Sorrow's Promise

Chapter 30

A/N:  Sorry this is a day late.  I'm out of town this week, so I've been a little distracted!  Enjoy!

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My first stop after leaving Twilight Town was the bazaar in Agrabah. Some time ago, when my coffee grounds from home had run out, I had discovered that Agrabah had the most amazing coffee I had ever tasted in my life. Obviously I couldn't lug my coffee maker and carton of grounds along with me when I left the mansion, but thankfully the same merchant who sold me the grounds also sold cups of the stuff fresh-brewed.

It turned out Agrabah was a nice spot for people-watching, too. Wandering around the market with a steaming cup of coffee in my hand became a nice, frequent distraction for me during that week. The people were so full of life, bustling around from stall to stall with happy greetings, and getting into heated bartering matches with the merchants. I could find a hidden corner to curl up in and watch them for hours without growing bored.

If I did get tired of that, though, there were plenty of places I could go to find Heartless to fight off. Agrabah was one of them, along with Wonderland and a few spots in Neverland. Battling the Heartless was an easy way to make sure I didn't lose any of the ground I had gained in my training. As the days went on, I even began to experiment with new techniques and try to come up with my own magic spells based on others that I had learned. Dark magic in particular seemed to be flowing even more naturally than usual, which didn't come as much of a surprise considering my general state of mind.

On the third day, I was in an only mildly challenging fight with some small fries in Neverland when a thought occurred to me. If I was capable of creating dark corridors to anywhere I could possibly imagine, wouldn't it make sense that I could move from one spot to another within the same space? I had already discovered the day before that I could cause the corridor to appear around me and swallow me up rather than having to actually walk through it. I did so now, keeping my eye on a specific spot a few yards away as the In Between materialized, then immediately made another corridor with that same spot still in my mind. To my delight, I appeared again exactly where I had wanted to, taking a Pirate Heartless by surprise and quickly disposing of it. I repeated the process several times throughout the rest of the fight, trying to get faster and faster at it until I was essentially teleporting.

When the last Heartless was gone, I dismissed my Keyblade and stopped to catch my breath with a satisfied smile on my face. My triumphant moment was interrupted, however, by the sound of applause behind me.

"Bravo! Very impressive."

My heart leapt into my throat when I heard that voice. Whirling around, I caught sight of a familiar face with wild red hair leaning up against a nearby boulder. Axel. I tried to think of something to say, but my throat was too dry to make anything come out.

"So, the mysterious Meli is a Keyblade wielder. Never would have guessed that one. Of course, I never really knew there were more of you out there." He pushed himself to his feet with a smug smile. "Don't worry, I won't tell the Organization about you, though I'm sure they'd be very interested to know that you existed. I'm...assuming you have heard about the Organization, right?"

He began sauntering closer to me, and I crossed my arms tightly over my chest, trying to hide the fact that I was trembling all over. Apparently I wasn't doing a very good job at it, though, because Axel halted before reaching me and looked me over with surprise on his face.

"What are you...? Am I really that scary to you?" he asked incredulously. "I mean, when you ran out of the cafe that day I wondered, but..."

I shook my head vehemently. "No," I croaked out. "I'm not scared."

"Then why are you shaking like a leaf?" Axel countered, pointing at me. "Look, I'm not after any trouble. I already told you I wouldn't report you to the Organization. I'm not exactly on the best of terms with them right now, anyway."

That news piqued my interest. "Why's that?"

He waved a hand dismissively. "I'd rather not get into details right now. What I'd like to know is what your involvement in all of this is. Seems a bit fishy to me that you, a Keyblade bearer, just happened to make friends with Roxas, another Keyblade bearer, unless you knew something. Plus there's the fact that you're wearing one of our coats right now, just like the impostors we've been chasing."

I glanced down at my coat and took a small step backwards. "I'm not an impostor, I swear. Or, at least...I'm not trying to be. I was just told that this was the best way to stay protected while traveling the In Between. And as far as Roxas goes...I didn't know he was a Keyblade bearer when I met him. Heck, I didn't even know I was a Keyblade bearer when I met him."

"Hmm, so just a happy accident then, huh?" Axel studied me carefully. "Crazy thing is, I think I believe you. Which is good, because I didn't really want to have to threaten you to get the truth out of you. Scaring girls half to death is not exactly my goal in life." He sighed and scratched the back of his head. "I'm actually just...looking for Roxas. Trying to figure out what happened to him. Wondered if you knew anything...?"

I felt a pang of guilt in my gut. This guy may have had the misfortune of looking just like my ex, and may have been a member of some evil mafia group, but that didn't mean that he didn't deserve to know what had happened to his best friend. At the same time, thought, it wasn't my secret to tell. I had no way of knowing whether he was asking for himself or for the Organization, anyway.

"I don't know where he is," I answered, shaking my head. Thankfully this was technically the truth, since I wasn't too confident in my lying skills. Axel looked doubtful, though, so I decided to add in some more details. "I knew he was leaving the Organization, but he didn't tell me why or where he was going." Also the truth, even though in actuality we had never even had the chance to talk about any of it.

After another long moment of staring me down, Axel sighed again. "Alright, thanks. And...sorry for scaring you, though I'm still not really sure what I did." He started to leave, then stopped and turned back to face me. "You might want to keep your, um...talents on the down-low. I wasn't kidding when I said the Organization would be very interested in knowing about you, and trust me, you really don't want to be on their radar."

My insides were still quaking, and I was more than ready for him to leave, but my curiosity won out for this moment. "Why?" I asked with a confused frown. "I mean, why are you telling me this when you're...one of them?"

Axel shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe you made me feel sorry for you with all your quivering and lip-trembling." My face burned with embarrassment and I started to protest, but he wasn't done. "Or maybe you remind me of somebody...though I really couldn't tell you who right this second."

I drew in a deep breath. "For what it's worth...I'm not really scared of you. You just happen to...strongly resemble someone that I am afraid of."

Axel paused to consider this for a moment, gazing off into the distance. "Hmm. Well, from what I just saw here, you shouldn't have too much of a reason to be afraid of anybody." He threw me a disarming smile. "Just go kick his butt."

I opened my mouth to respond, but was at a loss for words. Axel turned away again and tossed his hand in the air in a wave. "See you around, Meli." With that, he vanished in a swirl of black and purple.