The Keys of Time

[The 11th Doctor]

Christan turned away, scowling as the strange man shut the door in his face, babbling about something called a 'TARDIS'. He stepped away from this 'TARDIS', and began to walk towards the sounds of civilization, somewhere far-off in the distance. Through the door, he'd heard something about Heartless, and Materia. Whatever the heck was going on, he didn't want any part of it. He reached his hand towards his Vortex Manipulator, prepared to whirl away to some other time, some other place.

Then a horde of small black...things surrounded him, just as he began to dematerialize. One of them clawed at his VM. The small time-traveling watch made a humming sound, glowed red, then exploded. Most of the Heartless were vaporized instantly, and the rest fled. Christan was blown backwards with a tremendous bang.

"AHHH!!"

The last thing he saw before he passed out were the last few Heartless creeping closer and closer.

*****

[The First Doctor]

As the Meddler locked the door, there was a loud explosion in the distance. Curious, he turned to see a small mushroom cloud rising. Eying the debris, he produced a small umbrella from one pocket and opened it.

Bits of red hot glass rained down for a second, pattering on the umbrella.

"Did..." he asked, cocking his head to one side, "Did that strange young man just blow himself up?"

[Sisilaya Vulmecura]

The Meddler falling to his knees was certainly something she did not expect. She disconnected from his lower back and quickly grabbed him around the shoulders to stop him from falling face down. A blush spread across her freckled cheeks as her eyes were wide, embarrassed. She hadn't meant for this to happen.

"Warn... me..." he croaked out, "Warn me... before you... do that."

She still didn't understand, when she had healed him before with the Angel problem it had worked just fine. She shook her head gently, sometimes she'd never understand this enigma of a man.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Robin's laughing expression was something she just smirked at, exclaiming he loved this world. She wondered for how long he would. When Alec took her attention she had a good look at The Djinn again, it was a magnificent creature. She couldn''t help but smile at it.

"Of course I'll help protect him, this world is a dangerous place to be for a Djinn, but at the same time he'll thrive here. He'll be much more in tune with the magic and energy of these worlds then we will ever be."

The sheer attention of Alec alone seemed to lift the creatures spirits by tenfold, it was quite amazing to see. While she herself wouldn't trust Alec further then she could throw him, the Djinn seemed to trust Alec whole heartedly.

---------------------------------------------------

They had been walking down the beach for quite some time now when she suddenly spotted the cave and sprinted over to it.

That's when she noticed a tall man with flaring spiked red hair there, waiting by the cave. His green eyes matched her own, lined with kohl. There were matching tattooed diamonds under his eyes, adding to the dark look he had. Most noting was the long black coat he wore, seeming to float on the wind, hand tailored to his body it seemed. It fit like a glove. It fit him His hands were loose on his sides, as if they were itching to hold something there. He always was.

"Thought you'd never come, love" He drawled slowly, cocking his head to the side. His voice was languid, smooth, arrogant yet with a hint of mischief.

She stopped abrubtly. It was quite evident that not only the hair and eyes made them look alike, their clothing seemed to match too. Yet where Sisi's clothes were decorated with red swirls, his was just a simple black. He didn't need the red signs of fire, it became blatantly apparent as he lifted his hand. It burst into flames as a grin spread across his face. He didn't seem to move to attack though, he was just blatantly showing off.

Sisi shook her head and chuckled softly.

"Axel" She said in simple acknowledgement.

They stood as if they were facing each other off. There was a tension between the two that was tangible.

[Flynn Delta]

After a long and to Seifer annoying conversation, Flynn decide to shut up and except that a world had shattered and it's residents somehow survived. Now Flynn needed to figure out how to find his TARDIS and get out off this....Town.
Seifer and his gang had had enough of Flynn and left him, thinking him to be quite mad, Flynn would have followed them but, he was more concerned with locating his TARDIS, which something he would not do.

[The First Doctor]

The Meddler contented himself by picking bits of cooling glass off his umbrella as they followed the beach. By the time they turned inland, he had cleaned it off and tucked the umbrella back into one pocket. So far, the walk had been both pleasant and uneventful.

Well, except for having to bludgeon a few of the Heartless that had survived the explosion. The experience had been reminiscent of playing with pinatas, except that they moved. And, instead of candy, they seemed filled with little green and gold balls.

