Author's note: Here's the first chapter of Abyss. I hope you'll like it ^-^ It will feature mainly AkuRoku, but some Zemyx on the side. Those two should pop up in one of the next chapters. Other members will appear in later chapters too.

The parts in italics are Roxas' direct thoughts.

Enjoy.

Abyss

Chapter 1 – Game over

Roxas saw a balloon float by as he watched the sky. He wasn't the only one who had gone to the theme park, which was celebrating its fourth year of opening. The lines before the rides were long, filled with whiny little children. The teen sighed and dragged his feet along to find a ride which was less crowded.

"That last ride was no fun at all. Just a stupid puzzle and if you fail, you get kicked out." A group of teenagers were complaining to each other about their last ride. "Yeah. I mean, have you ever met anyone who passed the first level? No wonder that nobody goes in there anymore." One of them pointed to what apparently was the difficult ride. Roxas glanced to where the girl was pointing and saw a huge, multi-storied building. It had to have at least twenty levels and was built in a Victorian style. Looking like an elegant and classic building, it still had an unexplainable aura as Roxas stared at it. To difficult for anyone to pass, eh? Maybe it could actually pose a challenge to him, considering he had gotten quite sick of all the childish games in the park.

"Do you want to try it?"

Startled, Roxas turned around to see a young guy with long silver hair behind a ticket box. It seemed his feet had brought him up to the ride without him noticing. The silver guy gave him a neutral look, which said that he really didn't care whether Roxas tried it or not. The guy, Riku as his nametag read, was obviously not very thrilled about his job. Can't blame him for that though. "Well, are you?" Knocked out of him musings, he answered with an equally neutral look, "Sure why not?"

Considering there was no line, Roxas could walk straight into the ride. After opening one of the massive oaken doors, he entered a room which was nothing like the style of the buildings exterior. It was all stark white. So white that it almost hurt his eyes to look at it. The furniture in the room was equally white; a candle, a vase and a ladder. The only colour in the room was that of a golden key which was hanging from the ceiling. So I'm supposed get the key right? Roxas frowned slightly as he looked at the three pieces of furniture to work with. The simplest thing to do, would be to use the ladder to reach the key. Yet the key hung in the middle of the room and he could only place the ladder against the wall for support. Of course it's a challenge that requires height. Being as short as he was, Roxas already had enough problems to pick up something from a top shelf, let alone from a ceiling. Grumbling under his breath, he tried to think of other options.

After fifteen minutes of frustrated thinking, he was no closer to an answer. The fact that the door on the other side seemed to be laughing at him, wasn't helping either. Roxas was getting temped to throw the vase at it. The only thing restraining him was that if he did, then he'd admit that doors could laugh. Glaring at the door, he suddenly noticed something. It had no lock for a key to go in! He had figured the goal of getting the key was to open the door on the other side but if there was no lock… Don't tell me. The challenge was to realise that there is no challenge? Roxas cautiously crossed the room to reach the door. Placing his hand on the handle, he slowly moved it downwards. After pushing the door forwards, it opened and showed a new room.

It was empty except for a big television screen. Then suddenly a voice thundered through the room. "Congratulations! You have made it through the preliminary and may now enter the game." Roxas eyes were wide as he blinked out of surprise. The voice sounded like a little girl but was so void of emotion that it had to be a computer recorded message. "Welcome to Abyss. Enjoy your stay." As the recording was finished, the lights went out and the room was shrouded in darkness. Panicking slightly, Roxas tried to walk backwards to the door he had come through. But the door was no longer there, neither was the wall.

The entire room had changed.

As the lights suddenly turned on again, Roxas could see that the room had not only changed but had also significantly gained size. No longer an empty square-like room, it had turned into the inside of a circular circus tent. The walls and ceiling were covered in white-red stripes. There were audience stands, a stage and several stage attributes; a trampoline, cages filled with African animals and a tightrope to name a few.

