A/N: I'm an awful authoress for not updating as much as I'd like to. People have been questioning as to how Demyx is reacting to the sudden absence of Hope and our Pyro. Well, since I've gotten that question asked quite a lot, I decided to give this chapter a bit of Demyx, so enjoy that. Other than that, in this chapter, I decided that I wanted to include something that wasn't in the game, which is why our first world to visit is: Dinosaur! Enjoy this most likely two parted chapter!
Disclaimer: I own nothing, except for Hope.
Earlier, with Axel~
Axel watched from a dark corner as each of the remaining Organization members portaled out, waiting for only one certain member to be left. Once IX was still the only standing in the Bailey, fiddling around with the chains on his hood, Axel walked up behind him and tapped his shoulder, earning a surprised squeal from the sitar player.
"WAAAHH! Wh-Axel?" Demyx asked, removing his hood and giving number VIII a shocked look. "Dude, where've you been?"
"Around." Axel replied, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms across his chest.
Demyx looked around, as if he were searching for something. "Where's Hope?"
Axel's eyes narrowed as he glanced at Demyx. "Why should I tell you? You'll probably go and blab to Saix if he realizes you know something."
Demyx frowned at Axel's words, sending the pyro a small glare. "I wouldn't go and blab on my friends, Axel. Especially Hope."
Axel's glare disappeared as he saw Demyx pull out his charm that Hope had made for him, swinging it around idly. "Demyx, what is it that Xemnas want's Hope for?"
Demyx pocketed the charm away and frowned sadly. "Xemnas wants to extract the light that Hope's heart holds inside of it, and use it for his own personal use. In this case, he wants to use it for Kingdom Hearts. If Xemnas succeeds, it'll kill Hope."
Axel growled, clenching his hands into fists. Hope was in a lot more danger than he thought. "Well, he's not gonna get her. As of now, Hope and I are no longer in existence and you never saw me."
"Right. Axel?"
"Hm?"
Demyx gave a somewhat sad smile. "Take care of her."
"Don't worry, Demyx. I will."
As the memory from the encounter with Demyx earlier ended, Axel sighed, looking over at a small lump lying beside him. Hope slept peacefully in the bed they were sharing in a small little hotel in Traverse Town, before actually letting the portal take them wherever it wanted to. It had been several days since Hope had even had a good amount of sleep, so Axel thought it would be best to get her to rest some before continuing on. After all, Hope was a whole person, while Axel was only a half. Nobodies didn't require a lot of sleep like normal people.
Without even thinking, Axel reached a hand out and brushed away several strands of hair from Hope's face, a small smile appearing on his face as Hope rolled over onto her side and snuggled closer to Axel, enjoying the warmth that radiated off of him. She looked so…innocent. It made him wonder why anyone would want to harm such a kind and gentle person. Instinctively, he pulled Hope closer to him, just holding her to his chest and pressing soft and gentle kisses to her hair.
Nothing would happen to Hope if he could do anything about it. Because Hope was his, and if anyone would hurt Hope, then Axel would be sure to it that they endured a life of slow, hurtful pain.
"Mmm, Axel?" Hope mumbled sleepily, opening an eye and frowning up at the pyro. "What time is it?"
"Not time to go yet. Go back to sleep, Hope." Axel ordered quietly, pecking her cheek softly.
Hope did as she was told and gently drifted back to sleep, while Axel continued to watch her.
He would never let anything happen to Hope. Not ever.
The next day~
As they walked out of the dark portal, Hope and Axel were met with something that they hadn't been exactly expecting…Well, more like two things.
"Look's like we've been portaled back 65 million years earlier." Axel stated, taking in his and Hope's new transformations. The two had been turned into full sized Iguanodons. Axel's leathery skin was the same color as his normal red hair only lighter with hints of tan. Hope's was a light pinkish purple with several tan patches.
Hope's eyes were not focused on their appearances, but that of their surroundings. It was apparently night time wherever they were, but that wasn't what Hope was most focused on. All around them were what appeared to be branches of trees or whole trees themselves laying before them, all of them crushed and broken. Several destroyed trees were on fire in some places, the flames very small. Smoke was lifting off the ground from the debris, flying up into the air. Hope felt her chest tighten as the feeling of grief and sadness could be sensed. Whatever had happened here was something that was tragic. She turned her attention out to the ocean, gasping softly as a small island lied in the middle of the ocean, a bright orange radiating off of it as the flames that had consumed it continued to burn, the large cloud of smoke still high in the air. Axel followed her gaze and frowned as he too, stared at the burning island, glancing over at Hope and taking note of the sadness that she held in her eyes. Gently he nudged her side, gaining her attention.
