Sorry about the delay... I've been a bit absentminded ever since I got my N3DS and the KH3D... And work keeps me busy inbetween... But, now here's a number of chapters for ya'! Please review and tell me what you think. /Silverspegel

Making progress

"Is your arm OK, Zexion? I could try…"

"I'm fine," Zexion interrupted Lexaeus and kept on pulling out books from the shelves with his one still functional arm.

Marluxia grinned behind them.

"Seriously, Zexion, don't you think it would speed things up to use both hands?"

Lexaeus turned around and gave him a cold stare. Marluxia's grin faded and he looked away.

"Are you sure you're not holding back on us, Marluxia?" Lexaeus asked him and the pink haired captive quickly shook his head.

"I swear, I don't know anything more than what I've told you! The door is supposed to open on that wall when you pull out some book. Xemnas isn't one to trust others."

"Really now?" Lexaeus said and observed him cooly. After a good time staring, Marluxia turned his face away once more and Lexaeus felt sure he'd got all the information he could out of him. The large man snorted at the prisoner and then turned back his attention to Zexion and the bookcase.

"It has to be somewhere along this height, or it would be too uncomfortable for him…" the librarian mumbled and pulled out yet another thick volume of leather bound papers without luck.

Lexaeus studied the bookshelves in silence, then stepped forward, reached up at a shelf Zexion in his shortness couldn't reach, and pulled out the only thick book on that shelf.

A low grinding was heard and the bookcase slid to the side, just enough to let a person walk through the opening this created.

Zexion looked up at Lexaeus in confusion and the taller man shrugged and showed him the title written on the back of the book he'd pulled out: The door to light and darkness.

It was another name for the Kingdom Heart.

Zexion grunted, feeling a bit humiliated, since the solution had been so simple.

"Sometimes I'm just lucky," Lexaeus said and put the book on top of some others in the bookcase.

"Come on now! We don't have any time to waste here," Zexion said and started down the stairs of the dark passage.

Lexaeus gave Marluxia a look that promised him another round when he returned, before he followed the blue haired librarian into the shadowed opening.

Roxas spun in the air to collect on the strength that speed could add to his blow and stroke down hard on the heartless beast. It vanished in a cloud of black fumes, only to be replaced by another one coming up on Roxas from behind.

He managed to escape it by a hair, taking a dive to his left side. He quickly got back on his feet, turning towards the muscular hulk of a heartless as he rose.

The keyblade was at the ready, glowing with light that shot forward towards the enemy as soon as Roxas finished the combination he'd planned to use.

The light beam hit the shield held up by the target, but Roxas had foreseen this move and had kept moving, taking another dive to slide past the beast's defenses and got back up on his feet just as the heartless lowered its shield.

The wide strike of the Oathkeeper hit the creature in the neck, and it was defeated.

Roxas dried the beginning perspiration off his forehead with a heavy sigh.

He was tired.

This fight had been going on for what seemed like forever. The heartless had been easy enough to kill, but they had been steadily multiplying themselves in a manner that hadn't allowed him even a minute's rest.

He waited a few more seconds before he felt free to relax a bit and let the keyblade be lowered.

This level was the eighth, if he had been counting them correctly. That left him five levels to get into before the Heart would be bared to him. Before Xemnas would take over his entrance code and take the control.

Roxas shuddered with the thought. He knew Xemnas could simply unplug him once he got inside, as long as he kept a link open for himself to enter through, but he didn't want to think about that possibility. He rather preferred thinking about Axel being able to prevent that sort of ending somehow. He knew this chance was slim, but as long as it was existing, he was willing to hang on to it.

Taking a deep breath, Roxas looked at his surroundings.

The world around him was still consisting of an ever shifting mass of colors, shaping a wide space seemingly without boundries. At the moment, the main colors were various shades of blue.

The key bearer sighed.

Anyone else might have missed the coding that shaped the world he was in, might not have spotted the shifting of light at a spot in the air some steps away, but he saw it clearly.

Roxas lifted his weapon and focused on what to do.

