Kingdom Hearts 1. Silence

Silence

Hopelessness beat down upon her, harsh as the light in the room around her. It was over, all of it, Marluxia had won and she had helped him. Any chance she had had to stop it was gone, the time for that was in the past – before Sora's memories were completely rearranged. Even if she tried to put things right now, it would take too much time. It was over, what was the point of pretending anymore?

Glancing down at the sketch book at her feet she felt a sudden, powerful urge to kick it across the room away from her. The one thing in the world she was good for had ruined so much, and she had enjoyed it…

It had felt so _right _sketching herself into the group with them, natural, and it had filled the emptiness inside her with happiness. It had been almost easy to lie to herself and say that she really belonged there, but as she had read more of Sora's heart she had realized that even these lies wouldn't be real. Even by rearranging memories she would never be more to Sora than an echo of his love for Kairi. _She_ would still be nothing but a shadow to him, trying pitifully to eclipse the bright light of Kairi in his heart.

The deeper she delved into his memories the more she wished she hadn't.

Footsteps intruded into her world of guilt. She looked up through her blond bangs and saw that Axel was pacing. Mildly surprised at herself, she realized that she had almost forgotten that he was here. She didn't usually have a babysitter, normally it was just a pair of Dusks outside the door or, sometimes, she was left alone in the room they brought her to for sleep. But whenever someone was watching her it was usually either Vexen or Larxene. Marluxia would come to talk to her, to encourage her to draw and aide him in his schemes, and sometimes he would hurt her, but he was never there to babysit: he had better things to do with his time than watch her. Vexen left her alone, mostly, but she dreaded the time spent with Larxene…

But even Larxene didn't make her as nervous as Axel did, because Axel was totally unpredictable. With the others there was consistency if nothing else, but Axel seemed to have a nobody's version of mood swings. He had never seriously hurt her but he had come close to it, once.

--

_"What the hell is this, Witch?"__  
_

_Startled, she jumped as he tore the sketch book out of her hands. There was violence in his voice that she had never heard before, fury in his bright green eyes._

_"I – I was only drawing R-"_

_"I know what you were drawing!" He threw the book across the room as though it were contaminated, "I want to know what you think you're doing!" He grabbed her by her upper arm and pulled her from her chair, shaking her once. At her startled and frightened gasp something seemed to flicker in him briefly and his grip loosened, but the fire didn't leave his eyes. "I know what happens to people you draw, what the hell are you trying to do to Roxas?"_

_"N-nothing," she gasped out, the look on his face making her catch her breath in terror. He had been so calm, so indifferent, and then… He raised his hand as if to strike her. "Nothing, I swear!" His forehead creased and the fire became like tempered steel in his eyes. His hand caught her chin and he gave her another shake._

_"You will never draw him again, Witch. I will _not _allow it. Not even on Marluxia's orders, do you understand?"_

_--_

She had understood. He would not take even the slightest chance that she would toy with Roxas the way she toyed with Sora.

Axel hadn't even touched her since then, but they had not really seen each other, either. Now, as she watched him approach out of the corner of her eyes, she was unsure what he meant to do. He was still a mystery to her. The look on his face didn't seem too dangerous but it was a peculiar one. It was mostly calm, but with an almost resigned air. When he spoke, his voice was normal.

"All he cares about is you." He made a gesture almost like a shrug, raising his hands and dropping them. She looked back down at her feet. Of course, just like Larxene, Axel had to have his fun kicking her around through her guilt. What did they get out of it? His next words, and the tone he spoke with, jarred her out of her self-pity sharply. "Yes…you are the only one who can save him."

She gasped, her eyes growing wide and her head shooting up. What did he mean? Did he know something she didn't? It would make sense, he got out more than she did…but no, there was no hope: not now. She knew that much.  
_  
Tired of being used, tired of being pushed about, tired of being so weak, tired of being worthless.  
_  
"No," she said, her guilt giving her the courage to talk back where she would not have dared to before, "No, nothing can. It's too late…"

"Oh, I wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet." With another of his abrupt changes, Axel's voice became upbeat and sing-song again. Frowning slightly, she looked back up at him and dared to meet his eyes. What was he saying? Was there still a chance to help Sora? Axel smirked down at her, as if he could see the hope flickering in her eyes as her frown disappeared. "Say, notice Marluxia isn't around anymore?"

She frowned again and tilted her head slightly away from him.

"I don't understand…what you mean by that."

"There's no one here to stop you." With a sweeping motion of his hand he stepped to one side and held his arm out, pointing toward the door which, at a silent command from him, swung slowly outward. There was no one in the white corridor outside, no dusks, no Marluxia; just as Axel had said.

"You're," her breath seemed to have deserted her, she could hardly even speak. "You're letting me go?" The playfulness slipped away from his face and a small smile remained, almost kind. Standing up slowly, she began to walk past him, still suspicious. He didn't move, he was like a statue of a lion but his eyes followed her with an intense gaze. When she passed him she was about to break into a run when his voice stopped her.

"Don't let me down."

She looked over her shoulder and stared at him. His gaze was steady, serious, and she realized that he meant it: he was counting on her to undo her mistakes, to make things right and he would not accept anything less.

Someone was trusting her with something, someone was depending on her. She opened her mouth but nothing came at first.

"You have my word."

She ran. He smirked.

_--_

_Roxas…oh, my Roxas. _

Roxas was gone. Gone for good. He had been rejoined with Sora. They were one again, and Sora was complete at last. She had kept her promise, she had fixed what she had broken, but it had cost Roxas his consciousness; cost him his existence as anything other than a faint presence in Sora's heart.

As she looked at the picture in her lap, the one she had drawn so long ago, she hoped it would be worth it.

Riku was with her, clothed in black, tall and silent as ever. Evening birdsong surrounded them on the quiet hilltop, the sounds of Twilight Town distant below them.

Looking into the distance, she saw green fields and mountains, roads stretching off out of sight, and she idly wondered where they led. At the same time she knew that she would never find out.

All her pitiful life, a cage was the only thing she had known. Even now, with DiZ and Riku, she was a prisoner. Oh, a prisoner under slightly more polite circumstances, and one with a whole mansion and garden to herself, but a prisoner all the same. The only freedom she had known was back at Castle Oblivion, and she had chosen to give it up.

--

_He feet flew beneath her as she ran. She had already wasted enough time, there was none to spare now. If she had any chance to save Sora she had to hurry. He would be on floor 12 by now, which was several corridors and two floors above her.  
__  
Her breath came in ragged gasps and her muscles felt heavy, but she couldn't stop._

_Then a thought came to her, and she nearly tripped over her own feet._

_What was to stop her from running down the stairs, out the rear gate and into the grassy plains surrounding the castle? No one knew she had left her room, Axel wouldn't suspect until later, and everyone would be so busy with Sora that she could go unnoticed long enough to escape and hide maybe…forever._

_To be free! He body quivered at the thought. To chose for herself, to draw for herself, live for herself. No Marluxia looming over her life like a shadow, no Larxene haunting her with taunts and threats, no Vexen with his experiments and exams. No mysterious entity dictating her life from the shadows, referred to by everyone as "The Superior"._

_Freedom. So close, so plausible she could almost feel it._

_…No._

_She couldn't._

_This was her fault._

_She owed Sora._

_…She owed Axel…_

_She had promised._

_--_

What would have happened if she had seized her chance? That question had often kept her awake at night. Would she be free now? Would she be stronger, braver? Would Roxas still be with her?

Would Sora be a puppet? A slave?

By now she had spent enough time with Riku to recognize the special intake of breath which meant he was about to speak. She looked up just as his mouth opened beneath the dark hood, the voice that came out was deeper, darker than any boy his age ever had.

"You know that – "

Riku was interrupted by the swirling noise of a dark portal being opened. They both turned to see a figure in a dark hooded cloak stepping out of the black shadows. The man was tall, slender but hard. His physique was visible beneath the folds of his cloak, toned and angular. A black hand reached up and pulled his hood down. Red spikes fell out casually before springing back into place neatly, emerald eyes gleamed, and white teeth became visible as he smiled.

"Long time no see, Witch."

Riku twitched, as though trying to flick away a fly. Axel looked at him, smirked, and walked over to the wooden railing. His whole manner screamed "Go ahead: attack me. Just _try_."

Leaning against the rail with both his hands, Axel spoke to no one in particular; "So, he's gone."

Below in the town a train clattered by on the rails. She felt Riku relax slightly. Something about Axel's manner seemed to have assured Riku that fighting was not eminent. Axel turned to her, looking her up and down.

"So, you don't have anywhere to go now." He titled his head to one side and studied her through half closed eyes. She felt the last of the fear that had come with him drain out of her. Axel had merely come to confirm that Roxas was…gone. "There's no one to look after you." Riku twitched again. She looked down at the picture again.

"That's right." She said, hating the sadness in her own voice. What was there to be sad about? She had kept her promise, she had saved Sora, and there was no way Organization XIII could hurt Roxas now. There was nothing to be sad about.

There was everything to be sad about.

"Hmm," Axel said, looking away from her and out across the view below them. "Such things do not exist for us, after all."

"But," she continued, her voice a little firmer, "I have some places I'd like to visit." He looked at her. Riku seemed to be made of stone. "And there are some people I'd like to see." Axel smirked.

"I'm the same." He turned to Riku, his voice becoming upbeat and cheerful. "So, why don't you let us go?" Riku turned to him, his face unfathomable beneath the hood. "That old guy you work for told you to get rid of her;" Axel jerked his thumb at her, "didn't he?"

Shock. Fear.

Betrayal.

"Did he?" She asked, pulling her book up to her chest. Not DiZ, he wouldn't, and Riku wouldn't. "Me?"

Riku didn't answer at first, but his shoulders dropped slightly.

He didn't want to kill her, but he had been ordered to.

"Go with him." Riku said at last, looking away. "I owe you two for Castle Oblivion, anyway."

It hit her then, Riku was just as lonely, as trapped as she was. Trapped by his choices, by retribution for them as well. He was just like her.

Axel raised his arm, a dark portal opening in its wake.

"Well," he said, grinning at Riku, "Thanks, then." He looked at her, his eyes ordering her into the portal. She drew back, hesitant. Axel was still a member of the Organization, and she had no wish to go back to _them_. But what was there left for her here? Riku would get into trouble if she stayed and DiZ found out she was alive. And Axel _had_ helped her before. He seemed to read her hesitation, his face softened and he nodded to her.

She got to her feet and turned to Riku.

"I'm sorry," she said in a small voice, before clutching her sketch book to her and running into the portal.

The die was cast. Wherever Axel was taking her, she would just have to find out the hard way.

**--**

**Another story from me. This one, however, already has several chapters written. They're just waiting to be edited and revised. I'm not making any promises, but I should do fairly well in terms of progress.**

**I got the idea for this fiction when I started wondering about several plotholes in KH, and a new one that showed up in KH2FM: what did Axel and Namine do after Riku told her to leave with him? And how did Namine learn to control her nobody abilities? (Remember when she got Kairi out of the cell, and opened a path out of the World that Never Was?) Being the Axel/Namine fan that I am, my mind came out with this. Enjoy, and let me know your thoughts.**


	2. Link

Link

--

One of the few times she was grateful not to have a heart was when she had to use a dark portal. She couldn't make them herself but Marluxia, Larxene and the others had used them to transport her in Castle Oblivion, and it had been the only way into her sleeping room. She could only imagine what it must be like to feel the darkness pulling at you, drawing you in, taunting and luring at the same time. Digging in its claws and pulling.

As it was, the darkness merely grasped feebly at her and, finding nothing it could hold onto, left her with nothing more than a few feeble scratches. She supposed she should feel lucky.

Axel was right behind her, she could feel the heat rolling off of him as they emerged into the space between. Colors swirled dizzyingly around them and the sound of swirling air currents was disorienting. Nobody symbols circled overhead and under their feet. She had only been in her a few times previously, neither had been pleasant. They stood in silence for a while, she did her best to keep her apprehension under control but her resolve was wavering. She was sure that they were going to Organization XIII's castle; where else would Axel take her? She was certain that the Organization had never meant to let her go, forgiving Axel for doing so only because he had eliminated Marluxia, and whatever plans they had had for her might still be in effect. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, she supposed.

Axel's arm appeared in her peripheral vision; tendrils of darkness swirled down his arm and tore open another pathway through the darkness. He lowered his arm and gave the small of her back a gentle push toward the portal.

"Get moving, Witch. We can't stay here long." His voice was low, urgent, almost like…he didn't want to attract attention? Why? All the members of Organization XIII controlled the lesser nobodies and heartless, what would attack them here, especially around Axel? He looked down at her and his agitation seemed to flow to her through his gaze, he was definitely afraid of something. "Move," he hissed, "_now_."

She obeyed. It was better for her to have Axel as a friend than an enemy at this point, especially since he was her only protection for now. A short trip through the cold, grasping darkness and she emerged into cooler, sharp air. After the dark twilight of Betwixt and Between the glaring sunlight of this world was almost blinding. Indeed, she shut her eyes almost instantly upon emerging from the darkness. She raised a hand to shield her face and peered about her through eyes struggling to adjust. A gust of wind howled towards them and she discovered it was bitterly cold here. Axel's appearance behind her was most welcome as he warmed her slightly.

Once she was used to the light, she realized they were on the side of a mountain; a very snowy and frozen mountain. She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself and looked around. They were very near the top, below them a pass stretched and wound its way downward. The only areas that weren't covered in snow were the rocky outcroppings on the sheer mountainside to their immediate left. In places it looked as though the snow had drifted deeper than Axel was tall. She noticed that the only reason her feet hadn't sunk into snow was that they were behind the shelter of part of the cliff where the drifting snow had been blocked. Still, the cold of the rock beneath her feet seeped up through her feeble sandals to chill her feet. A violent shiver shook her all over and she pulled her arms closer.

"Wh-why are we h-here?" She managed to choke out between her chattering teeth. Far, far below them she could just barely make out patches of green which looked very warm to her from her vantage point. Would it really have been so hard to portal to a warmer spot?

"Not even a nobody would be crazy enough to follow us here." Axel answered with a chuckle, perfectly at ease and watching her with amusement as she shifted from one foot to another. "Besides, no one would suspect I would come here; everyone back at headquarters thinks I avoid cold like the plague. The big boss man might suspect, but he'll have enough on his hands for now so we should be safe here." He shielded his eyes and looked up the cliff face, searching for something unknown to her.

"Y-you c-c-could have w-warn-warned m-m-m-"

"And what would you have done different if I had?" He looked down at her with, seemingly, genuine curiosity. "I suppose you'd like to be warmer?" She nodded. "Then I suggest you be quiet long enough for me to find a spot for us out of the weather. A storm is coming and I want to be under shelter for it. I would be fine, but you would be a popsicle inside five minutes."

She took the hint and shut up.

Axel stood still long enough for her to be thoroughly chilled. Eventually she grew cold enough to draw closer to him, gaining a little comfort from his heat. It did her little good, however, whenever the wind came through the pass. Her arms were cold enough that she didn't feel her fingers when she touched them, and the final straw came when a snowflake drifted down before her eyes. This was too much. She opened her mouth to voice a protest when Axel murmured "Ah ha," under his breath. He looked down at her and grinned his wide grin, the one that showed some of his molars in the back.

"Think you could wait about five minutes by yourself?" he asked, as more flakes of snow began falling. She felt that honesty was the best policy now; he might take her at her word if she tried to be brave.

"O-only i-if i-i-t r-really is f-f-five mi-minutes."

"Yeah, yeah," he said, turning away and crouching down, "I got it." He had jumped so far and so quickly that in the growing darkness cast by the storm clouds overhead she couldn't even tell where he had jumped to. She stood silently hugging herself and stepped closer to the shelter of the wall behind her. It didn't do her much good, and now snow was falling in earnest. The wind began to pick up and fairly soon even the rock didn't provide any shelter for her. She sank down and hugged her knees to her chest, burying her head down into them to keep the snow from her face.

She had never thought that something as innocent looking as snow could become so hostile so quickly. It was almost as bad as the darkness, only the cold and the snow froze and clawed her flesh whereas the darkness attacked your mind and heart. She wasn't sure which of them was worse.

And how long was Axel going to take? She had never appreciated how long five minutes could be. She almost lost her sketch book when the wind blew off all the snow that had piled on her sheltering rock. She had been completely buried herself and had emerged from the drift sputtering and shivering with cold and shock, holding her precious book only because her fingers seemed unwilling to move. Looking around her she realized it was almost as dark as night now, and the thought seemed to freeze her innards where even the cold hadn't reached yet.

"Sheesh, Witch, you look awful." The heat behind her felt almost too hot at first after the freezing cold that had been there. She turned around with a great sweeping feeling of relief and barely made out Axel's outline behind her: the snow was falling too thick now to really see any of the details of his face. At least his tone wasn't teasing. "Come here, I'll get you inside." He held out his hand to her and she stumbled to him, tripping over her frozen feet. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and lifted her up under her knees; she clutched her sketch book to her and nuzzled herself closer to the wonderful warmth of his shoulder. Frightening or not, he was _warm_.

There was a brief sensation of defying gravity and suddenly the wind was cut off and the snow was no longer reaching her. She realized that they were in a tunnel; a tunnel with walls that were just about circular and almost looked like rock that had melted and quickly frozen. Axel carried her back to where it widened out into a small circular area and set her down. She started shivering again almost immediately; even without the wind and snow it was freezing. Axel sat down opposite her and waved his hand, palm down and fingers spread, over the floor between them. A lively little fire sprung up out of nothing and licked his hand, almost playfully, she thought. The little sheltered tunnel filled with warmth and she sighed, feeling it slowly driving away the chill from her bones.

All she wanted to do now was curl up on her side and sleep. She had actually set down her sketch book and was in the process of lying down when Axel spoke.

"I don't think so, Witch." He looked up at her and the fire cast eerie shadows across his face, making his green eyes almost glow in the half light. "I don't know how cold you got out there, but if you fall asleep now it might be dangerous for you. It was like I was picking up an ice cube when I brought you up here. Wait a bit and warm up, then you can sleep."

"What about you?" She didn't even have the energy to put irritation into her voice, but her curiosity was getting the better of her.

"Me?" He smirked, "I'm going to stay awake long enough to make sure you do the same, and then I'm taking a nap. We shouldn't have any visitors with weather like this."

"Visitors would be bad?" She murmured, curling up on her side and resting her cheek on one hand to keep it off the cold floor.

"The only ones we can count on would be my old buddies, so yeah." He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest regarding her with his cat's gaze across the fire.

She was curious about that, make no mistake. Why wouldn't he want to go back? He had to be better off there, with all the other members to rely on and accommodations provided for any need he might have. Why was he camping out in a cave with her in the middle of a blizzard? Still, maybe she should ask him about it when he was in a less forbidding mood. The firelight made him look positively frightening when it flickered over his face.

They refrained from talking for a long while. The soft rushing of the fire was the only sound apart from the wind outside. Axel showed no signs of fatigue, but she felt her eyes grow heavier as her body grew warmer. It was a nice feeling, really, being warm and sheltered while the wind screamed outside – unable to reach you. It was almost like defeating it. A blanket would have been nicer than the rock below her, but it was smooth and there were no rocks and pebbles to dig into her and make her uncomfortable.

"So, before you go to sleep," Axel's voice pulled her back from the edge of sleep and she focused on him with difficulty, "I thought we should discuss what I'm going to do with you."

She pushed herself onto her elbows and stared at him, trying to wake up. This was important to pay attention to. Probably why he picked now to talk about it, she thought wryly.

"Actually," he scratched his chin, "It's not really a discussion, because you have no say in what will happen."

Of course, she thought. What else should she have expected?

"You obviously can't look after yourself." He smirked at her, but not in an antagonistic way. It was more like they had a shared secret; a friendly smirk. An Axel smirk. "And I'm not just going to walk off and leave you to fend for yourself." She nodded, silently asking him to continue. "I don't much feel like being constantly responsible for such a weakling," she felt a twinge of annoyance and hurt: did they always have to rub her weakness in her face? "So we're going to do something about it."

She was lost. What had he said?

"What?" She asked timidly.

"I'm going to teach you to fend for yourself. You think I have time to watch you every hour of every day? Sorry to disappoint you, Witch." He hooked his fingers together behind his head and leaned against the wall, grinning at her in his insufferable way. "Until we're finished, 'no' is not an option for you. Consider me your temporary caregiver." He yawned and stretched, cracking his neck loudly. "Once I feel you can at least run away from danger fast enough, you can leave and go off on your own."

She still wasn't sure what she was hearing. Was Axel saying what she thought he was?

"Why?" She asked, sitting up on her knees and leaning forward. "Why would you do that?" He had closed his eyes and now opened one of them and raised an eyebrow.

"I thought I had made myself clear. I don't want to babysit you constantly, Witch. It's dull work and it doesn't do anyone any good."

"But," she swallowed nervously. This was one of the longest conversations she had ever had with an Organization Member. "But are you sure that's what your boss would –"

"He's not my boss anymore," Axel waved a hand in front of his face impatiently. "Why do you think I've been so careful? I've left them."

"You left the Organi-?!"

"_Shut up_!" he hissed at her, and the fire on the floor guttered slightly making his eyes flicker. Her breath froze in her throat as though she were out in the storm again. "Don't say anything that would attract their attention. They have ears just about everywhere, you know. Use your brain, Witch."

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. They were both silent for a long time.

"Yeah," Axel said after a while. "I've left."

"Why?" She asked timidly. He glared at her, almost as if he resented her questions. She looked away from him immediately and watched the shadows playing on the walls.

"Because," he said slowly, "of what they did to my best friend." He lay down on his back, one hand on his stomach and the other under his head. "They drove him away and sent me to kill him when he wouldn't come back. Now he's gone forever."

She watched his face, but it was as deadpan as his tone. No clues to what he was thinking, nothing but the bare bones of his words to give her a clue.

"I'm sorry," she said, not knowing anything else to say. "I wish I hadn't…" she broke off and looked at the floor, avoiding looking at her sketch book. "I wish I hadn't helped DiZ, but what else could I have done?"

"Nothing." He shrugged and rolled over toward the wall. "I don't blame you; you're weak. That's what I'm going to fix." She watched the back of his head, not knowing what else to say. She wanted to argue with him, to shout at him and say she _wasn't_ weak, how would he have lasted in her place? How would he like to have gone through half of what she had? But she knew, deep down, that he had a point.

Feeling her exhaustion crash down on her, it became almost unbearable to stay awake. She fought sleep only long enough to get into a comfortable position, then quickly succumbed to her body's need for rest.

**--**

**I edited chapter 2 and got it ready for posting in record time. (for me) But don't expect the same thing for the next few chapters. I make no promises for them.**


	3. Musings

Musings

--

Axel's senses were on the alert for the slightest change in the environment, so he woke instantly when the wind died down. He got up and cautiously approached the mouth of their shelter, sparing a glance for the girl sleeping across from him. She was still out of it, he observed wryly, and her sleep seemed undisturbed. After a moment's thought, he decided to leave the little fire in the room alive for her sake.