"C'mon. We can't stay here." Axel mumbled, earning a small nod from Hope as Axel moved forward, both he and Hope stopping and looking up when the sound of birds flying overhead caught their attention, giving them some type of idea that not everything had died.
0o0o0o
Night turned to day quickly, finding Hope and Axel walking through what could probably be considered a canyon…A canyon that was filled with nothing but sand, dust, and rocks. Not quite the most appealing scenery in Hope's opinion.
The sound of what sounded like a strange laugh caused the two to stop and glance up, both of them looking around warily. Hope opened her mouth to say something, when someone else beat her to it. "Look!"
"Did you see that?"
Raptors/Stand together begins to play~
Hope and Axel glanced at each other, "Axel, did you hear that?"
"Yeah…."
Hope made the move to walk forward, only to stop when she heard something behind them. She turned around and her lilac orbs widened. "R-raptors…"
Indeed, a whole pack of Raptors stood behind them, all of their teeth bared as they stared at Axel and Hope. One lunged and Axel whipped his tail at it, knocking it back. "Run, Hope! RUN!"
The two took off, not once bothering to look back at the raptors chasing them. They only stopped when they ran into even more trouble with more raptors, now trapped with another iguanodon who had a small group of lemurs on his back. When one of the raptors jumped close to the other iguanodon and he didn't make the move to run, Hope took the liberty of telling him. "Don't just stand there! RUN!"
There was nowhere to run to, and the raptors were closing in. Axel ran forward and knocked several raptors back with his tail, Hope helping out, until they had a path cleared away to run onto. "GOOO!"
They all took off, the raptors chasing after them as the ran into a sandstorm. One of the raptors managed to jump onto the other iguanodons side and bite him, making him cry out in pain, while another one managed to knock one of the lemurs off of his back and cling to his side. "YAR!"
Hope, hearing the panicked cries coming from the lemurs, knocked away the raptor trying to eat the lemur that was clinging for life, bending her neck down and glancing up at the lemur. "Hop on!"
The lemur hopped on and clung onto Hope's back as she ran, Axel beside her and keeping the raptors away from her. When the sand began to fly around harder, the raptors stopped, gaining the attention of one of the lemurs. "Aladar, they're stopping!"
Everyone slowed down, and Hope turned her attention to the side as a low roar was let off, her eyes widening slightly as the figure of someone walking through the sand came into her line of vision, causing her to move out of the way just in time, while the other iguanodon, who she now realized was called Aladar, was knocked over, the lemurs falling off of his back. Hope quickly ran over to them, and gave a worried glance at Aladar, before looking up at the one who had knocked him down.
"Stay out of my way!" The male yelled at Aladar, stepping over him and almost on the other three lemurs, Hope immediately bending down and allowing them to hop up onto her back, watching as another male glanced at them.
"You heard Kron! Move it!"
Hope stared around in awe and wonder as the large heard of dinosaurs moved around them, her attention so caught up in them, only being broken when the sound of a low like groan was sounded off, causing her to look up and stare in awe as the long legs of a brachiosaur made their way towards her and the tiny group she had come to join up with, everyone staring up at the large dinosaur as it made a call as if to say 'watch out'. As one of the feet got closer to them, Hope helped Aladar up before he got squashed, both of them staring up at the belly of the brachiosaur as it passed over them.
"Walking backwards, huh? Well, let me know if that gets you there any faster. Keep those little legs moving Url, or you'll be left behind!" A Styracosaur exclaimed as she passed by the group, calling back to an ankylosaurus traveling behind her.
Hope and Axel moved to the edge of the hill, Aladar following their actions, all three of them staring down in awe as the dust cleared some, revealing the actual size of the herd traveling forward, probably hundreds of dinosaurs.
"Look at all the Aladar's!" The littlest lemur exclaimed as she sat on top of Hope's head.
"If you're even thinking of joining up-" The lemur was interrupted by the raptors growling.
