Chapter 8...Things are going down...this chapter felt a bit like a filler chapter at first, but I think I got some necessary stuff in it. Still not certain how many chapters this thing will be until the end though! All characters, (except for Xandra, my OC) belong to the guy who made KH.

Whatever Xandra had been expecting, it was not this.

She had assumed that if Axel1 (the future Axel), met Axel2 (the CO, past Axel), something horrendous would happen, like the world exploding, or both of them spontaneously combusting, or merging into one.

But this was far worse.

"You know, you're right. That cloak does fit kind of oddly at the back."

Axel1 was giving Axel2 fashion advice.

Xandra pressed her back to the wall, peering around the corner in astonishment. The two red-haired men were standing inside Axel1's room, barely distinguishable from each other. Axel1 appeared to be taller by a half inch, with a more worn cloak and a face that seemed to hold a little more emotion than the other man, likely due to having spent so much time with Roxas and Xion. Axel2 was looking around, seeming to be barely surprised that he had been transported across space and time.

"How come your cloak looks the exact same as mine?" Axel2 asked, his voice slightly more emotionless. "They really didn't change these outfits at all in the future?"

Axel1 shook his head.

"Nah. Maybe, when you get back to your time, you could mention the idea to Saix, and get the ball rolling. I'm thinking something without sleeves. It gets damn hot in Agrabah."

This is insane, Xandra thought to herself. But she really should have known. Of course Axel would be unfazed at the sight of another version of himself. He's Axel.

Her lips curled up at the thought, but it was a hollow humour. That was the right word for how she felt. Hollow. She felt like a shell, a sack of bones and meat with nothing inside. All that was left were echoes of things, reverberating around in her empty chest, striking off the walls of their cage with a dull pain.

It was worse when she looked at Axel. The twinge became an ache, a solid pulse of pain. She distantly recognized it as longing.

And now there were two of them standing in front of her. Great.

"So then, twin," Axel2 said, his tone deceptively casual. "You say you're the future version of me?"

"Well, you just popped into existence into my room, looking exactly like me and saying that you come from Castle Oblivion, which is a place I was at a while ago," Axel1 responded, shrugging his shoulders. "What I want to know, is if you're my past self, than why don't I remember having this conversation?"

"Maybe I'm not supposed to be here," Axel2 mused thoughtfully.

Xandra decided that this was as good a time as any to cut in.

"Yeah, you don't," she exclaimed, sauntering into the room.

Both of them whipped around at the sound of her voice and took an eerily similar battle stance. Xandra leaned casually on the doorframe, unsure how to proceed, but not allowing any of that to show on her face. She couldn't drag him out by force, so she should try to use her feminine wiles.

You wanted me once, Axel, she thought. Maybe there's something here you'll still find worth wanting.

"You need to come back to the past, with me," she said silkily, fixing her eyes on the younger Axel. "You're in the wrong time, Axel."

"Oh, really?"

Axel2 smirked at her.

"Maybe you wouldn't be so keen on chasing after me if you knew what I did to your friend."

Xandra blinked in surprise, then elegantly lifted one shoulder and dropped it.

"More like what she did to me. Ever wonder how you ended up here? She didn't take too kindly to your little stunt, so she sent you into the future. Trust me, she's fine."

One thing Xandra was good at was bluffing. She had no idea what Axel had tried to so to Xion, but Axel didn't need to know that.

"That's the problem though," Axel2 said. "I don't trust you, Xandra."

She flinched involuntarily at the sound of her new, Nobody name coming out of Axel's mouth. It was so similar to her old, Somebody name.

She forced a low chuckle, ducking her head. Stop it! She told herself. Right now, he is a tool, a means to an end.

Xandra pictured Xion and Roxas, holding hands, staring into each other's eyes. Yes, she would save them. She would do some good in her life before she disappeared.

Time for the seductress to appear.

She raised her head and slowly sashayed across the room towards the past Axel, a small smile curving her mouth.

