They stand on the brink of a cliff just outside the Forbidden City. The new road – still in plan sight at that point on the hill where the ground begins to slope away into rolling plains of grass and bamboo groves – shudders, ripples at the edges, and then a moment later winks out existence. He feels a tremor run down his spin, more from excitement than the breeze. A new world. It's one of the few genuine highs he gets these days, and it doesn't really matter much to him that it'll come at the expense of hundreds and hundreds of relatively innocent lives.

Axel thinks that, someday, if he ever gets to meet his heartless, he'll punch the fuck in the nose just to even things out, karmatically speaking.

"What's the plan?" he asks, massaging his left shoulder, which is still a little shot from that last expedition to the Pride Lands.

XIII frowns – not at Axel per se, as that would require a level of personal concern that XIII just isn't capable of – and holds up three fingers. "One," he says, "we wait for the dusks to arrive. Two, we wait for dark. Three, we do not charge in, head first, like morons."

"You can be no fun, man."

Now Roxas glances in his direction, blinks, and says in his flatline, level voice, "But you love me anyway." He looks away again, to the city below, and adds, "So don't fuck up."

Axel sighs. "Yes, dear."