13 members, 13 chapters.

We're coming close to the chapter where the real hero of this story comes in. I need to work everything out still (planning for this story before I started was virtually non-existent), but hopefully you'll like it.

I want to take this moment to say that I lost my English teacher this past weekend. He's the one who inspired me to write, and his death was a low blow for me. I want to take this chapter to remember him, and pray he finds peace wherever he may go.

For now, just enjoy this.

Chapter Thirteen: New Bonds

There it was again. The shadow. He watched as it yet again transformed into himself- same height, same build, same hair. But this time, he was ready.

He held his hand out and concentrated. Before long, his new blade was clutched in his hand. He got into his fighting stance.

"Bring it," he said, his voice echoing off of the darkness.

The shadow glanced at the blade, but said nothing.

Then, it suddenly whipped out his own blade from nowhere. His eyes went wide- it was exactly the same blade that he had.

"W-What are you?" he stammered.

The shadow, in response, flew at it. He got ready to block when there was a huge ray of light that shot out and hit both of them.

It was burning him; his skin was peeling off, his hair molting. He dropped his blade and clutched his oozing hand. He looked up, expecting to see the shadow gone, when he realized something.

The shadow was turning into him… and he was turning into the shadow.

He tried to get to it, but found his legs were melted into the ground, his bones fused with it. Approaching feet made him realize the shadow was right over him. It lifted its blade as he lifted his arm.

"NOOOO!"

"Wakey wakey, Sunshine."

Dexn's eyes popped open right into the barrel of a magnum.

"JESUS!" he screamed, bolting to the other side of his bed and effectively hitting his head against the wall.

Moxt chuckled. "Relax, kid. Ain't gonna shoot ya or nothin'," he said.

Dexn rubbed his weary eyes. "Moxt, what are you doing here?" he asked. Not that he wasn't a friend, but he rarely talked to him during the day as it was, let alone prod him with a magnum at seven in the morning.

"C'mon, we're gonna spend the day together, savvy?" Moxt grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and, with one hand, lifted him up and out of bed.

"Why?" Dexn questioned wearily.

"'Cause," Moxt snapped his fingers and No. 13 was in his outfit, "I reckon it's time you got friendly with people instead of chillin' by yourself. Up."

Before he knew it, No. 8 was leading him down into the kitchen. It was empty; everyone had already eaten and left. Moxt sat him down and went over to the cupboards.

"Whaddya want, eh? Pancakes, waffles, French toast?" he called over.

"Just… just some toast, thanks," Dexn replied.

Moxt popped some bread into the toaster and slammed it down.

"I swears, this world's got some crazy gadgets," he chuckled, grabbing his coffee mug and making a cup, "but it comes in pretty damn handy, y'know?"

"I guess," his companion nodded. Moxt sat opposite him and took a sip.

"Mmm. Damn good," he repeated.

"Hey, shouldn't you and Naxan be hanging out?" Dexn asked. Lately, the two had become damn near inseparable. But now, he had seen neither hide nor hair of the black-haired beauty.

"Nah, she's gettin' kinda sick of me. And vice versa," Moxt sipped his joe again, "'Sides, why not wanna hang the day with my good buddy Vexn?"

"It's 'Dexn.'"

"Right, right, sorry." Moxt waved it aside. Dexn's toast popped up, and No. 13 gladly got up to get away from the other and put butter on it.

"So," Moxt said when Dexn sat back down, "Boss tells me you finally got your merchandise selected."

Dexn slowly glanced up. "My… what?" he asked.

No. 8 chuckled. "Weapon, dude. You finally got your weapon."

"Oh… yeah, I did."

"Good. Say, hows about we go and check it out over a good ole' fashioned brawl?"

Before he could respond, Dexn was warped into the training area. He was on one end, Moxt on the other.

"Aiighty, kid, let's see it," the older member called.

Dexn reached out and concentrated. In a beam of light, the blade was in his hands. He looked up and saw Moxt staring at it, completely transfixed.

Moxt's eyes were wide. Here it was, the legendary Keyblade. He was looking upon it with his own eyes- something he never thought he'd be able to do. It really was a beautiful tool. Gods, wait til Nax hears about this.