Keeping well back from the entrance Axel observed their surroundings and the weather conditions. Snow had drifted into the mouth of the tunnel but hadn't gotten further, and although the air was thick with falling flakes the grey clouds overhead no longer had the angry-black look of the storm. He withdrew; satisfied they were in no danger.

As he settled back down in his previous spot, Axel began wondering what he had gotten himself into. It was bad enough to become a fugitive from the Organization, but taking on the challenge the Witch presented was possibly more than he could handle. Helping her learn to take care of herself really would be like dealing with an infant. Thanks to Marluxia, and Xemnas to a certain extent, she had never even learned the most basic survival skills – which would definitely prove to be severe handicap for him since he intended to steer clear of populated areas. He doubted she could survive long even if he left her in a city where food and shelter could be bought or begged. She didn't know how to interact with people normally.

Hell, she couldn't really even _talk _normally.

Stretching and easing muscles cramped from sleeping on the floor, Axel resolved to get proper equipment as soon as possible. He would have to make a food trip very soon, so why not multi task? They would definitely not be able to risk close contact with people too often: the Organization would likely be keeping a close watch on most of the towns and cities in the worlds. He had one advantage: they didn't know the Witch was with him, so if necessary he could have her play with memories a bit.

His mind returned to the problem the girl presented. He was still unsure of exactly what to teach her and how to do it. He had few memories of his Other, but most of his skills had simply been a part of him when he awoke. They had been rough and untrained but he had known instantly how to use them. Apparently the Witch had had no such luck. She couldn't even make use of the most basic nobody skills such as creating portals and summoning a weapon, and Axel had never helped anyone learn anything.

He sighed. Well, the portals would be a good thing to start with, but they would attract heartless in droves, and give her the ability to run away from him. Before he brought _those_ nuisances down upon himself, he'd better make sure she was _ready_ to run away. That meant self defense training. In terms of strength, Axel knew that the Witch would never be able to match any of them: for one thing, she was too young, for another he wouldn't wasn't crazy enough to try and teach her – it was bad enough she could already screw with their minds, he wasn't about to make her a physical danger. Besides, her personality wouldn't lend itself to attacking; she was too timid and fearful and the flinch reaction had been drilled into her for too long.

Well, there was no sense in worrying excessively over it. He would work out the details later on. Axel let his mind wander and began to plan out their next move, carefully thinking over every detail and devising ways to avoid detection. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall, staring at the silently burning fire in the center of their cave. His eyes slid out of focus as he reviewed his plans for Sora. He could find no faults but everything depended on perfect execution. One wrong move and everything would come crashing down around his ears, and with the Organization already forming their own plans to use Sora he was likely to end up butting heads with someone like Xaldin or Saix.

His mouth twisted up into a half-grimace. Things would be so much easier without the Witch. Looking after her and teaching her would take up most, if not all, of his attention for quite some time. If it weren't for Roxas…

Unbidden, his mind returned back to one of the last times he had seen his only friend.

--

_"Are you serious? Tell me you're not serious." Axel stared incredulously at the boy in front of him, unable to believe what he had just heard. _

_"It's the only thing I can do." Roxas shrugged, closing his eyes and turning toward the giant window behind him. Axel frowned at his friend as Roxas continued to look up at the sky outside. The World that Never Was was gloomy at the best of times, but as Axel walked over to stand next to Roxas he thought that the weather was especially dismal today. _

_"Maybe I can find _her_ on my way." Roxas murmured under his breath._

_"What? The Witch?" Axel was surprised at the sudden change of subject. "I'm sure she's fine, Roxas. I made sure she lived through Castle Oblivion."_

_"Yeah," Roxas said, looking at Axel out of the corner of his eyes, "Thanks for that."_

_"Sure, anytime." Axel said, distractedly, wondering how he could talk Roxas out of leaving. He understood that his friend wanted to know more about where he came from and why he was so special, but leaving would be suicide. _

_"Anytime? You mean that?" Unnoticed by Axel a glint appeared in Roxas's dark blue eyes._

_"Sure, sure." Maybe he could buy time and figure something out later._

_"Well then, if something happens to me, can I count on you to look after her?" Roxas turned around with a half devious half teasing look on his face and grinned up at Axel._

_"Wha-?!" Axel was flabbergasted. Where the hell had _that_ come from? "Are you serious?"_

_"Yeah," the smile on Roxas's face turned to his usual serious frown. "I remember how they used to treat her here. I," he stopped and looked away again. Axel wasn't sure if his cheeks were slightly red or not. "I want her to be happy, Axel. She's like me; she doesn't remember anything from before, and she doesn't know why she has her powers." Axel began to wonder if there was more behind this than sympathy for the Witch. "She deserves a chance, at least."_

_Axel frowned in a thoughtful manner, wishing for the hundredth time he could read Roxas better. Sometimes the kid was so serious it was hard to believe he had a playful side underneath. _

_"It really matters that much, huh?" Axel leaned against the window, wondering what he was getting himself into._

_"Yeah, I guess."_

_"All right, then." Axel sighed and leaned his head back, staring up at the ceiling. "But only because it's you." _

--

He shook himself out of his musings and looked up at the Witch. She was still sleeping peacefully; one hand curled up into a fist next to her face, the other gripping her sketch book and her legs curled up slightly. Her face was relaxed, peaceful, and with a small shock Axel realized that she had, indeed, grown up quite a bit in the year since Castle Oblivion.

He remembered her as she had been then, small, skinny, and very pale. Her deep blue eyes large in her face but always lowered. Her hair had been strikingly blonde but it had never really looked healthy, just as her skin had been alabaster pale from lack of sunshine. But there had been something good natured and sweet about her, even if it was buried beneath fear and submission, and she had a decidedly cute little face. Axel was honest enough with himself to admit that, if she hadn't been a witch who screwed around with memories, he might have liked her and he could definitely understand why Roxas had.

Now, watching her sleep, he could easily pick out the changes. He face was slightly longer and had become elegantly shaped. Her eyes weren't quite so large in her face anymore and were framed by dark eyelashes. He could only assume that she had been given more freedom over the past year because, even though she was still very pale, her cheeks had a healthy rose shade underneath and her hair had more life and shine. Her figure had grown, too; become more ladylike. Not to mention she actually _talked_ now. He smirked impishly, it seemed that comparative freedom suited her.

The smirk on his face slowly relaxed and he looked back at her face. Now that he thought about it, learning a bit more about the world might do her good as well. Axel was many things, but deliberately cruel was not one of them. He had no wish to make the Witch suffer; as he had once told Larxene distasteful cruelty wasn't his style. Taunting her was fun and she needed to toughen up anyway, so he took every opportunity he could get to do so. He knew already that intimidation was one incentive he could use on her, and a very effective one at enforcing obedience, but she might respond better if she knew that there was something in it for her. Of course he couldn't be obvious about it, what would that do to his image? A more circumspect route would suite his style better. He smirked as his brain went to work, laughing contentedly inside.

A slight change in the air pressure made him get to his feet and walk out to the cave's entrance again. The snow had stopped and a high pressure system seemed to be moving in, blowing the clouds away to reveal the kind of night sky that can only be viewed in winter. His breath fogged as it came out of his mouth and he smiled, leaning against one of the walls. There was only a quarter-moon tonight, but that made it easier to see the stars. He watched for a few minutes before turning away and walking back into the cave. Pretty to look at, but decidedly boring: that summed stars up nicely.

As he settled back down, Axel decided to let the Witch sleep for another hour and then wake her up. Now was a good time to gather supplies and he couldn't leave her up here alone while she was sleeping.

--

Her first waking thought was that her whole body was sore and stiff. Something nudged her shoulder, gently but firmly, and she made a muffled noise of protest. Whatever it was nudged her shoulder again, more insistent this time, and she raised her hand to swat at it. She met with something solid that felt like leather, and a low chuckle came from over her head.

"I know, Witch, I know. Waking up is no fun at all." Whatever she had hit grabbed her wrist and she opened her eyes to see a black-gloved hand in front of her face. She suddenly remembered where she was and what had happened and sat up, finding herself level with Axel's face. He was crouching next to her on the stone floor and grinning, the green light in his eyes playful. To her sleep muddled gaze he looked like a Cheshire Cat she had once seen in Sora's memories. "'Bout time you woke up." He stood up and jerked a thumb at the exit. "I'm heading into town to do some shopping. Don't leave the cave and you should be fine." He turned and started walking out without another word.

She sighed. Well, at least he had warned her, and it might be nice to have some time to herself. With no idea how long she was going to be alone, she reached for her sketchbook. There was no need to sit here doing nothing. She reached automatically for a pencil, then realized there wasn't one. Hers wasn't attached to the spiral binding on her book anymore; it must have fallen off in the snow. She looked up, Axel was just crouching to jump down from their cave, and desperation suddenly gripped her.

There was no way, no _way_, she could live without her drawings. Art was as natural as breathing for her and almost as important. She had no way of knowing how often Axel was going to be able to get supplies or whether he'd be willing to make a trip just to get her pencils, so the only way she was going to get one would be to ask him now.

"Axel!" She called after him, jumping to her feet and committing herself. She caught him just as he was springing from the cave, and he flinched automatically at the sound of his name. Naturally, this both ruined his jump and made him fall. His startled yell of protest and her gasp of horror mixed together and echoed in the mountain pass. She ran up to the ledge and peered over just as his head appeared over it.

"Don't _ever_ do that again!" He yelled, his hair sticking up more than normal and his face very pale. He startled her so much that she stumbled backward and fell flat on her back. The whole situation would have been almost funny if he weren't so angry with her. Grumbling under his breath, Axel pulled himself fluidly back into the mouth of the tunnel. "What?" He growled at her, brushing snow off his coat.

"I, um…" She hadn't moved from her position on the floor, what courage she had had before evaporating under his stern glance. "I lost my pencil." She said finally, after he glared at her.

"Is that _all_?" He asked, looking grumpier still.

"Well," she said, her voice sounding very small even to herself, "I- I wanted to ask you to get another one for me." His face twisted into a look of disbelief and chagrin, and she couldn't bear to look at him anymore. She lowered her eyes and wished she could just retreat back into the cave and curl into a ball. She didn't see the mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"You were _going_ to? Past tense?" He grinned down at her, enjoying having a little revenge for his fall. She mumbled something incoherent. He sighed, faking a mournful tone. "Well, maybe if you had asked I would, but I really have to get going soon." He made as if to leave, watching her reaction out of the corner of his eyes, enjoying himself immensely.

"Wait!" She said, before she could stop herself, becoming desperate again. He turned back, one eyebrow raised. She looked down at her feet and felt her stomach churning.

"Yes, Witch?" His voice was innocence itself, but she was willing to bet just about anything that inside he was shrieking with laughter at her.

"Would," she took a deep breath, "Would you, please, get a pencil for me?"

"Why," he said, his face splitting into a grin, "Certainly. I would be happy to fetch one for you." He continued to grin but his voice changed into a slightly reproachful one. "Why on earth didn't you ask in the first place?"

She raised her head, an angry retort ready to burst out of her mouth, but he cocked his fingers in a cheery salute and leaped backward out of the cave without another word.

She exhaled gustily, frustration and embarrassment rising up inside her. What on earth had Roxas seen in that man? Well, at least he had said he would get a pencil for her. She got up to walk back into the cave, when something small, long and thin whistled up from below and hit her in the head.

"Ow!" She yelped, her hand flying to the spot where it had bounced off. That had hurt… She looked down at whatever had hit her, and experienced a mild shock.

Her pencil was lying on the floor by her feet.

**--**

**Gotta love Axel, even though he's a jerk. Another chapter, this time with some Axel perspective in it. These moments will pop up through the story, since it isn't all about Namine and her thoughts. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.**


	4. Base

**Base**

**--**

Axel had been gone for a very long time. The sky outside was beginning to turn grey and the stars were disappearing. She lay curled close to the fire, half asleep. There was no way of knowing exactly how long it had been since Axel had left, but she had had enough time to discover several things: She was ravenously hungry, solitude wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and she was very, very high off the ground.

When Axel had thrown her pencil up to her, or rather, _at_ her, the first thing she had done was retreat into the cave and bury herself in her passion: art. Her embarrassment was quickly forgotten as images sprang into being beneath her fingers, places she knew only through vague echoes and thoughts from her other. She filled up several pages before the insane rush of images in her head ceased and she could turn to quiet, speculative pictures.

After a moment of thought, staring at the blank page in front of her, feeling the smooth surface of the page, a sudden wave of loneliness and longing for Roxas rose up inside her. They had grown somewhat closer in Twilight Town, and it was hard to make herself believe she would never see him again. He was lost within Sora. Gone. She would never see his smile, his eyes, his face again.

Without even thinking about it, her fingers began to transfer Roxas onto the page. She etched out a full body sketch in the corner of the page, keeping the image small since it was really only a doodle, and began to add the details she remembered about him. Halfway through a nagging sort of worry took hold of the back of her mind and she paused, wondering what had caused it. It wasn't fear, per say, it was more like a vague unease and disquiet as though she had forgotten something. She frowned and probed back into her mind, searching for the cause, and the memory jolted her like lightening.

_A flash of green eyes. Danger. Fury._

_A harsh grip on her arm. Pain. Fear._

"_You will never draw him again."_

Axel. Of course.

If he caught her drawing Roxas now…

To hell with it. She raged, full of sudden anger. To hell with it. It was none of his business, she wasn't hurting anyone. Axel had no right to tell her what to draw or not to draw. Him, with his mocking smiles, patronizing her and taunting her… Well, there was no need for him to find out about this, and she wasn't going to let herself be controlled so easily this time. He could kiss off.

With steely determination new to her, and an enthusiasm she had not felt for ages, she returned to her drawing. Time seemed to fly by as easily as her hand flew across the page. The fire Axel had left gave her enough light to work and kept her warm, and she had long since learned how to ignore muscles cramped from bending over a sketch book. In what felt like no time at all she had completely covered the page with Roxases in varying poses with many expressions. On a lighthearted whim she had even sketched out two Roxases interacting with one another playfully. Each pose was different but they all carried a subtle hint of Roxas's personality, the way he used to tilt his head and look at her out of the corner of his eye, the way he would throw his hair back or recline in a chair. Minor nuances that seemed to have permanently engraved themselves in her memory. Looking at each one in turn, she felt the terrible weight of loss and guilt inside her ease slightly.

Looking up and around her she was surprised to find how stiff and achy she had gotten. Both her legs had fallen asleep and her lower back was throbbing painfully. Sighing, she flipped her book closed and set it down before lurching to her feet. The blood surged through her veins and momentary dizziness made her lean against the wall. Her legs prickled and burned painfully as the nerve cells woke up once more, and she began taking mincing steps around the cave to ease muscles cramped from staying still too long.

When the prickling ceased she became suddenly and acutely aware that she had not eaten for _at least_ a whole day, maybe longer. Her stomach came alive violently, snarling and grumbling at her. She blushed, thinking about how she would have felt if Axel had heard _that_. She remembered well her days in Castle Oblivion, and sometimes she had gone without food for long periods there; usually whenever it had been Larxene's turn to handle cooking. But during her time with Riku and DiZ she had grown accustomed to eating regularly, even if they were small meals. Well, Axel had said he was going into town. Maybe food was on his list of things to get there. But how long was he going to be?

She walked out slowly, remembering the wide openness of the pass outside and certain she would feel vulnerably exposed if she went out too far. Curiosity began to poke at her. She hadn't really gotten a good view of where they were yet, and she was anxious to learn what world this was. Maybe it was one of the places she had seen in Sora's memories, but she doubted it. She was certain that any memories of a place this cold would be vivid and hard to forget.

She found that she was staring out across a mountain chain covered in snow. The moon wasn't full yet, but the snow reflected it and made visibility good. The mountains stretched further than she could see, and she found herself looking for the patch of green she had seen in the distance. This, inevitably, drew her eyes downward.

Big mistake.

All of her breath seemed to leave her body, and her legs felt curiously like liquid all of a sudden. The edges of her vision blurred and the world suddenly looked, to her, as though it was being viewed from the wrong end of a telescope. Her brain seemed paralyzed, unable to comprehend how she had gotten so very _high_. The lack of any distinguishing features between her and the ground made it seem higher than it actually was, but there was still a good distance between her and the ground.

Recovering enough breath to move, she stumbled backward and shut her eyes. One of her hands groped behind her for the comforting security and solidness of the wall and, finding it, she collapsed against it breathing as though she had just run a mile.

Why, oh why, had Axel picked a spot this high off the ground? Using a technique Riku had taught her, she placed her head between her knees and began taking slow, deep breaths. When she felt calm again, she realized that the cold air had chilled her enough to make her shiver. Refusing to allow herself to look at the edge, she walked calmly back into the cave and curled up next to the fire Axel had left. She stared into the flames, feeling warmth creep back into her, and allowed her eyes to unfocus.

Now that she was calmer, she was back to wondering just how long Axel was going to take. She was hungry and more than a little bored, not feeling much like drawing after her panic attack. However unpleasant he could be, Axel was company. In Castle Oblivion she had never been left alone, and Twilight Town had been a pleasant mix of activity and peacefulness. This spot in the mountains was cold and lonely. No color, no birds, no life. Snow and rock. Hostile, desolate, empty. Axel's company was definitely preferable to facing this place alone. And, there was no question about it, without him she would die here.

That thought sent a chill down her spine that had nothing to do with the temperature. She could imagine it; the fire dying down, the weather turning colder and colder, huddling into herself but knowing it would be hopeless.

She stopped herself before those thoughts got too far. Axel was coming back. He had to.

She sunk slowly into a half doze; staring at the fire as though hypnotized. Her hunger, now that she recognized it, kept her awake but the lack of anything to do along with the early hour made her sleepy. Unable to sleep, or wake up, she simply watched the fire. Watched little tongues of flame shiver up into the air and disappear, watch the white hot flames in the center of the little fire wave instead of shimmer – their movement was almost lazy compared to the orange outer flame. How convenient for Axel to have this power! How convenient to will flames into existence, with no fuel but the oxygen in the air. What must it be like to have utter control over something like fire? What did it feel like to have them obey you so flawlessly, it was like an extra arm?

"Oi. You awake, Witch?" Axel's voice jarred her roughly out of her half-awake phase, and she sat up suddenly. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Axel was standing just behind her, his arms full with shapeless bundles and a lazy grin on his face. Relief washed over her. It had been too easy to believe he would simply leave her up here to die, and she had actually believed it for a while. She was surprised to find that she was actually happy to see him, and this shocked her so much that she didn't stop the wide smile that split across her face when she saw him. This seemed to surprise him momentarily, but he recovered quickly and tossed his armload casually into a corner. She heard a metallic clatter as whatever he had gotten was jostled around.

"Miss me?" He said, walking around the fire and sitting down next to his bundles. She didn't answer, but she did sit up all the way and turn towards him. He seemed to understand anyway. "I'm flattered," he said with a devilish grin before rummaging through the supplies he had brought. "Here; catch." He pulled a long blue roll of what looked like fabric out and tossed it lightly to her. She only just managed to catch it before it hit her chest.

"That's your sleeping bag. Take care of it, because I'm not getting you another one." She nodded, feeling the pleasantly squishy material the bag was made of. It would definitely be better than the ground. "Heads up." She looked up just as he threw another bundle at her; this one collided with her face before she could catch it. "New clothes. Again, I'm not getting you more. If they don't fit, tough." She set the bundle of clothes next to her sleeping bag without looking at it. She was afraid to take her eyes off Axel in case he threw something harder at her. Sure enough, without even looking away from the sack he was rummaging through, he tossed a small package over his shoulder at her. This one, she caught. "Breakfast." He said, simply.

She looked down at it. It was a small, square box wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string. When she pulled the paper off she found that it was a box with little compartments of food and a fork. There wasn't much: rice, some long, green and thin vegetables, and what looked like broiled fish, but to her it was a godsend. She ate quickly but neatly, still watching Axel warily. But he seemed busy organizing the rest of the bag's contents. She finished and set the box in front of her, happier now that her stomach was silenced, and watched Axel work.

He was quick and efficient, she soon realized. He must have gathered his supplies together in a hurry, because within five minutes he had reduced the total size of their supplies enough to fit into one sack – with the exception of his sleeping bag, which was slightly larger than hers but the same in any other way. Once satisfied with his work, Axel raised his arms over his head, stretched, and leaned back against the wall.

"Finished?" He asked, gesturing at the box near her feet. She nodded. "Give it to me." His voice was level, pleasant, but it was an order nonetheless. She obeyed, handing him the empty box and the fork. The fork he stowed in the pack and the box disappeared in their little fire.

"All right, Witch. Down to business." He said, his voice cheerfully business-like, "We're moving. Just as soon as you get yourself ready we'll be on our way. So," he clicked his fingers at her, "get moving, huh?" He stood up and slung his sleeping bag over his shoulder along with their supplies. She stood, grabbing her sketchbook – making sure not to forget her pencil, and stowed it in the sack with her new clothes. She mimicked Axel to the best of her ability, picking up her sleeping bag and her sack. She couldn't quite manage the casual way his load hung over his shoulders and hers felt unwieldy and big. Still, it wasn't heavy and she could manage well enough.

Axel seemed to be debating something, looking around him at the walls of their sheltered little cave. She watched him silently, wondering what he was doing. He turned to her, suddenly decisive.

"Right. Do me a favor and don't freak out. I'm going to seal off the cave entrance. We'll portal from in here."

Startled, she could do no more than nod. What on earth did he mean?

"I'll try not to hit you," he said cheerily, dropping his bags and abruptly summoning his chakram. The fire in the center of the room disappeared. Taking a half step back, he hurled them at the cave walls near the exit. They spun forward, unbelievably hot in the enclosed space, whirling dangerously, and began ricocheting around just inside the tunnel entrance. Rocks and snow fell so quickly that the sound they made was almost a roar, and then the cave was plunged into utter darkness.

The silence was just as abrupt. All she could hear was her own breathing and for a moment, claustrophobia threatened to envelope her. Then she heard Axel swing his load up once more, and the whirling hiss of a portal drew her attention. If the darkness in the cave was absolute, the black emptiness of the portal was worse. Axel was visible to her against the portal as a figure of lighter darkness, and she walked over to him, feeling her way as much as seeing it.

"Why did you do that?" She asked, as he gripped her wrist and began guiding her to the portal.

"Because we might need to use this place again, and it's easier to unblock this cave than it is to melt another." Without another word, they were enveloped in the cold, grasping darkness once more.

--

One trip through Betwixt and Between later, and they both emerged from another portal into bright sunshine, warmth, birdsong and sand. The cave had been dark, and Betwixt and Between not much better, so it took a while for her eyes to adjust to this new world. She closed them and looked down, away from the sun. As she did, a sound reached her ears that was hauntingly and wonderfully familiar. A rushing, roaring sound that receded and returned with slow, calm regularity: waves.

An abrupt sense of familiarity and nostalgia washed over her. Every smell, feeling and sound seemed to awaken something inside her. She felt like…like she knew this place.

