Day 8:

The Grey Room was awfully quiet that morning. There were some members still trying to wake up, but other than that, everyone had gone to their missions early, due to the high quantities of heartless appearing. Because of this, Roxas was being sent to learn to fight these heartless with Axel.

"Teach him well Axel." Saix said, wondering if he was the right choice for this task.

"Don't worry. I'll be sure he makes the grade. Roxas, let's go." He turned to him, noticing that Roxas wasn't paying attention. "What's wrong?" Wondering what was distracting him, Axel tried to see what he was staring so intently at. "The kid?" He thought to himself. "You worried about the new kid? What was that name again?" He asked, turning to Saix for an answer.

"Number XIV, Xion." Roxas replied continuing to stare at her.

Surprised, Axel looked at Roxas, wondering how he knew her name. "Right, I knew that."

Roxas kept staring at Xion. "How am I going to do this?" He thought to himself. He wanted her to remember him. She needed to know what was going to happen if they sat around and did nothing.

"How about my name?" Axel asked, starting to see how much Roxas actually knew. "Did you get that mem…"

"Axel."

"And how 'bout our boss's…"

"Xemnas."

Axel and Saix were impressed. Roxas knew so much in so little time. Saix looked at Axel. "Perhaps there is hope after all." He said walking away from the two, amused.

Axel opened a portal to Twilight Town. "Come on Mr. Know-It-All. The faster we finish our mission, the sooner we can relax." He walked through the portal, disappearing from the room.

Roxas was still gazing at Xion. He didn't want to leave, but he had to. Roxas turned around and headed for the portal, keeping eye contact on her. "I'll be back, Xion." He thought to himself as he disappeared to Twilight Town.

"Alrite Roxas, summon your keyblade." Axel commanded. When he turned to him though, he realized that Roxas was already holding his keyblade. "Wow. You're learning a lot faster than I thought."

"Where are the heartless?" Roxas asked, wanting to finish the mission quickly.

"They should've been around…"

Suddenly, the heartless started to appear. It started out with ten, but uncontrollably grew to more than one hundred. This wasn't good. "We've gotta get outta here Roxas!" Axel suggested. "There's way too many for your first…" A Darkball rapidly attacked him, but Axel was fast enough to block its attack. "Why am I being interrupted a lot today?" he asked himself.

Roxas jumped high into the air, landing right in the middle of all the heartless. "Roxas! What're you doing? Get the hell out of there!" Axel yelled as he destroyed the Darkball that attacked him.

The heartless kept multiplying and multiplying to a ridiculous amount. They didn't stop. Roxas, however, was ready.

He began to go crazy. Swinging at any heartless that came anywhere near him. He played the defensive role for a while and started his offensive strategy. He ran up to swarms of heartless and destroyed them within seconds. He didn't put his guard down though. He would notice enemies trying to attack him from behind, but when he saw this from the corner of his eye, he hurled his keyblade at them, destroying all that were behind him. At this rate, he was sure to finish fast.

"Roxas?" Axel screamed, confused to every extent, "Since when can you fight?"

"Ever since you decided to just stand there."

Axel chuckled. "The kid can fight and he's a smart ass," he said to himself. "I must be one hell of a teacher."

Heartless began to approach him very quickly, but Axel was ready for a good fight. He summoned his chakrams and ran to them. "You want a fight? Alright, fine!" Fire began to appear on his weapons as he got closer and closer. "BURN BABY!" Axel attacked furiously as he summoned fire to burn the heartless around him.

"It's about time you helped!" Roxas yelled with a laugh.

The duo began to quickly clear all the shadows. They had stopped multiplying and it was becoming a lot easier for them to finish the job, but there was still too many to deal with.

Axel had grown tired and decided to join Roxas. The two stood still, back-to-back, and the heartless stood still as well, surrounding both of them.

"Hey Axel." Roxas said, knowing exactly what to do. "Let's finish this."

"Yeah" he responded.

The two started to run to the heartless, making sure they heard their battle cries.

As Axel reached his enemies, he saw a white glimmer of light that immediately started to shine blindingly. He couldn't see a thing. All he could hear was Roxas screaming to the top of his lungs, in pain. Covering his eyes with his hand, Axel raised a chakram as if he was forced to. "Roxas!" he shouted incredibly concerned. It sounded like he was being mutilated horrifically.

The screaming had stopped as Roxas proceeded. "Take this!" A big crash was heard as the tremendous amount of light disappeared. The beautiful sky was visible once again. Particles of light fell to the ground like snow on Christmas day. Roxas fell to his knees trying to catch his breath.

