One more chapter. Yeah, we're on a roll! This chapter is the beginning of the idea that might piss some of you off. Get over it. Besides, how often do you get to throw Axel off a building anyway? You should be thanking me.

Yes, I know none of that made sense. Just read the chapter already. Disclaimer... blah blah blah...

Bruixe has quite a temper. Read and review, please!

"Your orders?" Bruixe asked skeptically.

Axel nodded. "Actually, it's nothing special," he admitted. "But apparently I'm gonna be gone for a while, so you're taking my place until I get back."

"What?!" Demyx spluttered. "No one can replace Axel."

"How hard can it be?" Bruixe replied. She messed up her hair so it was spiky and crossed her arms, shifting her weight to one side. "The name's Bruixe. B-R-U-I-X-E. Got it memorized?"

Demyx fell on the floor laughing. Even Roxas cracked a grin. "She does it better than you do, Axel," the blonde remarked.

"Shut up," his best friend said crossly. He turned to Bruixe. "Are you done?"

"For now," she replied, smirking. She patted her hair back into place.

"Good," Axel said. "Then let me show you the ropes."

"Welcome to Twilight Town," Axel told her.

Bruixe surveyed the new world appraisingly, scowling. They were on the top of a clock tower, looking down over a deserted town. "It's too cozy," she said.

He nodded, grinning. "Yeah, it makes me sick. But it gets better. Look." He pointed down at a street below. Three Neoshadow Heartless slunk through the shadows. Another street was swarming with Soldier Heartless. "The Heartless love this place," Axel explained. "We don't really know why. The locals abandoned it a long time ago, although Vexen keeps saying that if we keep killing Heartless, they're bound to come back. Twilight Town's our main hunting grounds. Heartless are so easy to find."

"Sounds dumb," Bruixe said. "What's the point? Hunting Heartless, I mean."

"Kingdom Hearts," Axel said dramatically. He smirked. "Xemnas and Saix have got this idea into their heads that Kingdom Hearts is the secret to getting our hearts back."

Bruixe shifted uncomfortably. She still wasn't sure she wanted her heart back.

"And killing Heartless seems to make Kingdom Hearts grow," Axel went on. "So… every day, Roxas and Demyx and I come out here and blast Heartless into oblivion. Sometimes the others come too."

"Cozy summer town… abandoned town full of Heartless," Bruixe murmured. "Definitely like the second one better. Sounds good."

"I thought you might say that," Axel remarked. "So, I've got three days before I ship out, which means three days to teach you to fight."

Bruixe glared at him. "What makes you think I don't know how to fight?" she argued. "I can hold my own."

He held up his hands. "Sorry. …Now that I think of it, you're probably really strong."

Bruixe didn't really know what to say to that. She stared back out over Twilight Town, thinking about hearts. Do I really want mine back? she wondered. Pain, sadness, anger… not worth it to me.

Her thoughts were interrupted by an unfamiliar sensation in her leg. She looked down to see Axel's hand on her knee.

Bruixe whipped her head around; Axel was looking at her with a gleam in his eyes that Bruixe didn't recognize. "What the hell?" she demanded.

"It's not my fault you're irresistible," he told her, moving closer.

Bruixe reacted instinctively, shoving him away. Only after she had moved did she remember they were on top of a tower. "What –" Axel had time to yelp before he tumbled over the side.

"Goddamn it, Bruixe!"

"I'd say I'm sorry, but I'd be lying," Bruixe retorted angrily as she strode back into the Castle That Never Was. Axel had been fine, of course, slipping through a portal at the last minute.

"You could've killed me!" the redhead argued.

"More's the pity I didn't," she told him coolly.

Demyx and Roxas met them at the entrance. "What… what's wrong?" Roxas asked uncertainly, seeing Bruixe's rather frightening expression.

"Ask him!" she shouted, brushing past them. This time Axel didn't follow.

"Axel, what'd you do?" she heard Demyx ask.

Bruixe stormed into her room, slamming the door behind her. Thankfully Larxene was nowhere to be seen. She fell facedown on her bed, burying her face in her pillow to let out a nice, long scream.

Creep, she thought. I thought he was hitting on me that first day. I've been here, what, two days, and he's already trying to feel me up?! And he can't even say he likes my personality, because Nobodies can't feel things like that. He just wants me. My body. Not me.

A knock sounded on the door. "Go AWAY!" she yelled.

The door opened anyway. "It's me," Roxas said.

Bruixe sat up moodily. "What?"

"Axel told us what happened," the blonde began. "Sorry."

She shrugged noncommitally, looking away.

"He shouldn't have done that," Roxas went on. "But you know Axel. Never thinks things through. We don't call him 'hothead' because of the fire thing, you know. I'm not saying what he did was okay."

"That's for sure," Bruixe muttered.

"But go easy on him," he went on. "He'll realize it was a mistake, it'll just take a few hours. Try and forgive him. He won't do it again."

"He better not," she grumbled, but nodded. "…Thanks, Roxas."

"Anytime," the kid promised. He hesitated. "Did you really throw him off the clock tower?"

Bruixe nodded.

"Cool," Roxas murmured. "Remind me to stay on your good side."