She opened her eyes and was greeted with the sight of a bright, sandy tropical beach. Palm trees stood in groups and forest grew thickly some distance away from the shore. Coconuts and seashells littered the beach, and as she looked a small crab scuttled sideways into a hole in the sand. It was all so familiar to her, like a missing piece she hadn't missed until now. She knew why now, this place reminded her of Destiny Islands; the place Sora remembered so lovingly, and the place where she knew Kairi had made her most precious memories. This place was not Destiny Islands, but it was so similar that it made her entire being ache with longing.

Axel watched her patiently. He had brought her here deliberately, knowing that coming to terms with her other was something the Witch had to do. She would be happier here, too he felt, and a happy girl would be more manageable than a sulky one. There was a small city about five miles away from the 

spot he had chosen, and the storm season for this world had just ended. It was a good spot, for both of them. When the Witch turned to look at him, he jerked a thumb at the trees.

"There's a spot in there that should do fine for us. It'll take a few minutes to get there, so let's get a move on." He shifted his sack so it was a bit more comfortable, resolved to lay hands on a backpack as soon as possible, and set out at a strolling gait for the trees.

She watched him go for several paces, reluctant to leave the beach, but ran after him before he reached the first tree. The walk through the woods was pleasant, even if Axel's pace was a bit fast for her, and she enjoyed the variety of plants she saw the deeper they went into the forest. There was a river somewhere nearby that added pleasant water noises to the forest sounds. The birds here were brightly colored and very vocal, flitting through the trees overhead like so many giant butterflies. She felt an odd urge to laugh when she saw two particularly loud parrots, sitting on a branch next to each other, bobbing and cawing in a way that looked so much like they were talking to one another.

The undergrowth wasn't thick, so she caught a glimpse of their destination from a good distance away. It was a small one story cabin, a water wheel in the, now visible, river turning slowly. A chimney rose out of the far side of the roof and a wide porch wrapped around the front. She wondered how Axel knew about this convenient little cabin, but didn't dare ask just yet. He was on the alert, carefully observing every detail as they approached their destination.

At the edge of the forest, about 20 feet from the front door, he paused to look around once more. Nothing seemed to disturb him, because a moment later he walked, quite cheerfully, up to the front door, set down his load, pulled up a floorboard from the porch and reached down underneath it. She frowned, wondering what he was doing, before his hand reappeared with a small, brass key between his fingers.

He unlocked the door and walked in, gesturing to her over his shoulder. She ran to catch up, liking the sounds her feet made when they struck the porch. He had left the door open, and she followed him inside.

The blinds on all the windows were shut, so the light coming through the door was the only thing to see by. The floor was wooden and dusty. She could see Axel's footprints from where he had crossed the room. His dark outline yanked open curtains the size of a wall across from the door, and she saw a set of plain French doors leading outside to a grassy clearing next to the river. Now that the room was brighter, she could make out more details.

The room was pretty plain, just a couch and coffee table against the wall to her left, underneath a set of small windows, to her right was a kitchenette with a sink and small stove, and a door was next to that. There was an empty shelf next to the French doors directly across from her, and a set of cupboard above the kitchenette, but that was it in terms of furniture. A clear inch of dust lay over everything, but now that it was open it did look more friendly and livable.

"Well," Axel said, pulling back the curtains over the couch and opening the small windows, "What'cha think, Witch?" He grinned at her, obviously in a good mood. She smiled tentatively back and risked a response.

"Definitely an improvement." Set set her things down and began to walk around, familiarizing herself with it. Glancing at Axel for permission, she unlocked the French doors and slid one open. It stuck about halfway, but she didn't mind. The air from the doors and the window was fresh, with an ocean tang, and the floor that had been cleared by her feet was made of a rosy wood that seemed to glow in the sunlight.

All in all, not a place she would have expected a member of the Organization to know about, or even care about.

Axel was rummaging through one of his sacks and emerged with a handful of old rags. He walked to the sink and turned the handle for cold water. The faucet hissed, shook, and spurted out water that ran slightly murky for a minute before becoming clear and clean. He pulled a bucket from under the sink and let it fill up, before turning to her with a smirk.

"Shall we get to work?"

--

When Axel said work, he meant it.

The rest of their day was spent cleaning away the dust and dirt of who-knew-how-many years. That meant a complete scrubbing from top to bottom. Cobwebs off the ceiling, dirt from the walls and windows, dust from the floor and furniture, grime from the sink and stove. She didn't think that she had ever worked so hard in her life.

At least Axel had helped out. He had warmed the bucket of water himself, saying he didn't want to push the hot water heater until he'd had a look at it first. She herself had found the trapdoor leading to the basement while she was scrubbing the floor, and was surprised at the feeling of pride and accomplishment this brought on. As the day wore on she had tired quickly, but Axel, surprisingly, had been all cheer and jokes. He had kept her going on good humor rather than threats. He had even made a joke out of cleaning the cobwebs off the ceiling, having her sit on his shoulders to reach the highest spots. Instead of feeling uncomfortable, she had laughed shyly right along with him as she struggled to balance and clean at the same time.

When the sun was beginning to set, the whole room was completely changed. All the wood surfaces glowed in the reddish orange light coming in from the west-facing French doors. The tap, sink and stove shone bright silver with new polish and elbow grease. There wasn't a cobweb or dust mote in sight. As she looked around the room, she felt the same sense of accomplishment that had come when she found the trap door, only stronger. Being filthy, sore and exhausted was new to her. Hard work in general had previously been unknown, but so had the rewards. All in all, she felt it was worth it.

Axel had found some pans and pots in the cupboards, which they had cleaned out – Axel making cracks about not even having the fun of making the mess – and which he was now using to cook some pasta he had pulled from their pack. She was sitting on the sofa, lumpy but comfortable, and wondering if the door next to the kitchenette led to a closet or another room to clean. She hoped that if they had more cleaning to do they could at least put it off until tomorrow. She was ready to collapse as she was.

Axel came over with two plates of plain spaghetti, set them on the coffee table and, literally, fell onto the couch next to her. The window above and behind them was open, screens keeping out the night insects, but the doors had been closed. They ate in silence, the pasta was bland but not bad, and it certainly was filling. They finished eating just as the light outside was really going, leaving their plates on the table.

Axel was sprawled out next to her, leaning against the arm of the sofa and tilting his head back. She observed him shyly out of the corner of her eye. She had never really looked at him before now, but in the calm that seemed to steal over them she was able to observe him both as herself and as an artist. His face was hard and angular, the same way his body was toned, high cheekbones and a long, straight nose framed his oh-so-expressive eyes. His neck was slightly longish, curving smoothly from his chin to his chest, his adam's apple pointing up at the ceiling. His chin was slightly pointed but supported by a strong jaw. A hard face, but a pleasant one as well.

His eye turned to meet hers, and she looked away quickly, slightly embarrassed to have been caught looking at him. Axel raised an eyebrow and asked, in a friendly, teasing way, "What? See something green?"

She looked down at her feet and shook her head from side to side in a silent 'no', and he shrugged.

"Suit yourself." He went back to his quiet study of the ceiling, and she gathered her courage together.

"Axel?" She asked, tentatively, quietly. He turned to look at her again, his face blank but not unfriendly. "What is this place? How did you know about it?" He smirked and looked out the French doors.

"My other had a distant relative who lived here. No one I left behind knew about it, and I had almost forgotten it until a while ago."

"Why are we here?" She continued, slightly encouraged by his response.

"It's healthier." He said simply, shrugging. "And," he paused, looked at her with a thoughtful frown, and continued, "It's important for us to have a base. A place we can branch out of. You'll be learning a lot from now on, and we're going to be traveling now and then. This place is secure, no one besides us knows about it now, and it has the basics we need. A good base is very important." He was very serious now, and she could sense he meant for her to learn this lesson. "You need a refuge, an anchor. A place to retreat to, a place to hide, a place to rest. But," and he sat up, his eyes boring into 

hers, speaking slowly now, "No matter what, never allow yourself to become too dependent on it. If you do, your base will eventually become a trap – you won't know how to survive without one. It will cripple you. Always remember that." She nodded, understanding him.

"I'll remember."

**--**

**Wow. This is like, twice the normal length my chapters are. I rather pleased about that. Reviews are welcome, as always.**


	5. Clean

Clean

--

They sat in silence for a very long time after that. The room grew dimmer and dimmer as the shadows outside lengthened. Axel had remained in much the same position the whole time, staring up at the ceiling, his head resting against the wall, one arm lying languidly over the back of the sofa and the other hanging over the side, eyes unfocused, utterly calm. She, on the other hand, had slowly ended up curled in a ball with her head pillowed on the sofa arm and her eyes half closed nearly asleep.

Axel blinked, seemed to pull his thoughts back from a long way away, and craned his neck to look out the window behind them. He exhaled gustily, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. She barely registered the movement and, having by now been convinced he wasn't going to begin beating her to a pulp at any random moment, she was content to ignore him. Besides, it was so much easier to stay where she was.

He was speaking now, she realized. Something about a bathroom? It probably didn't matter; it could wait. She mumbled something, not even sure herself what she was saying, and left it at that.

The room was in total darkness now, or maybe her eyes had closed. The birds outside were silent, instead she could faintly hear the night calls of insects. The couch shifted, Axel must've gotten up, and she snuggled deeper into the surface under her face. A sigh escaped her, she felt someone standing over her, and fell asleep.

--

"We won't tackle the bathroom until tomorrow; you look pretty wiped out, Witch." Axel said, rolling his head over to grin at the girl curled up on the opposite side of the couch. Her response was unintelligible, and he raised an eyebrow at her. She must've been more exhausted than he had thought. The room was a dark blue now, what little light they had had left fading away. The cabin had no electricity, so there was no way to get light. He could see just fine in the dark, anyway.

Personally, he had rather enjoyed the day. He had come to terms with his desertion from the Organization back in the cave, and didn't worry about it now. As long as they were very, very careful he would be able to keep them both safe here. The freedom to do absolutely anything he wanted was a bonus, as well as something he had desired for a long time. Having the Witch help with the cleaning had given him an idea of her physical, and mental, stamina. He hadn't expected much and hadn't been disappointed, not if one day of work wiped her out this much, but she wasn't hopeless. He might actually be able to do something for her.

She was falling asleep. That much was obvious. In retrospect, maybe cleaning out the bathroom first would have been a better idea. At least then they both could have washed the dirt and, in the Witch's case, sweat off. Well, one thing at a time. If they started early tomorrow he could check the boiler and the gas tanks.

The cabin was an engineering marvel, actually. The water wheel outside powered a sewer and water system. As a boy, Axel's other had helped build this place so he knew the mechanics fairly well. The boiler, hot water heater and stove ran on gas stored in tanks in the basement. He had made his own fire to cook with tonight since he was unsure of how well the system was running after years of neglect. Once he got things working they would have hot water privileges, and the Witch could start doing her share of the cooking. He certainly wasn't going to do it all by _himself_.

He stood up and stretched, cracking his neck to relieve the pressure that had built up there. The Witch wasn't moving at all and, when he looked at her, he saw that her eyes had closed. He chuckled a little to himself. That was something she shared with Roxas; he had fallen asleep easily as well. Sometimes after a mission Axel had had a hard time keeping the kid awake at all. He walked over and stood over her, watching her slow, even breathing. He studied her face and discovered another quality she had in common with his best friend.

Whenever Roxas had slept, really slept – not napped, all the worries, all the hardship, pain and unanswered questions had melted away from him and he had just been Roxas: teenage boy and Axel's best friend. Not a keyblade master, not a burdened nobody, just Roxas. The Witch was the same, her face was calm, relaxed and peaceful. She almost looked like an ordinary girl. He frowned and tilted his head to the side. She looked fragile, really. Like a porcelain doll.

The thought stirred a very faint something in the back of his head, a half-memory of something he had once had, but before he could follow it's trail further it was gone.

He sighed again, resigned this time, and ran a hand through his hair. Well, she could sleep on the couch tonight he supposed. It was better than getting her sleeping bag dirty. Besides that, he was too big to really lie down comfortably on the couch; it had barely been big enough to keep him and the Witch separate when she lay down – and she had been curled up.

He walked over to his pack, yanked out his sleeping bag and flipped it open carelessly on the floor. He flopped down on top of it, he was still dirty so he didn't crawl inside, curled one arm under his head and stared up at the ceiling – monitoring the night sounds outside. The insects were buzzing noisily and there were a few nighttime bird calls, all normal sounds. He relaxed slowly, easing into sleep.

--

The next morning dawned over a misty forest, the humidity so high that moisture dripped off of the tree leaves. The cabin was well-aired, but it soon became stiflingly hot with the windows closed. She stirred, uncomfortable in the heat, and rolled over. Her world dipped sharply downward and, with a startled yelp, she was rolled over and off of the couch, her eyes flew open but refused to focus. A hand waited beneath her and kept her from landing too harshly, but it let go as soon as she hit the floor.

"You sleep like a rock," came a wry observation from above her. Her sleep muddled eyes finally focused and the wooden ceiling swam into view above her. She was lying on her back, on the floor, very 

far from her comfortable perch on the couch, being towered over by a certain red-head. She groaned, sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"What time is it?" she mumbled, not really expecting an answer.

"Five forty, give or take." Axel shrugged, leaning over her to open the window above the couch. A breeze blew in almost immediately and she was grateful for it. Getting slowly to her feet, ducking under Axel, she walked to the french doors and opened them as well. The cabin aired out fairly quickly, and the heat seemed to lessen somewhat. Opening doors and windows didn't do much about the humidity, though. Once the breeze died down it felt like she was breathing water instead of air.

"So…" Axel walked over to their packs and started yanking out food supplies, "Breakfast and then back to work, I think."

"Breakfast" meant a plate of unseasoned rice. She ate without complaining, but Axel said he would be making another supply trip soon. Apparently he wasn't big on tasteless food.

She didn't mind it so much. To her, food was food.

She found out where the other door led after breakfast. It was a small bathroom with the necessities: a sink, a toilet and a shower/tub combo. The floor space consisted of about one square foot, so it was very cramped with both of them inside working. This had been awkward in many more ways than one. Axel had removed the black overcoat of the Organization, yanked off his boots and rolled up his pant legs; making accommodations for the heat. He had been wearing a very tight sleeveless black shirt underneath which left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Being in such close proximity to him had brought up unpleasant thoughts and memories, but he had been relaxed and totally at ease, and she gradually began to get used to it. She had no other choice, really, since several embarrassing situations arose from the lack of space.

"Axel…maybe I should just do this myself…?"

"Are you insinuating something? Take your knee out of my face."

"Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry -"

"And quit saying 'sorry' already. Sheesh."

Despite several similar incidents, less space meant less to clean. By dint of much elbow grease and bruised shins the small room was livable by noon. She had had time, too, to become more familiar with Axel, with his moods, and where his limits were. He had been fairly free with answers to her questions, much to her surprise, and she had gradually become more at ease with him.

"Axel, I saw a chimney outside."

"Yeah. So? Hand me the bleach."

"So…where's the fireplace?"

He had laughed for a long while after that, almost spilling bleach on his black pants, before telling her that the chimney led to the basement and that it allowed the boiler to work. She had asked other questions as well, about the town and surrounding area. He had been perfectly willing to answer her until her timid questioning had begun to focus on him.

"How did your other know this place? Did he visit it a lot?"

Pause. Silence.

"He helped build it."

"…Oh."

He had refused to answer any personal questions at all after that, treating them with an indifferent silence. She took the hint quickly and stopped asking. He was perfectly friendly again afterward and she thought nothing more of it.

She had originally thought that it would be possible to shower off when they were finished, a shower would have been most welcome; she had never felt filthier. However, Axel informed her, the boiler was in no condition to handle hot water heating.

"So, I'm going to head down and persuade it to start up." He said, wiping his hands off with a clean rag and stepping out into the main room. She followed, watching him as he flipped open the trapdoor in the floor. "Hey, toss me the flashlight in the sack, will ya'?" He said, lowering himself into the hole up to his waste. She hurried over to the pack and rummaged inside until she found the little light. Instead of tossing it, she walked over and handed it to him. He grinned impishly up at her. "Feel like taking the plunge along with me?"

She looked down into the dark, cobwebby dampness of the cellar, and it only took her about two seconds to decide on her answer.

"I'd rather not."

He laughed and disappeared down the ladder, the flashlight on and held between his teeth.

--

The pipes and sewer system had, luckily, been in almost pristine condition. The boiler, it seemed, was not so.

"Try it now!"

Hearing the muffled yell from below her feet, she obediently turned the hot water handle on the tap. The water that emerged was still ice-cold after an hour's worth of work. Axel's voice had become more and more irritable, and she wasn't sure what to expect if this took much longer. He had already begun loudly using words she had never even heard before. Once, when she had heard a muffled thud and yell of pain, he had begun screaming at the top of his lungs in language so colorful she had actually been tempted to get a notepad.

"It's still cold." She yelled to the floor. A muffled grumble was his reply, and it was immediately followed by clanking and engine grumblings. None of it sounded very good. Axel's voice suddenly exploded from the basement, and it was so loud that she actually covered her ears at first.

"YOU STUPID PIECE OF USELESS, CHEAP, ANCIENT, RUSTING, DEFECTIVE, JUNKYARD FODDER!!"

Thud. Clang. _Whoosh._ Hiss.

Cursing.

She had to work very hard to stop a laugh; it would not have improved his mood.

Another bout of hammering and clanging noises, accompanied by Axel grumbling, and then he shouted up to her again.

"Give it a go now!"

For what felt like the hundredth time that day, she turned the hot water tap. The water that came out instantly began to steam, and she pulled back her hand with a yelp before it could touch her skin. She stared at the faucet, not daring to believe it.

"Well, Witch? How's it working?" She shook herself out of it and called back:

"Perfectly!"

A satisfied grunt came back as an answer and she walked back into the main room. Axel's head emerged from the open trapdoor covered in dark smudges, dust and cobwebs. He tossed the flashlight on the floor and climbed up, looking annoyed and dirty but fine otherwise. Flipping the trapdoor shut with his foot, he looked over at her with a sort of resigned expression.

"Don't get into trouble while I'm cleaning up."

She nodded and stepped aside when he walked into the bathroom. There was no question about who should get to shower first: he was twice as dirty as her, and had single handedly gotten the hot water running. Besides, she wasn't going to fight with him over it.

In retrospect, she wondered why they needed hot water in heat like this. She was sweating quite a lot by now; it was still stiflingly hot even with the doors and windows open. Then again, Axel didn't seem to feel the heat as much as she did. He hadn't broken a sweat in all the time they had been here. She walked to the french doors, placing one of her delicately-shaped hands on the edge and gazing out to the yard outside. The grass was long, obviously overgrown, but a pleasant green color. It stirred slightly in the breeze, in the stillness of the afternoon the sound of swishing grass was almost like a miniature ocean.

She lost track of time, watching the forest, the river and the grass, but all the same the shower sounds cut off sooner than she expected. She turned and walked back into the room, clasping her hands together in front of her and waiting silently.

Axel emerged a few minutes later, steam hissing out behind him, rubbing his hair dry with a towel. He was wearing a white, button up short-sleeve shirt fastened halfway up his torso and simple blue denim shorts. She wondered vaguely what he had done with his other clothes, avoiding looking at his half-exposed torso.

"All yours." He said simply, gesturing to the open door. With a small smile of thanks, she rushed past him into the bathroom.

**--**

**Shorter than last chapter, but they can't all be record breakers. Lately the music I listen to has been inspiring me a lot with this story, so maybe in later chapters if I feel a particular song has been helpful I'll list it down here. This chapter is really just an intermission chapter; nothing happens between them except that they become a little more used to each other. I also slipped in some hints of future chapters. I tried to keep them low-key, but it's my first time attempting forshadowing so don't be too rough on me. **


	6. Damaged

Damaged

--

The shower was heaven. The hot and cold knobs for both the shower and tub were separate from one another, which allowed for much more precise water control. She turned the hot water on just enough to keep the shower from being frigid, and stepped in pulling the curtain shut behind her. There was soap in a tray, already wet – probably from Axel, but no washcloth. Feeling slightly awkward, but wanting to get the dirt off none the less, she washed herself and rinsed off.

There was no shampoo, so she rinsed her hair thoroughly several times. She would ask him to bring some back after his trip to town. Feeling much better she stood still for a few minutes, enjoying the way the water felt. With a somewhat reluctant feeling, she shut off the water and stepped out onto the tile floor. There was a towel there for her, an unexpected consideration from Axel. Gratefully she dried off and ran her fingers clumsily through her hair; getting out the tangles and smoothing it down as best she could.

Looking back at her little dress, she was very reluctant to put it back on. It wasn't even really white anymore; more like a mottled grey, brown and black now thanks to the events of the past few days. She fidgeted a little before looking at the sink and seeing new the new clothes Axel had gotten her stacked neatly on the edge.

He was being downright friendly with all this, she thought in amazement, pulling on the shorts and top with gratitude. She was used to dresses, and the somewhat baggy white shorts felt clumsy on her – they fell to her knees, weighing her down in unfamiliar ways. The top was more familiar, pale blue and made of soft cotton with no sleeves. At least he had gotten pastel shades: she hated dark clothing, it reminded her too much of the uniforms the Organization wore.

Running a hand through her drying hair again, and wishing she had a comb, she stepped out of the bathroom and looked around. Axel was lying draped over the couch, his head tilted back to rest on one arm, while his crossed legs dangled over the other end. The couch was way too short for him, and if he hadn't looked so comfortable it would have been comical. He spotted her, his eyes swept her up and down once, and his face split into an approving grin. She fidgeted a little, slightly uncomfortable and not really knowing what to do with herself.

"I heated a can of soup. You should eat." He waved vaguely at the stove then tucked the hand back under his head. She walked over to the counter and grabbed a bowl, when she was about to ask whether her was going to eat or not, she saw his dirty dishes were already in the sink. She took a clean spoon for her soup, it was tomato, and turned around. Axel hadn't made any move to get up, he wasn't even looking at her, and she wavered; wondering where to sit. She suddenly felt determined not to be intimidated by him, she had had enough of it. He had said he wanted to teach her to be on her own, so, dammit, he'd better not get angry with her for standing up for herself.

Yeah… right.

Well, he couldn't be upset if she sat on the floor. She would compromise. Hesitating for just a moment longer, she crossed the room and sat down leaning her back against the edge of the couch just below his legs. His head tilted toward her and she could tell he was watching, but she refused to look at him and focused instead on eating her soup. He didn't move, didn't talk, and she wasn't about to start up conversation. When he spoke it surprised her.

"Why didn't you leave them?" She glanced over at him, somewhat surprised. Usually she was the one asking questions. And what did he mean?

"Huh?" she said, her spoon hovering halfway between the bowl and her mouth.

"The old guy and his flunky. You could have run away."

"Riku would have brought me back." She said, setting the spoon down. Should she tell him the rest? Yes, she thought. He had been honest with her so far. "And…I wanted to save Sora."