After regaining his sight, to Axel's surprise, all the heartless were gone. There were none in sight. He turned around. "Roxas!" he said extremely concerned. He ran to him and tried to get him on his feet. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Roxas responded with a smile. "Just a little tired."

"Roxas, that was amazing!" he cheered, still in amazement. "I mean the way you hit them so fast, and how you took all of them on, and when you…"

As Axel continued praising him, Roxas contemplated about what had happened during that fight. "I thought using that limit was going to be hard," he thought to himself. "It wasn't though. Back then, I couldn't even start it, but…" He paused and looked at Axel, who was still taken aback at what had happened. Still congratulating Roxas for his bravery and skills. Roxas smiled and thought of Xion as well. "I get it now. I couldn't do it back then because my bond with them wasn't strong enough. Having someone disappear in front of you is something that brought me closer to Xion, while leaving Axel brought me pain and sorrow. Seeing these two again… my bond with them couldn't have grown any stronger. My best friends… are what I need." Roxas gave Axel his full attention and started to laugh.

"Huh? What's so funny?" Axel asked wondering why he was laughing.

Roxas looked at him and continued to smile. "Nothing. I was just thinking," he paused for a moment. "I got really lucky in that fight."

"Lucky? That was pure skill Roxas! Something that only a teacher like me can teach you," he stated jokingly.

Roxas snickered at his statement. "Yeah right! You can't even teach yourself to wake up in the morning."

The two shared a laugh together, making Roxas feel happy that he could laugh with his friend again.

"You know, I think your hard work today has earned you some Sea Salts, on me!" Axel said as he got his wallet out. "How 'bout it?"

"Yeah. It's a plan!" Roxas replied joyfully. "I'll meet you at the Clock Tower."

"Got it!" Axel responded, and with that, Roxas opened a portal to the tower and walked right in.

Sitting on the edge of the tower, Roxas gazed at the beautiful sunset, trying to soak in all its beauty. The light breeze blew against him, softly swaying his hair around. Everything seemed perfect and bliss. The plan that was imprinted in his head seemed to reassure him that everything was going to turn out for the better. He thought of Xion, the girl he needed to rescue from the castle she was imprisoned in by the organization. He imagined himself as a knight in shining armor, riding his noble steed to rescue the princess who was in need of help. He would climb to the highest point of the castle, defeating anyone in his way. When he arrived, the princess would be there to thank him, and they would be off to a place, free from the grasp of the organization.

Roxas smiled at his thoughts. "I would invite Axel too… then it would truly be a perfect world," he said to himself quietly.

"Where would you go?"

Roxas looked around, wondering where the voice had come from. "What?" he said in confusion.

The mysterious voice didn't respond.

Roxas looked to the sunset again, as if looking at its breathtaking sight would reveal to him the answer. "I… don't know."

"There are flaws in your world," explained the voice. "The question is, are you willing to face them?"

"Who are you?" he yelled, still searching for that voice. "Come on! Show yourself!" Roxas stood up and kept looking around, but couldn't find the source. He then heard something. Something that widened his eyes and brought chills down his spine. He couldn't quite hear it, but to him, it sounded like someone was laughing, eerily. He looked to the distance, as the voice grew quieter, eventually dying out.

"The icing on the cake!" Axel said stepping out of his portal. "Here. Take yours."

He looked at Axel, still confused at what had just happened. He reached for his ice cream and sat on the edge of the tower, wondering whose voice that belonged to.

Axel sat next to Roxas. He noticed that Roxas was staring at the sunset, lost in thought. Axel stared with him and smiled. "It's incredible isn't it?"

Roxas looked at Axel confused. "What do you mean?"

"The sunset. I can't explain it, but when I look at it, something inside me forces me to smile. Even if I'm having a really bad day, it never fails to make my day."

Roxas laughed as he continued to enjoy his Sea Salt. "That is so not you."

"Like you even know me," Axel retorted while laughing. "What has it been, a week since you joined the organization? And here you are, finally out in the field working for the organization, all while making jokes about me like you knew me."

"Yea…" Roxas thought for a moment. He wanted to tell Axel everything. How he was reliving the past and what was to happen in the future, but would that be the right thing to do?

"You know," Axel continued after a long pause between the two, "you might even say that today is where it all really begins for you."

Roxas thought about everything that happened that day. From being able to use his limit to the odd voice that had spoken to him earlier. He took a bite of his ice cream as he thought deeply at what the voice had said. "Where it all begins…" he said to himself quietly.

A/N: Sorry for not posting last week guys. Things have been getting pretty crazy. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter though :D. Like always: hit that fave button, critique my work, or follow me like a stalker. I hope all of you had a great halloween and steered clear from those creepers. There are always creepers...