"What are these?" he asked, handling the orbs with a pair of tongs. The green orbs seemed to vanish when they came into contact with living flesh, and he wasn't quite prepared to risk whatever it was they would do. The gold spheres seemed rather more persistent. Still, caution seemed in order.

But, except for that, the walk had been uneventful. Just as he spotted a cave mouth, and was about to ask if that was the one they were looking for, Sisi broke into a run towards it.

"I believe she's answered my question before I asked it, Alec," he said.

He wasn't going to run, though. Leave that to the enthusiasms of youth. He was enjoying the walk, the fresh air, the palm trees...

"Sisi?" he asked, spotting the figure in the cave mouth. "I thought we were looking for a keyhole of some sort." He eyed the figure dubiously, noting the tension between his Niece and the redhead in the tight black dress. "Not some androgynous leather fetish rentboy."

[The 11th Doctor]

Christan stared up at the sky, gazing up at the never-ending blue expanse. Smoke wafted off of his body. Somewhere off in the distance, he heard a voice. "Did...Did that strange young man just blow himself up?"


Whoever it was walked off. A few minutes later, he slowly pulled himself up. He looked at his Vortex Manipulator. "dang!" All that was left of the time-traveling watch were a few shards of red-hot glass that proceeded to crumble to dust. Brushing off the loss of his family memento, he began to walk towards the sound of voices.

After walking down the beach for a few minutes, he came to a large cave. The three people he'd seen inside the strange machine earlier. They faced a strange ban with spiky red hair and black robes.

"...leather fetish rentboy." Said the oldest one, the man who'd remarked about Christan blowing himself up. It looked like there was tension in the air. But he didn't care. He wanted answers. and he wanted them NOW. He marched into the cave, planted himself in front of the one they called "The Meddler', and with a loud voice, proclaimed, "What the hell...is going on?"

[Alec Harrison]

Alec snickered at the Meddler's 'fetish rentboy' comment.
"Can you explain Materia better than Sisi can?" he requested.

He gazed up at the what he now named not-so-endearingly 'The Boy Who Boomed Himself.'
"Oi! Shut your mouth, eh? We're getting to the good part." he jeered.

"We don't have to tell you anything."

[The First Doctor]

The Meddler twitched as the strange young man approached the group, demanding to know "What the hell...is going on?"

"Gah! He reassembled himself!"

"Oi! Shut your mouth, eh? We're getting to the good part." Alec jeered. "We don't have to tell you anything."

"Alec!" the Meddler remonstrated, "Don't be rude to the natives, particularly ones with exotic abilities."

He turned to Christian and began to enunciate his words, slowly and carefully and loudly. "We!" he said, making an arm gesture designed to indicate the three gallifreyoids and the djinn, "Are visitors! From a-noth-er world!" Here he pointed at the sky.

"We!" again the arm gesture indicating the group, "Mean you!" He pointed at Christian. "No harm!"

"We!" and again, the arm gesture indicating the group. "Will help you!" He pointed at Christian again. "De-feat the heart-less!" And here he drew an X over each of his hearts in turn, and mimed antennae.

(OOC: Yes, he's doing that aggravating American tourist thing, where you assume everyone speaks English if you just speak slowly and loudly enough. And obviously, Christian has to be a native. He blew himself up and reformed. People from his universe just don't do that sort of thing.

Feel free to be mortified to be in his presence.)

[Sisilaya Vulmecura]

"Sisi?" he asked, spotting the figure in the cave mouth. "I thought we were looking for a keyhole of some sort." He eyed the figure dubiously, noting the tension between his Niece and the redhead in the tight black dress. "Not some androgynous leather fetish rentboy."

Her face twisted in a grin before she doubled over, laughing as she held her sides. Oh Robin.. dear old Robin. She sniggered as she turned back back to her uncle, giving him a grin. The redhead behind her looked far less then amused, fire running up the side of his arm as he placed his hands on his hips in discontent.

"OI I heard that! Who are you calling a rent boy, old man!" He yelled back from his spot by the cave. Even though the Meddler didn't seem to look past 35.