Once more he could feel the tiredness weighing down upon his limbs and he forced his shaking arms to keep up the pose. The healing spell had healed all the outer wounds and it had revived him, true, but it also took time to build up all the energy it needed to be efficient. Therefore he decided to save the spell for later, when he might need it more.

The lock wouldn't open.

Roxas stared at the Oathkeeper and realized that the key didn't fit.

He took another deep breath to calm himself, before he summoned back the Kingdom Key. But as he tried this one out, it wouldn't fit either.

Frustrated, feeling the pressure of his tight time schedule, Roxas threw the keyblade, as hard as he could muster, down on the ground and screamed out his exasperation.

"Now what?!" he yelled out into the vast and colorful space, but got no answer, not even an echo. "How am I supposed to open a lock without a key?" He sank down onto his knees and stared at the almost invisible keyhole above him, then turned his eyes towards the keyblade. It had bounced off the ground and landed about two steps away from where Roxas was sitting.

"Please, Sora, remember this for me! Roxas pleaded within his mind, hoping for a memory to flicker into life that would aid him in this troublesome situation.

He reached out his hand, calling for the keyblade with his mind, and it appeared in his outstretched hand a mere second later.

Roxas observed the weapon, caressed its metal with his hands, felt the weight of it as he held it out in front of himself and noticed the tingling sensation of its magical powers seeping into his arms.

"Come on Roxas, think! You produced the Kingdom Key on your own, so why shouldn't you be able to make a new key?" he mumbled to himself as he tried once more to clear his mind and find a solution.

Gripping the keyblade's hilt with both hands, Roxas closed his eyes in deep concentration. He needed a new key, so he would make one. How hard could it be?

A sliver of a memory suddenly flashed by and Roxas couldn't help but smile. Sora had helped him again, once he'd set his mind on making it on his own.

He released a surge of energy into the weapon in his hands, felt a change in the material he was holding and opened his eyes.

This blade was something else – an opposite of the Oathkeeper. It was black and heavy, instead of white and light. A chain traced the body of it and the teeth were sharp and pointy.

Roxas knew its name from Sora's memory and whispered it to himself as he took it in with his eyes.

"The Oblivion Key…"

This was the key that had locked several of the Organization's files and what had kept outsiders away from their gates in more ways than one. This… was a legend.

Roxas swung the key in his hands, getting a sense for the way it cut through the air.

This key meant power.

When Roxas held it out towards held it out towards the keyhole, it simply unlocked more or less on its own.

As the portal to the next level opened up in front of him, Roxas let out a low whistle. He stepped through the portal with the beginning of a grin on his lips, carrying the Oblivion Key at the ready, holding it out in front of himself.

This was starting to look quite nice…

Axel stared at the screen in wonder.

Just now, Roxas' coding had changed for a split second and as it went back to normal, he could see a new key in Roxas' presence.

"What the…"

Axel turned his head too look at the person who'd uttered the words, and was surprised to meet with the eyes of Zexion.

"So this is where all the extra equipment went…" Zexion continued, almost seeming hypnotized by the screens covering the wall.

"Zexion! Xemnas is…" Axel started in a try to warn the small librarian, but was interrupted by his captor, who'd just discovered the intruder himself.

"… most delighted to find you here," Xemnas finished Axel's sentence as he gave the redhead a hard whack over his head with his open hand.

Axel cursed under his breath at the humiliation of not being able to defend himself.

Zexion on the other hand calmly took his eyes off the screens and turned to face Xemnas with a cold expression in his young face.

Xemnas smiled widely. "I'm actually a bit surprised it took you this long to find this place," he said as he stepped closer to Zexion.

"Ansem," Zexion said in response, his voice heavy with disgust as he kept his eyes on the white haired man in front of him.

Now Xemnas' smile finally faded, but he kept silent, stopping in his steps.

"You're not going to succeed in this, you know that, right?" Zexion continued.

The faded smile came back on Xemnas' lips.