"Moxt?" Dexn called, snapping Moxt out of his daydreams, "We gonna go?"

"Oh, yeah," In a fluid motion, Moxt extended both hands. Two large fiery funnels exploded out of his hands and flew around the room. Two large balls came down towards him and exploded above him. Two magnums fell out. Moxt caught both of them and flipped them around. He crossed his arms, cocked the mags, and looked up, with his cocky smirk on.

"Ready, Short Stuff?" he asked.

"Bring it," Dexn called. Just like in his dream.

Like the Flash (a character out of some Earthling "comic book" Dexn had picked up somewhere), Moxt flipped both guns at him and opened up with a hail of those heavy .50 caliber bullets. Dexn deflected all of them with his blade as his opponent took that time to run at him, still firing.

Dexn slammed his blade in front of the first magnum while it opened fire on him. Moxt maneuvered the second gun under wards, but Dexn fixed it so he was deflecting both guns at once.

They broke apart. Moxt flipped and landed on one hand, back facing away from Dexn. His hand swiftly turned him to his opponent, and he fired the magnum in his hand. No. 13 deflected two of them and then jumped left and rolled.

Moxt flipped off his hand and brought his feet to the pillar and jumped off. He went sideways past Dexn, firing both magnums in his hands. The younger member again maneuvered and bounced back the bullets, surprisingly graceful despite the gangly appearance.

"Not bad, kid!" No. 8 called over, making a quick check of the guns, "Now we're gonna get a little more serious."

He came out and let loose a never-ending hail of bullets. Dexn flipped around and around, bouncing bullets back with his Keyblade. It was getting repetitive- he needed to make a move soon.

He jumped back and rushed around the pillar and to Moxt's right. The gunsman whipped around and fired both his guns. Dexn deflected bullet after bullet and made a jumping lunge.

Moxt dived and rolled onto his back. He looked up to find Dexn over him, Keyblade aimed straight above him.

"Looks like I win," No. 13 said triumphantly.

Moxt just grinned. Suddenly, his foot met Dexn's leg and flipped him off his feet onto the floor. No. 8 then flipped up and above and threw a magnum into the air. He landed in front of Dexn, caught his magnum in the air, and aimed it at the younger member's head.

"No," he said, "I win."

In a fiery flash, the magnums were gone. Moxt reached down and helped his friend up.

"Jeez, you're rusty. I woulda thought you woulda had some good moves there, but it was an awfully repetitive fight," he whistled.

"No kidding," Dexn agreed, "If you're all I'm gonna be training with, I think I'm screwed."

At that, a light bulb went off in Moxt's head. The dreaded grin returned.

"I gotta idea."

88888

"Nax! Nax! Wait up!"

Naxan turned to see Moxt running to catch up to her. He made it. "Been lookin' for ya," he said.

"Well, this can't possibly be the Swinging Gunsman Moxt, because I could've sworn we had both agreed to stay away from each other," she said, jokingly. In reality, she was glad he was there.

"True, but that was before I had the tremendous idea of you helping me train the little brat. He needs fresh competition, whaddya say?" he almost pleaded.

She raised an eyebrow under her shades. "He's that much of a handful?" she asked.

"No, God… Come on, I'll explain on the way," he grabbed her hand and led her down into the training grounds.

When they got there, they found Dexn just practicing by himself with his Keyblade. When she saw it, Naxan's mouth dropped a little.

"Wow," she said softly, "So that's it."

"Yeah," Moxt said, "Beautiful piece of work, eh?"

"Yeah," she agreed, "It's so… I don't even know what to say."

"Well, wait 'til you fight him. You're in for a no-surprises fight."

The two stepped into the arena. Dexn looked up to see who his partner had brought. He lowered his shades and gave an un-believing look.

"Naxan? That's who you got to go against me?" he demanded.

"Pfft. You make it sound like she can't kick your ass in a heartbeat," Moxt leaned against the wall, "Aiight, Nax. It's your show."