Sisi grinned and pinked a tear away from her eyes, sniggering softly as she turned to Robin and then back to the redhead who seemed to be in his late 20s.

"Axel, let me introduce my Uncle, Robin Goodfellow. Robin, this is Axel, a Nobody. Oh wait, I didn't explain what a Nobody is ye-" She blinked as she saw Robin had already had turned his back to them, talking to the other man behind him like an obnoxious tourist. She rolled her eyes. Axel had gotten up beside her, tilting his head as he buried his hands in his coat pockets.

"Telling him to got it memorized will be kind of pointless now, I take?" He drawled.

"Indeed" She quipped.

[The 11th Doctor]

We!" he said, making an arm gesture designed to indicate the three gallifreyoids and the djinn, "Are visitors! From a-noth-er world!" Here he pointed at the sky.

"We!" again the arm gesture indicating the group, "Mean you!" He pointed at Christian. "No harm!"

"We!" and again, the arm gesture indicating the group. "Will help you!" He pointed at Christian again. "De-feat the heart-less!" And here he drew an X over each of his hearts in turn, and mimed antennae.

Christan gazed at the other mans antics. Then after a minute or two, he compiled together all of the gibberish, and realized that the other man thought he was a native of...wherever they were.

"I'm no 'native', old man. I am Christan Leerwell, third descendant of Jonah Leerwell, top Preliminary advisor to Gavin Jarell, overseer of the south quadrant of the Gamma Forests." He smirked. Even though he knew the title was little more than being the boss's intern, he grinned. It still sounded official and important.

"Now, could someone please tell me where we are?" He walked up to the man with spiky red hair. "You, Gear or Piston or Axel, or whatever, tell me what's going on."

[The First Doctor]

"I'm no 'native', old man. I am Christan Leerwell, third descendant of Jonah Leerwell, top Preliminary advisor to Gavin Jarell, overseer of the south quadrant of the Gamma Forests." He smirked.

"Old man!" the Meddler sounded outraged. "Old man! I'm barely over nine hundred, thank you very much!"

He gestured at Alec and Sisilaya - who was now talking to leather fetish man - for support. "Help me out here, Alec. Nine hundred isn't old. I mean, life doesn't even really start until your first millennium, am I right?"

"Now, could someone please tell me where we are?" He walked up to the man with spiky red hair. "You, Gear or Piston or Axel, or whatever, tell me what's going on."

"Quite simple," the Meddler said, following him. "We are in a alternate - not parallel - universe, some rather different universal constants. I find that quite exciting, by the way. We are also on a beach, looking at a cave. The cave apparently contains a male prostitute."

"Axel, let me introduce my Uncle, Robin Goodfellow. Robin, this is Axel, a Nobody. Oh wait, I didn't explain what a Nobody is ye-" She blinked as she saw Robin had already had turned his back to them, talking to the other man behind him like an obnoxious tourist. She rolled her eyes. Axel had gotten up beside her, tilting his head as he buried his hands in his coat pockets.

"Telling him to got it memorized will be kind of pointless now, I take?" He drawled.

"Indeed" She quipped.

"No, no," the Meddler remarked, turning. "I have an excellent memory. Sisi was just saying that you are nobody in particular, right?"

[Alec Harrison]

"I'm no 'native', old man. I am Christan Leerwell, third descendant of Jonah Leerwell, top Preliminary advisor to Gavin Jarell, overseer of the south quadrant of the Gamma Forests." He smirked.

"Old man!" the Meddler sounded outraged. "Old man! I'm barely over nine hundred, thank you very much!"

He gestured at Alec for support. "Help me out here, Alec. Nine hundred isn't old. I mean, life doesn't even really start until your first millennium, am I right?"

Alec was all too happy to support him.
"Well, that technically means you're a native...of the Gamma Forests, and as we see here they have invented a mindset, culture, and stupidity of their own." There is something civilized, well-knowledgable people never do. It usually isn't a good idea, check that, you never insult a Timelord's age. Never. "I have lived for one thousand three hundred and fifty years- and yes Sisi, I know that's creepy." he said, pointing behind him at the half-Sidhe.

He raised an eyebrow.
"So whatever petty title you may have held at that backwater little excuse for a planet means nothing to us."

