Kingdom Hearts II: Home Sweet Sanctuary

Chapter 62: Axel's Farewell

We arrived back in the station of Twilight Town. My clothes had returned to normal.

"Hey! I think we're almost there!" Goofy exclaimed. We all looked at him. "Gawrsh, aren't we here because of the picture?" Picture? "Here, I'll show ya!" Goofy took a picture out of his pocket. We looked at it and I remembered.

"Yeah! Goofy's right!" Donald exclaimed.

"C'mon, let's go find this mansion!" Goofy said.

"That won't be too hard. We already know where it is." I said.

"Right, we spent a year there." Sora said. I thought about the present Santa had given me. I bet Riku left it for me. I took it out of the pouch Aerith made for me and opened it. It was a cat earrings, the ones that Serah has. I put them on and my clothes changed in a light- It had styling threads! (AN: think of Serah's new outfit from 13-2) We hurried to the woods and then to the mansion. When we got there, we saw Hayner, Pence and Olette unconscious on the ground. Goofy and Donald went to Pence, Sora went to Hayner and I went to Olette. "Hey, are you all right?" All of them started getting up.

"What happened to all of you?" I asked.

"We came here looking for Kairi and Irix. Then those white things attacked us..." Hayner said.

"You gotta be careful!" Donald said.

"Yeah, you guys didn't have to go and do that." Sora said.

"Of course we did. Kairi and Irix are our friends too, ya know." Hayner said.

"Yeah, they are." I said. We all looked to the mansion.

"Word is, this mansion gets a lot of really strange visitors." Pence said.

"We thought this place might be a gateway to some kind of alternate Twilight Town." Olette said.

"What do you mean, alternate Twilight Town?" Sora asked.

"Hey, Piri, do you think we can see your and Sora's crystals?" Pence asked. I nodded and we took out our crystals. And Goofy took out the pouch.

"I made that pouch myself, and I still have it. So there shouldn't be 2 of them." Olette said.

"And this is the trophy Seifer gave you. You left it behind, remember?" Hayner asked. I took notice to the orange and blue crystals on the trophy.

"It's the only one of its kind. Same with the crystals—red, blue, yellow, green and orange—only 1 of each color. But you've got your own!" Pence said.

"So... where'd you get them?" Hayner asked.

"We got the pouch from Mickey shortly before we left. The crystals were inside it." I said.

"But then... where did MICKEY get it?" Pence asked. That is a good question.

"See? There's gotta be another town out there like this one. That would explain hoe Mickey got the pouch and the crystals. It makes sense." Hayner said. Sora and the others looked at each.

"It... does?" Sora asked.

"That other town must be where whatever's missing from here went!" Pence said.

"Like Kairi and Irix." Olette said.

"That makes sense." I said. There was a whoosh sound and we saw several Dusks had appeared. 1 went to attack, but Mickey appeared behind it and destroyed it.

"Watch out!" Mickey exclaimed. We quickly dealt with the Nobodies. "I got somethin' to tell ya. I found out where Ansem is—Ansem the Wise! The real Ansem! He snuck into Organization XIII's stronghold."

"And we've figured out where Kairi, Irix, Amara, and Kiyoko are! I'm pretty sure we're right." Sora said.

"Amara and Kiyoko are missing?" Mickey asked.

"Yeah, the Organization had them." I said. Mickey's reaction proved he had no clue.

"But... why are you here?" Mickey asked.

"Someone gave us a clue. Me and Sora think it was Riku." I said.

"Well, if that' what ya think, then it's probably right." Mickey said.

"You mean Riku's okay!" Sora said.

"If that's what you think..." Mickey said.

"I've waited long enough, Your Majesty! Tell me what you know!" Sora demanded.

"It's not for me to say." Mickey said.

"But Your Majesty! Why?" Sora asked.

"I don't wanna break my promise." Mickey said.

"You made a promise to Riku!? So he's okay! We can see him again!" Sora exclaimed.

"Huh? Who's Riku?" Hayner asked.

"Sora's best friend and... someone very important to me." I said.

"That's IT!" Pence exclaimed.

"Mickey? You got the pouch and crystals from Riku, didn't you? But you promised not to tell." Olette asked. We all hurried inside and found a secret passage leading to a computer room. The computer was protect by a password.

"I think the password is: Sea-Salt Ice Cream. Grampa loves that stuff." I said. A beam came from the machine. The 5 of us stepped into the machine and we were teleported to what seemed to be the same room. That's when I saw several computers smashed to pieces.

"This is the other Twilight Town. Roxas and Irix's Twilight Town." Sora said. I could see Irix disappearing in the portal to the other Twilight Town and Roxas smashing the computers with his Keyblade. We went into the next room and saw a portal in the corner. We went through it and found ourselves in a strange place. "Riku! Kairi! Irix!" Just then, several Dusks appeared. Even was the same as the first time we fought these things. When we knocked down 1, 3 would pop up.

"Don't stop moving, or the darkness will overtake you!" a voice said. Axel appeared and destroyed several of the Dusks.

"Get off him!" I destroyed the Dusks. "Are you all okay?" I asked.

"I kidnapped Kairi and Irix, but they got away from me. After that, Saïx caught them." Axel said.

"We know him." I said and more Dusks appeared.

"Leave us alone!" Sora yelled. We managed to rid of many of them, but soon there was a swarm of them.

"I think I liked it better when they were on our side." Axel said.

"Having regrets, are we?" I asked.

"Nah, but watch this!" He jumped in the middle of them and his Chakrams circled him as well as fire. He charged for his next attack. When he let it all loose, fire hit the Dusks and Axel used all his being in his attack.

"Axel!" After the fire died down, me and Sora ran to him.

"Axel, are you okay? You know you shouldn't put that much into an attack like that!" I scolded with a tears brimming my eyes.

"You are diffently a mom..." I mildly laughed and wiped my eyes.

"Of course I am, you idiot..."

"Axel, why did you take Kairi and Irix?" Sora asked.

"I wanted to see Roxas and her... The old Irix. They... were the only ones I liked... They made me feel... like I had a heart. It's kind of... funny... You guys make me feel... the same..." Axel said.

"Axel, did you take Kiyoko and Amara too?" I asked.

"No, that was Xigbar. They're more than likely in the castle dungeon with Kairi and Irix. Go." Axel said. He used the last bit of his strength to open a portal for us, "There in the castle dungeon... Hurry before Irix gets turned into a Dusk!" He faded away.

I looked at the portal, with a tear on my face, 'Irix...'