Summary: Roxas merges back with Sora; Axel doesn't like that. So he decides to act, and now the destiny of one Keyblade Master changes. / He'd have to watch his steps more carefully from now on; the brunette was definitely more observant than he appeared. / AU / Yaoi / AkuSor/AkuRoku / Mild Lang. /

Used
To Dodge A Bullet

"Axel...?"

Axel turned his green eyes towards Sora and sighed. Now how was he going to explain this...?

"Who was that?" Sora asked with a frown. "Why did he call you Ale?"

Here Axel closed his eyes and held one gloved hand over his face for a second. Finally he said, "Sit down. This is going to take some time, and you still aren't strong enough to be standing for more than a few minutes."

Still frowning Sora complied and waited for Axel to speak.

"Almost two years ago I was attacked here by Heartless," Axel said, pulling his hand away from his face. "At the time I didn't know what the little bugger's were, or where they had come from. I figured they were mako rejects or something-it tends to happen here a lot...I'll explain mako later," Axel added upon seeing Sora's questioning gaze. "Anyway, long story short I blacked out not long afterward and woke up outside this old mansion. It wasn't until I was found by Zexion that I learned it was another world called Twilight Town.

You see I never thought there were other worlds or shit until Zexion found me and explained everything-the Heartless, other worlds...everything. Before all this I was just Ale, in the service of Rufus Shinra along with my older brother Reno. However once I learned I was on another world I figured what the hell, I deserved a new start, and I hated the name Ale anyway. So I took going by Axel.

Zexion introduced me to his...companions and I ended up working for them for a while. It was through Zexion that I met the little witch who knocked you out, and it wasn't until several months after Zexion died and the witch put you asleep that I decided hanging out with Zexion's companions wasn't worth it. Two months later I get wind of where you are, pick you up, and end up deciding the best place to stay was at home; at least here there are things I can get to help you get all trained up to survive whatever will pop up next," Axel finished, green eyes trained on Sora.

"Trained up?" Sora questioned and Axel sighed.

"There's more than just Heartless out there now, Sora," the red head uttered. "When the Heartless existed another being was created to counterbalance them-Nobodies. Nobodies however were never supposed to exist, just as Heartless were never supposed to show up in such numbers, but things rarely go as they were supposed to."

Sora blinked and tilted his head. "What's a Nobody, Axel?" he asked softly.

"The body and soul of a person whose Heart was taken by the Heartless," Axel muttered. "They're what's left, basically. Beings who have memories of emotions but can't feel them themselves as they don't have a Heart anymore."

"Oh..."

"Sora I won't sugarcoat anything," Axel said plainly. "There are things going on out there that aren't good. Things really haven't been good since all the Keyblader's originally died out, and Kingdom Hearts was summoned into existence, thus bringing the Heartless and eventually the Nobodies, but things are especially worse lately with the formation of a group of Nobodies who are stronger, better, faster, and smarter than others. These Nobodies have a human face, a human shape, and emulate human emotions but they aren't, got it memorized?"

"Yeah," Sora gulped.

Axel nodded in acceptance. "Good; it'll save your life. These Nobodies call themselves Organization XIII. Formerly they had XIII members, however several have died over the past year." Axel turned his head away slightly and mumbled, "Most of them faded thanks to you..."

"Me?" Sora demanded and Axel shook his head sharply, wanting to so desperately curse himself for that slip up. "I've never met a Nobody!"

Instead of cursing himself Axel decided it was better to show his surprise at those words. He was sure that his words would've jogged some sort of familiar feeling which was why he wanted to curse himself in the first place.

"You don't remember?" Axel frowned. "Guess the little witch did more than put you asleep..." he trailed off at that.

"What? Someone's messed around with my memories?" Sora demanded sharply.

"Well yeah...I kinda figured that bit 'cause we've met...briefly," Axel shrugged before narrowing his eyes, "I just didn't realize it must've gone this far..."

Sora stilled and Axel mentally gave a sigh of relief.

'Crisis diverted.'

"Wait, we've met?"

'Aw shit...maybe not.'

"Yo! Tseng!" Reno called out, stepping into Healin Lodge.

"What now, Reno?" Tseng groaned.

"Seems like Laney was right," Reno grinned. "Ale's back, yo."

"Really?" Tseng's head jerked up.

"Yup. I just visited his ol' flat and there he was!" Reno chuckled slightly. "Kinda funny 'cause he has this kid there, yo."

"Why didn't you bring him here?" Tseng demanded and Reno rubbed the back of his head.

"Ah well...I figured he was busy with that kid an' all...I mean the poor boy did look a tad under the weather, yo..."

"He kicked you out upon threat of torching your hair, didn't he," Tseng drawled.

"Yeah..."

"Thought so."

"Tseng? Reno?"

"Boss!" Reno jerked towards Rufus who stood in the doorway.

"Sir," Tseng nodded respectfully.

"Did I just hear something about Ale?" Rufus frowned.

"Um yeah," Reno nodded. "He's home, yo."

"Ah. Who will you be sending, Tseng, since Reno obviously failed in dragging him here?" Rufus raised an eyebrow questioningly at Tseng while Reno let out a cry of shock.