"You love the kid so much you were willing to sacrifice Roxas?" His voice was wry, harder than she'd heard from him before.

"No…" she said softly, and he turned to look down at her. "No, I… I wanted to keep my promise." They were quiet again for a while, she wondered if he knew that she meant her promise to _him_ and not the one she had made to Sora. Feeling the need to justify herself and her reasons for leading Roxas to his final fate, she continued. "Roxas hasn't really gone. He hasn't faded like we all will eventually. He's…returning to his self. Becoming whole again."

"Hnn," was Axel's only reply, but it wasn't an unfriendly one. Somehow, she felt that he knew what she meant. She finished eating, feeling much more relaxed and slightly better about his questions.

Full and content, she set down her empty bowl next to her and leaned her head back. Maybe she could start exploring later; it seemed to be summer here so the days should be longer. Then again, Axel might not want her to go off on her own. Well, no harm in asking. However, before she could gather her courage, Axel spoke to her.

"Exactly how tired are you, Witch? You gonna collapse any minute? Can't stand to move another inch?" She turned to look at him. He was propped up on the couch, leaning on his elbows and looking down at her with a friendly but appraising gaze. She considered her answer very carefully. Based on his phrasing he probably had more work in mind. She wasn't as tired as she had been yesterday, but now that she had stopped moving her muscles had begun to complain about the past two days of abuse.

"I can move." She said at last, deciding to keep her answer ambiguous for the moment. He chuckled, swinging his legs up and over her head so that she ducked out of pure reflexes. Standing up, he stretched and looked down at her, placing a hand casually on his hip.

"Let's go for a walk then. On your feet."

--

Now that the sun wasn't directly overhead and the shadows were lengthening, the day was actually quite pleasant. The woods were shady, the earth moist and cool and warmed in places by patches of sun leaking through the leaves. They kept to the path they had used the day before, the one that led to the beach.

Axel walked with a lazy stride, his hands in his pockets, alert but at ease. She, one the other hand, was constantly falling behind to look at a patch of flowers or to study the bark of a tree, before jogging or running after him to catch up. She had even seen the same pair of parrots that had made her laugh the day before. She had stopped completely, looking up at them. They almost seemed to recognize her, hopping from branch to branch together over her head, chirruping to her and squawking and her. She had actually giggled a little at them before realizing that Axel was almost out of sight around a bend up ahead and running after him.

The beach was completely empty when they reached it, which puzzled her a little. If there was a town nearby, shouldn't the people want to visit the ocean on a day like this? Axel walked over to a stand of palm trees and flopped down, leaning against one with his knee propped up and an arm draped casually across it. She glanced at him and he waved a hand at her, which she took as permission to explore. Delighted, she took off down the beach toward the sun - where it curved out of sight.

Axel watched her go, his face impassive. Childishly open and easy to read, the delight on her face before she had run off was perfectly clear. He had expected it, but not the effect it had had on him. He had been…pleased, to see her smile like that. He told himself he was just glad to see his efforts to open her up were paying off, and left it at that.

No doubt she would discover why this beach was private when she turned around the bend. He snorted. It might have been worth going with her just to watch her reaction.

Oh well. When she returned he would give her her first lesson. Depending on how long it took, he might go swimming before they returned to the cabin.

--

After a short while walking on the sand, she kicked her sandals off and continued barefoot. This was one of the things she remembered her other enjoying, but had never experienced for herself. Everything about this place called up echoes of happy memories from Kairi. Crabs scuttling sideways along the sand made her remember Riku dropping one down the back of Sora's shirt, waves lapping at her feet brought back images of a sunset over water, sitting on a palm tree that leaned over the ocean with the tips of her toes soaking.

The strange sensation in her chest took a long while to place, since it had been just over a year since she had felt it last: she was happy. The last time she had felt this had been when she had met Sora in person for the first time.

The beach turned to the right at a sharp angle just ahead of her. As she had drawn closer to this place the sound of waves had changed slightly: it had grown louder, rougher, she could have sworn that she heard it echoing. As she turned around the bend, she saw why.

Giant cliffs of harsh grey rock loomed in front of her. Jagged boulders like teeth loomed up towards the cliff edge some 50 feet over her head. Rocks were jumbled in front of her, rising up in steps and tiny edges to the cliff overhead. A few sturdy trees hung on where they could, and where the rocks disappeared into the forest creeping vines and shrubs clung on to them. Waves were crashing and roaring against the almost completely vertical cliff further away from where she stood, and water swirled and gurgled in between the rocks closer to her.

She noticed that low, flat rock surfaces had pools of water caught in shallow depressions. This didn't interest her much until a seagull that had been nearby suddenly jabbed into one with its beak and came up with a small fish. Curious now, she placed her sandals well back from the water and began slowly climbing around and over the rocks to get a better look.

This was something Kairi had no memories of. Without knowing what they were, she had stumbled into an area of tide-pools: nature's temporary aquariums. She quickly lost track of time completely, watching eels and clams, little fish, hermit crabs and, in a particularly deep one, a baby shark. She had phased out so completely that she forgot to watch the tide. She didn't realize that the already deafening waves had gotten louder until one doused her with sea-spray. Startled and shaking water out of her eyes, she looked around quickly.

Swirling and rushing water had almost completely surrounded her little raised area. Many of the tide pools she had visited were already underwater. There was a very faint pathway left open to her, but it was shrinking fast and parts of it were almost gone. Scrambling to her feet she hurried back to the beach. She lost her balance and fell several times, scraping her arm, palms and knees badly on a jagged rock the first time, and cutting her face the second. At one point she had to wade through rushing water as deep as her waist. By the time she made it back to the warm sand, the sun was beginning to set and the rocks she had been climbing were almost completely submerged.

Her cuts were bleeding fairly badly, the one on her cheek stung unpleasantly and was starting to run, but there was nothing she could really do about it here. She shivered, the water had been cold and the temperature was dropping in the absence of the sun. Grabbing up her sandals, wiping the blood off her chin and wincing with each step, she began to walk back the way she had come.

It took her much longer since she was tired, and all she wanted to do was head back and wash the salty water out of her scrapes. Every time her knees bent they stung, so it was with a great sweeping feeling of relief that she finally saw Axel. His back was turned to her and he was dusting sand off of his clothes, so she assumed he had just gotten up. When he turned and saw her, several expressions flew across his face; relief, surprise, anger. He frowned, waiting for her to make it to him.

She did, finally, and for some reason his stern gaze made her feel like a child caught wrongdoing. She shifted from foot to foot, and stared at his feet rather than looking him in the face. He did not speak, held out his hand instead, and reluctantly she stepped nearer to him.

With gentle fingers that barely touched her skin he lifted her chin and examined her face, her hands, arm and knees. The heat rolling off of him and the gentle warmth of his hand warmed her and stopped her shivering. She hadn't cried at all when she had first gotten the scrapes, but for some reason his disapproval and concern made her want to cry. She found that she was biting her lip, hard, to keep from doing so. His eyes slid up to her face again, no anger in them now, and she had to look away quickly before she lost her control.

"How did it happen?" he asked, his voice low, soothing. She told him, mumbling low and uneven words, addressing his knees rather than his face. When she finished she finally dared to look at him again, and thought she saw disappointment on his features beneath the impassive expression. Wordlessly he held out his hand and she realized he was offering to carry her back to the cabin.

It would have been easier, much less painful, and it was a gesture of kindness that she was so unused to, but she was afraid that if she accepted she would finally lose control of the tears, and whatever else happened she knew one thing: she did not want to cry in front of him. Something in her rebelled at the thought, refused to even consider it.

So, instead, she shook her head and looked away. His face let slip a glimpse of blank shock, before he nodded and began to walk back along the path, keeping his pace slightly slower for her sake. Sighing knowing that the walk back would be painful and unpleasant, she followed.

--

Axel glided along the path, he could have been a ghost for all the noise his feet made, but his thoughts were in turmoil.

He had waited for a very long time while the Witch had explored. He figured that she had found the tide pools and wanted to let her enjoy them. However, when it had gotten late and the tide had begun coming in, he had grown worried. If she got stuck out there she would drown, or at least break several bones. He was just getting up to go and check on her when she had come around the bend. At first he had been relieved, but when he saw that she was shivering, soaking wet, and covered in blood in several areas, he experienced a mild shock.

Something inside him seemed to rear up, flaming and out of control. Unfamiliar with anything like this, he had been unable to pin down exactly what it was. Her condition boiled his blood the way battle did, and for the first time he wanted to kill, not for fun or for duty, but for revenge. How dare this happen? How could something dare to harm her?

This violent wave of uncontrolled thoughts surprised him, and unnerved him, and as he fought to get it back under control he realized it must have shown on his face because, as she came to him, she looked like a scared puppy that expected to be beaten.

He did not trust himself to speak, so he simply held out his hand to her. Up close the cuts on her arm and palms looked to be the worst. He knew something about injuries, it came with the territory he usually inhabited, so he knew how to be gentle when it mattered. Cradling her chin gently, feeling sticky blood marring the softness of her skin, he explored the cuts for anything that might have become lodged inside. There was nothing and, once he had an idea of the extent of the damage, he straightened up.

"How did it happen?"

He felt exasperation with her when he learned the full story. Maybe it would be better to keep her away from the tide pools for a while. Nonetheless, she had definitely learned a lesson from this experience. The look on her face told him that much. She still seemed to be afraid that he was angry with her. She was biting her lip furiously, as though it had done her personal wrong, and she wouldn't look at him.

His frustration with her vanished on the spot, and sympathy took its place. Not seeing any need to make her suffer more, he held out his hand to her, meaning to carry her back to the cabin. There could be no question about starting training today: she was exhausted and hurt, and in no condition to begin. He would have to disinfect her scrapes when they got back, and that would be a long painful process for her.

She surprised him yet again by refusing his offer, confusing him thoroughly. Now, as Axel walked ahead of her to the house, he tried to make sense of those confusing thoughts. Why had he reacted so strongly when he saw her? What had done that to him? The only thing that had ever come close was when he had fought with Roxas, meaning to kill his best friend. But that had been different, based on rage. Just now he had wanted…something different. He couldn't put his finger down on it, and it bothered him deeply.

She was limping now, he knew, and the thought made him wonder why she had wanted to walk all the way back. He had thought several times about making the offer again, but decided against it. He glanced back at her, slowing down slightly. It was full dark now, and they were barely crawling along, but she still grimaced with every step, still kept her eyes down and watched the path in front of her. He turned back and continued to watch ahead of them.

The clearing and cabin came into view at last, and once they made it inside she virtually collapsed onto the couch and lay still, utterly exhausted. Axel strode to the cupboard and pulled out a candle, lighting it with a flick of his finger and setting it on the coffee table. Next, he opened their supplies up and took out a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. He had gotten this on pure whim, thinking that if the Witch were injured during training it might come in handy. On the same train of thought, he had acquired a roll of bandages. Pouring himself a bowl of water and heating it with his hand, he walked back over to the couch and set his supplies down on the table.

"This will sting." He said, kneeling down beside her and taking her injured forearm gently into his hand. She didn't move, didn't respond, and he carefully began to clean out the cut with the warm water. Her arm tensed a little when he touched the long, deep cut and she gave a small whimper, but she didn't move. The one on her arm was the nastiest, it had been deep and extended all the way up the underside of her forearm, shallow at first but going deeper the further it traveled up her arm. Axel cleaned away the dried blood, dirt and saltwater from the gash, then proceeded to the other cuts.

Her knees and palms would heal fine in a few days, as would the cut on her face; head wounds usually bled a lot but this one wasn't serious. Once he had cleaned them off he set the water aside and picked up the peroxide.

"I'm not going to lie, this is gonna hurt like hell," he warned, and saw her jaw muscles tighten up. She had been silent and still so far, but he could tell she was in pain. Very, very gently he began cleaning her cuts with the peroxide.

The moment it touched her open wounds, she gasped and her eyes flew open. He had been prepared for this reaction, was ready to hold her down if necessary, but she merely trembled and whimpered, closing her eyes again and turning her face away from him. Feeling guilty for hurting her, but knowing it had to be done, Axel cleaned and bandaged her knees, hands and face. He had saved her arm for last, knowing it would be the worst one. Reluctantly, he began cleaning out the deep cut on her arm. She held out for about a minute before another whimper escaped her and, as he looked at her face, he could see that her eyes were watering.

"I'm sorry," he said, meaning it, "This has to be done. You could get an infection otherwise." She nodded, biting her lip, and he knew she understood. Being as gentle as he could manage and as quick as possible, he finished cleaning out the cut and bandaged it. She was shaking still, and he was glad to turn away and put the medical supplies back.

She had curled up when he came back, and he stood for a while watching her. His hands tightened to fists and for a moment he wavered, part of him wanting to leave her to crying, knowing it would pass eventually. Then, making his choice, he walked around the coffee table and sat on the couch next to her, pulling her slowly to him so that she was curled into his side with her head on his leg. Knowing words wouldn't help her now, he simply rubbed her upper arm with his hand slowly and soothingly. Eventually her breathing evened out and she was quiet, and he knew she had fallen asleep.

Sighing, he leaned his head back against the wall and stared up at the ceiling. It had been all too easy to do this, to comfort her. He needed to be more careful. Gently disengaging himself from her, he unrolled her sleeping bag, picked her up and carried her to it. Setting her down, he closed the doors and windows before unrolling his own bag and settling down for the night.

**--**

**Help! I'm...being...suffocated by... THE FLUFF!!**

**In all seriousness, though, this took a lot less time to write considering the amount of typing I had to do. When I looked at my plans for this chapter I expected it to take a week at least. Thank the Lord for small favors, eh?**


	7. Goodbye

Goodbye

--

Axel was suddenly and completely awake, lying on the floor in the cabin. He froze, listening intently for whatever had woken him. Everything seemed to be normal, but he was still tense. Rising to his feet, he strode over to the couch and glanced out the window above it. Normal sounds, normal nighttime animal activity. His stomach curled in slightly. He was sure that there were no security leaks here, but he couldn't afford to get careless. The Organization was still out there and still looking for him, and if they found him they would find the girl - they would destroy him and take her back to a life in a cage, probably with twice as many restrictions. There was no doubt they still had plans to use her and her abilities. Before he had left, Axel had even overheard Xigbar discussing plans to search for her with Luxord.

He looked across the room at her, she was curled up on her side with one hand under her cheek. Despite the bandages on her hands and cheek, she seemed…untainted. Healthy even. He couldn't let them take her back now; she had already come so far. She could talk now, she was opening up to him, showing curiosity. She had smiled. They would take that from her if they got her. He had promised Roxas that he wouldn't let that happen.

Roxas…

Longing for his old friend, his only friend, shook him to the very center of his non-being, that aching emptiness where he knew a heart had once been. With no heart he could not feel, he should not be suffering like this. For Roxas he had made the most potentially dangerous decision in his life. For Roxas he was playing babysitter and arguing with ancient boilers that should have been left to rot. For Roxas he was sleeping in a damn bag on the floor, jumping at shadows.

All for Roxas.

If there was only some way to see Roxas again, to talk with him before he was gone forever, to say goodbye. There was no way to stop him from rejoining with Sora, but was one goodbye so impossible?

An idea struck him, a long shot and a desperate attempt, but a chance to get what he wanted.

--

Roxas felt that he was slowly rising up out of thick water. His senses gradually began to respond to him, and he realized that he was sitting on a hard concrete edge, his arms curled around his knees and his forehead resting on his arms. The familiar weight of his old Organization uniform weighed him down, and he slowly raised his gaze up to look around him. A bright, twilight sky greeted him, and a breeze ruffled his hair. Familiar, nostalgic sensations.

"Finally woken up?" A voice called from his right, a familiar voice. He gasped and turned towards it. Axel was standing next to him on the edge of the clock tower in Twilight Town. His expression was unreadable, but Roxas felt the old familiarity and companionship as if they had never been separated.

"Axel?" He was glad, he was confused. Why was he awake? Why was Axel here?

"Hmmm…" Axel paused, tilting his chin up. "Maybe you're going to sleep instead." He looked down at Roxas, a sad sort of smile on his face. "Soon I won't even be able to talk to your consciousness like this."

Roxas knew, already, that what Axel said was true. He, himself, could not exist as a conscious being if his other half, Sora, was to be whole again. Smiling to himself, because he knew that this would mean he could be himself once more, Roxas answered Axel.

"I'm… going back to the way I was."

Axel smiled, a small sad smile, and sat down next to Roxas on the ledge.

"I've been thinking about it a lot. The Witch said the same thing to me earlier." Roxas glanced over at him and Axel, who had a vague idea of what Roxas was thinking, continued, "She's doing well; I'm watching out for her." He paused, his eyelids lowering. Roxas got the feeling that Axel was wondering how to phrase what he wanted to say, and was willing to wait patiently. "Roxas, you…" Axel looked up at the sky before them. "You have a heart, don't you?"

Axel being Axel, Roxas thought sadly, he would ask the question that Roxas had no answer to.

"I don't know either." He sensed Axel's disappointment and sadness.

"I guess not." Axel's gaze dropped to the silent town below them. Roxas wished, not for the first time, that he could read his friend's mind.

"But, the heart isn't something you can see." He said, finally confiding one of his most secret thoughts to Axel. "I've started wondering if it's something you can't feel either." Axel looked up at him sharply. "If so, then…" He stopped, smiling sadly. "Nah, never mind." Axel smiled at him, and his voice gained back some of its playfulness.

"What? Just when you're getting to the good part?"

Roxas' smile widened, and he leaned his head back.

"I'm sure Sora'll find the answer. He's me, after all." Axel actually chuckled, and Roxas realized how he had missed the sound.

"Yeah," Axel said, leaning back ward like his friend, "That's true." He pulled out a stick of Sea-salt ice cream and offered it to Roxas with a grin, which the blonde accepted happily. Axel quietly took a bite out of his own, savoring the memories that the taste brought back. "Remember the day we met? The day you got your new name? We sat here, just like this…watching the sun set."

"Yeah, this is my hometown." Roxas looked off into the distance, towards the old manor house where he had first appeared. "I wonder how my friends are doing… I hope they're all right."

"You should go see them, looking for your answer." Axel said, licking half-heartedly at his ice-cream. He knew, already, that Sora had met the three kids Roxas hung out with.

"Maybe." Roxas said, leaning forward. "But…I have to go now." He looked over at Axel, read the sadness on his friend's face. "Sora's waiting."

"Hmm. I guess that's right." He turned his face away, Roxas couldn't see his expression anymore. Axel took a sudden large bite out of his ice cream. "Whew! This is salty!"

Feeling the hazy, sleepy fog beginning to creep back, Roxas gave into it. He turned to Axel, a small smile on his face, as light began to come between them. He was going back to Sora, and as he fell asleep he felt Sora's heart resonating inside him. Happiness mixed with sadness, and he tried to convey an eternity of words to Axel through his gaze; knowing there really was nothing he could say.

"See you," he said, silently thanking Axel for everything he had done, "Axel."

"See you, partner."

The light blurred Roxas' vision, blotted it out completely, he heard the faint echo of a drop of water - Tears? Were they his or Axel's? He didn't know. - And he knew no more.

--

Axel opened his eyes again, seeing pale grey light across the ceiling. He was back.

It had actually worked.

The fact that he had seen Roxas again, talked to him even, was enough to help him accept the fact that he would never do so again. It was easier now, somehow, the emptiness where their friendship had been wasn't so all-consuming. Losing it had been like losing his heart all over again, but now he felt that he at least had closure. He had gotten to see his friend, to say goodbye. It was more than he had hoped for to begin with.

--

She woke up slowly, feeling the smooth nylon surface of a sleeping bag beneath her. It was cool, soothing, and felt good on her face. A breeze was blowing gently through the cabin, keeping the heat down. She opened her eyes and the room came into focus. She was lying facing the french doors, away from the sunrise, and Axel was leaning in the doorway. His face was turned away from her and his arms crossed across his chest. He had a sad, pensive look on his face. His brow was slightly furrowed, his eyes half closed. She sat up slowly, watching him, wondering why he was in such an uncharacteristic mood.

He detected the movement and his eyes turned to her, though his face didn't move. They regarded each other from across the floor for a while, but soon he turned back to staring out the window. Embarrassment wriggled into her stomach, he was probably still upset for yesterday. She herself felt somewhat uncomfortable with the knowledge of what had happened. He probably thought even less of her now than he had before.

"How do the scrapes feel?" He asked, his voice a flat monotone. In point of fact, she felt much better. Her knees and hands throbbed and her arm ached when she moved, but the pain was duller than it had been yesterday.

"I'm all right." She said quietly, unsure of his mood. He 'hmm'ed at her, still staring outside.

She stood up, wincing slightly. He looked over his shoulder at her again, turning all the way when he saw she was on her feet.

"You're stiff because you need to move." He said, looking her up and down. "Why don't you shower and we'll go for another walk." He turned back away from her and returned to staring out at nothing. What had brought on this mood? It was very unusual. The cabin seemed slightly less cheerful with him like this, even though bright sunlight was pouring into it through the windows.

She showered and changed quickly, wondering where they were going now. She hoped that he wasn't going to be like this all day. It would be a miserable walk if he was. And what were they going to do for breakfast? There hadn't been anything cooking when she woke up.

She emerged from the bathroom dry and wearing clean clothes, a white sleeveless shirt and blue-jeans shorts. Axel hadn't moved, but when he spoke his voice was slightly more cheerful.

"We'll need to change those bandages." He turned, a smile on his face that didn't quite reach his eyes, and jerked his head at the sofa. "Sit down." They walked over together, she sat down and he sat next to her. The bandages had gotten wet, so when Axel took them off it didn't hurt much; the dried blood had loosened. He said that the cut on her cheek could go without one from now on, but her arm, hands and knees were wrapped back up.

"All right," he said, standing up and rubbing behind his neck. "Let's head out. Sooner we get going, the sooner we'll get there." She stood up next to him and they walked out the door. Axel closed and locked the front door behind them. It wasn't very hot out, the humidity was down as well so the air outside actually felt good. Axel adopted his usual pace - even strides, hands in the pockets, observing everything. She stuck by him, however, since they were heading away from the path they had used before - straight into the woods.

"Axel?"

"Hmm?"

"Where are we going?"

"Town."

She stopped asking questions after that. His single syllable answers made her feel uncomfortable talking to him. She felt slightly happier, however; her curiosity about the town had been growing over the last few days.

The undergrowth was dense, but Axel helped a lot. He would hold aside branches and vines for her, help her over rocks and logs. Soon they emerged from behind a fallen log to find a path in front of them, larger than the one to the beach and better maintained. Axel gripped her shoulder gently and steered her to the right. The treetops didn't quite meet over the top of the path, so a strip of sunlight fell down onto the middle of the path. There were wheel ruts on the sides as well, so vehicles were probably common.

The walk was long enough for her to become tired. The sun was halfway to its zenith when the first buildings came into sight. They were small, white with red tile roofs. They looked like apartment buildings. There were a few people milling around, but not many. Axel stopped and turned to her.

