Volume 2

"No!" Roxas shoots up in bed, snapping me out of a deep sleep. He's sitting up in the bed, shaking. I reach over and touch his back only to find that his shirt is drenched with sweat.

"Roxas, what's wrong?"

"Something's happened to Axel." His voice is so small and weak, like a child's. He sounds so scared.

"Who's Axel?"

He turns to face me and I can see he's so frightened that he's close to tears. "He…He was in the Organization. He was my friend. Axel was the only one of them that I liked."

An image of the guy who stopped me on my way out of the dark world flashed through my mind. "Did he have long, spiky, red hair?"

"Yeah." He looks beyond shocked. "How did you know that?"

"I met him. When Xemnas pulled me into the dark world, he stopped to talk to me. He told me to tell you that he missed you." I feel sort of guilty for forgetting to pass that message along.

"Now something has happened to him. I can feel it."

"But, Roxas, Axel's dead. He's in the dark world now. Nothing can happen to him there. Are you sure it wasn't a dream?"

"Maybe it was. It just felt so real."

"I know." I do know a thing or two about dreams feeling real. "Why don't you just try to calm down?" I put my arm around his shoulder. Slowly, I lowered him back down to the bed. "Try to get some sleep. You will feel better in the morning. I promise."

He stretches out on the bed, but immediately pushes himself closer to me and wraps his arm around my chest. I don't mind, even though he is covered in sweat because he immediately falls asleep. He looks so peaceful.

Riku is running towards me as fast as he can with his Keyblade high in the air. I only have a couple of seconds before he hits me. I have to do something he won't expect. Just as he's about to overtake me I fall backwards, rolling on my back. Our Keyblades hit each other as my feet make contact with his stomach. Continuing to roll, I use my legs to launch him into the air. He flies down the beach and lands in the ocean.

"In the water! Disqualified!" Riku splashes water around. It was hard work getting him out. He's one tough opponent. It's almost like he has some instinct about where my blade is going to go next. And he's always there to counter it. The past seven training sessions we've had, Riku has kicked my butt. This is the first time I've actually beat him.

He walks out of the water to go stand near Kairi and the blonde girl sitting next to her. That's Namine. Apparently she is Kairi's Nobody from when her heart was stolen. After Sora and Roxas separated, Kairi and Namine decided to do the same. Turns out Namine really has a heart too. Something about Kairi being one of the seven princesses made it happen. I'm not too sure how the whole thing works. But everyone was so shocked to find out about her heart, even Namine herself.

"That's the thing about a heart," Roxas said. "If you're told you don't have one enough, sooner or later you start to believe it's true."

Maybe Xemnas didn't know everything. Here are two Nobodies right in front of me that were born with hearts. He was just jealous and angry because he wasn't born with one. That's what…

"Dexlin! I could use some help over here!" Sora and Roxas are battling it out in the middle of the beach. I've been too excited about my win over Riku to notice that Roxas is getting slaughtered by Sora. Their Keyblades are flying in all directions. Roxas is quickly losing ground, backing up closer and closer to the out of bounds line.

I throw my Keyblade as hard as I can and watch it spin towards the two boys who look so much alike. It knocks both of their Keyblades out of their hands, but Roxas quickly recovers his. Sora doesn't. He jumps in the air to avoid getting hit by Roxas. One day he's going to have to teach me how he gets so high and stays in the air for so long.

Both Sora's and my Keyblades disappear in flashes of light, instantly reappearing in our hands. Sora shoots a fireball at me from the tip of his blade. I use mine as a bat to shoot it right back at him, but he dodges it. He won't come down because he knows he's safe up there. All he has to do is spin around a little and he stays in the air longer. But I have an idea.

"Roxas! Stick out your Keyblade!"

He does what I tell him as I run closer to him. I reach out with my own Keyblade, locking the tips together. With all of my might, I yank hard, pulling Roxas off his feet and sending him into the air. I don't think he realized what I was doing at first. But now he does because he's flying straight towards Sora.

The look on Sora's face is priceless. The last thing he ever expected was to see Roxas rocketing through the air. Because of that it only takes one really good hit for Roxas to knock Sora down. He falls into the water with a giant splash. Unfortunately, Roxas is also above the water with no way to stay up. He follows Sora right into the ocean. Which means…

"I won." The first time. I've never come close to beating all three of them. Sure I might be able to know Roxas out but that's just because of long unused Struggle skills. Once I was able to get past Sora, but not both of them. And never Riku.

Kairi, Namine, and Riku applaud for me while Roxas and Sora try to get some of the water out of their clothes. I fall back on the sand and just lie there. The sweat rolls down my forehead. My chest is heaving from how hard I'm breathing. I smile.

"So, I bet you think your real cool now, don't you, Dex?" Roxas is standing by my head, dripping ocean water all over me.

Suddenly, someone grabs my ankles and starts dragging me. Sora is pulling me across the sand while Roxas picks up my arms.

"This is no fair, guys. Don't be sore losers."

Before I can say anything else, I am thrown in the water. It feels cold after such a hard workout. It actually feels kind of good. But that does not change that this is the meanest, most horrible thing that has ever happened to me. And it's the also the most fun I can ever remember having in my life.

Roxas and I are walking around the Cove. We told the others that we would meet up with them later, just wanting a few minutes of privacy. He takes my hand in his as we walk.

"You're getting really good with your Keyblade."

It's hard not to show that I'm really proud of myself for that. "It gets easier the more I practice."

"Have you decided what to call it yet?"

"I think I'm going to name it The Road Home. Doesn't sound as fancy or as threatening as Oblivion like yours, but I like it."

"I think it's very fitting."

Just a little ways down, we come across a bunch of wooden planks tied together. It looks like there is a makeshift mast sticking up from the middle of the boards. Hanging from the top is a five point star that looks like it's made of sea shells.

"What's this?"

"This is the raft that Sora, Riku, and Kairi built to travel to other worlds. They were going to set sail on the ocean and find what was out there. The night before they were going to leave is when the Heartless came and destroyed this whole place."

"How do you know all of this?"

"I have Sora's memories. When we rejoined, they became mine too. It's like I built this raft myself."

"Oh." That's the only thing I can think of to say.

A big shadow formed over us, blocking out the sun. We looked up to see this huge thing made out of colorful blocks floating over us. "A Gummi ship." We both say it at the same time.

The ship moves across the sky, going in for a landing on the main part of the beach. Roxas and I run towards the cliff separating the beach from the Cove. Carefully, we peer around the corner to where the ship has landed. A small figure with big, round ears is walking down the platform to where the other four are waiting.

"Is that a mouse?"

Roxas gasps. Then he starts smiling. "Come on, Dexlin. King Mickey is here." And he starts running off towards them.