Set during: Sinister Sundown (Chapter 19)

Summary: Rewrite of scenes 3 and 5. Axel is smarter than Alex ever thought he was.

"What a romantic story!" Olette remarked, clasping her hands together. Kairi nodded a little lazily; her journey through the darkness had been a rough one, and she was a little exhausted from the run.

Pence shrugged. "If you stick around, Sora's bound to show up," he reasoned.

"Yeah…" Hayner leaned back on the boiler. "He's gotta be coming back. He and Alex said they were… and you don't argue with that guy." He glanced up at the ceiling. The sun was shining warmly, as it always did, but today something just didn't feel right.

"Alex?" Kairi replied. "Why don't you argue with him?"

"What took you so long, Kairi?"

A dark portal appeared in one of the walls, and a tall, barely-hunched over figure emerged from the black. He fiddled with the edge of his hood for a second as he approached them.

"Somehow I just knew… you'd be here. I tell you, Kairi, you've got a lot of guts, jumping right into the darkness like that."

His steps were light and graceful, almost like a dancer's in their quality, but it didn't stop him from intimidating the group. Nevertheless, Hayner ran forward ready for a fight. He was met with a shove to the side, sending him on the floor. Pence attempted the same, only to be dodged and then pushed onto his face. Olette backed away worried, although she stayed as close to Kairi as she could. The princess in question was immobilised; what was it this guy kept coming back for?

With the stronger two of the group attempting to get up off the ground from that particularly hard strike and the girls being without any means to defend themselves (Olette having never been interested in fighting, and Kairi not being the type to strike out at any being with a human face) it really didn't look good.

Then, just as he got a hand on her shoulder, a fourteen-year-old boy nearly tore his way through the rag covering the entrance. "You stay away from her!" he yelled, calling the Lockshield into his hand and hurrying between the two. Kairi blinked.

Hayner forced himself to his feet immediately. "I told her we didn't argue with you!" he exclaimed.

"You told her what exactly?" Alex replied, frowning.

"So you'd be…" He looked back at her. The redheaded girl was just under his height, and had very warm purple eyes. Seeing her was almost like being back home with his family all together… It was the same kind of feeling that had pervaded him when meeting Belle and Jasmine, but with Kairi it was just a little more intense. Maybe it was because those two had both been around in the American consciousness for longer and had less of an effect on him, or because Kairi was a main character here.

And standing right in front of him was another Organisation member who was certainly close enough to hurt him… but too interested in what was going on to try anything first. Axel was a very odd creature to look at, with his thin waist and broad shoulders and hips, and he certainly towered over them. He had a long, sharp face and a pair of teardrop tattoos under his eyes. The cold look in those green irises was nothing less than frightening.

Shaking his head (this was no time to get worked up about meeting two fictional characters) he began to bark orders at the Twilight Town gang. "Hayner, Olette, you guys take Kairi up to the train station! Pence, you head down to the Sandlot and take Sora up the same way! Me…" He glared. "I'm fighting him."

Before she could object, Olette grabbed Kairi's hand and pulled her out of the spot ("Sora? He's here!?"). Hayner stuck there for a second to help Pence up, and then met Alex's eyes. They stared at each other, before the blond of the pair gave a brief nod, and hurried out with his friend, the two parting just past the gate.

You think you can handle it on your own?

Yeah. I'm a lot stronger than I was before.

Axel whipped around. "So you're that kid Xemnas has been hamming it up about?" he asked, summoning one of his chakram to swing around a finger. Alex braced himself… but nothing happened.

"Hey, don't act like I'm going to give the same treatment as Vexen got," the Nobody remarked. "I certainly knew him much longer that I did you, Alex." He paused. "Alex. A-L-E-X. Swap the second and last letters around and you get my name. Is that why he's sticking with you?"

"…What?"

"Oh, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You always have." The man hung his head. "Straight from day one. And that's what got the boss so worked up. So he gave orders to find you and test your strength. So that's what we've been doing so far. And then we find out you're with Sora. And suddenly…"

The chakram stopped spinning.

"…you're a bit of a danger to us. Can't let you tell Sora all about what's going on." He turned back to him, grip on his weapon tightening. "And I finally managed to get a job that wasn't icky, too…"

"…" Alex shook his head. "…No. I don't know what you're talking about."

Axel crossed his arms, eyes closing. "Is that so?" There was a brief silence, the boy still in a stiff fighting stance, while he himself conjured up his other chakram to hold by a spike. "I've heard things in those meetings: that you're not meant to be here - I certainly noticed that immediately; that you have impossible knowledge of the world – and do you ever, kiddo; and that it's all because you ended up creating us. Everything around us came from you. Your light was nearly wasted putting this place together… You nearly became a Heartless, just from making them exist." There was a chuckle that was anything but nice. "What a waste of concentration."

The Lockshield wielder placed his hands on his hips. "Right now, I'm not even sure what happened. I know I got here, and I know it took a lot of my light. But you can't just declare me creator god. I've had enough of that. I just want to help Sora."

"Heh…" The Flurry of Dancing Flames broke into a sick laugh. "Right! Right, that's exactly it! That's just how I thought it'd be!" He flung his arms out to the side, bowed over. Flames began to creep up past his legs, and Alex stepped back in alarm. "Just disregard everything you've done… And all this time I was beating myself up…"

There was an explosion of fire, swallowing the entire room.