"Right, Witch. There're a few cafés further along, we can catch breakfast in one of them. I'm going shopping after that. You can tag along with me, or you can explore around a bit." He started walking again, calling over his shoulder with his usual cheeky grin; "But I know you're hungry, so let's eat first, eh?" Smiling, she ran to catch up with him. _That _sounded more like Axel!

--

The path they had walked in on gave way eventually to stone-paved roads. All the buildings were small, no more than 3 stories high at the most, and all white with the same types of roofs. The whole town was clean, open and sunny. There weren't many people, but they were all healthy and cheerful looking. Quite a few smiled at Axel and her as they passed.

"Axel," she asked, jogging slightly to keep up with his now brisk pace, she barely noticed the pain in her knees now, "What will we tell them if they ask who we are?"

"No idea." He answered in a bright, cheerful voice, "I'll improvise I suppose. Just agree with whatever I end up saying."

Axel chose an open café, the tables were all outside, circular with umbrella shades for sun protection. The actual building was small, the front was open and a counter with a cashier blocked it off. There were a few people already sitting down. Axel flopped down at a table and gestured to the chair across from him. She sat down and folded her hands in her lap, looking around with open interest. The café was located just off of a square with a fountain at the center. There were a few potted plants and benches. A pair of kids was chasing a ball around and a stray cat was eying the coy in the fountain covetously.

"Here's our menu." A voice said from over her shoulder, and she turned to see a waitress setting down folded menus on their table. "Can I get you anything to drin-"

"Coffee for me, black. Milk for her." Axel said, flipping the menu open with one hand. "We'll be ready to order when you get back." He said, waving a hand. The waitress smiled and left. Axel looked over the top of his menu at her and raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to look at what they have? I mean, I could order _for _you but…" Immediately she picked up the menu and opened it, flipping through. She had almost no experience with picking her own meals. Riku had asked her what she wanted now and then, but most of the time meals had simply shown up, and she had eaten or gone hungry. This was new.

At least the menu had pictures, so she could see what they offered. A meal with scrambled eggs and toast looked good to her, so when the waitress returned she ordered it. Axel ordered sausage and fried eggs. Their food came fairly promptly, hers was bigger than she had expected. Somehow she managed to eat it all, though Axel was finished ages before her. He paid the waitress and they left.

"So, what'll it be?" He asked as they walked up to the fountain, "You going off on your own?"

She sat down on the edge of the fountain and dangled her fingers in the water, thinking hard. She wasn't sure what to say, she didn't quite like the idea of being on her own but the prospect of looking around was attractive. Axel was offering her the choice, so he probably wouldn't mind either way. Truth be told, if she was honest with herself she wanted to look around.

"I think I'll explore for a bit." She said at last. Axel nodded, and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a few munny gems and held them out to her in his open palm. "That's about 500 munny. Buy whatever you want with it." Her eyes widened and she stared at him.

"Are…are you - "

"Yeah, yeah. Just take it." He said, smirking down at her in that infuriating way of his. She reached out her hand and carefully took the munny. She, herself, wasn't sure what she expected him to do that made her so afraid to take it, but she did. His hand dropped down to his side and he slid it quickly into his pocket. "Be back here in an hour, all right? The crime rate in this place is almost non-existent, so you should be fine." He turned and walked off, leaving her sitting by the fountain holding the munny.


	8. Triumph

Triumph

--

She waited until the last wisps of Axel's hair disappeared around a corner before hopping down from the fountain. Slowly revolving in a circle, she debated which way to start off. Spying a side street lined with stalls selling merchandise, she decided to check it out.

There were vendors selling tropical-themed clothes, backpacks and purses, a few food stands, several selling "best hit" electronic games (although they looked a little too overwhelming for her to get too close) souvenir stands with framed pictures, snow globes, and smaller items like postcards, toward the end of the street there were even some book stands. These caught her interest more than the others had.

She had seen every member of Castle Oblivion reading at one point. Vexen had insisted that she learn how, but that had been mostly for his experiment's purposes. Reading intrigued her; one of the only times Larxene had left her alone had been when she brought a book along. So she casually perused the tables neatly stacked with hard cover and paperback books. The bright colors and pictures on the children's books made her smile, but she avoided the nonfiction section altogether - she could tell, based on titles like The Technical Manual to Computer Hard Drives and Physics for Dummies that there would be nothing there to interest her. The fiction section was a little more interesting, and she ended up flipping through several of them. The romance novels repelled her after she read a few pages from one, and the horror novels reminded her a little too much of her days in Castle Oblivion. She was almost ready to give it all up as a bad job, when the shopkeeper walked over to her.

"May I help you find something, Miss?" He asked. The man was old, short but thin, and wore small glasses. "Is there something in particular you're looking for?"

"I," she faltered slightly, speaking with total strangers was completely new to her, and she felt slightly uncomfortable despite the man's smile. "I really don't know."

"You enjoy fiction?" He asked, gesturing to the book in her hands.

"Well I-" she looked down at the book. "I've never really read anything before and -"

"No?" He asked, raising his eyebrows in a friendly sort of surprise. "At your age?"

"I haven't really ever had books to read." She answered, flaring up slightly. Like it was her fault?

"Well now," he said, chuckling a bit, "there's no need to be angry, Miss. I meant no offense." He rubbed his chin in a thoughtful way. "I'd recommend testing out the field a bit before you buy anything." He smiled. "It's a shame there's no library here. I wish I could send you to one. As it is, I'll just have to lend you one of mine."

She could have jumped back half a mile in surprise if her legs hadn't gone numb. Was this man going to loan her a book? Wasn't the whole point of setting up here to sell _them_? To make a profit? He seemed to understand her thoughts, because he took one look at her face and laughed.

"People in the town don't read enough, Miss. If I can help kids your age start to read more I will. I've been trying to get a library set up for years, but city council doesn't seem to think we need one… Well, come along, we'll find you something to read. I'm here on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, so you can bring it back on one of those days when you've finished…" As he spoke he walked along the tables and began looking through the many books stored there. He talked the whole time, and she followed in a kind of half daze listening to him. "Something in the science fiction category might be a bit too much for you, but we'll see, we'll see. You put down that horror book pretty quick so we'll stay away from that… old English might bore you, oh well; in time. Adventure…now there's an idea. Do you like animals? Of course you do, what young lady doesn't? Perhaps some Jack London or Rudyard Kipling would do the trick… Hmm…" He straightened up. "I have it!" he said, snatching a blue hardcover off of one pile. "20000 Leagues under the Sea! An ocean story for an ocean-side town, eh?" He turned to her and handed her the book. On the cover there was an engraved picture of a giant squid. The book was bound in leather and felt good to her fingers.

"Thank you, sir." Was all she could think of to say as she ran a finger over the letters of the title, wondering what the book was about.

"Not at all, not at all." He said, waving a hand. "Just make sure to bring it back." He turned and walked away to aide a customer that had just walked up. She hovered on the spot for a moment, clutching the book to her chest, then turned and continued her walk.

She traveled down several side streets with nothing particularly interesting, just a few homes and a hotel. Once she came up to a horse-drawn carriage that was parked and waiting for passengers. The driver could see that she liked the horse and let her pet it. She found out that his name was Max and the horse was Daisy, and that they were both new here - just like her. She stayed and talked to Max for a long while, stroking Daisy's nose and marveling at how soft it was, before a group of shoppers came to catch their ride. She waved good-bye to Max and Daisy, who were heading back the way she had come, and continued her walk.

It was now getting later in the day and the streets were slightly more crowded. With a small shock, she realized that it was probably time to head back to the square. Walking at a more brisk pace, wincing a little when her knees protested, she back-tracked to the fountain. Axel wasn't there when she looked around, so she sat on the edge of the fountain and waited.

He didn't keep her waiting long. Before five minutes had passed his shadow fell over her, and she turned to see Axel standing behind her wearing a smirk and with a brown paper bag in each hand.

"A book? No art supplies?" Was his greeting remark. She smiled shyly at him and hopped down, walking over and standing next to him. "How're the knees?" He asked, gesturing with his chin at her legs.

"Fine." She said, stretching up to her tiptoes and back down again. Axel's smirk widened into a full blown grin, and he actually shifted one of the bags so he could reach out and ruffle her hair.

"Atta girl. Let's head home."

--

It was past noon when they made it back, and she had told Axel most of what had happened. He, unlike her, had not been surprised that the book vendor had loaned her the book.

"The people here are all like that." He said with a shrug, leaping over a moss covered rock and waiting on the other side for her to scramble after him. "They trust you until you give them a really good reason not to."

She was tired, and very glad to see the cabin when they made it home. Once they had left the main road it had been real work moving through the brush even with Axel's help. She was ready for a shower and quiet afternoon. Axel handed her one of the bags, unlocked the door, and stepped in. They both dropped their bags on the counter, and then she hurried to open up doors and windows while he flopped down on the couch lengthwise - propping up one foot on the couch arm and letting the other flop to the floor. She walked over to the bags and glanced through them. Axel had gotten bags of apples and oranges, a bunch of bananas, steaks, she presumed for them to eat right away since there was nowhere to store them, some more pasta, and some styrofoam cups labeled "instant noodles."

"See anything in there you like?" he asked, resting his chin in his hand.

"I dunno…" she said, pulling out an apple and glancing at him. He didn't move to stop her, so she bit it and walked over. "I like fruit. Riku used to bring it to the mansion all the time." She sat down below his legs on the floor and quietly chewing. Axel 'hmm'ed at her and said nothing more. She finished her apple and got up to throw it away. When she turned around, Axel was looking at her intently from the sofa, his eyes calculating. She managed not to take a step back out of fear, but she still felt uncomfortable.

"Tired?" he asked. By now she knew that when he asked her that question he had something on his mind that would wear her out. She also knew that lying to Axel was almost impossible. All the walking around town and hiking through the woods had, indeed, made her tired, but now that she had rested and eaten she felt better.

"A little," was her answer.

"Feel like a lesson today?" He sat up, leaning forward onto his knees. "We have enough time to cover some basics." Her curiosity piqued, and she nodded. "Let's go outside then."

Axel got up and walked out the french doors to the lawn. She followed, feeling slightly eager now. Axel had said when they had first started out that he would be teaching her, now she was going to find out exactly what he had in mind. They didn't go far, in fact they didn't even leave the lawn.

"All right. We'll start with the basics. Since your arm isn't quite up to any defense training," he looked down at the bandage on her forearm, "I'll teach you to make portals."

That was a shock. He trusted her enough to do that?

"You don't think I'll run away?" she asked, incredulous.

"Do you want to?" he answered, raising an eyebrow and giving her his friendly-smirk. She thought long and hard about that. Did she want to run away?

No. Not really.

Why, though? Hadn't freedom always been what she had dreamed of, as far back as she could remember?

Axel was waiting for an answer, so she couldn't ponder the question much longer.

"I guess not."

"You _guess_ not. Well, that's a relief." He said, waving a hand. "I was afraid I'd have to start chaining you up whenever I left." His grin told her he was joking, but she didn't doubt for a minute that he would come after her if she ever did run. He cracked his neck, stretched his arms and flopped down on the grass in a cross-legged sitting pose. She sat down as well, although she folded her legs underneath and to the side in a slightly more ladylike pose. "You know that we all can control the darkness. But for some reason you seem to be out of touch with it." He looked at her in a strange way, almost as though she was out of some hitherto unknown loop. "With that in mind the first thing to do would be to teach you how to find and control darkness."

"Control?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, control. Even you can do it, with practice." He leaned back onto his palms and grinned at her. "You've felt darkness going through portals, so all you have to do is search around for that feeling. It should be easy for _you_, since you have that crazy mind-screwing ability."

She frowned at him. Why was it, exactly, that they all seemed to have an issue with her powers? Even Marluxia had used them to put her down before, and she had been vital to his plans. Deciding not to press the point, she closed her eyes and began to withdraw into her mind. She had only recently learned to do this while working on Sora's memories. It was something like using her powers on herself, though not quite the same. She had a vague idea of what to look for. Every time she had done this before, there had been an area lurking almost out of reach that she had been terrified to visit. It had almost seemed to jeer at her, mocking her, living in her mind like some silent parasite. Most of the time she didn't even feel it or think of it, and there wasn't that much of it even when she looked now, but it was there.

As her mental consciousness studied it, it seemed to be twice as unfriendly and malignant as before, and just as unapproachable. But this was the darkness, and Axel had said she must control it.

A sniggering sort of thought shifted through her mind, like and unlike her own musings. What made her think she could even _survive_ contact with that dark mass, let alone bend it to her will? She, who had always run away from the dark part of her nobody make-up, who feared it and hid from it, could not possibly control it.

But she had to. She was sick of being looked down on, especially by Axel. She didn't want him to think of her as weak.

Wasn't she? That slimy train of thought argued back. It was beginning to sound like another version of herself. A rather unpleasant one, as well. Wasn't that the whole reason Axel was even bothering with her? Because he thought she was weak?

He doesn't think that I'm hopeless, though. She answered herself, and she felt the dark place shift a little, as though it were listening to her with open curiosity. That's why he's helping me. He said himself he didn't want to babysit me forever.

But he _is _going to abandon you eventually. The sniggering voice answered, voicing doubts she had had for a while now, but never allowed herself to face. The darkness shifted again, in a slightly happier manner. Wouldn't it be easier for him to let you try this and fail? It would certainly get you out of his hair.

Why would he do that? Her answering thought was incredulous, but not as strong as the others had been.

'He doesn't want to babysit me forever'! It answered with a sneer, and the mental sound it applied to the voice was a horrible mimicry of her own. What makes you think he even wanted to babysit you at all?

Her thoughts seemed to be getting sluggish now; it was hard for her to string them together. Was it her imagination or was the darkness getting bigger?

You're a nuisance, good for nothing except to be used by others with greater strength.

This was true. She had never really brought anyone anything but grief. Even Roxas…

Roxas. For an instant that name seemed to clear her head, then the sluggish separated feeling crept back.

You couldn't even keep your promise to that boy. The voice said, suddenly angry as though it had sensed she had been fighting back. You've never done anything right, you ended up destroying the boy!

This, also, was true. Roxas was gone because of her. She could have done more to save him…

No.

Roxas wasn't gone. She knew that. He was whole again. Why had she forgotten?

She suddenly became aware in a disconnected way that someone was shaking her body, but she knew that she had to stay here and finish this now.

Who do you think you are, she answered, her voice suddenly strong, to come into my head and start judging me? I've done the best I can, all my life, and I've done good things along the way.

The cloud shrank back slightly. Only now did she realize just how close it had gotten. Now she knew where the voice had been coming from, and it angered her. As her head cleared, she realized that the person shaking her was Axel, and he was calling her.

"Witch! Snap out of it!"

She couldn't yet, though. She had to finish this. The darkness was loose now that she had made contact with it, and unless she got control now it would stay that way.

Like what? It sneered back, not giving up, refusing to surrender. What have you ever done right? What good are you to anyone?

Her head was clear, but it was still hard to think. She _knew_ the memories were there, but it was like viewing them through a haze. Desperation seized her, and an insane giggle came from the dark cloud - it recognized its chance. The numb sleepiness of before descended around her, and darkness clouded her vision. She felt the cold, mildew touch of the dark cloud on her skin, her arms, legs and face. It was enough to make her panic. She struggled but felt herself losing…

"Naminé!! Wake up!"

Something inside her seemed to break. She pushed back with as much as she had and the darkness gave way, a faint hissing echoing in the back of her mind. Memories rushed back in a wave. Saving Sora, helping Riku make his choice, standing up to Marluxia, Roxas smiling.

Keeping her promise to Axel.

_He said my name!_

She snapped abruptly back into the real world, became aware of strong hands holding her shoulders, cool grass beneath her, a strange scent around her - spicy, with a hint of smoke, burning her nostrils. Her eyes focused and she saw Axel's face, leaning over her.

There was a new feeling as well, tingling in her fingertips like she was holding back some enormous animal. Not unpleasant.

"Naminé?" Axel asked, and when she looked up at him she saw concern and fear in his brilliant green eyes. She smiled up at him, a part of her rejoicing, and relief spread across his face. "You won, then?" He said, grinning and sending her heart into her throat. _He said my name!_ She wanted to jump up, scream, roll over. _He said my name!_

"Yeah." Was her only reply, although the smile on her face told him enough.

--

**Now we're getting somewhere with the romancy stuff!**

**OK, this time around some songs earned their way into listings.  
****The Bell Tower, Alan Menken, The Hunchback of Notre Dame Original Soundtrack and  
Tifa's Theme (Piano Version), Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy Advent Children Soundtrack**


	9. Question

Question

--

If Axel was honest with himself, he had to admit that he had been absolutely terrified a few mere minutes ago.

He had been patient, waiting and watching carefully as the Witch withdrew into herself. He knew that she had been successful when part of her seemed to close off and her shoulders slumped loosely. She had been tranquil for a while, long enough for him to begin to get nervous. Then he had seen the first shudder rip through her, and knew something was wrong.

She must have been fighting the darkness, and losing. He cursed under his breath at his own stupidity. He should have given her advice, warned her, something - anything - besides sending her blindly to the darkness. He grabbed her by the shoulders, shook her, once, trying to snap her out of it; get her out of there before she lost completely.

"Come on! Fight back! You can do this!!" He shouted at her, willing her to hear him, to feel his hands, to pull herself out of it before it was too late. With no heart for the darkness to steal away from her, it was a very real possibility that she would simply fade away once it took hold. He couldn't, wouldn't let that happen! Never!

Very faint wisps of darkness crept over her body, and he knew things could only be getting worse for her. He wasn't used to feeling helpless. He hated it, especially when he was powerless to help _her_.

"Witch!! Snap out of it!" He shook her again, harder this time, feeling his body tensing with the urge to fight off what was hurting her; even though he knew this was something he could not protect her from. Her head snapped back and forth on her shoulders, and he forced himself to stop shaking her before he hurt her.

There was a faint swirling of air currents, and she seemed to be growing slightly transparent…

_No…No! Not her! _

"Naminé!! Wake up!"

He felt something spark across his fingers where they gripped her shoulders, sending tingling little jolts up his arms. Simultaneously, something in his chest area seemed to snap - as if pressure that had been building up suddenly gave way. The darkness that had begun swirling around her disappeared instantly, and her form solidified almost immediately afterward. He felt the reassuring warmth of her skin beneath his fingers, but could not allow himself to relax until he made sure she was all right.

Holding his breath he waited for her to open her eyes. When she did, he searched them slowly, carefully trying to determine whether she had really made it through or not.

"Naminé?" When Naminé's eyes focused on him, recognized him, he felt the strongest desire to pull her to him and hug her out of sheer relief. "You won, then?" He had been afraid for a moment that her eyes would be empty and lifeless and that the the essential part of her nature would be gone from them forever. The relief made him slightly light-headed. He could not remember ever being this frightened for anyone's safety, or so… proud. He couldn't keep the grin off his face, and was strangely pleased when she smiled back at him.

"Yeah."

They sat there on the green, wavy grass of the lawn and laughed. He had released her shoulders and shifted so that he was next to her rather than leaning over her, and she did not move away. They did not speak, which was one of the things Axel had come to appreciate about the girl; she didn't feel obligated to fill up every second with inane chatter. They were simply enjoying one another's company, enjoying the shade and the cooling temperatures. Axel's hand found a small stone, and he idly chucked it in the general direction of the river next to the cabin. It landed in the water with a small 'plunk' and Naminé smiled at him.

"Do you ever get tired of showing off?" she asked, and he grinned fondly at her.

"Never, my dear." He placed an extra air of smugness on the sentence, knowing that she would find it funny. She laughed softly, which pleased him for some reason. He flopped back on the grass, plucked a long stem from next to him, and popped it in his mouth. "So, how do you like being in control?" He asked, referring to her new victory. She tilted her head to one side and looked at him curiously.

"Is that what this is? This feeling?" she asked, holding up a hand to her face and looking at it.

"Yup. Like you could shoot out sparks if you wanted."

She nodded slowly, suddenly serious.

"Yes, it does feel a bit like that…" she paused, frowning thoughtfully at her hand, "But it also feels a bit…dangerous."

"Well, it is. Just don't overuse it and you should be fine." He rolled his head over so that he was looking at her upside down, the spikes of his hair very close to her legs. She smiled at him, and he could tell she wanted to laugh. "Since we don't have hearts there's nothing for it to eat away at." He grinned impudently at her, and she had to cover her mouth with her upraised hand to stop the laugh this time. Ha! He would get one out of her soon enough! If there was one thing he had learned from this, it was that he liked it quite a lot when Naminé smiled and laughed.

--

Naminé was feeling a bit light-headed and daring at the moment, probably the result of her victory over the darkness. Normally she wasn't sure she would be able to talk with Axel like this, to be this close to him without feeling any awkwardness at all, to relax completely with him. Maybe it was just his behavior; he was certainly in a good mood, better by far than his attitude that morning had been, and he seemed to want to clown around more than usual. Not that she was complaining - this was a side of him that she rather liked.

As the afternoon continued to fade into nighttime, she found herself settling down onto her side next to him with her head pointed toward his toes. It was a comfortable position, cushioned by the grass and able to look at him in the face without shifting uncomfortably. He spit out the grass stem eventually, once he got bored with it, and then called her attention to the sudden presence of fireflies.

"Ever see one of these before?" he asked, deftly catching one in his hand and offering it to her. She took the tiny insect carefully, trying to avoid hurting it. Axel's rough, calloused fingers brushed against her palm as she did and a fluttery feeling tickled her stomach, but she forgot it as she studied the little bug.

"Why do they light up like that?" she asked, watching the yellow light on its rear fade off and on.

"Beats me," Axel shrugged, "I think I heard somewhere that that's how they talk to each other." The thought that all these twinkling little lights around them could be dozens of conversations fascinated her, and she let the one in her hand go so she could watch all the others.

She lay down on her back with Axel, both of them with their hands behind their heads; Naminé positioning herself in an unconscious imitation of Axel. The last of the grey twilight began to fade, and she felt the grass around her growing damp with dew. Calm washed over her, calm and contentment. At this moment, she couldn't think of anything within her reach that would make her happier. It was quite pleasant lying there, watching both the stars and the fireflies twinkle above her, listening to the river and hearing the first nighttime bird calls, feeling the cool temperature but staying warm thanks to Axel who, now that she thought about it, was only about an inch or so away from her. Strange that it didn't disturb her.

She lost track of time, but soon she found that Axel was sitting up next to her.

"Time to head in, I think." His face shone alabaster pale in the moonlight. "You're starting to look sleepy." She didn't protest because, truth be told, she was _extremely_ sleepy. Axel got to his feet and offered her his hand, which she took - feeling little lightning bolts shivering up her arm from where their hands touched. He pulled her gently to her feet and they walked together into the cabin.

It was only when he let go inside that she realized he had held her hand on the way in.

--

The next few days were some of the longest, most exhausting, most wonderful days she could remember. Now that she had won control of the dark half of her body, Axel began teaching her how to use it. She was unable to make a portal the first day, even though Axel had helped her as best he could.

