Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Kingdom Hearts. They own me.

A/N: thank you so much for all your reviews! I have gotten so many that I can barely believe it! Like I said before, reviews are better than sex! Well, maybe... Guess it depends on sex with who…wait, am I still talking?

Let's get going already!

Oh, and one more thing. The edit/preview thing on fanfiction is being an ass, so if the format's kind of weird please forgive me.

Chapter 12

The Kingdom Hearts

Told you I was a bad guy, didn't I?

Kairi wanted to punch herself in the face. Or Axel. Or the wall.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Axel smirked at her from the other side of the bars. "You look kind of pissed. Anything wrong?"

There was nothing Kairi could do but give a very hollow laugh. "It was all an act, wasn't it? All that bullshit about saving me and caring about me…it was totally fake."

"Maybe," Axel answered, fingers curling around the white bars. "Does that turn you on?" He kneaded his gloved palms against the cold metal, eyes glistening.

Kairi snorted. "As if."

Axel chuckled throatily. "Liar."

"Like it matters," Kairi snapped testily. "You said you couldn't get inside this cage, anyway."

"Oh." Axel waved a hand airily. "I was lying about that too." He vanished, to reappear a split-second later inside the cell. Kairi squeaked, jumping backward a couple of feet.

"Come on, didn't you just say a minute ago that you're bored?" Axel drawled, matching every one of her steps with one of his own. "You need some way to let out some of the pent up…energy."

He leapt forward, moving as fast as he had that day on the beach. Kairi yelled as he clutched her about the shoulders, slamming her hard against the wall. She thought vaguely that she should be shoving him off, but her brain seemed to have fogged over.

Stupid, stupid hormones! she thought angrily.

His nails were digging into her arms and his face was an inch from away from her. When he made a move to kiss her, she held him back.

"Shit, Axel, they're probably watching!"

"So we'll give them a decent show." He nipped the curve of her jaw.

"I do not want a cult of psychotic old men watching me!" Kairi stated, with so much seriousness that Axel had to laugh.

"Okay…" he mused, looking up at the ceiling, apparently searching for something. He squinted at the far left corner of the cell. Snapping a lazy finger, a burst of orange flame shot from his palm up to the cieling. There was an electric fizzling sound, like something short-circuiting.

"Fuck yes!" Axel yelled in triumph. "If there ever was anyone watching they're most definitely not watching now!"

Dammit. Kairi cursed internally. She was running out of excuses. Being locked in a cage with a gorgeous and horny man might be thrilling in theory, but right now she was just kind of…lost.

Axel turned back to her, shoving her against the wall again and pressing his lips to her neck. He had to lean down pretty far (he was about a foot taller than her) but he didn't seem to mind. Kairi shivered, really wanting to bash her head against a wall.

Why do I want Axel? I shouldn't want Axel! I should want Sora, I should want him to be the one doing this!

This spiraled through her head like a mantra, leaving her feeling dizzy and breathless. Or maybe that was because Axel now had clamped his mouth over hers, blocking the oxygen flow.

But dammit, this was hot. Kairi had kissed boys back at home, but they all had been around her age; inexperienced and clumsy. Axel was the utter opposite. He knew how to use his tongue so it didn't feel like some repulsively foreign object invading her mouth. One of his arms wrapped around her waist while the other hand threaded through her hair.

Her next action took every ounce of willpower in her being.

Kairi pushed Axel away once again, extracting his tongue from her mouth. She held him at arm's length.

"No."

He stared at her for a moment or two. There was nothing calculating about this

gaze; no bravado, no ambition, no intention. There was just raw emotion, and for a fleeting second Kairi understood. She saw down into the pit of Axel's being, down to whatever it was that made him tick. Then he laughed softly, breaking the spell.

"Alright." He loosened the grip on her shoulders. "I'm…I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Kairi said, trying to smile with him. "It's just—."

"You don't have to explain. This is life, right? This is what having a heart feels like." He scratched the back of his neck, dropping his eyes to the floor. He was struggling to find the words. "You know, I thought I'd lost everything when I lost…when I lost him, but…" He looked back up at her, almost apologetic. "I think…maybe hearts—the kingdom hearts we've been searching for—I don't think we've been looking in the right place." He smiled suddenly. "So I'm gonna go."

Kairi couldn't help the tears that were threatening to overtake her. "Axel…"

He shook his head, silencing her. Timidly, he leaned forwards, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. "See ya." He was a foot away from the bars when he turned back. "By the way, I didn't tell them where you were. I would never give them a firebrand like you. Might burn their fucking fingers." Axel disappeared in a flash of the darkness, his last words floating back through the stillness.

"Got it memorized?"

Sora wasn't doing too well. His head was pounding, his arms ached, and the pervading stench of the Realm made him want to throw up. Donald had already been knocked out, and neither he nor Goofy had any strength left to use a healing spell.

And still the heartless came.