Dexn sighed in defeat, and stood on his side of the arena. Naxan stood on the other end. No. 13 took that time to realize that something about her changed significantly. When she looked up at him, she seemed cocky, confident, and completely in control of the situation. Ready to roll, with a smile to match her co-hort's.

Probably because she'd been hanging around Moxt so long.

"Thing's are gonna be a little different now," she said to him. "We're playing by my rules now. And I fight a little… different from an ordinary fighter."

She arched her arms out. A bright light illuminated from above and lifted her up a bit. In her hands, beams of light circulated, and finally took the form of the golden discs she fought with. The light disappeared, and she landed back on the ground on both feet. She stared at him.

"Hope you got your white flag handy," she said sweetly, with a hint of triumph.

And with that, with a speed overshadowing Moxt's earlier, she whipped both discs at the unsuspecting member. Dexn, caught by surprise, hit one of them and found that the speed and density of the object was strong. The second one added to it and he fell backwards.

He quickly flipped back up just as she fired a third disc right at him. He landed and got up in time to bounce a fourth disc back towards its owner.

Naxan barely moved her head to let the disc fly by, not even grazing her. She flipped into the air and fired another one. Dexn dodged it and then flung his Keyblade at her, in an attempt to try to hone some new techniques.

Naxan kicked it into a wall and landed on her feet, a cat-like position. She whipped three discs in between her fingers and flung them at him.

The Keyblade master ran quickly for his weapon and desperately pulled it out of the wall as the discs came. One grazed his arm, just nipping at the flesh. He finally got it out and smacked the other two away.

As she fired another, he decided it was now or never. He ran full speed, smacking the disc, and made a spin slice. She flipped backwards and away from him.

He looked at her with a triumphant look. "This all you got?" he cooed, "Because this isn't at all hard."

Moxt winced. Oh boy, he thought.

Naxan just stood there with the smile on. Then, slowly, she lifted her arm and held her hand out. Her thumb tapped her middle finger. Dexn frowned. What was this? Naxan smiled.

snap!

At the snap, suddenly hundreds of light discs flew out of her fingers and went straight for her opponent. If he had been caught off guard before, now he was completely lost. He did his best to maneuver, deflect discs back, flip here and there-

No use. There were just too many of them. Finally, the weight was too much and he again fell backwards. He raised his hand in the air, signaling his surrender.

All at once, the discs vanished. Dexn got up as the two senior members walked over to him.

"Da-ha-ham, Nax! That was something! You been working on a new technique?" asked Moxt.

"Just a little surprise move I came up with," Naxan answered smugly, "A secret weapon of sorts."

She looked at Dexn, who was dusting himself off. "Good game, kid," she said cheerfully.

"Game? Jesus, I suck," No. 13 whined.

"Eh, coulda been worse. At least it wasn't Naxst," Moxt said. The other two shuddered at the thought of the type of chaos that would've been unleashed.

"Well, to celebrate this new little trio, to the kitchen! Cake time!" Moxt headed for the door, the other two right behind.

"Oh no. You are so not cooking again. My digestive tract still hasn't recovered from last time," scolded Naxan.

"Hey guys?"

Both turned back to Dexn, who seemed withdrawn.

"Can… we do this tomorrow too?" he asked.

This had been his greatest time here, and he wanted it to continue. He wanted to have actual friends.

Naxan glanced at Moxt, asking without words if she was allowed. Moxt shrugged as a "Why not?"

"Aiight, kid. We'll do this tomorrow, next day… 'til you can actually try to beat us," he said all cocky.

"Just you wait. I'll be the best swordsman ever," Dexn pushed past and went on his way to be first in the kitchen.

If he had waited, he would've seen that the other two look at each other seriously at his words. Moxt sighed.

"I sure hope so," he said, "For our humanity's sake."

Naxan nodded. The two went after their new friend, thinking that, with their help, everyone would finally be happy.

A little action for you guys, because there's been so little so far.

Not a true story battle scene. I'll let you know when the actual fights occur. It'll be a huge speech.

Anyhoo, hope you like the fights, as awful as they may be. Sorry, but it's hard when one's a swordsman and the other two use projectiles.

Well, whaddya think?

Review please.