"It becomes easier with practice," he assured her, "Just focus on where you want to be, put a strong command into your thoughts and _will _the path to open."

It was hard. She had never really been a forceful person, and trying to make her thoughts assertive and confident took more work than she had expected.

She did not succeed until halfway through the second day, and then she had been so surprised that she lost her focus and the portal closed. Axel had gone into hysterics at that, and when he imitated her surprised expression she felt herself laughing with him. It had been slightly easier after that, and by the fifth day she was able to make portals almost as well as Axel could.

As the afternoon of that last day waned, they had sat on the lawn in silence, enjoying each other's company. Somehow during Axel's training she had gotten used to body contact with him, and even began to enjoy it. He seemed to find excuses to touch her shoulder or ruffle her hair, and she didn't mind it so much. They were friendly, companionable gestures, but more than that they were a sign of his approval - which was something she seemed to need more often these days.

But lessons from Axel didn't occupy all of her time; she had also made considerable progress on 20000 Leagues under the Sea. The book seemed to grab her imagination, making the urge to keep reading so strong it was almost a compulsion - very close to what she felt when something inspired her to draw. Some of it was dull, the parts when the main character listed marine life, for example, but most of it was fascinating. She found herself talking with Axel about it, trying to convey to him the sense of wonder that seized her while she read about underwater forests, Captain Nemo's study with its museum-like exhibits, the underwater grave where his crew lay at peace, the horror and fear inspired by the island cannibals when they attacked the ship, the mystery of the visit to Atlantis, the slow, dreadful terror of dwindling air supplies while the ship was trapped in arctic ice. He seemed to understand and, though he'd never read the book, he didn't mind discussing it with her. She found that many of her drawings began to depict the pictures that the book brought to life in her mind.

Something seemed to be bothering him, though, and she couldn't figure out what. Sometimes his eyes would go unfocused and he would stare off into space for long periods of time, usually when he thought she wasn't looking. Once, she had even woken up to find him staring out the window and frowning. The only thing she could think of was that he was restless; going a bit stir-crazy. She knew the feeling, was used to it by now after her years of imprisonment, but had no idea how to help him deal with it.

Axel yawned loudly, his mouth opening wide, and stretched his arms over his head. He flopped backward onto the grass and crossed a leg over his upraised knee. Naminé stayed sitting, although she did angle herself so that she was facing him.

"So, you've got one skill pretty much mastered." He said, grinning at her from between the grass stems. She smiled and nodded, grateful for his help. Portals were one of the most useful tools a Nobody had, and since none of the other Organization members knew she could make them they could be invaluable if she ever had to escape again. In five days of training Axel had given her the means to stay free, more than anyone else had ever done for her in her life. "So, I think it's pretty safe to say you can go anywhere you like from now on." He looked over her head at the treetops. "I'd prefer it if you stayed in this world, though, since it's the safest place for us at the moment."

She nodded, not minding his request. She liked this world, more than any other she had seen or viewed memories of. Axel's smile suddenly turned kind. "I haven't forgotten about the worlds you'd like to visit, Naminé." He sat up on his elbows so their faces were level. "I promise, once you can defend yourself I'll take you. The heartless are just about crawling over the worlds now. I wouldn't be surprised if we started to see them here soon." He flopped back, frowning. "Although I doubt they'll cause much trouble here. This isn't a world that Sora knows about."

"What's Sora got to do with it?" She asked, surprised. His eyes flicked to her face and back to the sky again, she got the distinct impression that the answer would be one she didn't want to hear.

"They're using him to collect hearts. Don't ask me how: I don't want you to know." He looked away before continuing. "He doesn't realize it, but Sora's nothing more than a puppet."

"That isn't true!" She said, her tone one of shock rather than one of argument. "Sora's saving entire worlds, countless people, from the darkness. He's fighting against them, how could that possibly help them toward their goal?"

"The Superior himself came up with this plan, Naminé." Axel sat up, frowning down at her now. "You can't be blamed for your naiveté, you've never met him. But no plan of his can go wrong. It's almost impossible."

"Axel, that can't be true." She said, her voice shaking somewhat.

"Why not?" He shrugged. "Nothing has ever stopped him before, I doubt anything ever will."

"You have." Naminé said quietly, looking away from him and absently tugging at the grass.

Silence seemed to fall on them like something tangible, and she had to fight the urge to squirm, focusing on shredding individual grass stems instead.

"What are you talking about?" Axel said, though the words weren't as sharp as she had expected.

"Well…" She had to swallow hard before she could continue, "You…they… They haven't found us yet, have they? We're both still free." She found the courage to look him in the face, and was surprised to see that his expression was one of blank shock. She could tell at once that her words made sense to him.

"Why-you're-" He threw his head back and laughed. "Hell! You're right! That's one over on me, isn't it?" She smiled back, glad that his somber mood was lifted.

--

She lay awake that night, long after Axel's breathing evened out to a slow rhythm next to her. She felt somewhat restless, but more than that she was brimming with energy. Accomplishment and pride were new to her, and now that she was feeling them for the first time it was hard for her to sit still. She rolled over onto her side so that she was facing Axel, watching him sleep. She smiled to herself when she saw him. Normally he would lie on his side or back when he was sleeping, but now he was on his stomach, his sleeping bag half-unzipped, one leg sticking out of the opening. It was a more relaxed position than she had ever seen him in, but it still screamed out 'Axel' in every way.

A sudden urge to draw seized her, and she sat up. Getting to her feet and grabbing her sketchbook, she began thinking of what she should draw. After a moment or two she decided to do some sketches from real life, maybe some scenery. Glancing over at Axel's sleeping form, she decided that leaving him a note of some sort might be prudent. He was a light sleeper and if he woke up to find her missing he might worry.

Tearing out a sheet of paper from her book, one with a drawing she didn't like, she flipped it over and scribbled a quick note to him saying that she was out for a walk along the beach. Wedging it under her sleeping bag, she opened the french doors and stepped out into the cool night air.

Being outside at night was totally different from daytime. The animal noises were, for the most part, silenced and instead insects formed a chorus of sounds around her - louder than they were in the cabin. Moonlight gleamed on the grass, and shimmered across the beads of dew. She kept to the path in the forest, and the moon was bright enough for her to see by. The walk seemed longer without Axel by her side, but not unpleasant.

When she emerged onto the beach she was struck by nostalgia. Kairi had many memories of the ocean at night, and the sight before her now brought many of them back. The sand was bleached silver, contrasting sharply with the dark navy blues of the ocean. The moon was full, she realized, and it gleamed over the waves like a silver disk. There were very few clouds in the sky, so her view of the stars was unimpaired. A breeze ruffled her hair back, and she stood drinking in the picture before her.

It was beautiful, but not what she wanted to draw, she realized. She thought of the tide pools, but rejected the thought almost instantly. There was only one option left to her, then. Turning to her right, she began walking down the beach into completely new territory. The sand crunched under her feet, damper than it was in the daytime, and the temperature was just cool enough for her to be comfortable; although when a sea-breeze blew she felt slightly chilly.

Nothing she came across touched her inspiration, but the beach curved around just ahead; like it did before it reached the tide pools. Rounding the bend, she saw that the forest was much closer to the shore here, and the beach slowly rose until it became a grassy hill rising above the waves. This, she knew, was more of what she had had in mind for her picture. She began to climb the hill, noticing that there were quite a few boulders here; all of them were smooth, slate grey and many were almost as tall as she was. Reaching the crest of the hill, she turned to view the ocean and felt her breath leave her. It seemed to stretch out forever, rolling slowly and calmly and sending moonlight scattering over its surface. The grass was a silvery green in the moonlight, and waved gently in the breeze as though it was an ocean itself. This was definitely it, she decided, and climbed up onto one of the rocks. Making herself comfortable, she cradled her sketchbook in her lap and began to draw.

Time ceased to exist for her. All that was real was her hand flying over the paper and the view before her. Slowly, she transferred what she saw onto the page, taking her time and capturing each detail.

A warm hand on her shoulder brought her out of her trance-like state, and she almost yelped before she realized it was Axel. She didn't look at him, but she could feel his warmth behind her. It shifted when he climbed up onto the rock next to her and sat down. With a smile smile, and a blush, she realized that their legs were almost touching since he was sitting so close.

"May I see?" he asked, gesturing with one hand at her almost-finished sketch. His voice was low, calm, but there was a touch of something new in it. She nodded and handed him the sketch pad. He held it carefully, by the edges so the lead wouldn't smear. He made a small sound of approval in his throat and handed it back to her. She went back to work, adding the final details to the drawing. Axel sat silently next to her, and she felt his gaze on her hand. This didn't make her self-conscious, however. Oddly enough, she was more relaxed around him now than she ever had been before. His warmth next to her drove away the slight chill brought on by the breeze, and as she set her completed picture down next to her she leaned in closer to him.

He took her by surprise, however, when his arm rose up to curl around her shoulders and pulled her against his side. It was a gentle movement, and she relaxed into it. Her eyes closed halfway as she laid her head against his chest, and contentment stole its way into her mind. His breathing was even and smooth, and her head rose and fell with his chest. It was very comfortable to sit with him this way, and she seemed to fit against him as though they were two puzzle pieces. After a while, his hand began to move up and down her arm, absently stroking her skin. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach and she nestled closer to him.

"Naminé?" he asked, his voice low and full of that strange emotion she had caught before. She tilted her head up to look him in the face for the first time. His eyes were like green fire, burning with something she couldn't identify. It frightened and thrilled her at the same time, and the butterflies in her stomach seemed to soar up into her throat. "I won't tell you what to do," he continued, and she began to feel curious underneath the other emotions, "But I will ask you." When had his face gotten so close to hers? Why didn't it bother her? He was very close to her, then, so close that she could see the details of his eyes, burning green.

And then his lips were touching hers, and nothing else mattered.

He was gentle, moving slowly against her, asking his question in a way so much more intimate than words could be. The hand that wasn't holding her shoulders reached up to gently stroke her face, and everything but _him_ faded away, nothing but _him_ mattered, _his_ hand stroking her chin, _his_ mouth against hers, and if he stopped kissing her the world would surely end.

And she found that she was answering him, kissing him back tentatively, her hands gripping the front of his shirt without her knowing how they came to be there, and she felt him smile against her lips before pulling away slightly and resting his forehead against hers.

"I'm glad you feel that way." He said, his hand reaching into her hair and pulling her slowly back again.

The night was beautiful.

**--**

**I know, I know: long wait. I HAVE A REASON THOUGH! I was working on a new video for Axel and Namine which, I might add, is now completed and up on youtube.**

**Song for this chapter (the ending in particular): Main Titles: Nemo Egg, Thomas Newman, Finding Nemo Original Soundtrack.**


	10. Discovered

Discovered

--

She woke slowly, unfamiliar with the signals she was getting from her senses. She was warmer than she was used to, her pillow seemed to be harder than she remembered, and something beneath her ear was beating. A heartbeat, she realized as Axel's unique scent reached her nose. As she opened her eyes she realized that she was curled up against him on the couch, her head resting on his chest. They were very close, Axel was holding her firmly to keep her from falling off.

"You awake?" his voice rumbled through his chest, and she smiled, nuzzling closer to him. This newfound closeness with him was becoming more and more a part of her, she didn't even have to think about it now. He chuckled, giving her a small squeeze. "I'll take that as a yes."

She must have fallen asleep outside, and Axel must have carried her back. Memories of what had happened flooded her mind and a small blush worked its way onto her face. What did you say to someone after you kissed them? Were you supposed to act differently?

"What time is it?" She mumbled sleepily, more to distract herself than because she was actually curious.

"Haven't got a clue." He said lightly, turning his face so that it was pressed into her hair. Apparently Axel didn't care about the time, either. His breath tickled her, and when she giggled he smiled. "Your arm is better," he said, trailing his fingers over the pale scar. Her arm had finally healed from its nasty gash, and it wasn't even tender anymore. She barely noticed it now. "How about we move on to another lesson today?" He asked, leaning back and looking her in the face. She smiled and nodded, then remembered something she had been meaning to do.

"I finished my book." She said, and Axel grinned, tilting his head to one side.

"I'd ask if you enjoyed it, but I already know the answer." She smiled.

"Could we head into town soon? I have to give it back."

"And maybe borrow a new one?" He asked slyly, before sitting up. His arm, steady and strong around her waist, pulled her along with him so that she didn't fall off the couch. "Sure. We need to get food supplies anyway." Releasing her, he got to his feet and strode into the kitchen. "Maybe in a few days we can visit some other worlds." He commented nonchalantly. "You never did tell me where, exactly, you'd like to go…"

"Well," she paused, rubbing her arm and missing his warmth, "I wanted to visit Destiny Islands…and Sora had very vivid memories of a place called Hollow Bastian." She stopped, feeling a twinge of apprehension. "And I…I think I'd like to see Castle Oblivion again."

Axel gagged on the glass of water he'd been drinking, fortunately his mouth had been pointed in the sink's general direction, and turned to look over his shoulder at her.

"Why do you want to go _there_?" he asked, incredulous. She looked away, avoiding his eyes.

"I don't know, really." She began, and it was true; she had no idea why she wanted to visit her old prison. "I guess…I guess I want closure, you know? Looking back on it now…it's hard to really believe that everyone there is gone."

"You don't miss them, do you?" He asked, a bit of humor creeping back into his voice.

"No," her voice was firm. That at least, she was sure of. She was not sorry that they had died. "I just… it's hard to explain."

"Huh." He said, amused and slightly puzzled. "Well, if it's what you want, I don't see why not. When I left there weren't any plans to reoccupy the castle, so we should be comparatively safe." Tossing his glass into the sink, where their dinner dishes from last night remained unwashed, he rummaged through their food supplies until he found a cup of instant noodles. Naminé didn't really like them, but they were quick and easy to make, and they didn't go bad. "We're out of fruit, so it's this or pasta." Axel said, holding up another cup of noodles. She rolled her eyes.

"I'll take the noodles." She said, getting up and walking over. She pulled out the kettle and set it up to boil some water, while Axel tore open the shrink wrap around the cups.

"Shame this place has no electricity," he grumbled, tearing at the stubborn plastic on one with his teeth, "we could use a mini-fridge." She laughed, gently took the cup from him, and peeled off the plastic. His bemused expression threatened to send her into hysterics, so she turned away and walked back to the couch. Axel followed, flopping down next to her.

"So," she began, feeling cheerful and optimistic about the day, "What are you going to teach me today?" He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and grinned.

"Oh…a little of this, a little of that." His tone was offhand, but it had a slightly teasing edge.

"Could you be a bit more specific?" She asked, leaning against the back of the sofa.

"I could." He answered, the epitome of smugness.

"Would you? Please?"

"Sure," he laughed, giving in, "I'm going to start you on some self defense training. " He looked at her, encouraging her. "It'll be hard, but I think you can handle it. We'll head into town for lunch when we're finished."

--

The day was warm, but not stiflingly hot. As they walked out onto the lawn, Naminé felt a slight twinge of apprehension along with her usual excitement. Axel hadn't said exactly how he was going to train her.

"OK," he said, turning around, "Let's get to work. C'mere." He held his hand out and she walked to him. He gripped her shoulders and turned her around so that he was behind her. "There's something called a 'ready' position. What you do is angle yourself towards whatever is attacking you." Axel moved her so that her left shoulder was pointed forward. "Position your legs so that you center of gravity is balanced, that'll make it harder for you to be knocked back." He demonstrated, bending his knees slightly. She mimicked him, feeling the difference immediately; this stance was much more stable.

"Now, your left hand should be up and ready, but not curled into a fist. Use it to block or to make quick jabs at your opponent. Your right hand should be used for close quarter attacks once you've knocked their defense aside. There are other uses for it, but we'll get to them later." He positioned her arms correctly, then stood in front of her in the same position.

"Throw a punch at me, I'll show you how to use your left hand." He stood, confident, at ease, whereas she felt a little silly. She threw the punch anyway, using her left hand like he had told her. His hand was there in a flash, gently knocking hers aside by pushing on the inside of her wrist.

"Go for the wrist or the arm, just in case they're holding something. Watch them carefully, most people pull their am back a little before punching. If you can't block, lean away from it." He demonstrated, easing fluidly backward and to her left. "Remember to keep your center of gravity balanced, and as low as possible."

They kept it up for a few hours, although she wasn't the only one throwing punches. Axel would occasionally aim a lazy punch in her direction, not putting any real force behind his hand, but using enough to knock her off her feet if it hit. Eventually, she began to dodge his hits then, very slowly, to block them successfully. She was sore and tired by the time they were done, and she had the feeling that this was only the tip of the iceberg as far as Axel's training was concerned, but he said that she was doing well, all things considered.

When they reentered the house, she immediately got a glass of water. It had been hot, thirsty work, and her upper body was incredibly sore. Axel leaned against the doorframe, watching her with a slightly amused expression.

"You'll get there eventually." He said, crossing the floor and wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. She set the glass down and leaned back into him, letting him support her and resting her hands on his. "You just need practice," he murmured. She was tired, and she wanted a shower. Axel nuzzled her hair affectionately, before sneaking his head around and planting a kiss on her cheek. "Go shower off. I'll take you into town when you're done."

She didn't need to be told twice, and gently disengaged herself to run for the bathroom.

--

They ate lunch at the same outdoor café they had first visited. There were more people around, and the atmosphere was fairly busy. Axel quickly devoured his Cajun Chicken but Naminé took her time eating her more conservative roast beef sandwich.

"Now I know why you're so small!" Axel exclaimed, leaning back in his chair and throwing his hands to the sky, "You never eat!" She laughed softly, sipping her water and watching the crowd mill around the fountain in the center of the square.

Axel stayed with her this time, keeping his hands in his pockets but laughing and joking with her all the same. He kept his distance when she spoke to the book vendor.

"Back so soon, Miss?" the little man asked, his face breaking into a smile. "I thought you said you didn't read much!" He bustled over and she handed him the book, still in the perfect condition it had been when he loaned it out.

"I couldn't put it down, to be honest." She said, smiling shyly. "It was very good."

"Splendid! Splendid!" He beamed, setting the book lovingly back in its place. "Now then, any idea what you would like next? I still think Kipling would do you some good…Perhaps his Just So Stories? Or maybe something a little different… Say," he paused, scratching his chin, "Perhaps something that reads a little faster would be good for you. Maybe a series…"

She waited patiently while he mused, knowing that he would probably come up with something just as wonderful as last time.

"I have it! C.S. Lewis! We'll start you with The Magician's Nephew." He handed her a small paperback with a picture of two children, a boy and a girl, riding a winged horse over mountain scenery. "That one's a paperback, so you might have to be a bit more careful than last time, but enjoy it! Enjoy it!" He chuckled under his breath. "C.S. Lewis was one of my absolute favorites when I was your age."

She thanked him, looking at the cover. Did horses with wings actually exist? That would be something to see!

As she and Axel walked off, he looked at the book, flipping it open gently to look at the summary. With a snort of amusement, he handed it back to her. When she asked what was funny, he simply replied "Nothing," and left it at that.

The food market was a large square courtyard with stalls lined up around the outside, each one selling a type of produce or meat. It was the most crowded area she had seen yet, though it was still easy to walk next to Axel. As they walked past the stalls he told her to point out anything she wanted, so she kept her eye open for anything that looked promising - bland food was getting harder to go back to after eating at the café more often.

"Maybe I should have bought a recipe book back at the book stall." She said, looking at a shelf of spices in bemusement. Axel laughed and steered her away toward the fruit stands, which looked much simpler to her.

"Half the stuff in those books we wouldn't be able to make, anyway," he said, grinning down at her. "We have a limited assortment of utensils, remember?"

They left the square each carrying paper bags, and she at least was ready to head home. The afternoon was wearing on and it would be getting dark by the time they made it home.

--

Axel was gentle with her for the most part, but he still worked her hard. At the end of every day she went to sleep with a new bruise or scrape. She knew that he didn't like hurting her, whenever his gaze fell on one of her injuries it would darken, but she also knew that if he went easy on her she would never learn anything. And she _was_ learning, steadily.

Axel had also started working on building up her strength. He had her doing pushups and crunches in the morning and a run in the afternoon. He exercised with her to keep her company, and she soon began to enjoy it even though it wore her out. She still wasn't that strong, but she did manage to make him work to block her punches.

"You'll never be as strong as we are," he said to her one evening as they sat together on the beach, "so don't even worry about _that_." He turned to her and grinned, "But you are getting faster."

Even though she knew she was improving, sometimes the only things keeping her going were the books she now read, and the evenings with Axel. Even though he had told her she could go anywhere she liked, Naminé still preferred to spend her time with him. Sometimes they would lie together on the couch while she read, Axel toying with her hair or stroking her arm, and sometimes they would talk, he would tell her funny stories or ask about her current novel.

Then there were the rare evenings when they did nothing but kiss. Evenings when she fell asleep in his arms and woke up the same way. Those were the best in her opinion.

She had begun to purchase books, the ones she really enjoyed reading, to keep forever. Axel bought her a small shelf which they placed next to the couch and it was slowly filled with her personal favorites. Axel picked a book up occasionally, but never finished one. "I can think of better things to do with our time," he said playfully when she asked him about it, nuzzling her neck and grinning.

She lost track of the exact count of days that passed, but eventually several weeks had gone by before their routine was broken.

As they sat in the afternoon shade, drinking water and leaning together against a tree trunk, Axel turned to her.

"Feel like taking a trip?" Her attention was caught immediately, and she nodded.

"Where to?" She asked as he got up. Holding out a hand and pulling her to her feet when she took it, he smiled at her.

"Didn't you say you wanted to visit Castle Oblivion?"

--

They emerged from the portal into a world of pine trees in a sea of grass. Naminé had never actually visited the land around the castle before, only caught glimpses of it through windows. The grass was higher even than the lawn around their cabin, and the only things that broke the rolling horizon were the tall, dark pine trees. The sun was shining brightly, and a pleasant breeze was blowing. It was very picturesque.

"The castle is that way," Axel said, pointing over a nearby hill. "We have some walking to do, since I didn't want to bring us too close to the castle before we're sure it's empty." He became suddenly stern, and turned to her with a very firm edge in his eyes. "Before we head out, though, I want to make something clear: if I tell you to run, to hide, or to portal out of here, you will obey me instantly and without argument. Understood?"

"Yes," she answered, somewhat surprised by this command from him.

"No matter what you think will happen to me, you will do as I say."

"I will." He nodded, satisfied with her response, and became his usual cheerful self.

They walked together though the grass, silent. Axel was at ease for the most part, but seemed slightly tenser than he was on their walks at home. She stayed close to him, afraid to leave his side despite the calm surroundings. It might have been because she knew what kind of place they were about to visit, but underneath the bright colors and cheer there seemed to be a hidden threat in this place. Suddenly, Axel's words to her didn't seem so odd.

As they reached the top of the largest hill she had seen so far, the castle came into view.