Roxas stood watching in awe, not moving a muscle. His eyes darted to every corner of the large space. How the hell is this possible? He knew for sure that there wasn't a circus anywhere near Twilight Town. And even if there was, no way that it could appear before him in a couple of seconds. A little glint shook him out of his musings. The shimmer came from a key similar to the one in the first room, hanging from the top of the tent. It was just above the tightrope. If you were to walk over to the middle of it, then you could easily grab the key. Frowning slightly, the youth noticed that there was no safety net. No way that I'm going up that thing.

"Welcome!" "Welcome!"

Roxas felt his heart skip a beat as he suddenly heard those greetings. They weren't said in the same soft, neutral tone as the computer had said them. The voices were lower, masculine and just plain creepy. Closing his eyes for a second before slowly opening them again, Roxas turned to face the owners of the voices.

Only to wish that he hadn't.

It looked like they had to represent clowns, but their evil grins weren't going to make anyone laugh. More like cry. I've never liked clowns, but these guys look straight out of a horror movie. Their faces were covered with so much excessive make-up that they could give the Joker a run for his money. They weren't colourful clowns either; white, black and red were the only colours. Their mouths were painted in such a way that it looked like if they were covered in blood. The black around their eyes accentuated the fact that their eyes had no iris, only a black pupil surrounded by white. Relax Roxas, they're just contact lenses. It didn't help him from being creeped out by their evil stares though. The rest of their faces were white with the exceptions of some red smudges, which also looked a bit too much like blood for comfort. Both were bald with a small hat on their head. Their clothes were relatively normal; black tuxedo's with a bow and perfectly white gloves. At least those aren't covered in red.

Roxas just stared, he couldn't move. Ice blue eyes wide open, the clown couple widened their grins. "Looks like we've gotten ourselves a new victim. A cute one at that." The blonde was too scared to even scowl at the remark. He never liked being called cute, but right now he was too busy deciding whether he should run like hell or stay still. Not that his body allowed the first option. He felt like he was stuck underwater with a boulder attached to his feet to prevent him from swimming to the surface.

The clown changed his face to what probably should have been a pout, but it looked more like a grimace. "He's not very entertaining, is he?" The other one widened his wicked grin, "He's just paralyzed in the sight of our beauty." They looked at each other, bursting out in laughter. An eerie sound that shook Roxas out of his paralysis. No longer wanting to be anywhere near the couple, he ran as fast his feet could carry him into the opposite direction. However, the sound of laughter only increased. Apparently they were quite pleased with the fact that their victim wasn't as helpless as he seemed at first glance. "Try to get the key, goldilocks! It even matches your hair." The other one joined in too, "For now it does. When we're done with you, it's going to be scarlet red."

After running up to near the stage, Roxas turned around to see that the clowns were no longer in sight. Swirling around, he tried to locate the creepy duo only to stare into the face of a new 'clown'. Letting out a yelp, he almost tripped over his own feet. The wannabe-clown started grinning and reached down to grab him. Roxas quickly started running away again but it seemed pointless. Every time he stopped a new clown would pop up. By now there were about nine clowns and he was starting to run out of stamina to keep his legs moving.

The clowns wouldn't stop laughing and sneering at him. "Like stealing candy from a baby." A disturbing wink. "And believe me I would know."

Suddenly Roxas stopped running around. This was a theme park ride, right? So this shouldn't be real. "You guys really had me scared. But now I'd like to go. This ride lasted long enough," Roxas said. The grins of the clowns' face only increased though. If they grin any wider, their faces are going to crack. While he was trying to shake that disgusting image out of his head, one of the clowns spoke up, "How cute, he thinks we're joking." More laughter. "Let's prove him we are dead serious." Roxas definitely didn't like the glint that had appeared in their eyes.

One of the clowns moved to a cage that was set next to the stage. It was filled with three lions; one male and two female. While proving that he could indeed grin even wider without cracking his face in two, he slowly opened the doors of the cage. Quickly the clown climbed on top of the cage, out of reach of the ferocious animals. Roxas saw, as he quickly looked around, that the other eight clowns had also climbed up to save heights. Leaving only the stairs to the tightrope open. Suddenly the clowns yelled at the same time, scaring both the lions and Roxas. The lions though, looked more hungry than scared. Slowly walking towards their only reachable prey. Which would be me.

