but neither Axel nor Demyx showed up for it. Fairly concerned, Katex showed up at their door afterwards. She knocked a few times, but no one answered. Now really worried, she opened the door and surfed in. Demyx was sprawled out across the bed, snoring and drooling over the edge. Axel was leaning against the bed, his head slumped onto his chest, the controller still between his hands. Her eyes followed the cord on the controller to the television where a picture of Sora floated lifelessly with the word "continue" underneath it.

"Sora," she muttered, recognizing the person, as well as the case entitled "Kingdom Hearts II" atop the PlayStation. "What have they been up to?" She asked herself.

Confused as to what to do, she sat quietly on the floor next to Axel and thought through it for a very long time. There could only be one reason he was playing the game: to release Kingdom Hearts. That was a horrible thing to do, though. She knew she should turn him in…but, on the other hand, he was her boyfriend. She wanted to stand behind him in every decision he made. Plus, she was sure he had a good reason for it.

Eventually, she decided that the only way for her to make the right decision would be to find out why he did it. After calling his name several times to wake him up with no response, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and stood up. She knew she had to tell Xemnas, and it was going to be hard. She would do it, though, no matter how hard it was. Turning to leave the room, she stopped one last time at the door to look at would soon be her dead boyfriend.

Something stopped her from leaving the room, however, and it wasn't Katex changing her mind in the last moment because Axel was just so drop dead gorgeous. In fact, it wasn't her changing her mind for any reason. That would be too fairytale-ish. Instead, Axel had heard the sound of the door opening and slowly opened his eyes. Though, he had woken up because of the door, he didn't realize that that was the reason, so he grabbed the controller, ready to begin the game anew. Then, for some reason, he glanced toward the door and noticed Katex staring at him in shock.

"Spitfire," he began, calling her by his nickname for her, "what are you doing here?"

"I…I came to see if everything was all right with you two," she replied, slightly relieved, slightly still angry. "We missed you at breakfast."

"Breakfast? Is it passed that time already?" Axel asked obliviously.

"Yeah, it's 10:45."

"Oh."

She waited a couple moments just to see if he would say anything before she started again, "What the hell are you doing Axel? With that game?"

"What? That game?" Axel questioned, looking at the screen again. "Roxas was playing it with us last night. It is all about him…wonderful for regaining his memory, really."

Katex glared at him like she didn't believe him because she didn't. "Axel, don't try to fool me. I know that game. I beat it once before."

"Then why are you getting all heated with me over it?"

"Because! That was before I became a Nobody and actually realized how important Kingdom Hearts really is to people like us! How could you possibly think of ruining that hope for all of us? For yourself? For me?"

Realizing just how much he'd hurt her, Axel decided it would be best if he actually explained why they had been playing the game, starting from the moment Demyx reentered the castle down to then. By the end of the story, she wasn't exactly sure what to think.

"I'm…I'm gonna have to think about this," she decided, leaving Axel's room for her own.