It looked exactly the same way she remembered; ominous, mysterious, standing in front of a large, swirling portal of darkness. A shiver surged through her body as memories of this place rushed back to her, and she moved closer to Axel out of pure reflexes. He seemed to understand, and stood watching her.

"We can leave anytime, Naminé." He said, his voice low, soothing. She shook her head, placing the heel of her hand against her forehead and closing her eyes. She hadn't thought that seeing the castle would do this to her, but now the memories were becoming almost as real as the present.

_The smell of antiseptics, sterile white walls, bright lights, Vexen holding a notepad and calmly writing observations down while she writhed in the grip of one of his experiments._

_Larxene, tall, terrifying, looming over her holding her knives, and grinning horribly. Blood beneath her fingers as she touched her head._

_Marluxia's face, blank, uncaring, but his eyes gleaming with murderous intent._

_Loneliness. Despair. Agony._

"Naminé?"

Axel's voice came to her rescue, breaking through the veil of nightmarish memories and bringing her back to her present. She met his gaze, saw the concern in his eyes, and smiled weakly.

"I'm all right." She said, rubbing her head. She saw the look of skeptical disapproval on his face and repeated herself with more conviction. "I'm all right! Really…"

"Maybe we should head home now." He said, not looking completely convinced. She looked at the castle once more, and knew he was right. She didn't want to go back in there. Seeing it from the outside was enough.

She nodded, and he threw his hand out to make a portal. They both stepped through it and away from Castle Oblivion.

When the last whispers of darkness had faded, a shadow crawled from under a nearby pine tree and disappeared into its own dark cloud.

--

The room was tall, the walls reached high above to get to the ceiling. There was no color, blinding white and light shades of grey were the only colors. In the center of the room there was a raised dais with the symbol of a Nobody inscribed on its surface, surrounded by intricate designs and patterns. Stone thrones stood around the dais, raised high above it to different levels and each with a nobody symbol above the seat.

There were thirteen thrones in total, all of them empty save one.

A figure wearing the dark robe of the Organization sat in the highest throne, his hands draped elegantly on the arm rests and his posture regal. Though he was silent, and utterly still there was a strange aura around him, one of power, mystery … and a hidden threat. His face was hidden deep within the shadows of his hood, and in the blinding light of the room around him he was the only thing that stood out. The sound of a dark portal began to echo through the room and his hood twitched slightly, as it did a gleam of amber yellow shined briefly from within the shadows of his face.

A man had just appeared in one of the other thrones. He wore a uniform identical to his companion, though his hood was down. Pale blue hair fell down to the middle of his back in elegant waves, some of it hung in a curtain around his face, partially concealing his expression but not hiding his features. A scar in the shape of an X marred his otherwise elegant, elvin facial structure. His eyes were a bright shade of yellow, gleaming beneath half-closed eyes. He seemed at ease, his legs were crossed at the knees and his hands were draped over them, but at the same time his entire attention was focused on the man in the hood. After a moment, he spoke.

"I told Sora." His voice was soft, almost gentle, "I told him to keep fighting heartless."

"Well done." The voice that came from beneath the hood was completely different, deep, powerful, and almost gravelly. The man spoke slowly but very clearly, and his voice commanded attention. "You have not only hurt him, you have plunged his heart into confusion." Pleased certainty crept into his voice as he continued. "Yes… this will gain us many hearts. Now, Sora is confused and hesitant. In the depths of his confusion, he will begin to hate even himself… and in an attempt to shake that confusion, he will continue more determined than before." He looked upward at the ceiling, and it was almost possible to hear the smile in his voice. "Onward, to our future."

The blue haired man nodded once, slowly, but frowned.

"One thing concerns me." He looked up at the other man, his face blank.

"Axel?" The man growled out the name, his fingers twitching slightly. "That compassionate fool." He looked down at one of the empty chairs, his hands returning to their former relaxed position. "He continues to follow the illusion of a friendship he cannot feel, and still believes he can recover what he has lost."

"We've had an interesting report from one of our scout heartless." The man with the scar looked down at his hands before continuing. "Axel came back to Castle Oblivion very recently." He was silent for a moment, "He did not come alone."

"Hmm?"

"Naminé was with him."

A thoughtful hum came from beneath the other man's hood. He looked off into space for several long minutes.

"Give him something to be pitiful about," His voice dropped even lower than it had been before, more a growl now than anything else. "And bring our little, wayward Witch home."

**--**

**We're getting pretty close to the end now. You're all going to hate me now, aren't you? Before you kill me, though, I thought I should let you know that I posted some fanart for the pairing on my devart account. The link to my art page is in my profile. It's nothing too elaborate, just something I did for fun. **


	11. Festivities

Festivities

--

"Yo."

Naminé looked up from her book, a wide smile spreading across her face. Axel stood in the doorway wearing a lazy smirk and waving at her.

"Axel!" She jumped up off the couch, leaving the book behind and throwing herself into his arms.

"Hey," he said, somewhat bemused but returning the hug all the same, "If this is how you're going to react every time I leave you I should do it more often." She smiled, pressing her face into the fabric of his shirt.

"You were gone all day…" She said, feeling somewhat injured. When he had left that morning Axel had said he was only going to be gone for an hour or so. "I missed you." His arm tightened around her shoulders.

"I know, I'm sorry." She pulled back, looking him in the face and smiling again. He ruffled her hair and gently pulled away. Naminé picked her book up and put it back on the shelf, sitting down on the couch and watching Axel.

"Where did you go?" She asked, curious about what had kept him away so long. He sat down next to her, a glass of water in one hand, kicked off his sandals and propped his feet up on the coffee table. She leaned against his side and he slid an arm around her shoulders.

"I was checking up on the situation in some of the other worlds." His eyes darkened, and she suddenly felt worried. "Things aren't going that well actually."

"What's happened?" She had almost completely forgotten that there was a war going on: their private little retreat was so peaceful all the time. "Something bad?"

"Sora has been traveling around, opening up doorways to light."

"But?"

"But…they're planning something." She didn't need to ask who 'they' were. "Something big. For Hollow Bastian, I think." He turned to look at her. "If you want to visit there, we should go very soon. I'm not sure if it will even be there after they finish with it."

"Are they trying to lure Sora into a trap?" She asked, concern for him surfacing within her mind. She knew that her feelings for Sora were only echoes of Kairi's, but she couldn't help feeling them.

"Yes," his voice darkened, "I think so."

The silence in the cabin became tense, and Naminé's hand tightened its grip on Axel's shirt unconsciously.

"Can't we do something?" She murmured, curling her legs up onto the couch and closing her eyes. He turned his face into her hair and gently kissed the top of her head, but didn't answer right away.

"I don't know." Axel said, finally. He wanted to save Sora, she could hear it in his voice, but he didn't know if it was possible. Her insides turned to ice, fear for Sora flooding her.

"There must be something…anything."

He sighed heavily, turning his face away and looking out the window.

"If I do anything that would help him, it would also draw attention." He looked down at her. "We might be forced to leave here, and we'd never be able to come back - they would know about it."

She said nothing more, weighing the consequences in her head. If what Axel said was true, Sora was in desperate need of help without even realizing it. On the other hand… where would they go if they couldn't come back here? The mountains again? Axel had made sure the cave would still be there for them to use if they needed it, but the idea of returning to that world of snow and freezing rock was repulsive to her. It was so much more pleasant and secure here, and she wasn't sure she was willing to risk that security. Still… it was Sora's safety on the line as well as theirs.

A memory surfaced in her mind, not a very old one but one she hadn't thought of at all until now. She and Axel had been sitting on this same couch under very different circumstances. They were still strangers to one another, still slightly uncomfortable in one another's presence. Axel had explained why they had come here, and had also given her very important advice.

_"You need a refuge, an anchor. A place to retreat to, a place to hide, a place to rest. But," and he sat up, his eyes boring into hers, speaking slowly now, "No matter what, never allow yourself to become too dependent on it. If you do, your base will eventually become a trap – you won't know how to survive without one. It will cripple you. Always remember that." _

"Axel," she said, her voice firm, "I think we should help Sora." He jumped a little and looked down at her as if she were crazy. "I'm serious," she continued, thinking of how to explain herself. "If they win, we won't even be safe here for very long. Eventually they'll want to take over this world, and it will be too late to stop them." She looked down at her hand, curled into a tiny fist on his chest, gripping his shirt tightly, "And… I just remembered what you told me; about bases, I mean." His eyes narrowed for a moment, then they widened slightly and she saw that he understood. "If we don't help Sora because it means we won't be able to come back here, wouldn't that mean we've been crippled, just like you said?"

Axel let out a puff of air in frustration and looked away, his hand tightening around her shoulders.

"That's not necessarily true." He murmured, looking uncooperative. She frowned slightly, puzzled. His face was turned away, so she couldn't be certain, but she thought she saw a slight touch of childishness in his frown.

"I don't understand." She said, simply. "Why isn't it?"

"If we stay away from Sora, it simply means we aren't trying to get ourselves killed." He was grumbling now, and a vague suspicion began forming in the back of Naminé's mind. "They would stop us, at any cost, if we attempted to interfere." He looked at her, his face carefully blank. "Sora's more important to them than you are, and if they are forced to choose between the two of you they'll choose him."

"Axel," Naminé spoke very slowly, thinking through her words carefully, "That's true, but it doesn't change anything." He frowned at her again, a touch of annoyance in his eyes now. "It comes down to the same thing, doesn't it? That we aren't willing to risk anything to help Sora." His eye twitched and his arm loosened from around her.

"And Sora's _worth_risking things for?" He shot back, a hint of a snarl in his voice. She pulled back slightly, startled, and his arm fell away from her to his side. "He's not half the hero everyone thinks he is. He falls for every trap that's set before him, and he's clueless to subtleties and strategy." His frown had become a glare now, and she looked down at the floorboards. She felt sick, guilty, sad. Why was he being so difficult? Didn't he see that Sora was so important to the worlds?

Didn't he remember that Roxas was one half of Sora?

"Maybe you're taking this place for granted, Naminé." Axel said, and she could hear the anger in his voice. "Do you have any idea how lucky we've been? Every day things get worse, fewer and fewer places are safe. And now you're willing to throw it away?"

Her brain understood in a flash what was really going on here, and she gasped. Axel wasn't angry that she was asking him to risk their safety, he'd never been afraid of danger. Axel was angry that she was willing to risk it for _Sora._

"Axel…" she looked up, her astonishment plastered all over her face, "You… you're not… you're not _jealous_, are you?"

His face froze, his hands tightened into fists so quickly that his knuckles cracked, and he shot off the couch and walked to the door.

"I'm going for a walk." He said in a tightly controlled and icy voice that shot through her chest.

She raised a hand, as if to stop him, stood up and called after his disappearing back.

"Axel! Wait!"

He ignored her, and had faded into the trees before she even made it through the door. Placing a hand on the frame she looked at the ground and bit her lip, feeling her throat close and her eyes burn. Why did he have to be so difficult about this?

She watched the place where he had disappeared for a long while, the shadows had grown considerably longer before she gave up and went back inside. It might have been the fact that the sun was getting lower in the sky, but everything seemed much colder and darker to her now. She left the door open behind her, feeling as if she didn't have the energy to close it, and slowly walked back to the couch.

Naminé sat down, folding her hands tightly in her lap and staring at them. She tasted blood and gasped slightly, realizing she'd bitten her lip too hard. She closed her eyes, slid sideways until she was lying curled up on the couch, and let the tears come.

--

She had used them all up, but he still hadn't returned. It was chillier since the sun had set, but she didn't move to close the door. She simply lay still, one hand curled in front of her face and the other lying on the couch near the edge, her eyes were half closed, dry but sad.

It hurt, not only that Axel was refusing to listen to her, but that they had fought at all. She hated that he was angry with her, but she couldn't back down on this issue. Sora wasn't the only one at stake, Roxas was on the line as well. She felt injured that Axel couldn't, or wouldn't, understand that she felt _concern _for _them_, but that she was in _love_ with _him_. Did he think that she would abandon him? Did he really think that little of her?

She closed her eyes and turned her face into the fabric of the couch below her, curling her hand into a fist and whimpering, utterly miserable.

More than anything she wanted the real Axel back. The one that laughed with her, listened to her, smiled and joked.

Loved her?

She thought he did, at least. Why else would he be jealous? He had never actually said it, though…

She got up slowly, stiffly, and rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. He still wasn't back, maybe he'd be gone the whole night. She felt lonely as she considered that possibility, but remembering how terrible loneliness could be she also remembered one thing that had always made it slightly better: her drawings.

She gathered her sketchbook together and picked up her pencil, looking at to couch but rejecting the idea of sitting back there. It would feel too empty without Axel beside her. Instead, she walked out and sat down on the porch. Staring at the blank page before her, she tried to put Axel out of her mind and think of something to draw.

She couldn't.

Sadness seized her again, before an idea came to her. Why not draw Axel? The way she liked him best; when he was being himself? Smiling at that though, she touched her pencil to the page and got to work.

It was easier than she had anticipated. She had become so familiar with him that calling up his image in her memory was simple. As on several other occasions, the lines and shading seemed to flow from her pencil. His lazy grin and half closed eyes came readily to her, and she sketched him out in a dynamic position, leaning back halfway and with his hand raised in a cheery salute. She drew him in his normal clothes instead of his Organization uniform, since they seemed to fit him better. She was smiling now, happy that she could call up such details so easily. The light was fading and the moon wasn't bright, but she worked fast and by the time the stars came out her picture was finished.

She brushed off the last eraser crumbs and held it out at arm's length, searching it for any changes that needed to be made or errors to be corrected. She found none; it might have been a photograph, definitely one to keep in her book. She stood up slowly, wary of her numb legs, and looked around. No sign of Axel. He was still out. She sighed, feeling utterly alone. Maybe her guess was right; he wasn't coming back that night.

She refused to even consider the fact that he might not come back at all.

…Axel always came back, every time he left…

Naminé closed her eyes and turned around, walking back inside and shutting the door behind her. She would just go to sleep, it might make things easier for him if he came back and she wasn't awake…

She looked up and Axel was standing in front of the french doors, his arms crossed. She couldn't see his face, it was all in shadow, but her heart leapt up into her throat and she smiled brightly.

"Axel!" She heard the joy in her voice and regretted it slightly a second afterward; he might still be angry with her. He twitched, it was almost a flinch, and apprehension slid back into her stomach. Exactly how angry was he?

Neither of them spoke, and she began to feel distinctly uncomfortable. Axel shifted, almost nervously, and uncrossed his arms. The fact that she still couldn't see his face unnerved her slightly.

"Forgive me…" he said, his voice low, and turned his face away. She gave a tiny gasp, her eyes widening. He…had apologized? And he meant it!

Her heart soared into her throat, and she ran to him. Axel was surprised but raised his arms to meet her and she collided with his chest, her arms around him and his around her. She felt a wall between them dissolve that she hadn't even noticed before, and joy rushed through her. She couldn't hold him tightly enough. She felt one of his hands on the small of her back, one tangling itself in her hair, and felt as much as heard his next words.

"You are my heart, Naminé." He gave her a gentle squeeze which she was more than happy to return. They stood that way for what might have been years, or only a few minutes, before he bent down and picked her up. He walked to the couch and sat down, cradling her in his lap this time. "I'm so sorry that I hurt you." His hand caressed her face, and she felt a different sort of burning in her eyes as she rested her head in between his neck and shoulder.

"How could I not forgive you?" Her eyes were closing and she, herself, barely even heard her last words, but she knew that Axel had. She felt herself drifting to sleep, comforted by his presence, his smell, the feel of his skin and his hand stroking her arm. It was almost as if they had never fought in the first place. Naminé whispered gently, before she drifted off completely, "I love you…"

"I love you, too."

His words eased her gently into slumber.

--

Neither of them mentioned their argument the next morning, they went about their normal routines in companionable silence. Naminé was determined not to let Axel ignore Sora's danger, but at the same time she wasn't willing to risk another fight with Axel. So she was delighted when he was the one who brought it up while they were eating lunch.

"I've been thinking," he said, speaking around a mouthful of sandwich. They had made a quick trip to the town to buy sandwiches at the café, and were walking back as they ate.

"About what?" She asked, after swallowing her own mouthful. She had picked up quite a few of Axel's habits, but speaking with her mouth full wasn't one of them.

"What you said yesterday." He took another few bites, but this time waited until he had chewed and swallowed before continuing. "I think…there might be a way to help out."

Music to her ears! A smile spread across her face and she forgot completely about her sandwich. He noticed and smiled back at her.

"If I can get to Sora in time I may be able to clue him in on what's happening. If I don't say too much, we just might slip under the radar." He smirked, closing his eyes briefly and dusting the crumbs off his hands. "Sora should be able to figure things out for himself."

"Do you know where he is?" Naminé asked, almost tripping since she was looking at Axel and not where her feet were stepping.

"I have a vague idea." He said dismissively, steadying her and grinning. "I don't think you should come along with me, though." She nodded, understanding that he wanted to keep her away from danger, but she still felt slightly disappointed. "If they try to eliminate me, I don't want you nearby."

"All right." They were reaching the edge of the forest now; she could see the cabin through the trees. "When do you want to leave?"

"I'll take you to Hollow Bastian, and afterward, once we get back here, I'll leave to find Sora." He said, holding a branch thicker than as his arm aside for her. "It will have to be today or tomorrow."

"Today?" She asked, stunned.

"Why not? We still have time." He shrugged. "If we run into heartless it'll make a nice warm-up for me, since I'll probably end up fighting them anyway when I see Sora." They settled down together next to the river, the water wheel next to them creaking softly. Naminé slid her sandals off and dangled her legs in the water, Axel sat behind her and she leaned back against him. The afternoon was just shy of being uncomfortably hot, but next to the river and in the cabin's shade it wasn't so bad. Axel toyed idly with her hair, and a thought occurred to her.

"Could we go tomorrow?" She asked, tilting her head back until she was looking at him upside down. He raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"Why?"

She smiled back and turned around so that she was kneeling facing him. Their eyes were just about level, and Axel was wearing a lazy, somewhat smug grin, as though he could read her mind.

"What is it you always say?" She said, adding a playful musing tone and placing one finger beneath her chin in a thoughtful pose, "'I can think of better things to do with our time'?" His grin turned devilish and his arms slid around her waist. He leaned forward until his forehead was touching hers, his eyes playful - catlike.

"And what did you have in mind instead?"

"Something along these lines." She leaned forward, tentatively; Axel was usually the one who took the lead, and kissed him. He chuckled and lay down on his back, pulling her with him so that she was beside and slightly on top of him. One of her hands rested idly on his chest, the other gently held his face, and he began to kiss her back.

He made a sort of purring noise in his throat, a half hum half sigh, and gently rolled her over so their positions were reversed. He hovered over her, careful not to let too much of his weight rest on her, and she rose to meet him; clinging to his neck and shoulders.

If they were going to run the risk of discovery tomorrow, she wanted to spend as much time with him today as possible. And Axel seemed to share her enthusiasm.

--

They slept outside that night, bringing out their sleeping bags. Axel unzipped his and spread it out, nylon side down, like a blanket and they laid down on it. The night became chilly, but Naminé was close to Axel and he kept her warm. It was odd, being surrounded by the night noises instead of closed off from them. Axel didn't know many constellations, but the ones he did know he showed to her. The night was somewhat cloudy but the view was still good.

It was difficult for her to fall asleep, and Axel was hardly helping. For some reason, kissing him seemed to wake her up more than sooth her these days. When she gave a half-hearted complaint, he simply paused for a minute, grinned against the skin of her neck, and continued his ministrations with a cheery: "Do you _really_ want me to stop?" After that she barely had enough air to think, much less answer him.

Eventually though, she did fall asleep.

…Very slowly.

Naminé had mixed feelings in the morning. Axel was already up when she woke, and a kind of nervous excitement seemed to have lodged itself in the pit of her stomach. But she was also a little sad, and as she moved around the kitchen she did her best to memorize what the cabin was like. She had chosen to wear her old dress, thinking that if they were caught it might help her keep up the illusion that she was still as helpless as before. Axel was slightly preoccupied; he seemed to be going over his plans for the day, so she didn't bother him. Since there wasn't much for her to do, she lay quietly on the couch and read.

About halfway through the morning Naminé looked up to see Axel standing over her, one hand cocked on his hip. "Ready to go?" He asked, holding out a hand. She nodded, took it and let him help her up. Running her fingers over the leather-bound cover of her book, she placed it neatly on the shelf.

Naminé looked up at Axel and he made a playful bow in her direction.

"Care to do the honors, Miss?" In spite of the seriousness of their position, Naminé couldn't help smiling at Axel's antics. She raised her arm up slowly and willed the portal into existence, marveling at how easy it was for her now. She and Axel both walked through and into Betwixt and Between.

Creating portals was easier for her, but she still got shivers whenever she visited the in-between world. Axel had gone through ahead of her and was waiting silently with another portal already open. Beginning to feel excited, she stepped through the darkness once again.

Hollow Bastian seemed to be a world of blues and purples. Even the dirt was a neutral, flat blue. They had emerged onto a cliff overlooking a great, gaping chasm with an excellent view of the town below. Her immediate impression was that this was an old, tired world. It had seen too many wars in its time. Even the town looked as though it had just come through several simultaneous hurricanes, and the old castle standing watch over it was hardly any better. There were no plants, no animals, there wasn't even a breeze. A faint noise of suction told her that the portal had closed, and she felt Axel's silent, alert presence standing behind her.

"Did you want to see the town?" He asked, keeping his tone light but his voice low. She remembered that this was one of the most dangerous worlds to be in, and also kept her voice low when she answered.

"Only if you think it's safe. I can see it fine from here." He gave her a half amused half scornful look.

"Safety isn't the issue; nowhere here is safe. We need to worry about secrecy. I can get us into town without us being noticed. It'd be a cinch."

Well, if he was sure it was good enough for her. Naminé nodded and Axel turned to lead her down the slope. It was a fairly easy climb down, and she hadn't slipped even once when they reached the bottom. They didn't travel down the wide canyon, though; they took a more roundabout, narrow route. There wasn't much scenery took look at, and talking with Axel was a risk factor since even the slight sounds of their footfalls would echo, but they did pass several beautiful crystal formations that were almost twice as tall as Axel.

When they reached the end of the small passage, Naminé found that she and Axel were standing on a ledge overlooking a marketplace. There were a few people milling about and shopping, but most of the shops were for battle armor and weapons. It seemed like there were reminders of the heartless' presence everywhere in Hollow Bastian.

Axel leapt down and onto the roof of one building, and motioned for her to follow. It was a bit high for her, but he caught and steadied her at the bottom. She gave him a grateful smile, which he returned, and they both jumped down into an alley behind the buildings.

"We can relax a bit now," Axel said, speaking in normal tones, "We don't look too out of place here. Just don't talk to anyone, all right?"

"Fine." She said, more than willing to comply with his wish. She didn't know anyone here, anyway. They gradually made their way through the town, Naminé taking everything in carefully. She had seen it all in Sora's memories, but it was different viewing it for herself. Axel was either completely disinterested or so focused on keeping a lookout that the town itself had no effect on him. No one they met spoke to them or made eye contact, everyone kept to their own business.