"Trust me or not," she murmured, brushing her fingertips across the front of his cloak, glancing up at him through her eyelashes. "You...need me." The last words were whispered into his ear, her warm breath skipping over his skin. For a split second she leaned into him, letting her curves press against him, feeling him tense in a different way than he had before, shifting as though about to pull her nearer-

And then she stepped away, her hand slipping off of his chest. If she had stayed there too long, she might not have been able to pull away from him, so that was enough of that. She shot a coy look at both of them over her shoulder as she moved out of reach. To her surprise, Axel1 had a strange look on his face, something she hadn't expected. Jealousy. Axel2's eyes had darkened slightly, in that dangerous, sensual way she remembered them doing, and his breathing was just a little uneven.

Result, she thought triumphantly.

"You want to go back to your time, right?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "Then come with me."

"Wait. What did you say your name was?"

The blond-haired girl blinked blankly at Xion.

"It's Namine," she said, flashing a sad, sweet little smile. "I'm Kairi's Nobody."

"Kairi?" Roxas said, almost to himself. "Why does that sound so familiar?"

"You don't know?" Namine said in surprise. "But you-"

"Should go take out Vexen!" Xion interrupted, thrusting her hands between the two as though to break the invisible connection of their eyes. "Roxas, you should go take out Vexen so we can escape! Just knock him out or something."

Roxas turned towards her and nodded. As if on impulse, he reached up, his hand tracing her cheek briefly. The moment behind the bookcase shot into her mind, and she knew that he was thinking of the same thing.

"On my way," Roxas said, then turned and crept out of the room.

Xion, her cheeks still slightly pink, looked back to Namine, who was frowning at the spot where Roxas had disappeared. This was the girl. This was the girl who would cause the death of Roxas through her powers, the girl who was the tool of the Organization.

She thought she had been prepared for this. She knew what came next. She had to kill this girl, to save her best friend, and herself. But she had steeled herself to kill someone she thought was evil, or at best a mindless puppet following the Organization.

She flinched at her own choice of words. A puppet? Wasn't that what she, Xion, was?

Roxas. She was doing this for Roxas.

But this was Kairi's Nobody! Xandra hadn't told her that! And she seemed weak and scatterbrained and sad, but not evil at all. Another thought rocked through her like an aftershock: Roxas was Sora's Nobody. Did that mean that he and Namine were meant to be together? Like Sora and Kairi?

It didn't make sense, any of it!

"You can't use regular dark portals in this room," Namine said quietly, obviously unnerved by the silence. "Vexen made it weird like that."

Xion nodded. Xandra's portals weren't exactly normal, so it wasn't surprising that they still worked.

"So you're in love with Sora?" she asked, trying to distract herself from the thoughts racing through her brain.

Namine jumped back, looking shocked.

"What-?"

"Sorry, I just heard your conversation with Vexen earlier and I assumed-"

"Oh."

She fell silent, her face growing even sadder than it had been before.

"Yes. Sora will come and he will rescue me from all of this."

Her voice was abruptly childlike, her blue eyes even emptier than before, a desperate hope swimming in the bottom of them. Her thin arms wound around her stomach as though she was holding herself together.

"Rescue you?"

Namine nodded.

"I've been all alone," she whispered plaintively. "All alone with no one one to be my friend. He's a hero. He can save me."

"But it sounded before like you were trying to oppose Vexen's ideas!" Xion exclaimed in frustration. "You don't want Sora to be hurt, do you?"

"I...I just want to be taken away from here," the blond-haired girl replied.

For a moment Xion was silent, but she knew that Roxas wouldn't be gone forever. She flexed her fingers and summoned the Keyblade, feeling a burst of power rush through her limbs. Namine gazed down at the Keyblade in awe and confusion.

"Sorry, Namine," Xion said softly. "But this will take you away, don't worry."

She slowly started to raise the Keyblade over her head.