PUBLISHED: September ???, 2013
EDITED: January 12, 2017
The original dedication for this chapter went to OblivionedEternity, for correctly answering the trivia question at the end of the last chapter. But since then she has abandoned her account :(
So, dedication for this chapter goes to uwishuweremah, who recently asked for a dedication and is my self-proclaimed biggest fan. Thank you so much for your support, uwishuweremah! <3
RECAP:
- Axel kissed Raxmi to stop Roxas from telling her that he likes her. Roxas accuses Axel of being a selfish friend and leaves. Raxmi agrees with Roxas, and is also mad that Axel made her first kiss meaningless.
- Raxmi talked to Roxas privately and they agreed to still be friends. Axel apologised to Roxas for being a poor friend.
- Axel apologised to Raxmi for kissing her the way he did. He told her a bit about his past. They admitted that they like each other and kissed.
- Roxas saw Axel and Raxmi kissing. He still likes Raxmi but put aside his feelings for her happiness.
STORY STARTS:
Roxas's P.O.V.
I returned to the Castle That Never Was, leaving Axel and Raxmi at the Clock Tower in Twilight Town. The last thing I wanted was to socialize right now. But, of course, nothing was going my way today. "Roxas," a sombre voice called out.
I tensed slightly when I caught sight of Saïx beckoning me over. 'What does he want?' I wondered. 'I already finished my mission for today.' "Yes, Saïx?" I asked politely as I approached him.
He seemed to be analyzing me for a moment. The urge to avert my gaze was overwhelming, but that would draw his suspicion. He finally broke the silence that he himself had initiated. "Do you have any idea of Axel's whereabouts now?" he questioned.
"Uh..." Obviously, telling the truth and endangering Raxmi was not an option. The wheels in my head started turning as I hurriedly decided to find them again and warn them before Saïx was the wiser. "He..he said he was going to another world," I responded. "Shall I get him for you?"
The blue-haired Nobody shook his head with a sigh. "I highly doubt that he would return if you informed him that him I sent you," he said. "I shall have to retrieve him myself. Which world has he gone to?"
"...Twilight Town. I think he mentioned the Sandlot." It was the farthest area in town from the Station Plaza that I knew of. Now Saix would have to search throughout Twilight Town for Axel, which would buy him and Raxmi some time. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment to rid myself of the image of them together, liplocked on the tower. 'Why him? Why not me? Why couldn't it be me?' I screamed in my head.
Saix must have noticed the troubled look on my face. "Is something the matter, Number XIII?" he asked, simultaneously extending his arm to make a Corridor of Darkness. His question was of concern, yet his voice was dripping with disinterest.
"It's just a headache," I muttered.
He hummed, seeming satisfied with my answer, and waved me off. "You may rest now, since you are done for the day. The Superior requires you to complete a difficult mission tomorrow."
"Thanks for the heads up," I replied. Then my blood ran cold. "Saix!" I called out quickly, stopping him just as he was about to leave. "Why are you searching for Axel? Hasn't he already finished his mission for today?"
Saïx scowled, seeming irritated at being reminded of the trouble afoot. "A prisoner has escaped. We need Axel back at the base in case he is confronted with the subject. I am bringing Number VI with me to find the prisoner again. It is of no concern for you."
I stood frozen for a moment, and Saix took that chance to leave. 'Wake up!' I shook myself to snap out of it and made a Corridor of my own, headed back to the Clock Tower. There was no doubt that Saix was searching for Axel in order to interrogate him about Raxmi. I referred to think about what would happen to the two of them if Saix found them together the way I'd left them. Axel wouldn't be able to hit on her anymore, that was for sure, but that would be the only positive outcome in a swarm of negatives.
Raxmi's P.O.V.
The sun was at its lowest point by now, which meant that it was essentially 'night-time' for the Twilight Town. Of course, as the name suggests, night-time for the town was more of twilight than darkness. This resulted in a hazy blue shadow being cast over the entire city, instead of actually being subjected to a night sky. Because the sun couldn't completely set, it was nestled comfortably in the horizon, half submerged beyond our view and half peeking over the skyline, creating a halo of deep orange gradient into the twilight blue. Clay-coloured paths and walls of the buildings that lined the streets of the town radiated softly in the muted light. Tourists always commented on how beautiful and charming this unique night-time look was, but it was no longer impressive to the residents of the town. dull after a while. In fact, the faint lighting that was neither light nor dark tended to make citizens' vision hazier – one of the reasons why I needed glasses for distance.