"This—is—insane!" he growled, tossing the keyblade from his right to his left hand and slashing vertically, rendering another four of the little shadows lifeless. If only they were the only things he had to deal with! But no, they were being bombarded with wave after wave of flyers, crawlers, even those annoying little bastards that buried beneath them. To make a bad situation worse, the damn things were twice as durable in the Realm of Darkness as they were in any of the worlds.

They weren't going to last much longer like this.

"Jesus, you guys really don't know what hell you're doing, do you?"

Sora spun around, adrenaline spiking. There he was again, that damn Axel! He was standing there grinning cockily, arms folded.

"Get out of here!" Sora nearly screamed. "I don't have time!"

Axel started. "Oh, hi guys," he said, addressing the heartless, "Didn't see you there." He threw his arms down to his sides and suddenly he was holding two wheels of flame. These he proceeded to spin dangerously around his head, flashing another grin. "Let's get to it!"

There was nothing Sora could do but throw up the keyblade in a clumsy block. Axel had to be at least ten times stronger than he was and…wait. Axel wasn't attacking him; he had leapt over his head, blasting the first line of heartless into oblivion.

"This isn't a spectator sport, you know," he called back over his shoulder.

Sora was jerked back into action, launching himself at the nearest monster. Together, he and Axel made quick work of the denizens of the dark, but still they came thicker than ever. Goofy collapsed beside Donald, energy completely gone.

No, no, no!

Sora was tiring, reaching the point of absolute exhaustion, when something rather unexpected occurred. Axel began to glow with an inner light, bright red but quickly changing to blue as the heat intensified. With a cry unlike anything Sora had ever heard, the flames exploded outward, decimating absolutely everything in their path. Except for three life forms.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy. They were untouched. The attack lasted for what felt like a zillion years. When at last the smoke cleared, Sora stared around him in utter shock.

Not a single heartless remained.

What did remain was Axel, facedown on the insubstantial ground. Sora got to his feet, sprinting over and dropping down at Axel's side. "That was incredible!"

Axel's face was white and sweat-streaked, but he still managed a funny half-smile. There was something glassy about his eyes, and they seemed to be getting dimmer by the minute.

"Heh. I guess this's what happens when you put you're whole life into an attack." A cough racked his body and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

"Don't try to talk…" Sora began.

Axel snorted. "Forget about that, man. I've never shut up once in my life, I am not gonna change that just 'cause I'm dying."

Sora felt tears starting in his eyes. Somehow, the death of this man, of an enemy, touched him to the very core. He had no logical explanation for it, he just felt like the loss of Axel was something he couldn't handle.

"No, you're not gonna die," he said, though strangely it didn't sound like his voice.

Axel laughed. "Well whad'ya know? You are just like him. Save the worlds, Sora. Do it for him."

"For…Roxas…" Sora muttered, once again unable to explain how he knew that name.

"Yeah. Oh, and tell Kairi I'm sorry."

"You can tell you her yourself!" Sora insisted.

Axel just shook his head. "Don't be an idiot. I'm done with this bullshit." He coughed once more, and then lay still.

"Kairi."

She twitched, fighting her way up from the foggy land of sleep. Her name was called again, whispered urgently from across the cell. Sitting up, she forced her eyes open. There was someone there; not standing outside of the bars but by the back wall. She was small and blond, greeting Kairi with a warm smile.

"Namine? That's your name, right?"

The girl nodded, holding out her hand. Kairi couldn't explain how she knew this girl, but she did. She felt as familiar as her own reflection.

"Come with me," Namine called, turning and disappearing through the solid wall.

"Great," Kairi muttered, getting to her feet. "Fabulous. Because I run through god damn walls after every meal." Regardless, she took a deep breath and charged, closing her eyes at the last moment and putting her hands up in front of her face.

She didn't hit anything. Instead she found herself standing on a pure white walkway, wrapping around the central structure her cell had perched on. To her left was a seemingly never-ending abyss, black as the…the blackest thing Kairi had ever seen. Okay, not the most eloquent metaphor, but she'd been through a lot. She forgave herself for her literate inadequacy.

Namine was standing at the edge, still looking at Kairi with that same happy expression.

"Who are you?" Kairi asked.

The girl giggled in a very familiar way. "I'm Namine, silly. You already know that."

"Yeah I do, but that doesn't mean anything. Besides, I don't even know how I know your name." Kairi racked her brain. "I don't think I've ever met you."

"No, you haven't. But come on, we have to get out of here before the Organization comes back."

She started off down the walkway, headed for who knows where. Kairi followed a moment later. It wasn't like she had much of a choice. And anyway, she felt like she could trust Namine. She didn't know how or why; she should have been incapable of trust at this point.

"Would you mind explaining some stuff to me?" Kairi asked as they ran side by side.

Namine shook her head. "I can't. But he can." She pointed. Kairi followed her gaze and pulled up short.

It was an Organization member. Or at least, it looked like one. But it felt like…

"Riku?"