"Unless you'd rather be dinner for those guys, then I suggest you do like us and go with them." Hope said, staring back at them.
"Hang on, hang on!" Aladar exclaimed, running after Hope and Axel, all of them running to catch up with the heard, stopping next to the brachiosaur and staring up at the two males that had yelled at them before, giving the call that this was the resting place for tonight.
The lemurs all jumped onto Aladar's back, and Hope and Axel moved forward, a bit away from the iguanodon. "What do you think happened?"
"The extinction. It would explain why everything is pretty much gone and why there aren't that many other dinosaurs around." Hope stated quietly.
"Maybe we should go home."
"Home? Have you already forgotten that we're basically fugitives?" Hope asked, frowning slightly.
"Hope, we can't meddle with affairs of other worlds."
"Axel, it's a bit too late to say something like that now when we've done it a billion times already. Besides, I'm curious as to where they're going."
"Curiosity killed the cat, Hope."
"I'm not a cat though, am I?"
"Hey, you two!"
Hope turned around to find Aladar was calling them out, causing them turn around and travel back over to him and the lemurs, along with the Styracosaur, the brachiosaur and the ankylosaurus. "Yes?" Hope asked, giving them all a smile.
"Thank you for helping us out, back there and all. You really saved us." Aladar said, the lemurs all nodding with him in agreement.
The brachiosaur leaned down and sniffed at the lemurs, snorting slightly. "What an unfortunate blemish."
"Good mud bath will clear those right up." The Styracosaur stated.
"Excuse me?" The lemur that Hope had managed to save earlier asked, his tone a bit annoyed sounding, earning a bit of a growl from the Styracosaur.
"Um, he's my grandfather…couple times removed." Aladar said, excusing the old lemur.
"Try a couple of species removed…" The golden haired lemur mumbled.
"Um, my name's Aladar. This is my family," Aladar explained, looking back to the lemurs that sat on his back, staring at them sadly, "We're…all that's left."
"Oh, my dear, I'm so sorry…" The brachiosaur said, her tone turning sad.
"Baylene's the last of her kind. Finding stragglers like her all along the way."
"I heard you say something about nesting grounds?" The older female lemur asked, gaining Hope's interest.
"It is the most beautiful place there is, child. It's where the herd goes to have their babies."
"Will we find anybody that looks…like us there?" The little lemur asked.
"The last few days, I've seen them all shapes and sizes. Who knows what we'll find."
"It sounds like a very wonderful place. I'm sorry, we've been rude to you all. My name is Hope, and this is Axel." Hope said, nudging Axel a bit to gain his attention.
"Huh? Oh, hi!" Axel said, giving everyone a grin.
"I'm Aladar, and this is my family. Yar, Plio, Zini, and Suri." Aladar said, naming off each of the lemurs.
"Nice to meet you, child. I'm Eema, and this is Url," Eema said, nodding over to the ankylosaurus, "And this old gal here is Baylene."
"It's nice to meet you all. Tell me, Eema, how long will it take to reach the nesting grounds?"
"Oh, that's just it, honey. The hard part now is just getting there." Eema said.
"And we're being driven unmercifully." Baylene added in.
"By who?" Aladar asked.
"Kron, the herds head honcho." Eema said, a bit of attitude in her voice.
"We can hardly keep up. An older woman like myself, it's most positively indecent." Baylene explained, frowning slightly as she spoke to Hope.
"Then tell him. What's the worst he can do?" Aladar asked, a small roar interrupting him and surprising everyone, causing them all to turn and stare as three iguanodons passed right by them, two males that Hope recognized as the one from before, and a female. The one, Kron, intentionally bumped into Aladar. "Hey! What's his problem?" Aladar asked, frowning slightly.
"That's him, honey. Kron." Eema said, Aladar calling after him and moving forward. Hope sighed, glancing back at the raptors watching them. "Looks like the best idea is to keep our heads down with this bunch then getting them bit off by those guys back there."
"Honey, you just be glad that's all that's following us." Eema said, nodding to the raptors.
"Believe me….I am."
Their first journey to a new world, and Axel and Hope were already fighting for their lives.
A/N: Don't worry, it'll get better, I promise! Next chapter will probably be longer, ok? And if this was crappy, I'm sorry, and if the next one is crappy, I'm sorry! But I hope that someone enjoyed it! LATER TATERS!