"So where are we going, babe?" Axel questioned as I navigated our way through winding alleys. After the kiss – or should I say 'kisses,' it went on for a while – I decided that I had to show him something important to me. It was better to do it sooner that later, I reasoned. I really didn't want to run the risk of scaring him away later in this confusingly undefined relationship. It would be better to see if he became spooked and avoided me now, rather that to wait until after we became more attached. I was leading the way while we walked, tugging him along my the hand, well-accustomed to the route.
"Stop calling me babe," I retorted. Never would I admit that a small part of me enjoyed it.
Axel smirked, lengthening his strides until he was walking alongside me. "Love? Sexy? "Honeyblossom?" he suggested jokingly.
"I...no!"
He chuckled and gave my hand a small squeeze. "I like this time of day here," he commented, taking in the scenery around him.
I wrinkled my nose at his statement. "It's nice, but I wish we could have a normal night-time, like Sunset Terrance does. Neither of us get a proper daytime, but we learnt in school that they get ordinary darkness at night, in the winter and stuff."
"So you've never seen the night sky before?"
Shaking my head, I answered, "Roxas showed me Kingdom Hearts earlier today. That was the first time I'd seen anything like it.
"Hmm..." A comfortable silence for a while as we walked out of the back alleys. Now we were just past the Sandlot, in another shopping district. The worn-down wooden stalls with their colourfully striped roofs were empty, and the area was devoid of people. At this time of the day, the people of Twilight Town were either tucked away in their homes, or spending their time in the 'night' market in Market Square. "Hey, sugarblossom. You still haven't told me where we're going," he noted.
I glared at him in response to the ridiculous nickname, which merely made him laugh. "What now? Why do you always laugh at me?" I complained.
He pokedmy cheek gently with his finger. "You're too adorable to glare," he explained, with a smirk. "It just makes you look cuter."
"Oh, that's nice, just casually say that I look like a child," I laughed, whacking away his hand.
Without any warning, Axel grabbed me by my waist and spun me around. "Would I do this to you if you looked like a child?" he queried teasingly, pulling my body close to him, his lips brushing against mine as he spoke.
"...W-who knows, you could be a pedophile," I stammered, unsure of how to respond. I'd never had a relationship with such a forward guy before. Well, I'd never had a relationship, period. Now I know that the witty and flirty side of things doesn't come automatically.
Thankfully, Axel found my awkwardness amusing. He pulled back slightly and let out a laugh without letting go of me. "Man, you sure know how to ruin the mood, don't you? What a killjoy." With the both of us still chuckling, he tilted my head up lightly and leaned down to kiss me.
Just then, a hushed whoosh reached our ears. The noise was almost imperceptible, coming from behind us. I paid no heed to it, but it was enough for Axel to withdraw sharply. His eyes narrowed immediately at what he saw, and he pushed himself in front of me without hesitation, shielding me from the person that had appeared.
"Run."
"What?" I whispered back.
"Run!" he repeated, raising his volume but still hushed. "You need to get out of here!"
"Axel, what's going o-" With him blocking my view, I was unable to make out the person's face. Glimpses of their attire caught my eye, however, and they made my blood run cold. A black glove, a long zipper, the bottom half of the tell-tale coat. The person was definitely from Organization XIII.
The realization of the threat at hand convinced me to obey Axel's command, but my initial hesitation had apparently made him change his mind. He made a sound of exasperation and muttered, "I can't fight him off." A flick of his wrist swiftly summoned a Corridor of Darkness, and he then grabbed me by the waist again. This wasn't to initiate another make-out session, though; no, this was to escape from whoever this Organization member was. We stumbled through the Corridor with the echo of the Nobody yelling out Axel's name in frustration behind us.
Barely a second passed before we landed on the other side. The dimly-lit tunnels of the town's Underground Concourse now surrounded us, in the same area where I had been confronted by Xigbar a few weeks ago. "Who was that?" I asked, releasing my grip of Axel's skinny torso. I hadn't even realized that I'd grabbed onto him.
Axel took a moment to respond while he scanned the area, just in case the Organization member had somehow followed us here. When he was sure of our safety, he let out a ragged sigh. "It was Saix," he stated. He began walking briskly through the tunnels, pulling me along by the hand. We would be sitting ducks if we just stood around. "He must be hunting for you. Whatever you said to Xemnas about not knowing about the Organization will be useless now, since Saix saw us together."
"Sorry..." I was unsure of what to say. Everything had happened so quickly that my mind was in a whirl trying to process what just happened.
He grinned at me and gave my hand a comfortingly squeeze. "Hey, what're you apologizing for? It's not your fault, Raxmi. Besides, we can probably lose Saix in here. As far as I know, he almost never comes to Twilight Town. He should know little to nothing about this area."
I nodded, slowly beginning to feel calmer. "So...where are we going?"
"Wherever fate leads us," