Summary: Why was Axel so hell-bent on getting Roxas back after he left the Organization? Where did those ink-drops beneath his eyes come from? Axel's journal might shed some light on the subject... The original Number XIII... LEAVE REVIEWS PLEASE, PEOPLE!

Disclaimer: I don't own Square Enix or Disney. If I did, I would be a very, very rich woman, even richer if I lent out men like Axel, Leon, and Sephiroth to people willing to pay the price for a period of time with them. I do, however, own all rights to the OC in here.

Fiery Surrender

For a woman whose abilities were so geared towards darkness and the element of surprise, Onyx had a surprising love of fire and heat. She had a talent for arson that rivaled my own, but prior to our friendship she had never used true flame. She had a kind of dark fire (as she called it) that could burn anything to ash, including flesh and bone. Even stone was not beyond its all-consuming embrace. It proved to be a most satisfactory partnership: what my fires failed to destroy, her darkness would obliterate.

Xemnas originally paired us up because our abilities worked well together. We obeyed him (what choice did we have, anyway?), and over time a friendship cropped up. We worked together because we liked each other and were comfortable working together. Neither of us really trusted each other, of course, but we also trusted each other a lot more than we did anyone else in the Organization. I wouldn't betray her unless it was in my extreme best intrest, and she would do the same. Partnerships like ours don't come along everyday, after all. Yeah, we did some solo missions after we met, but mostly we went out in the field together.

Fighting with her - not against her - was something indescribable, a lethal dance of interweaving fire and darkness. We worked out a strategy through long weeks of trial and error, during fights with various people the Organization wanted to turn into Nobodies. Yeah, I know. A Nobody only forms when the heart is stolen away. But a Heartless can be created in battle just as easily as through manipulation. Anger and hatred surface better in fights than anywhere else, after all. As long as my fires were kept unlit, I could be hidden in her darkness. She'd wear the target out or engage his or her companions, and then when the moment was right she'd drop the darkness shielding me from view, leaving me to attack with speed and the element of surprise. Man, some of the looks on their faces! Moments like that I wished I could have had a camera with me. When all was said and done, and our target's original form had been destroyed, leaving a Heartless and a Nobody somewhere behind, we would just look at each other and grin like the invincible maniacs we were.

Good times.

I don't know when the attraction started. I think it may have been there from the first time we fought, the first time we met. Love at first sight? Hardly. Nobodies don't have hearts. But we can remember. The echoes of emotions contained in the heart we lost remains with us, so we can feel emotions, to a certain extent. Kinda like the difference between a candle-flame and a firestorm. One is there and can offer some heat and light, but not much. It is mezmerizing, but the enthrallment is easily broken. The other is definately there and offers so much more, lighting up the sky and burning away everything in its path. Transfixing its beholders with fear and its own hypnotic grace so they cannot escape. Destroying even whilst giving. That's the difference. Got it memorized? Good. In any case, what we had at first was physical attraction.

I mentioned previously how I thought she had a nice rack the first time I saw her. That thought kept crossing my mind whenever she was breathing hard, like after a battle or something. Larxene never filled out those robes as well as Onyx did. Blondie was pretty flat-chested, far as I'm concerned. I started wondering what Onyx would look like without her robes on, and eventually some pretty hot daydreams started working their way into my head. There were some nights when I'd sit up just playing with fire and flammable objects, watching her while she slept, wondering how she'd react if I was to burn that black fabric right off her body. At first I figured she'd try and slice me up good before demanding I surrender my robes to replace hers (what a Kodak moment it would be, if I were to walk into the castle like that!), but over time I began to realize that she might not be all that angry.

That line of thinking started when I accidentaly caught her bathing while we were out on a mission in the Land of Dragons. I had woken up in the middle of the night for some reason, and when I looked over at her blankets they were empty. Kinda figured I'd find her in the river. I mean, we'd had to fight some locals (gotten a dusk and a samurai out of that bunch) earlier, and she'd gotten quite a bit of blood on her. Onyx wasn't the most meticulous Nobody I'd ever met, but she also hated being that filthy. I mean, who enjoys being soaked with bodily fluids (aside from Larxene and Sa'ix)? So I moseyed on down to the river and, sure enough, there she was.

If I had a heart, I think it would have stopped beating for a moment. I mean, damn, my fantasies were nothing compared to reality! I think the only reason she turned around was because she heard my jaw hit the ground.

