(A/N) -tears up- I am so sorry! A whole friggin' year?! That's totally unfair of me and I mean it from the bottom of my spleen when I say I am completely apologetic. I've edited through the old chapters- fixed some stuff, added a thing or two detail wise- for any of my old readers who might come back to this. I don't reckon many will since this thing has been dead for so long. Like I'd said on my profile, my game had been on loan to my Granny, so writing was forced to a halt. There's that and the fact that most of my creative juice was diverted to that co-authored story I mentioned an author's note or two back: "Cascading Melody". Writing that story is consuming! But, yesterday I reread this thing and realized my great folly in neglecting it for so long. I intend to do weekly updates now. WEEKLY I SAY! That's not asking much for such shot chapters right? I'm out of school for a time now, I think I can handle that. Okay, 'nuff of that~ ON WITH THE SHOW!

Sora isn't the brightest of heroes…From my time stalking him and the few times I've confronted him directly… it's a wonder that kid's still breathing. Axel thought to himself as he hurriedly walked through the dark corridor. There were no mysterious strangers belting him with whistled tunes this time through.

Whistling…whistle! He patted down his person in a moment of panic. Where was his Christmas present?! Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen it in a while. The sack! Suddenly, he remembered the burlap bag he had lost earlier. He must have left it in there. Idiot… He frowned, That's what pockets are for.

He opened his cloak, he was just going to be sure. The hell?! There was a hole at the bottom of his interior right breast pocket and almost all of his pictures were gone. How long had that been there?

Anger began to tease at his train of thought, causing him to loose focus. Today just wasn't his day. Where was he going again? Oh yeah, Kairi. If I were a rude ingrate, where would I go to lay low? That sentence brought to mind a conversation he had had with the memory-less Roxas. Hmm…Twilight Town is as good a place as any.

As he made his way towards that section of the galaxy he began to hear voices. He drew nearer and soon he recognized them. "…stick around, Sora is bound to show up."

"Yeah he said he's coming back."

"Okay." Yep, that was his target.

"What took you so long Kairi?" He made a face at himself, apparently still not at the top of his game; he'd meant to say, 'Sorry I took so long, Kairi.'

He opened a dark portal and entered their little hang out. "Somehow, I just knew you'd be here." Lucky guess, intuition, it was all the same in his book. "I tell ya, Kairi, you've got a lot of guts, jumping right into the darkness like that."

The blond kid who'd use to hang out with the mind-freaked Roxas made to run at him. Axel kept walking and the boy missed. Next to charge was the other boy, the one in the headband. The tall red-head actually had to put forth a tad bit of effort to evade this one, he pushed him in the arm as he continued walking- redirecting his momentum towards the ground. Well. This is surprisingly easy.

The girl beside Kairi didn't even attempt to move. Axel watched her out of his periphery- to be sure she wouldn't try something last minute- was that hope he saw in her green eyes? The female's clearly pretended concern confused him a bit but he reached out and took Kairi's wrist. He chuckled inwardly, maybe the girl wanted Sora all to herself and thought that he was going to dispose of Kairi.

His "captive" in question didn't seem to really be putting in much effort either. "Let go of me! Let go!" But to him, her punches felt half hearted at best. His questions were answered once the portal closed behind them. Kairi's shoulders slumped in apparent relief and she navigated her arm to hold his as if he were merely escorting her somewhere. "Okay, that wasn't the best of places to go." She told him. The little time spent there had been far more awkward than she'd thought possible. The guys were friendly enough, but once she'd explained her situation, Olette had become ever so slightly…creepy.

Axel looked at her skeptically. Was this the same girl? "Then why did you? Could have saved me a trip."

She shook her head, "Hey, you're the one you summoned those goons last time." She told him, indignation coloring her voice. He was about to protest her accusation but she continued, "Do you really know where Sora is?" She asked him. "And, do you know anybody named Riku?" Little did Axel know of the apparition she had seen before entering Twilight Town. She had quickly decided to go with this stranger because the hope of seeing both her friends again was just too good to pass up.

"I have a pretty good idea where Sora is heading; I just parted ways from him about ten minutes ago." He told her, still wondering over her changed attitude. "Why do you ask about Riku?" Currently, any plans he might have had for this girl were put on hold. This was becoming interesting.

"Well you-"

"Axel?" The question came from behind the two and it was laced in a calm that felt drenched in malice.

Her escort halted his steps. Dread crept across his features and he grimaced. Saix…

(A/N): I'm actually replaying through the game. I realize that some of the story thus far has been out of order but... I'm proud at how well it was considering how I wasn't playing through it when I wrote thoes chapters. So, we'll see where this gets me. I'll catch you guys in a week! Please review~ (it'd be nice to hear from new readers as well as the kind people who used to keep up with this story)