The Timelord stepped forward, Materia clutched tightly in his hand.
"Pretty much... Beat it."

[Blue]

“Of course I’ll help protect him,” the woman said, smiling at him. Blue wagged his tail, smiling as much as a dog could. She had also been watching him, but it didn’t make him as uncomfortable as the other man had. He had looked as though he wanted to dissect the Djinn. She was looking at him as though someone would the Mona Lisa. He liked feeling like a pretty picture rather than a lab rat. “This world is a dangerous place to be for a Djinn, but at the same he’ll thrive here. He’ll be much more in tune with the magic and energy of these worlds than we’ll ever be.”

The Djinn looked down at his paws, following as the group made their way down the beach. Blue swished his tail silently as the two red-heads began to talk to each other. It seemed to go all fine and dandy until the Meddler decided to call him a leather fetish rent-boy (Blue made a mental note to ask Alec about what that meant later), and then the young kid called him old. And then there was something about Axel-who-was-a-nobody. Blue blinked, uncertain about what was even going on anymore. The Djinn yawned and leaned against Alec.

“Help me out here, Alec,” said the ‘old man’, pleading with Blue’s master. “Nine hundred isn’t old. I mean, life doesn’t even really start until your first millennium, am I right?”

“Nine hundred years is very young to my species. I’m well over nine hundred thousand, and I am still young,” the Djinn said, switching to his human form. He stood and brushed the sand off his clothes languidly.

“We are in an alternate – not parallel – universe, some rather different universal constants. I find that quite exciting, by the way. We are also on a beach, looking at a cave. The cave apparently contains a male prostitute.”[/i]

“What’s a prostitute, Alec?” the Djinn asked, nudging his master gently. “Oh, and what is ‘fetish’ and a ‘rent-boy’?”[/size][/font]

[Sisilaya Vulmecura]

Sisi was gob smacked by the blatant rudeness of all of them, well, save the Djinn. She turned to Axel, the amusement was leaving his eyes, making place for something very firey. She knew what was coming and made a sidestep gracefully, giving the red haired man space to move. They had to bloody coming, she did not defend stupidity.

His hands exploded in yellow flames and from the flames large spinning metal wheels materialised next to his palms. Red, pointy and definitely lethal. Giant shuriken. He snatched them out of the air and into his hands after they fully materialised, the mad spinning abruptly stopping as he clutched the handles in his fists. The movement alone showed mastered fighting skills with them, not many could pull off grabbing a spinning wheel from mid air without breaking their fingers in the momentum.

The red nobody made a spin and raked one of the wheels in a line across the sand in a single slice, straight for the other three persons there. From the slice exploded a wall of flames, raging across the three persons, zinging at their clothes and hair, draining some their core energy.

When the flames went past she looked at the trio, her hand son her hips. The Meddlers coat was still slightly smouldering. She gave them her best reprimanding look as she made her way towards the Djinn. Crouching next to the dog and petting it gently, her hands glowing golden as her healing energy went back into the Djinn, healing the bit of damage it had done. Scratching Blue behind the ears gently.

"I do not defend stupidity, next time think before you call someone a rentboy, a fetish or a prostitute." She said lowly to the others, continuing to pet the Djinn gently.

"Blue here really had no idea what was going on, but all of you can suffer till we get some cure materia. Next time think before you insult a stranger in this world." She gave Robin specially a good glare.

When she got back up again she made her way back towards Axel, giving him an apologetic look.

"No, no," the Meddler remarked, turning. "I have an excellent memory. Sisi was just saying that you are nobody in particular, right?"

She growled softly and rolled her eyes, oh how she wanted to whack the man over the head sometimes. Axel cut her short this time.

"I do not have time for this nonsense" He growled, clearly still pissed off for being called a rent boy. "I needed to talk to you Sisi. I was the one that transported the Keyhole to wherever close you were. I never thought you'll pull along these runts though.." He grunted as his green eyes trailed to the other three before turning back to her "You were one of the few that interacted with the keyblade bearers. The keyholes have been opening and not even Organisation XIII has any idea what's exactly going on. There are new heartless that don't even respond to our new control. Someone has been experimenting again and it''s not Xemnas."

A small flame burst into existence right before her eyes, she just barely in time managed to catch the small red orb falling from it. She knew red materia well and widened her eyes at Axel. Summon materia.

