• The cold, hard ground greeted Roxas as he landed. He doubted he broke anything major, but his ankle felt weird. Vital signs. Check. “I think I’m still alive, but how did I manage?” he thought.
    The October sunset was as beautiful as ever. Roxas glanced sideways to see Axel appear out of the castle's landing port, with a more graceful landing than his. “We made it,” he comforted his friend, but Roxas knew the struggle had just began.
    He lifted Roxas to his feet, and inspected him for any injuries. “Do you know why the sun sets red?” Axel's peaceful tone said to Roxas, “it's because out of all the colors, red lasts the longest”.
    “Like I asked, know-it-all.”
    He smiled, a rare emotion from Axel.”The organization is still after us, us rebels,” he said as he slowly stared at his reflection in the water.
    “The question is, where to next?” Roxas asked.
    “I don't know. I don't know.”
    The silence echoed for several minutes, only to be broken by the frantic ringtone of Axel's cell phone. “Hello?”
    “I'm sorry, but we don't accept resignations,” the deep voice on the other side chanted. “We will hunt you down”
    Axel flipped the phone shut, for it was just another threat. Another worry, adding to the hundreds of others. At this point, his only will was to stay alive, quite like Roxas’s. Roxas sought this “Sora” person as well. He is the organization's next target.
    “We could go to Twilight Town,” Roxas said hopefully.
    “Too obvious,” Axel stated “They will have patrols soon, so we better get moving.”
    “For now, let’s just get away from here.”
    Axel nodded in agreement as he stood up and clipped his daggers to his belt. They walked together for a few hours, when they heard voices. “Behind the tree,” Axel whispered to me as he slid behind a tall pine tree.
    “Where are they?” a low, manly voice said.
    “If I knew that, why would we be searching?” another said sarcastically.
    The first voice took out a huge axe and began cutting down trees, with one swipe each. Roxas held his breath as he slowly strutted past him. He kept walking until he returned to his partner, who seemed to be meditating.”Can't find them anywhere,” the axe man said.
    “Too bad. Let's search elsewhere.”
    Roxas relaxed his muscles as the men after him walked away. “C'mon, let's keep moving,” Axel said as he swung his legs out of hiding.
    The two friends walked together until they found a dead deer, freshly killed minutes ago. Axel picked up the deer and slung it over his shoulder, and then proceeded to walk to a small clearing, where he set it down and started to gather sticks, when Roxas asked “What are you doing?”
    “Making camp and cooking,” Axel responded, but didn't look away from his work.
    Roxas then stood his sword up against a tall tree, which is where he guessed he would be sleeping. He lazed down, only to be nudged by Axel, “Dinner time,” he said as he gestured towards the plate of food he had in his extended hand.
    Roxas took the plate and began slowly picking at the food before him. “What's wrong?” his friend questioned, noticing the slow pace.
    “I can't eat,” Roxas replied “There is just too much on my mind.”
    The events in the last few days were a good excuse for not eating. Friends had died. They had come after him. He had only managed to escape due to Axel's intelligence. Their plot was to escape out of the floating castle through the North landing, and on the way out, a few of his comrades had been killed. Three of his closest friends are gone.
    The next morning, Roxas woke up to the gentle poke of Axel's fingers. “Rise and shine, sleepyhead. It's sunrise,” he said to his friend.
    He lifted himself to his feet and walked to the tree where his sword was harbored. He picked it up, and strapped it to his back. He then walked over to where Axel was whittling at a branch with one of his short daggers. He then put the project down, and said to Roxas “I just realized we don’t have time for carving.”
    “I can agree with that,” a rather harsh reply by Roxas’s standards.
    “Oh, mighty Roxas, like I needed your approval.”
    “We should keep walking,” Roxas said, quickly changing the subject.
    Axel then clipped his daggers and thus started his long trek to the West, where the resistance’s base was. Roxas soon followed, slowly walking along the path set for him by his elder friend.
    Minutes later, they came across another patrol. This time, they weren’t lucky enough to be in a forest. They were stuck in a place with no cover, nowhere to hide. The creatures came out of the woods, and into the clearing, spotting Roxas and Axel. Startled, the humans took out their weapons, ready to fight for their fragile lives. But instead of reacting, their opponents simply said “Give up now, or you will be deleted.” They seemed to say this at the same time, with the same slow, boring voice. At first sight, Roxas knew that these were Dusks, weak foot soldiers of the organization. He knew he could win, so he charged forth, bracing himself for combat. Axel too ran forth with daggers in hand, ready for the worst. They knew too much about his whereabouts.
    The Dusks, simple in structure, didn’t use weapons, as they are too anti-intellectual. They fight raw, as vicious creatures. The first Dusk threw out its outstretched arm at Roxas, who swung his blade with such destructive force that the arm of the Dusk evaporated, along with the rest of the body. Axel too, highly trained, quickly slashed at his own opponent, who was in 17 parts by the time it could react. “Done,” Axel plainly told Roxas.
    “As if I couldn’t tell,” he replied.
    They kept walking until sunset, where they reached a small cave, not in plain sight. The cave had odd drawings on the walls, as if from ancient times. There, they slept the night away again, only to be once again awoken by Axel's cell phone. “Hello?”
    “Hi, It's Cloud,” Axel's lost friend said.
    “You’re still alive? What a shocker,” He replied in a sarcastic voice.
    “Yeah, but everyone else from the castle is dead, including Xion.”
    “Ok, where are you now?”
    “Just east of the resistance base. But that's not why I called. I called to see how many patrols the organization sends out. This will help me get past the 20 that are before me.”
    “Don't worry. Roxas and I will be there in a few minutes. Are they Dusks?”
    “No. They are Nobodies,” Cloud said nervously.
    Axel gasped, knowing that his friend's fate was sealed. The Nobodies are Dusks with tenfold more power. “We'll be over soon,” Axel said as he flipped his phone shut, a signature move.
    Roxas woke to the pull of Axel. He then got up, and discovered that his sword was packed and everything was ready. He also realized that it was still night.
    “Let's go,” Axel said.
    “Why the rush,” Roxas replied.
    “Cloud's in trouble.”
    “Where?”
    “Just east of the resistance base.”
    “Then why are we standing here,” Roxas said as he ran to the East. Just a few more miles, he thought.
    Finally, they arrived at their destination. They could see the ongoing battle. The nobodies were losing numbers, but just kept pouring in. You could see Cloud swing his oversized blade around, falling Nobodies left and right.
    Axel and Roxas jumped into the battle, engaging the Nobodies. They too, cut away the enemies. But then, came the Nightlords. They stormed in and took the whole army by surprise, killing almost all of them. Only 20 remained. The Nightlords swung their huge blades, eliminating all they touch. Roxas, Axel, and Cloud stood together for a moment, when Cloud said to them “We can’t fight these Nightlords. We have 20 soldiers left, not enough to kill a single one. We must retreat.”
    They then ran through the woods, hoping to find a safe spot. The 20 men left covered for them, throwing away their lives to the Nightlords. They valued the other’s life more than theirs, so they considered it an honorable sacrifice.
    During the chase, Roxas kept looking back. He thought Why do people die for me? Why do they think I’m more important than them. He shrugged off these thoughts. For now, his only concern should be living.
    He and the few survivors jogged off into the distance, fleeing the peril behind them.