Axel was showing her one of the old lookout towers for the castle when a tremor knocked them both off their feet and sent pieces of the building around them crashing down over their heads. The world no longer seemed to make sense, the earth, which had always been solid and dependable before, now heaved and shook below her, knocking her breath away and rattling every bone in her body. The noise was horrible, crashing and groaning, rock grinding against metal and gigantic crashes as pieces of the blue cliffs fell away. A rumble over her head was the only warning before a piece of the ceiling twice her size shook loose and began to fall directly over top of her. She had no breath to scream with, knew that she was going to die, when a familiar arm snaked rapidly around her waist and jerked her out of harm's way. She felt the heat rolling off of Axel's body, felt his reassuring solidness, and suddenly it was over.

Everything became still except for the last few pieces of rock rolling or falling away. Half of the floor was gone and most of the ceiling had gone with it. Axel was hovering over her protectively, his arms on either side of her head. A gasp that was almost a sob tore through her as her brain finally began to work again. There was not an inch of her that didn't hurt, it felt like her entire internal organ system had been rearranged. She and Axel were both breathing hard, but they didn't have much time to recover.

The thunder of many footsteps was the only warning they had, but it gave Axel enough time to grab her again and roll behind a pile of rubble before an army of soldier heartless began to swarm past them. Naminé hardly dared to breathe, knowing that there were too many even for Axel to fight alone. He knew it, and she could feel the tension radiating off of him. _Where_ had they all come from?! She began counting the seconds, trying to guess their numbers based on the time it took them to pass.

_One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand…_

300 seconds later the last of them finally trailed past, and Axel breathed a sigh of relief.

Off in the distance the sounds of battle began to echo out to them. Axel stood up, looking around and assessing the situation. Naminé knew, now what was going on.

Organization XIII had begun their assault on Hollow Bastian.

--

Axel couldn't remember ever feeling this stupid. He should have known better than to bring Naminé here. He had known that the Organization was planning on mobilizing soon, but hadn't had any idea it would be _this_soon. A real crisis lay before him now. They undoubtedly had members here already, and any nobodies or heartless nearby would sense a portal opening. Seeing as how there were swarms of the foul things all over the world, he and Naminé were basically stuck. He was willing to bet that Saix was the one trailing them, Xemnas trusted him above all the other members. Axel wouldn't put it past number VII to have done this on purpose, which meant that he knew they were here.

Damn.

He looked down at Naminé, saw the fear behind her eyes, and a terrible thought came to him.

_Will I be able to protect her at all? Can I get her out of this? _

The odds didn't look good and he needed to think fast because the battle sounds were drawing steadily closer. His mind whirled through possibilities and escape routes, trying to think of a way to get them both out of this mess.

He came up with nothing.

Meeting her gaze once more, looking at her face, he knew suddenly what would have to happen for her to survive, and the realization seemed to freeze his insides, not because he was unwilling to follow the path he saw before him, but because he was _unafraid_ to take it. He knew that there was a slim chance that _she_ would come out of this world alive and free, and it was enough for him to know that.

Her life and her happiness had become more precious to him than anything else, and it didn't bother him the way it should have.

Axel made his decision. It was time to let her go… again.

--

Axel pulled her gently to her feet, some strong emotion turning his eyes to green fire. His jaw was set into a hard line, his entire body tense - almost shaking.

"You know what's happening." He said simply, his voice calm. She nodded.

"It's them, isn't it?"

He nodded solemnly.

"I'm going to take you to a place where you should be able to hide. I want you to stay there." His hands gripped her shoulders and he leaned down so that he was on a direct level with her eyes. "Do-not-leave-that-spot. If you are discovered, don't portal: run. Run as fast and as far as you can away from the fighting. Stay hidden as long as you can, and when the battle is over, portal away from here. Do you understand?"

"What are you going to do?" She asked, feeling panic suddenly swelling up within her. A muscle in his cheek twitched, and for a moment his eyes seemed very, very far away. Then he came back to earth and she knew what he was going to say before he said it.

"They probably know we're here. I'm going to lead them away from you."

"No!" She shouted, forgetting about secrecy instantly. She gripped his arms, shook her head from side to side. "No! They'll catch you! They'll- they'll-" She choked on the words 'kill you,' and collapsed forward onto his chest, sobbing. His arms cradled her gently, but there was a note of urgency in them, and after a moment he pulled firmly away from her.

"No arguments." He said, his voice deadpan and final. She shook her head again in horrified denial. His hand tilted her chin up, his gaze searched out and found hers, and his mouth gently touched hers. She clung to his neck, his shoulders, wanting, needing, to stop him. "I love you," he murmured, pulling away, "And I'm sorry."

There was a vague sensation of pressure on the side of her head, and before the world faded away to nothingness she had one last glimpse of his face, hovering inches away from her own, and one last faint caress of his hand across her cheek.

**--**

**Music for this chapter:  
"Whale Swim", Basil Poledouris, Free Willy 2 - The Adventure Home (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)  
"Unchained Melody" Instrumental Version, Ghost Original Soundtrack.**

**Long wait, but it was a long chapter - the longest yet at over 5000 words! Originally it was going to be longer, but I looked at it and thought this would be a good cut-off point, since things were getting a bit _too_ long. (Looks around) Hey! Don't be mad! I have to have some fun in life, right? Anyway, college classes have started for the summer semester and I'm trying to find a job, so I've been robbing myself of sleep to finish this chapter for you all. BE GRATEFUL! (goes to her bed and collapses)**


	12. Net

Net

--

Awareness was slow coming to her. The very first thing Naminé thought was that she was cold. Axel must be outside somewhere, if he were next to her she would have been much warmer. Her next thought was that the floor was too hard; it felt like packed earth instead of the wooden floor of their cabin. There was water dripping somewhere, steadily, monotonously, echoingly. She realized suddenly that she _was _curled up on the ground.

Her eyes shot open, she sat up, and as she looked around she realized that she was inside a tall, vertical drain pipe. There was a gaping hole in the side that looked out into a red stone courtyard, and beyond that the monotonous blue of Hollow Bastian's scenery stretched out endlessly. There was a small tremor and a rumble, as though an explosion had gone off somewhere in the distance, and everything rushed back to her.

She was in Hollow Bastian.

She was alone.

Her balance deserted her, and she fell sideways into the slightly damp metal wall of the pipe. Her vision swam, her mouth was dry, she felt removed from reality.

_An echo of a kiss on her lips. A faint touch against her face, gentle as a bird's wing._

Axel…

Everything in her chest constricted, she couldn't breathe, couldn't swallow, couldn't feel her heart beating. Pain… pain… too much pain. Her mind screamed with terrible knowledge and horror. Her entire being seemed to curl into itself. He should have been beside her, he was not. The empty space he had left seemed to be a vacuum, sucking her existence away. And she knew she must die, how could she not? How could any living thing survive through this?

A ragged breath tore through her throat, and she stood up slowly, as shaky as if these were her first steps. She had to find him. Had to see him, touch him, reassure herself that he was _not_ gone, that he _was_ still there. He had to be there, how could anything destroy Axel? Solid, dependable, invincible Axel, who had a solution to every problem, an ease for every hurt…

He had been when she was not_,_ and he would continue to be when she was no more. The world could not exist without Axel.

As she took a slow, wobbly step to the hole in the pipe that led outward, as her hand gripped the edge and she began to climb out, his voice came back to her so strongly that she gasped and looked around for him.

"_Do-not-leave-that-spot."_

Her grip on the jagged edge loosened. That was right; he had told her to stay. Her entire body shook, but she pulled herself away from the exit and collapsed backward against the wall. The shaking wouldn't stop, she felt as if her body would simply fall apart if it kept trembling. She pulled her knees up to her chest and curled her arms around them, holding herself together.

She took a quivering breath, slowly, forcing herself to think about the action of taking it. And the next one, and the next.

The pain did not get easier, but her mind began to adjust itself to it. Gradually, she became able to think.

In truth she did not know if Axel was gone or not. All she knew for certain was that he had chosen to deliberately throw himself into danger to bring that danger away from her. There was still hope that he would come back to her after this was all over. Axel always came back. Always.

A faint gibbering laugh in the back of her mind wormed its way to her thoughts through her pain, and she recognized it immediately. There was no room for anger in her mind, but she did feel a vague resignation. Of course. The darkness was never quiet once it was set free; it had sensed a moment of weakness and just _had_ to take its chances. Even after dominance over it was won. Sighing shakily, she pushed back against it until it was forced into its usual small space. It did not go without a fight, but she knew its tricks now and won easily.

Of all the times to lose control, she had to pick a time when no one was here to help her. Axel wouldn't have approved. She smiled shakily as she thought about what he would say to her if he saw her like this. His face swam up in her mind, and her chest gave a painful spasm.

He would come back. He would survive. He had to.

She buried her face into her knees and focused on breathing again, but every now and then a half-sob she couldn't stop would force its way out: no matter how hard she tried to keep them back.

--

Axel stood on a cliff, observing the heartless ravaging the town below him. His chakram were in his hands, ready and waiting, and every now and then he twirled one idly. A hasty attack without a plan would only get him killed, it would serve no purpose. For his plan to work he had to attract the attention of any nearby Organization members.

His mind strayed back to Naminé, his last glimpse of her. The boneless way she had lain in his arms as he had carried her away from the battle. He had known that knocking her out was the only way he'd be able to leave; if he'd tried anything else she would have followed him. But he had still felt guilty about it; she looked as if she might have been dead, except for the warmth of her skin beneath his fingers. Axel had chosen a spot just outside of the back entrance into the castle. He knew the place, knew that it would be safest for her now, since the heartless had already been there and left. It had taken more willpower than he had predicted to set her gently down inside that broken pipe and leave; he almost hadn't been able to do it.

But he had, and now he had a job to do.

Gripping his chakram tightly in each hand and slipping into battle awareness, he leaped down among the milling heartless below him and everything else ceased to exist. The heartless seemed to move in slow motion, waiting for him to slice them in half or scorch them to ashes. They did not even notice him at first, and by the time they had it was too late. He was a killing machine, moving fluidly and confidently, seeking out a vital point or an opening with deadly ease. Slipping away from their pitiful attempts at counterattacks, feeling the invigorating warmth of his fire flicking across his body, hearing the screams of vanquished enemies.

He was fire itself, consuming everything he touched, leaving nothing but ashes in his wake.

Another wave of heartless crashed into the small square, and he leaped forward to meet them with frightening precision. Dancing out of their way, attacking in deadly flurries. His eyes saw everything, and his body simply flowed to where it was needed.

Time was no longer a factor of his being, so he had no idea how long it took for him to destroy every heartless in the area. He stood in the center of a circle of ash, his breathing slow and even, coming down from a plane of awareness only obtained by the experts in combat. The world became ordinary and the flames inside of him died down. He allowed his eyes to become unfocused momentarily, and experienced a mild shock.

There was a twinge of pain in his chest area, an aching hurt that was part of him but… removed somehow. It was not strong enough to cause him any discomfort, but now that he focused on it he realized it had been there for some time.

Hmm. Odd.

He had no time to dwell on it, however. His senses picked up a familiar presence and his entire attention focused instantly. With a slight shock, he realized it was _not_ Saix who was coming to meet him.

A figure slightly smaller than him but just as slender leaped down from a rooftop and stood in front of him, grinning a wide smile of welcome. Axel felt chagrinned as he stared at the newcomer, observed his dirty-blonde hair and open childish face.

"Hey! You're looking well, Axel!" The teenager said, raising a hand in welcome before running it through his carefully spiked hair. "I didn't expect to see _you_ here!"

"Hello Demyx." Axel mumbled, looking away and frowning. Why, _why_, did it have to be Demyx? Of all the friggin people… "I see you're still alive."

"Yup. I've been working hard." The other male said, closing his eyes and raising a hand in a thumbs-up gesture. "We've been a bit understaffed lately, so the boss has been handing out more assignments." Demyx's face fell slightly, and he rubbed behind his head. "Actually, that's why I'm here…"

Axel sighed. He and Demyx were usually on good terms with one another, even though the younger teen's childish nature and endless energy sometimes grated on Axel's nerves. They never did much together, since Demyx usually avoided missions like the plague, but since Axel was one of the few members with patience for number IX Demyx usually gravitated to him.

"We've kinda been given orders to destroy you if we see you." Demyx finished, looking ashamed of himself. Axel sighed.

"You think you can?" He asked in a bored tone of voice. He knew that Demyx was no match for him, knew that if it came to fighting he could easily kill the boy, but somehow he didn't want to.

"Well…I have to try." Demyx finally said with a shrug. "I mean, orders are orders and all that." He gave Axel an apologetic glance. "I have missed you, though."

Axel softened slightly. Demyx was perhaps one of the more human nobodies in the Organization, which was why Axel tolerated him, and also why he chose not to fight him now. Instead, he turned around and leaped away across the square and up to the rooftops. He sensed Demyx hesitate and then leap after him.

Axel was reluctant to kill Demyx, so his only other option was to shake him off. Dodging through various heartless groups, he lazily began to give number IX the slip. The kid was enthusiastic but unskilled: it was all too easy. He sensed a portal opening, and Demyx appeared just a little ways behind him. Ha! Like that would work! The instant Demyx guessed wrong on where to go Axel could be miles away. Grinning a little, he twisted abruptly off at an angle and around a corner, running the risk of a small portal to a different location in the world; one that wouldn't require a visit to betwixt and between.

He appeared in the middle of a courtyard, one with blue and green stones surrounded by high blue cliffs, and stood silently, waiting. Huh, Demyx seemed to have guessed right; he was on his way. Sighing, Axel prepared to leap off again when something caught his eye in the distance. He turned and saw a small group heading his way, the leader had a mess of spiky brown hair… Sora. Axel smirked. _That_ would sure keep Demyx busy.

Just before Sora rounded the corner, Axel disappeared. Demyx never followed him.

--

The world below him was plunged into chaos. Heartless swarmed everywhere, destroying anything and everything in their path. The residents were putting up a fight, but the one who was doing the most damage was the key-bearer.

The man was tall, dressed in black, his hood down. Blue hair fell gracefully over his shoulders and he surveyed his surroundings through golden-yellow eyes. The scar on his face gave him an intimidating air without ruining the grace of his facial features. He stood perched on a railing, an impartial observer. Behind him the ancient castle of Hollow Bastian loomed up to the sky, falling apart at the seams. Even the pipe system was collapsing.

From somewhere down in the midst of the battle, he sensed the sudden absence of one of his comrades and wondered absently if Axel was behind it.

Axel…

They had been partners for a long time, and had saved each other on more than one occasion. He had many admirable qualities: Axel was tireless, tenacious, and strong. Ruthless in battle, carefully manipulative, and had shown fierce loyalty during the events at Castle Oblivion.

But now, he was a danger to Organization XIII's plans. The Superior had ordered his execution, and Saix was determined to carry it out. He closed his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. Those who forgot the true goal of the Organization were eliminated, as was all opposition. Those were their laws, and he was the keeper of the law.

If Demyx was gone, that meant the duty to seek out and destroy the traitorous number VIII now fell to Saix. He prepared to leap down the side of the cliff, when a small sound reached his ears. He paused, his attention diverted momentarily. It had come from behind him and slightly to his right, somewhere near the wall. He looked over his shoulder and listened, trying to pinpoint it further. It came again and he realized from the slightly echoing quality that it was coming from one of the pipes. It sounded like someone crying.

Sighing, bored now, he decided it was probably one of the town's residents that had hidden away from the battle. They were all such children. He turned once more to leave, but something seemed to hold him back.

Knowing that his instincts should be listened to, he stopped and considered. It couldn't hurt to find out exactly what it was. The most that could happen was that he would lose a minute or so of his time. Saix turned around and leapt across the courtyard easily, landing with a soft tap on a pile of rubble on the other side. His ears located the source of the sound easily, telling him now that it was a young girl; probably a teenager, and he walked over to a large yellow pipe standing against the castle wall. Now that he thought of it, this was a rather clever hiding spot. Amusing, actually. There was a hole big enough to be climbed through and he glanced inside it.

He was not shocked, nothing ever shocked him. He was, however, mildly surprised.

Naminé was sitting inside the pipe. Saix recognized her instantly, even though her face was pressed into her knees. He blinked, trying to imagine a series of events that would lead her here. She had not noticed him yet, apparently, and he made no move to make his presence known.

This was something interesting. It also confirmed beyond a doubt that Axel was here. Naminé was a valuable asset, so he couldn't imagine Axel simply dumping her off somewhere. Perhaps they had become separated during the fighting, which would explain why she was crying. Saix hadn't had much to do with the girl, but he remembered her being exceptionally timid. Obviously she was frightened.

Calmly, and somewhat resignedly, he began considering his options. The Superior had ordered her retrieval. She was here, alone, and that made things incredibly easy: he had been anticipating a fight with Axel before being able to bring her back. However, Axel was also here, cornered, outnumbered. Saix was certain of it now. Once the battle was over and they pulled their forces out, Axel would be able to slip away and disappear once more.

She still hadn't noticed him, and a small smile with absolutely no humor in it slowly crept across his features. She really was utterly helpless.

Well, a bird in the net counted for two in the bush. He might as well take an opportunity when it came up. Saix took a step forward, placing a hand on the pipe, and called her by name.

"Naminé."

Her head shot up, surprise written all over her face. Her eyes were slightly red, dried tears on her cheeks. She rubbed hastily at them before edging away from him slightly, mistrust flashing across her features. They looked at each other for several long minutes. Not wanting to waste time, he reached into the pipe to grab her arm. She scooted away from him until her back was against the wall, forcing Saix to actually lean his upper body into the hole. His fingertips brushed against her arm…

And she suddenly launched herself at him. Out of sheer surprise he was caught off balance, and she managed to force her way past him; knocking him back onto his heels in the process. Before Saix had recovered from this totally unexpected attack, she had scrambled down the pile of rubble and was running across the courtyard. Frowning, annoyed with himself for his momentary lapse, he leaped after her and landed in front of her. She flinched when she saw his face and turned to run the other way, but he was faster and caught hold of her arm.

Again, Naminé surprised him. She writhed and squirmed, almost managing to loosen his grip. Rolling his eyes, thinking ruefully that he would defer this assignment to someone else next time, he turned and began to create a portal.

This time he was prepared for an assault from her, and caught her fist as she attempted to hit him. He raised his eyebrows at her, wondering at these out-of-character actions. That had actually been a well-planned punch. She had aimed for his neck; not exactly a friendly thing to do.

"No more of that, now," he said warningly, giving her captured arm a threatening squeeze. She winced, resuming her tugs. "I mean it, Naminé." She froze momentarily at his tone, looking at him with both fear and resentment. He threw his arm out; the darkness responded and tore open a path for him. He would take her back to the castle, set her up in a temporary room until the Superior said otherwise. Her struggles increased in urgency when she realized what he was doing, she leaned backward on her heels and pulled with all her weight against his grip. Annoyed with her now, he simply let go. It wouldn't hurt her to take a slight fall. She tumbled backward, yelping softly, and before she had time to recover he had pulled her to her feet and walked through the portal with her.

"Let go!" she cried as they emerged into the in-between world, continuing to struggle now that she had her balance back. "Let _go_!"

"No," he answered simply, smoothly making an exit and dragging her through it. They appeared inside one of the residential wings at the Organization's main base, an empty one, and he strode to one of the rooms. She was making sounds of protest, still resisting with all her might, and both their footfalls and her noises echoed eerily down the empty white corridors. The rooms here all operated based on a key code, so Saix merely entered the correct numerical sequence on the touchpad next to the room he had chosen and the door hissed open. Finally using some of his real strength, she _had_ been quite uncooperative with him, he yanked her forward and gave the small of her back a none-too-gentle push towards the room. Gasping in surprise she fell forward into it and he shut the door, entering a lock code onto the pad.

He turned, almost rolling his eyes and glad that the girl had been dealt with, and prepared to return to Hollow Bastian. There was still work to be done, and he had wasted enough time on Naminé already. For the second time that day, however, something in the back of his mind seemed to pull at him and made him hesitate. Saix stopped, considered the nagging thought. Naminé had thus far behaved very differently than she ever had before. It was possible that she had grown in ways they hadn't expected. Vague paranoia ate away at the edges of his thoughts and he decided, only as a precaution, to summon a pair of dusks to watch Naminé: just in case.

--

Naminé cried out as she fell to the floor, losing her balance completely and feeling the side of her head slam into the unyielding surface. She winced, sitting up slowly, and looked over her shoulder just as the door behind her closed. The corridor outside had been well lit, not as blindingly white as Castle Oblivion but reminiscent of it, however the room she had been shoved unceremoniously into was a different matter. The light was dimmed, it was almost pitch black with the door closed, and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust. While they did, she rubbed gently at the sore spot on her head and slowly got to her feet.

Who _was_ that man? It had been plain that he was a member of the Organization, and he knew her name as well. Something about him had warned her, right from the start that it was incredibly dangerous to be near him. Despite his calm appearance, she had sensed a threat lurking close behind his face. She was slightly calmer now, but when he had first surprised her she had completely forgotten everything Axel had taught her and simply run for it. Of course he had caught her, and she felt rather foolish now.

Well he was gone and she had to focus on getting out of this place. She had to get back to Hollow Bastian, or at least to a place where Axel would think to look for her. He didn't know what had happened and wouldn't have any idea where to find her when everything was over. The man that had just left might even use that fact to trap Axel, and the thought sent a shiver down her spine.

The room was small and rectangular, about six feet long and four feet wide. There was a bed frame without a mattress in the back corner, but otherwise the room was made of blank, uniform walls, floor and ceiling. She had seen the man use a key pad to open the door, so trying to force her way through was out of the question…

Naminé laughed, suddenly, almost slapping herself for forgetting. She could create portals now, getting out would be no big deal. Smiling and feeling a little silly she raised an arm to call for an exit.

The now-familiar sound of swirling air and hissing darkness came from behind her, and she heard the faint gurgling noise of a dusk. Turning slowly, her throat seizing up and her stomach writhing, she came face to face with the creature, which was swaying less than a foot away from her. Crying out in surprise, she stumbled backward until she hit the wall. The dusk made no move to follow her, merely observed her with its blank, white face. Watching her, monitoring her movements carefully.

She stared at it in horror, realizing that it had been sent to watch her, and that it would follow her if she portalled away. There would be no escaping now.

**--**

**OK, originally I was going to merge this chapter with the next one. However, I am anticipating a very long delay between this chapter and the next so I thought it would be better to post this now while I have time, since you all have been waiting a while already. And hey, at least the cliffhanger isn't too bad this time and the chapter is a decent length. **

**Ahem, in other news, Silence now has 4 chapters up on deviant art, so if you know anyone who looks at that site let them know. WE MUST SPREAD THE WORD OF AXEL/NAMINE! I really don't know when I'll be able to finish work on the rest of the story, so I apologize in advance. Love you all!!**


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