"Oh, really? And who will stop me? You?" Xemnas said, amusement apparent in his voice. "If you haven't noticed it, I'm way stronger than you, in so many ways." He grabbed tha shorter man's collar.

Zexion didn't even gasp, he only winced a little as the pull on the collar set his dislocated arm in movement.

Xemnas noticed this and gave the librarian a curious look.

"Hoh? Someone's been in a fight I see…"

Zexion spat at his face and directed a well-aimed kick into his opponent's lower body regions, making the surprised man lose his grip on the collar and bend forward in a try to ease the sudden pain and Zexion got loose, going for Axel's restraints.

"You little…!" Xemnas roared out and turned around to get him, when he suddenly felt a heavy hand on his shoulder and was turned back around.

Lexaeus looked down at him with a grim expression in his face.

"You know, I'm really disappointed with you," the giant of a man said in a low pitched voice.

Xemnas' face went through a series of expressions, before he settled for rage.

He broke free from Lexaeus' hand and grabbed a metal pipe that was leaning against the wall – a means of protection put there by himself in a moment of paranoia some weeks earlier – and managed to get a clear hit over Lexaeus' back, sending the suddenly unbalanced man falling forward and down on his knees onto the concrete floor.

Xemnas quickly placed himself to deal Lexaeus a second, finishing blow over his head, but as he with steady arms raised the bar into position to get the most power possible behind the blow, the weapon was pulled out of his hands in a forceful yank from behind. The unexpected weight relief unbalanced him and a slightly rough push by a hand to his back sent him falling forward.

Reacting quickly, Xemnas landed on his hands right next to the fallen Lexaeus, and got back up on his feet in no time, turning around as he rouse to meet this new opponent with rage spewing out of his flashing golden eyes.

A slender and slightly younger man stood there, observing him calmly while swinging the snatched iron bar in front of him, ready to use it, should he feel the need to. The black, white striped, long hair was gathered in a low ponytail at the neck and a black eye patch covered his right eye. A long scar reached from his left jaw and up towards the nose bridge, adding more roughness to his overall appearance.

Xigbar was one of the more invisible members of the organization and usually he didn't bother all too much about the doings of the others. He was the head of transportation, the one who made all the trips outside of the Oblivion mansion possible, both longer and shorter. He also saw to the exports and imports of goods that kept the organization running. In short, he usually kept to himself and didn't argue about anything except bad time schedules.

Now this loner was looking at his employer as if he was a pest that needed extermination.

"Xigbar! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Xemnas roared with ill hidden frustration.

"Shut up, or I'll use this," was Xigbar's chilly response, making a hint towards the bar in his hands.

"How dare you…" Xemnas growled and was about to take a step forward, but Lexaeus, who'd gotten back up on his feet, got a hold on his arms from behind and held him back.

"Take it easy now, traitor," the giant whispered into Xemnas' ear.

Xigbar actually smiled at the expression of defeat in the white haired man's face as he realized that he had lost.

"I just went by the office to get a signature for a receipt, and look what I found," Xigbar said, his voice and overall appearance telling of an ill hidden amusement at seeing the other man being treated this way.

Behind Lexaeus, Zexion had finally freed Axel from his restraints and went on to deal with waking up Roxas, when Axel suddenly reached out and stopped him, before he got close enough.

"Wait!" Axel yelled at him with a raspy voice.

"What? Are you mad? We need to get him out of there before it's too late!" Zexion objected and tried to free himself from Axel's hold on his good arm's sleeve.

Axel violently shook his head at this and nodded towards the screens for him to take a look.

"He's already too deep in!" Axel said and looked at Zexion with desperation and deep worry in his emerald eyes. "If you bring him out now," he continued as the librarian turned his eyes towards the screens, "the system protecting the Kingdom Heart will be momentarily strengthened and the heartless will grab on to Rox before he'll be completely logged out and that would either turn his mind into something else, beyond recognition, or it would…"

Axel couldn't say it, so he left the sentence hanging in the air, his eyes turning towards Roxas' more or less lifeless body in the chair next to him.

"It would kill him," Zexion finished the line in a low voice.