"I need you to battle down these heartless as much as you can, I remember how.. efficient you were last time. Close the keyholes if you can, I see you have a sonic screwdriver with your lot" His head nodded towards the others.

She blinked again, how did he know they had a sonic screwdriver? How did he even know what a sonic screwdriver was? She saw him turn back to the others, yelling.

"The name is AXEL, got it memorized?" He said as he tapped his temples with leather clad fingers.

And then, a sort of black dome appeared around his body and he slid back into it, disappearing with the darkness as it faded away. Only his footsteps in the sand were left.

She turned back to the others, her hands on her hips again. She sighed in agitation.

"A Nobody, is a person who lost their heart to the darkness. Yet, if one's personality is so strong the body can be willed to remain instead of disintegrate. What is left is an empty shell, a person without a heart because that heart has been turned into a heartless, what is left is a Nobody. And that's what he was." She thumbed towards the empty spot where the man in the black coat was standing before he disappeared. She sighed.

"The man has no heart, no conscience. Or at least that''s what they say. Some of the Nobodies have banded together, calling themselves Organisation XIII, there are 13 of them. They are bad news, one of the most powerful enemies we have. The only one that is remotely negotiable with is Axel."

"And you just ruined it by calling him a prostitute!" She snapped.

[The First Doctor]

In his travels, the Meddler had come across a paired weapon set - in the Middle Kingdom, if he remembered correctly - called "wind-fire wheels."

He had not expected to see something similar that made reality out of a fanciful metaphor.

The leatherboy produced large shuriken out of nowhere and, before he could find time to ask "now, how did you do that?", they were hurtling his way and bursting into flames. Out of sheer reflex, he grabbed hold of time and twisted, accelerating his reactions in comparison to the rest of the world.

Well, that was the plan, anyway. The reality was that time, in this alien reality, resisted him and his efforts. Oh, it slowed. A little. But nowhere near enough.

The burning shuriken seemed to explode, hurling him to his feet. The next few minutes were lost to swatting out flames on his clothing. The source of the exotic exothermic reaction was talking to Sisi, angrily. She seemed to be in no danger at present, so the anger was most likely directed at him.

"I probably deserved that," he said, dusting himself off as he stood up.

"The name is AXEL, got it memorized?" He said as he tapped his temples with leather clad fingers

"Yes, of course I do," the Meddler murmured, "I have an excellent memory for names and faces."

And then, a sort of black dome appeared around his body and he slid back into it, disappearing with the darkness as it faded away. Only his footsteps in the sand were left.

He brushed some more char and soot from his clothes, noting with some interest that the pyrotechnic display had produced no more than first degree burns to his skin. "Inefficiencies in the reaction?" he mused aloud, "Or holding back? Best to assume holding back, I believe."

She turned back to the others, her hands on her hips again. She sighed in agitation.

"A Nobody, is a person who lost their heart to the darkness. Yet, if one's personality is so strong the body can be willed to remain instead of disintegrate. What is left is an empty shell, a person without a heart because that heart has been turned into a heartless, what is left is a Nobody. And that's what he was." She thumbed towards the empty spot where the man in the black coat was standing before he disappeared. She sighed.

"The man has no heart, no conscience. Or at least that''s what they say. Some of the Nobodies have banded together, calling themselves Organisation XIII, there are 13 of them. They are bad news, one of the most powerful enemies we have. The only one that is remotely negotiable with is Axel."

"And you just ruined it by calling him a prostitute!" She snapped.

"And that was rather rude of me, yes," he agreed. "On the other hand, it's probably for the best that he left with a pyrokinetic display and a fit of pique."

He held up a finger, motioning for silence. "Think about it: from what you said, he is a being composed of nothing but the dark - the evil - aspects of a human mind, paired with a resolve to survive at all costs. And he is the most human of this 'organization' that seeks to control - and, I would assume, create - more of these Heartless. Which are nothing but the evil aspects of the human psyche as well."

He stared at the spot where the... where AXEL had stood. "So, yes. I was duly rebuked for the same behavior I rebuked Alec for. But, somehow, I suspect that failure to deal with the - in this case, literal - devil has not harmed us in the slightest."