"WHEN I SHOULD'VE JUST TAKEN IT OUT ON YOU!"

The two chakram now flew at Alex's head, and he ducked, only to see them both vanish back into Axel's hands. The Nobody rushed forward brashly, creating a huge ring of flames around his body as he ran forward, Alex quickly dodging again and bringing up his shield to guard from the slashing attacks that the other began throwing.

Eventually they both locked in place, and Alex managed to push him off, running back for a second. "What on Earth are you talking about?"

"I'm talking-" A ball of flame was sent his way; he attempted to counter with a few hits, but was parried with ease, "-about all the things-" Three more, all protected against with Reflect, and Axel taking a tiny bit of damage, "you've forced him through!" A whole barrage fell on his head, and he was struck several times, charring his skin but doing nothing more serious than taking a small chunk out of his health bar. Axel took the short break to rush forward again and repeat his combo from before.

Alex found himself forced into the ground, but he hopped back up as fast as he could. "What, you think I wanted all that to happen to him?" he growled. "It's not like I wrote this."

"But you made it!" Yet again, the chakram flew at his head, and he ducked out into the main alley to avoid it, wincing when he heard the Sunset Terrace poster suddenly burst into flames. Behind him, Axel sauntered out through the gate, but it was hardly the same controlled walk that he had managed moments earlier – those footfalls were now loud and sharp. Alex almost swore the ground was breaking below them. "Why couldn't you force it to go some other way!? You created all this!"

Urgh… this was so annoying…! "I didn't even want to!"

"But you did! So change it! Right now!" Axel cried, his voice breaking. Those chakram he was handling were now set on fire, and were flung at him with all the force of an earthquake, both of them knocking him down before he could even try to defend. The strength of the attack left the weapons wedged into the floor on either side of the boy, but this was all to Axel's advantage – no need to hurt himself when he could just remote-detonate. "You have all the ability to!"

"I'm trying my hardest to change things now, you know!" Alex yelled, sitting up. That last move had almost knocked the air out of him; he was much too winded to move. Axel merely stood there. "I've gotten Kairi away from you and to Sora. I've stopped her from being kidnapped!"

"Just because I failed doesn't mean somebody won't pick up after me!" He raised his hand. "And they might not treat her the same way I would!"

"Then you could stop listening to the Organisation and take Kairi somewhere where she'll be safe instead!" Alex retorted bitterly. The part of the plot that had always confused him… maybe it was time for him to get his answers. "If you got smart and stopped following them-"

One of the chakram erupted into flames. "You have no idea." Then the other. "You have no idea how much I want to do that. But Saix… he's just not on my side anymore." And then they suddenly… burned out. Alex looked wide-eyed between the two of them, burns running down his face and side and his skin covered in sweat. "I know what you want to tell me."

Alex blinked. "You mean, about how Ro-"

"All of that," Axel replied, waving his hand around a bit madly. "Roxas walked away from the Organisation because he understood… much quicker than I did… that they were bad people. I just kept seeing myself as the problem… Everybody kept walking away from me." Growling, he shook his head vigorously. "But then it just became more and more obvious. Those idiots, they don't realise what Xemnas is doing. They all honestly believe what he says…"

Another brief pause, yet again weighed down with all the anger Axel was currently exuding, and then Alex pushed himself up. Brushing himself off (thank God he was only covered in ashes rather than burned up), he began to speak. "I-"

"Save it."

"But-"

"No, really. Save it." The redhead let out a huge, empty sigh. "…Damn. Look at me. Why am I not listening to what people are telling me!? Roxas says he doesn't remember me, so I go and scare him off like that and look where that landed me. And you, just then. Your attempt at changing things involves just getting Kairi away from me… by throwing yourself in. Man… It couldn't have been more obvious, huh…"

Alex rubbed his forehead, coming to a realisation. "You're…" he hesitated, but Axel didn't interrupt him this time. "You're an idiot."

Axel sighed again. "I know." He glanced down at his boots, leaning back against the wall. "You're just doing the best you can, aren't you?" His fingers snaked under the collar of his coat and he scratched there for a second.

"I'm sorry. If I did create this world, it was by accident. I had no control over what past was implemented and I still don't." Alex looked around. "In fact, there's still a lot I really don't know about. But… I don't think it's right to change what's already happened. If that's how it is, then that's how it is. The only change I should want to make is to the here and now. And even then…"

Axel raised his head.

"Even then… there's a lot I can't mess about with. I could've done hundreds of things that would have changed the future. But the story I know…" Alex looked over at the sun, still hanging low in the orange sky. "It's the only way to a happy ending that I can think of."

"…Am I not in this happy ending?" The question took Alex by surprise, and he whipped around. "Aren't I allowed to have one?"

It was hard to think of what to say. A false move or bad phrasing could screw up everything. "What kind of ending would be a happy one for you?"

At that point, Axel couldn't help but look him in the eye. "Well, one with Roxas would've been nice."

"It's not like I could tell him what to do…"

But at that point, Number VIII had vanished completely, and a group of Dusks swarmed around Alex. Biting his lip, he brought the Lockshield up to block an attack, and countered with a sharp swing. The rest of them began to swarm.

But Nobodies were hardly what he had on his mind at the moment. Axel had made sure of that.