Axel stood in the empty white hall, and watched expressionlessly as Riku walked away. His memories were a foggy jumble; it would be distressing if he could feel anything, and he didn't have enough of himself back yet to even bother faking it.
Despite what he told Riku, he wasn't completely sure that he could exist outside of Oblivion. He thought he could; that he was now what he had always been, as long as he had been 'Axel.' But he wasn't sure. And before he would be ready to test his new existence... He had to recover his memories.
Everything up to the point the card had been created was slotting into place neatly; soon, it would be as clear as ever. But afterwards... That was where the fog came in.
Axel could tell that there was more there than he could clearly remember; something about Roxas, something about Namine...
I promised her something, I think.
But he couldn't remember what it was, and there was so much else... So many gaps, and blurry places, and some of it so important, he could almost feel it. And until he could remember some more... remember what was so important...
He sighed, and settled cross-legged in the middle of the floor.
"I guess I'm in the right place to go looking for memories, aren't I?" he asked no-one. The castle was empty; void of anything except the Heartless, and a few of his own Assassins that he could sense lurking about.
Guard. He sent the silent command, and then.
Got it memorised?
It was more than a corny catch-phrase, it was a hypnotic suggestion to himself. And every time he'd said it, it was another reinforcement of his own thoughts, his own memories, the patterns of his being, whether here, or somewhere else.
Especially around Sora. Who had carried his card.
Got it memorised?
Sora. Roxas. Riku. Namine.
Why did Riku think he 'owed' Axel? Or rather, didn't anymore.
"...X-E-M-N-A-S. Got it memorised?"
It was a fragment from Hollow Bastion, he had been telling Sora about Xemnas... Warning him? That seemed right. The real question was 'why.'
It had something to do with Roxas.
And he just couldn't remember what it was. He had fragments, scraps of conversation, and a sensation of chasing or maybe being chased; he wasn't sure which it was.
And somehow, he wasn't sure quite how, he thought that the Organisation's numbers were even further reduced than he had left them after Oblivion.
Axel searched those fragments of memory, scoured them for every scrap, pushed for every thread of connection, no matter how small, following the bits and pieces as far as he could, as far from the last moment that he held clear in his mind.
"...the only one I liked..."
Betwixt and Between. And after that... Nothing, until he had felt the pull of the card, and seen the unrelieved white of the interior of Castle Oblivion.
"Twilight Town," he said, as he let himself fall back on the ground into a sprawl. Piecing together scattered fragments of memory wasn't an easy task, but now he had somewhere to start.