Chapter 10: Connections

Tyler woke up to find Ariel all ready awake and playing on her PSP.

"When did you get up?" She asked her friend. Ariel shrugged.

"A couple hours ago, I was dreaming about him again." Ariel replied.

"What happened this time?"

"He just… I don't know. We were in some all white building and he said it was home." she said, not looking up from her game.

"Huh…weird…" Tyler stretched and got out of bed. "Hey we should go to the mall today. I'm really craving a smoothie."

Ariel laughed seeming to lighten up and nodded. They got ready and headed out not much longer after that.

Just as they were heading out the door, Tyler thought she saw a flash of purple light. She jerked her head in the direction of the brightness, only seeing her violin case sitting normally where she had last left it. Right next to the living room TV, completely untouched.

She shook her head, brushing off what she thought she saw and left the house.

The Castle wasn't protected this time, completely open for Sora to get into now, but still he was nervous.

Suppose they attacked him? Most of the Organization members were traitorous at heart. His help could have meant nothing to them, but it was worth the risk.

The brunette paced toward the door with hesitation in his step. Why did he have this fear? It should be no problem to-

Sora jumped, summoning his Keyblade when someone randomly appeared before him. The blonde raised his hands in surrender and stepped back with a smile.

"I sensed you here,' Roxas said, "you seemed… hesitant. Thought I'd help."

Sora put his Keyblade away, sighing with relief.

"I'm looking for someone. Riku." he said. Roxas raised an eyebrow.

"Why would he be here?" he questioned.

"This is where I last saw him, when Zexion hurt him. I don't think he's here though, I just need to find him."

Roxas scratched his head. He hadn't seen his other half's best friend and no one else had ever mentioned him.

"Hmm… wanna go ask the others?" Roxas asked. Sora nodded.

The two made their way into the Castle, running into Xigbar on the way.

"Hey! Little Keyblade dudes. What's with the meeting?" he asked, standing partially in their way.

"He needs help," Roxas said.

"Finding Riku." Sora finished.

"The little creep that got repli- I mean, your pal?" Xigbar asked, smiling sheepishly at his slip up. Sora forced the glare to soften from his face.

"Yes, my pal. Have you seen him maybe?" he asked tiredly.

"I think I have, about a week ago. I was trying to do some recon in some Angel world. Couldn't stay long though because there was too much light. I thought I saw him, but it was so bright." Xigbar responded, wincing just thinking about the light.

"I have to go there," Sora said, perking up, "Thanks."

"No problem Li'l Keyblader Twin." Xigbar said, disappearing through a portal. Roxas turned to Sora.

"Do you want me to go with you?" he asked. Sora shook his head.

"It's not good for us to stay close for too long. And you heard Xigbar, there's too much light." Roxas scoffed.

"Would you like my company or not, Sora?" he asked again. Sora nodded, seeing that Roxas was going to be stubborn about the situation.

"Okay then," Roxas said, "let's go."

"We don't even know where we're going." Zexion said, rushing to match Axel's quick, determined strides.

"Nope, but intuition says we should go this way." Axel said, not looking back or slowing down at all. Zexion sighed.

"…You know, they say intuition is a woman's trait." he said after a short while.

"You're just trying to annoy me. I could just portal off somewhere I leave you stranded." Axel said, making to open a portal. Nothing happened.

"Um…"

"What? Forget how to make a portal?" Zexion asked sarcastically.

"Shut your condescending ass up. I haven't forgotten anything. I'm not stupid you know." Axel snapped.

"Sure," Zexion said, rolling his eyes. He knew he was being an asshole, but it was too late at this point.

"Why the fuck can't I summon my Chakrams?" Axel shouted, making a woman near them speed away.

"Hey, calm yourself. I was joking." Zexion said, attempting to make the pyro stop making a scene. He was actually pissed off. "Wait, you were going to attack me?"

"Damn straight! Argh, I have no time for this." the redhead said angrily, turning and storming off to a large building.

"VIII, we don't know what this place is!" Zexion said for the millionth time. Axel ignored the other boy and kept walking.

Zexion just sighed and followed silently.

"Ah! Let's go to Borders!" Tyler said, jumping up and down.

"I thought you wanted a smoothie?" Ariel asked.

"That was before I remember Borders!" Tyler said, starting to run off toward her favorite book store.

Ariel walked in already knowing that Tyler had ran right to the anime section. She headed over and started skimming through manga until red caught her attention. She had just missed it, but it looked like it was attached to someone's head.

'Probably a hat. Axel is a dream person.' she told herself.

"Tsuin, let's look in another section, if you're done here." Tyler suggested. Ariel agreed. Turning the corner, Tyler ran into a boy who was about her height and had odd colored hair. His purple and black attire made his hair make more sense.

'Probably emo.' she thought.

"Sorry." she said, backing up. The boy's eye that wasn't covered by his hair widened and he stepped back.

"I- you- no…" was all he stuttered before turning pink in the face and rushing in the opposite direction.

"What a fucking weirdo." Ariel said. Tyler nodded in agreement, brushing it off and returning to looking at books.

Zexion rushed over to Axel and tugged at his shirt.

"I… I… I…"

Axel was tempted to slap him. A stuttering Zexion was just weird, and he was stretching his shirt out of place.

"I… Tryxel. It was Tryxel. It had to be-" Axel grabbed Zexion by the collar, stopping his sentence.

"Was. Rex. With. Her?" he asked, trying to stay calm.

"I do not remember. I am pretty sure she-" Zexion started, but Axel had already turned wildly, knocking over an entire shelf of books. Zexion covered his face as Axel yelled "Rex" at the top of his lungs.

"Sir! SIR! Please calm down! What is his problem?" the manager asked, turning to Zexion.

'Rex! Zexion! Why didn't you stop them?" he asked loudly, running and knocking over a little kid.

"You and that mad man are going to have to leave or I will call security." the manager said in an outrage.

"Yes madame. I will go after him immediately. I apologize for his outburst." Zexion said, bowing to the woman before running to chase Axel.

From where they were, Tyler and Ariel heard a loud crash, seeing a book shelf fall over.

"Rex? Rex! Where are you? I'm coming for you babe!"

The two girls looked at each other in terror.

"We're gonna die." Tyler said, something the two always said in odd situations.

"We are," Ariel said, grabbing Tyler's arm, "Let's get out of here."

Axel got to the entrance of the bookstore just in time to see their two retreating forms disappear through the doorway.

"VIII, we have to leave now or they will send someone to get us." Zexion said, pulling Axel out of the store.

"Where did they go?" Axel asked in frustration.

"You probably scared them off." Zexion said, accusingly.

"Why didn't you just stop them?" Axel asked. "They were right in front of you!"

"Tryxel did not seem to recall who I was. I ran into her and she only apologized." Zexion said. Axel took a second to let his words sink in.

"Either it was not really her or they forgot us." Zexion said, trying to keep his tone even.

"They, they can't forget us Zex. Maybe she just didn't recognize you without your cloak. Or maybe…" Axel trialed off. If Tryxel forgot Zexion, Rexial most likely forgot him.''

"We know they're nearby." Axel said. "We just have to find them again."

"I strongly believe they have forgotten us, making this far more difficult." Zexion said. Axel sighed.

"I know. But we're going to have to try anyway." Axel responded. "They have to remember, no matter what."