"Don't worry, boy," One of the painted creeps sneered. "We won't let them kill you. Just maim you a bit."

"Yeah. It would be no fun if you died this soon." The look in his eyes made Roxas feel that death would be preferable to their plans. "Nothing good ever came from rushing things."

The sniping comments had made Roxas lose his attention. Because when he looked at the lions again, they had come considerably closer. They're probably going to try to surround me. Running to the only high place left, which wasn't covered with clowns, he hurried to the stairs of the tightrope. Luckily, the lions hadn't expected him to move so suddenly because he could actually reach the stairs without losing any limbs. Still, he wanted as much distance as possible and quickly climbed the staircase. Once on top, he was joined by clapping.

"Great job, goldilocks. Now you only need to reach the key."

Easier said than done. He had a pretty good balance though; his teacher for sword training always made him do weird balance exercises. Roxas wasn't sure what balance had to do with using a sword but he definitely wasn't going to complain about it ever again. If I live long enough to ever get another lesson. Sending out a little prayer to his teacher, give me a little help Leon, he started walking on the thin line. Inch by inch, he slowly creeped closer to the golden key.

Almost there. I got it! With the key in his hand, Roxas made it to the other side. Only to see that one of the clowns was climbing up the stairs. When he looked to the other side of the rope, a clown was happily waving at him from the other platform. He was cornered. Looking around some more, he saw that the remaining clowns were luring the lions back in their cage with some fresh meat. The blood was still dripping off of it. Blinking, he tried to focus. Come one, what else can I do?!

"Here I come, little boy."

With, yet again, an evil grin on his face, the clown made it up onto the platform where Roxas was standing. Slowly reaching out to grab him, the blond automatically stepped backwards. If he stepped any further, then he would fall off. The clown seemed to have guessed that train of thought, "So which is it? Me or falling down 10 meters?" Swallowing loudly, Roxas looked alternatively between the clown and the ground. Hmm, get maimed by a clown or do it myself?

"How about neither?" Both the clowns and Roxas quickly looked at the ground to locate the owner of the new voice. It was also a low, masculine voice, but without the creepiness of the clowns.

On the middle of the stage stood a tall young man. Probably in his mid-twenties, with bright red hair. He had a smirk on his lips, green eyes seemed to be smirking along. And were those tattoos? "What do you want, Axel." The clown near Roxas, spit the name out with as much disgust as he could manage.

"Me? Just dropping by. But you know what that means, blood-face." The redhead countered. The man's, no Axel's, smirk widened, but it wasn't scary like the clowns' grin had been. It was more teasing, maybe even flirty as he looked at Roxas. "Game over, kiddo. I'm impressed you actually got the key on your first try though." Blinking with his bright blue eyes, Roxas answered, "Isn't 'game over' a bad thing?" Another smirk. "Well, you are going to have to try again, but at least you won't get maimed. So that makes it a good thing, blondie," Axel gave him a wink.

"Try to get some sleep". And suddenly it was lights out again.

When the lights turned on again he was stuck in a bland, grey room. There was a bed, a toilet and a plate with bread and water. No Axel. What the hell is going on. After spending a good half hour thinking of complot theories, he checked his watch; 11.30 P.M. "Might as well take his advice and get some sleep." As Roxas laid himself down on bed, realising just how sore his body was from the stress, he slowly willed his eyes shut. Waiting for sleep to come.

New subject has appeared: XIII.
Passed Level 0 without much difficulty.
Failed at Level 1.
Was saved from execution by subject VIII.
Rule: Being helped by another subject forces both subjects to return to Level 1.

Current Level of subjects:
I – 18
II – 16
III – 8
IV – 12
V – 17
VI – 13
VII – 18
VIII – 1
IX – 2
X – 15
XI – 6
XII – 6
XIII - 1

More AkuRoku and some Zemyx in the next chapter, I promise.

Also, this is my first Kingdom Hearts story, so if I'm writing them somewhat OOC, then do please tell me. (Constructive) criticism is appreciated.

Thanks for reading. Please review :D