Reno wandered through the maze-like castle halls and wound his way to the basement, slashing open heartless that didn't mean him any harm on the way. As he cut through them he smiled, relishing how they burst at the seams with a flick of his chakram. The heartless didn't even turn to him as he passed, letting him cut open their fellows without any care. He was one of them in their incomprehending minds, he was just as much darkness as they were and yet he was nothing like them. It puzzled him, but he didn't dwell on it, choosing instead to put his energies into slaughtering heartless and finding his target. He searched through the damp waterways of the basement, peering around corners and looking for any sign of life that was more significant than a heartless, cutting down and burning to a crisp the heartless that came within his arms reach. It felt like it took him hours to find the newly formed nobody, but once he found him, he had a strange feeling that Xemnas had sent him for a reason.

The nobody boy was obviously scared out of his mind, gripping a large darkness and water dripping key with both hands as heartless advanced on him. Reno knew the heartless were just curious about what had stumbled out of the darkness and into their realm to slice at them, but the kid was oblivious to the lack of harm they were trying to inflict on him. He was trembling, the key in his hands shaking violently as he tried to frighten away the heartless, slashing at them haphazardly, showing his inexperience in killing the creatures when he yelped at the poof of darkness that followed each slash. Reno sighed, setting his chakram alight and passing it through the small gaggle of heartless that surrounded the nobody boy. The boy screamed and threw his hands over his head as the sharp heat passed in front of him, falling backwards and dropping his keyblade. Reno looked him over critically, fully taking in the teens appearance before acting further. Blonde hair spiked up in all directions to frame an attractive round face and blue eyes laced with fear peaked out at him from under a slim arm. The teens clothes were wet and only barely clung to his thin frame, baggy pants and shirt nearly falling off of narrow shoulders and hips, "You alright there kid?" Reno gave the kid what he hoped was a friendly and concerned smile. He could tell from the look on the nobody's face that his attempt at friendliness was not well received.

The blonde lowered his hands warily, eyeing Reno suspiciously before answering with a question, "Who're you?"

"Name's Axel." Reno grinned, still trying to seem friendly and welcoming. He extended a gloved hand to try and help his target to his feet.

The blonde looked at his hand like it might poison him, "Axel?"

"Yeah, Axel." Reno frowned and tapped the side of the teens head, "Got it memorized?" He mentally slapped himself, it was almost like he had developed a catch phrase.

The frightened blonde jumped and pushed his hand away, scrambling backwards to put distance between him and Reno, "Where are we?"

"Somewhere we should probably get out of." Reno pulled his hand back, placing it on his hip instead, "Queen o' the castle will have my ass if she finds me messin' in here again." He was only slightly deterred by the boys suspicious nature, he knew he had been even more aggravating for Saïx when he had found them. He liked the kids lack of a naive sense of trust, the hero he came from could learn a few trick about skepticism from his nobody.

"Queen?" The kid raised an eyebrow at him, looking him over behind blonde locks that drifted into his bright eyes. Reno didn't know much about the teen yet, but he knew the affect those eyes were having on him. He shifted uncomfortably, trying to keep his green-blue eyes fixated on the deep blue orbs that dripped fear and anger and something he couldn't name, something that made his pulse quicken uncomfortably. It confused him, he knew he wasn't supposed to even have the heart to pulse erratically, yet he could feel the blood pounding through his veins like never before, he had never even felt it this clearly when he was alive. It unnerved him, angered him, confused him, and he wanted more of the feeling.

"Well she runs the place, might as well be queen. Doesn't like me though, she's a witch and a piss poor one at that." Reno shrugged with a laugh, watching the blonde with confusion as he watched the teen scan him from top to bottom, still trying to understand just what emotion was running through those bright blue eyes. "You alright kid?"

The blonde jerked his head up, pulling his eyes away from Reno's body and focusing them on his face once more, "What do you want?"

"I just wanna help ya out." Reno humphed, crossing his arms in front of his chest, "If you'd rather sit in a wet basement and wait for the witch to come fry you be my guest."

The boy raised his head and surveyed his surroundings thoughtfully, glaring at Reno out the corner of his eye, "Why do you want to help me? You don't even know my name."

"I would know it if you told me." Reno grinned, feeling a sudden pang of worry. He couldn't go back empty handed and the kid didn't seem to like him already, and he still couldn't figure out what was flickering behind the fear and worry in his eyes. He didn't want to force the kid to come with him and he knew that taking the kid to Castle Oblivion right away would probably scare the kid more than anything else. It had freaked him out when he went there and he could wait to get back. He had more than enough trouble waiting for him there. He knew of at least four Organization members who wanted to beat the tar out of him for various reasons. Besides, Xemnas had specifically told him he had to make the kid like him, if he didn't do that then the entire day was a waste. The kid wouldn't be swayed as easily as Reno had been. Reno had been convinced simply because Elena had been taken in by the idea of power. He had gone where she had, concerned for her safety more than anything else, and now he regretted the worry. He'd rather be a nobody wandering around on his own than a nobody on a leash, answering to Xemnas' every whim. He had had his one chance to be free and he had blown it, determined to keep Elena safe. Too bad his sacrifice of liberty had done him no good.

"My name is..." The teen hung his head, suddenly looking very confused and lost, "I don't know."

Reno raised an eyebrow and mumbled to himself, "Demyx was right, you don't remember anything at all."

"Who's Demyx?" The kid shot him a piercing look, dripping suspicion.

"A.....friend of mine. We wanted to make sure you didn't get killed by the dragon-witch." Reno whipped around as he heard footsteps approaching, "Alright kid, we gotta scram. I don't know who's coming but I do know we definitely aren't welcome." He held his hand out, calling up a vortex behind him and pulling the kid into it with him, the portal fading just as the footsteps brought a silhouette into view.

Author's Note: Well, let me know what you think. If you haven't figured it out, the new nobody is Roxas. Neither of them know that yet though.

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