Axel stretched lazily as he entered the gray area. He stood in the doorway and surveyed the room. Saïx stood by the wall of windows talking with Vexen, obviously giving him his assignment for the day. Demyx sat on one of the couches, strumming his Sitar as usual. Marluxia and Xigbar were reclining on opposite couches and Luxord was over on the right of the room, making deals with the cloaked moogle. Other than Xerisa standing near Saïx, still with her hood up, everyone else was absent.
Axel began his trek across the room to Saïx. At about that time, Luxord had finished his shopping and headed across to where Xigbar and Marluxia sat. The two nobodies greeted each other with a nod as their paths crossed. Luxord announced to Marluxia that he was ready and the two created a dark corridor and left.
Vexen turned away from Saïx and created a dark corridor by holding out his right hand. As he made the turn, he caught sight of Axel and a scowl crossed his face. The two stood, eyes locked in a glare, until Vexen turned away and entered the dark corridor to begin his mission.
"You should watch your back," Saïx said.
"I can handle him," Axel replied, still staring in the direction Vexen had gone.
"That's not what I meant," Saïx said in a tone that caused Axel to turn. "You're both on thin ice right now, pardon the pun. A fight between you would be all the reason Xemnas needs to take either of you out."
"Now what did I do?" Axel asked, as if I didn't know. "I was only following orders."
"You know very well what you did," Saïx scolded. "The Organization does not forget, although we may overlook your little rogue missions if you behave."
"I'll be a good boy, promise," Axel said, with a smug grin on his face.
Saïx was not amused. "You'll be paired up with Xerisa today."
"Guess I disserve that," Axel said, "what's she need to be taught today?"
"There's nothing to be taught, she's learned all she needs to in the past week," Saïx said, "I'm simply sending the two of you on a recon mission."
"How fun," Axel said. "I thought Vexen and Demyx usually take those missions."
"I did one already today," Demyx called, sounding rather pleased with this accomplishment.
"And Vexen is needed elsewhere," Saïx went on, all but ignoring Demyx. "I'm sending you two to Neverland."
"Neverland?" Axel repeated, "think I've been there."
"You have been," Saïx said. "You and Roxas seemed to be the only ones who could fully navigate the area."
"So then why are we going again?" Axel asked, "Haven't you already done recon there?"
"We cannot be sure how long we were 'out of commission,'" Saïx said. "We need to re-assess even the most familiar of worlds."
"Oh, I get it," Axel said, "gotta see what's been going on since we've been gone."
"Precisely," Saïx said with a nod.
"Alright, I got that mission memorized," Axel grinned, enjoying the use of his catchphrase. "You ready to go, Xerisa?"
Xerisa only nodded.
"My aren't you talkative," Axel joked as he created a dark corridor.
"She has almost refused to talk since she's joined," Saïx said as an aside to Axel. "That's partly why I'm pairing her with you. Find out what she knows."
Axel nodded and headed into the dark corridor. Doesn't talk, huh? he thought, sounds familiar. Hmm…odd, I don't remember why. Can't be Roxas. He was a zombie when he joined, but that's not what I'm thinking about. Man, sure do miss the little guy; hope he's doing alright for himself, wherever he is.
Axel turned and looked back to see Xerisa following him. She quickly turned away when he looked at her, to which Axel arched a brow. "What, now all-of-a-sudden you're shy?"
Xerisa didn't answer.
"Oh, I see, you only talk to the Superior," Axel said.
"I only talk when I need to," Xerisa replied. "Talk is cheap."
"You didn't really strike me as the silent type a week ago," Axel said. "Heh, actually, you were quite the daredevil. None of us would ever talk to Xemnas like that."
"Do you fear him?" Xerisa asked.
"We don't have hearts," Axel replied, "so we can't, technically."
Xerisa said nothing to that, only looked down.
"So…where'd you come from anyway?" Axel asked. "How'd you find out about us? How did you know we would be in Kingdom Hearts?"
"A friend told me," Xerisa replied, "I honestly didn't believe him."
"But you went anyway," Axel said. "To test what he said?"
"Don't we have a job to do?" Xerisa asked.
This is my job, Axel thought. "Nothing wrong with a little chat here and there."
"I told you, talk is cheap," Xerisa said.
"So do you expect to go through life with the Organization not talking to anyone unless you have to?" Axel asked.
"We're Nobodies," Xerisa replied in a matter-or-fact tone, "we have no heart, we're shadows of someone else, of a past life, we cannot be destroyed because we never really existed. That's no life."
Axel stopped in his tracks, stunned at what she had said. Xerisa walked on past him, not even faltering; not looking up. What happened to her? He thought. She must've had a rough past. Probably why she doesn't wanna talk about it.
"Are you coming or not?!" Xerisa snapped back at him. "We don't wanna anger the 'Superior.'" Her mocking tone surprised Axel yet again.
And she wanted to join, he thought, I guess to fill what she considers an empty life. "Don't let Xemnas or Saïx hear you talk like that."
"They can kiss my ass," Xerisa spat, exiting the Realm of Darkness.