"Hey I didn't-!"

"I'm thinking of Elena and Shuriken," Tseng said after a minute. "Ale hates Elena, and Shuriken scares the shit out of him."

Rufus nodded in agreement.

"Good choice. I'll leave that to you then," he turned to leave but paused, turning back around to face Reno and say, "Oh, Reno, I need someone to...escort me to the WRO update with Reeve."

"I'm on it," Reno grinned.

"Good. Eight o'clock, got it?"

"Yes sir!"

"Please plan your sexual escapades elsewhere..." Tseng moaned.

"Why Tseng, whatever are you talking about?" Rufus quarried before leaving the room, chuckling softly.

"Let me get this straight," Sora said slowly. "We met once or twice when this witch was using her powers to mess around with my memories because some of...Zexion's was it?" Axel nodded. "Because some of Zexion's friends decided that they wanted their own personal slave." Axel nodded again. "You were there trying to undermine them secretly and it was under their order's that we met, but when we met we were enemies." Again a nod. "So, as things further went on this witch replaced my memories of Kairi with memories of her, and messed up my feelings so that I liked her."

"Exactly," Axel nodded.

Sora was frowning slightly as he continued, "Once you were able to finally undermine the group I had already pretty much lost who I was, and the witch was forced to put me to sleep by someone named DiZ who swept in and decided to place her under his control."

"Yes."

"On DiZ's order's the witch proceeded to once again rearrange my memories back to their original order, but erased my memories of the entire encounter beforehand at the same time." Axel gave another crisp nod. "Also during this time I had run into a few members of Organization XIII who tried to use my messed up state against me but I ended up defeating them instead." Another nod. "You finally got the note of where the witch and DiZ were keeping me not too long ago and proceeded to break me out-earlier than I was supposed to be awoken-which is the cause of my current weakness."

"That's correct," Axel agreed.

"When you got me DiZ and the witch were gone; your guess is they got attacked since the place you found me in was in shambles," Sora finished and Axel gave him another nod in agreement.

The brunette frowned, tilting his head in Axel's direction, trying to figure out just what was going on through the convoluted story the red head told him.

'He didn't explain everything,' Sora immediately noted, considering several of the facts didn't seem to fit right. 'He's keeping something to himself.'

"You okay?" Axel asked hesitantly and Sora closed his eyes.

"Fine," the brunette mumbled. "Just a bit tired."

A frown tugged at Axel's lips but he nodded, "It's expected I guess. The guest room is yours; can you walk there okay?"

"Yes," Sora replied and stood up. He grasped the couch as a stabilizer and slowly made his way across the room and into the guest room.

'Since I'm weak right now,' the brunette decided, 'I'll have to stick with Axel. It'll give me time to try and figure out what he's hiding and what he wants with me.'

Sora knew from Axel's tale that the red head wanted something from him, he was under no illusions that this was purely a good Samaritan deed. He may act naive and childish, but that didn't mean he was an idiot. He didn't bother to correct those that thought him an idiot either though; it made it easier to be overlooked which suited Sora just fine sometimes. Being overlooked meant that Sora had a better chance of learning things people didn't think he would understand. It also caused enemies to underestimate him.

With the knowledge that staying with Axel for now was his only option (the red head knew things Sora needed to know first and foremost; plus Sora was weakened at the moment) Sora settled down to sleep. The past few hours actions having tired him out.

In the living room Axel was staring at the guest room door with a contemplating expression across his face.

He'd have to watch his steps more carefully from now on; the brunette was definitely more observant than he appeared.

"So let me get this straight, Tseng," Cissnei, codenamed and commonly referred to as Shuriken, said slowly. "Ale has suddenly showed back up at Edge, in his dingy old shitty apartment, after almost two years of being MIA, out of the blue?"

"Elena saw him, Reno confirmed it," Tseng agreed.

"I see," Cissnei mumbled, glancing at Elena. "And we are to go and retrieve him?"

"Correct."

"He threatened to torch Reno's hair didn't he."

Tseng's lips twitched and Cissnei smirked.

"We'll go."

ONWARDS TO THE AUTHOR'S NOTE!

Hihi! It's been a while since I updated, and I just finished this chapter. So in here I blatantly hinted at a RufusReno pairing-yes, it's true.

Now I don't know what I should explain or if I should leave this chapter as is...hmm...

Right, I suppose I'll give a little explanation.

You may find that in this chapter, versus chapter one, Axel's story has changed a bit. The reason why is before Axel gave a short brief explanation while now Axel found himself having to explain in more detail, and there were just some things he couldn't exclude from the story-especially since Sora had guessed that the currently nameless witch had messed around with his memories.

So Axel's story had to be changed a bit, and believe me Axel has noticed this issue.

Now you may also have noticed that Sora finds Axel's story not adding up exactly. This again is true. For this story to go in the direction of the challenge Sora is more observant; he just play's the idiot. I've stated this before I think.

Yeah...I think I'll stop it there.

Update Note Update So yeah. I've been sitting on this chapter because, well, I didn't think it fit so well but meh. It's okay I suppose. It'll do. And as a treat I may post the following chapter. If it's done...

Yeah, Ta

-TK
Twin Kats