And she was so cool about it. Didn't get mad at all. Onyx just turned so I could see a little bit better and struck a pose, asking me with this devilish smile if I liked what I saw. All I could do was nod like a dumbass. If it was possible, her grin got even wider then. She told me that if I wanted it, then I would have to be a very bad boy. She didn't like nice men. With that, she dunked herself into the water and stayed under until I went back to the camp.

Things changed between us from then on. There was a lot more flirtation and tension than before, and we were eying each other even more closely. Whenever we finished a fight, it was all I could do not to just go over to her and rip that robe right off that body of hers. I could tell by the look in her eye that she was entertaining similar thoughts. Why we didn't, I still don't know. I don't think any of the other Nobodies picked up on what was going on between us, but I can't be sure. Demyx might have. Possibly Larxene too, but then again she hated Onyx anyway. Feeling was mutual.

Things finally came to a head while we were messing around in Traverse Town. We'd just nailed this really powerful bastard, can't even remember his name, but it was a tough fight. Once it was over, we had holed up in an abandoned house to rest. Yeah, I know we can all travel to the castle and other places at will, but neither me nor Onyx really liked spending too much time in the City That Never Was, much less the Castle. When out on a mission, we preferred to stay in that world until our objective had been accomplished. Didn't much like cooperating with whatever whim the members higher up on the scale had in mind at the moment. Still don't. We had just fought off a bunch of Heartless after taking down our target, and we were just too tired to mess with going back to the Castle right then. It would mean reporting to Xemnas right off the bat, and talking to him is always exhausting. I mean, the guy's so manipulative it hurts your brain to try and decipher the true meaning behind everything he says. Vexen was just as bad.

Here I am, getting off-track. Way to go, Axel. Making yourself look stupid. Not that it matters anymore, I suppose. Regardless, it was after that fight that we realized we had a minor conundrum on our hands. We hadn't anticipated staying in Traverse Town any longer than necessary, so we hadn't brought any blankets with us this time. So we decided to sleep leaning against each other for warmth. Her warmth. Darkness is cold, after all. We fell asleep like that, my arm around her shoulder and her leaning against me, as close as you please.

Dunno how much time had passed, but I was still a pretty tired when I felt a hand running up and down my chest through the robe. That woke me up, and I looked at Onyx. She told me that she couldn't sleep, too wound up despite her exhaustion, and asked me if I knew any way to help her settle down. Well, sure I had an answer. I'd had once since I'd seen her bathing in that river. But I wasn't sure she'd want to do it then.

Something must have shown in my eyes, because she yanked my head down and, right before she kissed me, told me "Do it."

So I did.

Man, what an experience that first time was. Skin sliding together, robes cushioning us while we made out and touched every inch of each others' bodies. Sounds only just covered up by the lips of the other. Our hair interweaving so it formed a mat of inky black chill and the fire's red heat, fingers clasping and unclasping, roaming where they would. Onyx whimpering beneath me as we moved, fire into darkness, lighting up the night with a myriad of beautiful explosions. I don't think our eyes left each other the entire time after we came together. I just couldn't stop looking at those pruple-wine eyes of hers, so dark in her passion. She was a mystery, and I wanted to discover every part of her, burning away the illusions so she was bare before me even as she tried to hide in her darkness and tease me with even more mysteries.

When it was over, we just lay there, too wrecked to move. She managed to flip one of our robes over us so anybody who came by - modesty is so irrational sometimes - wouldn't get an eyeful, and we went to sleep at last, my head pillowed on her chest and her fingers buried in my red mane.

It was an experience we would repeat whenever we got the chance. Sometimes immediately after battles we'd be at each other, tearing the robes off so we could get at the skin beneath, our mouths already devouring each other, our weapons fallen and forgotten. It didn't matter who saw or where we were. We had to get together right then. Not in a minute, not when we had some privacy. Then.

Then tension fell away, and our friendship strengthened a hundredfold. We still didn't trust each other completely, but we knew that we wouldn't turn the other in for some misdemeanor unless it was absolutely necessary. Call us what you will. We had no words for what we shared, but we knew we enjoyed it greatly. Whatever it was called that we shared, the word had been stolen along with our hearts.

All we knew was that we surrendered to each other in a sea of molten fire and shielding darkness, and we liked it.