Wow, this girl's serious, Axel thought, following her. She must only be putting up with everyone so that she can get a heart and be on her way. Why do I get the feeling it won't be that easy? He too exited the Dark Realm and found himself on a grassy island with a forest on one side and the ocean on the other.
"Well, this island's bigger than the others I've been to here," Axel said. "We should be able to do a fairly decent recon here." Since I don't think Roxas's little friend will be here to help me fly.
Xerisa nodded only slightly.
"My guess is that that's the way to go," Axel said, pointing towards the forest behind them, "since we know there's only water that way."
Xerisa turned around without saying a word. She looked up at Axel. He could not see her eyes meeting his and some kind of expression in them; pleading, question, anger, anything. It made him rather uncomfortable, actually. He felt that she could see him, and everything he's ever known or felt, both as a Nobody and before that, while he could see nothing about her. She was a perfect mystery.
Well, not completely a mystery, Axel thought, I know there's something bothering her. "A…alright, then, let's go." Axel turned and headed into the forest, wanting desperately to escape the gaze he couldn't see.
The two walked on in silence. Axel tried his hardest not to look over his shoulder for fear of Xerisa still looking at him with unseen eyes. He was reassured of her presence by her footsteps on the grass. "That ship isn't here anymore…" he observed.
"You mean Hook's?" Xerisa asked.
"Who?" Axel stopped and looked back at her.
"Captain Hook," Xerisa replied, "he's the only one with a ship I know of, at least in this world. How could you have been here and not known about him?"
"Poofy read hat?" Axel asked, "Hook for a hand? Little fat guy he bosses around."
"That would be Smee," Xerisa said.
"How do you know all this?" Axel asked. "You from around here?"
"You think you're the only ones curious about other worlds?" Xerisa asked. "I've been around."
"What else can you tell me about this place?" Axel said, "we may be able to save some time."
"Dunno what we'll find here anyway," Xerisa said, "there's no way off this island at the moment, and there's nothing here. I know pixies live in this world and with their magic flight is possible, but they're not necessarily generous with it."
"Roxas knew a pixie," Axel said, drooping his head from the memories that seemed so distant now. "She helped us fly. That's why we were able to get around here when no one else could. How'd you get around this place?"
"Stowed away on Hooks ship," Xerisa said simply. "Hey, what color was the pixie?"
"Huh?" Axel asked, "um…I'm not sure….I think she sparkled yellow."
"Was she the only one you met?" Xerisa asked.
"Besides Hook and Smee," Axel replied.
"Odd…." Xerisa said, "I thought it might've been Tinkerbell, but she sorta belongs to Peter Pan, and the two are rarely apart."
"Don't know a Peter," Axel said.
"He's a friend of Sora's, actually," Xerisa said, "strange that Roxas didn't mention him."
"Roxas…kinda didn't know he was Sora's Nobody," Axel said. "He had no memories."
"Had none, or they were taken so that he could be controlled?" Xerisa asked.
"Hey, don't look at me," Axel said, "Roxas is my friend!"
"Was," Xerisa replied.
"Right…"Axel looked down and away, "'was.'"
"Well," Xerisa said after a few moments of silence, "you're gonna go report back to Saïx, right?"
"What, now?!" Axel asked, "we've barely been out here 5 minutes!"
"Alright, then go kill time and then tell him we found out what I told you by investigating," Xerisa said, "or make something up."
"I can't do that," Axel said.
"So then are we gonna wander around in circles trying to find something?" Xerisa asked. "Demyx came back from his recon mission in about 10 minutes."
"But Demyx is a lazy good-for-nothing and everyone knows it," Axel pointed out.
"Well if you wanna wander around for an hour and find nothing be my guest," Xerisa said, "I'm gonna go get some ice cream."
"'Ice cream'?" Axel asked, "Sea salt ice cream?"
"Ummm….maybe," Xerisa said, "I was just gonna head over to Twilight Town and see what I could find. I know they have a huge shopping district, so they're bound to have something sweet."
"Mind if I come too?" Axel asked.
"Thought you had work to do," Xerisa said, with a sly edge to her voice.
"You said yourself we're not gonna find anything," Axel said, "might as well make some use of the time. I can tell Saïx what you said later and tell him that's what we found."
"Fine by me," Xerisa said. She snapped her fingers and a dark corridor appeared in front of her. She stepped through and Axel followed her. They went to Twilight Town and each bought an ice cream. Instinctively, Axel headed up to the clock tower while Xerisa went somewhere else.
"You're early," Axel said, walking out onto the edge of the clock tower and taking a seat.
"No, you're just late," Roxas replied, watching his friend walk around behind him to sit on his right.
Axel took a bite out of his ice cream bad as he stared at the setting sun in the distance. "Bet you don't know why the sun sets red," he said with a sigh.
"Like I asked, know-it-all," Axel could hear Roxas's reply as if his friend was sitting right beside him, just like old times. Just the two of them.
"Why'd it have to be this way, Roxas?" Axel asked his memory. "If you had only stayed, things would have been different, I know it."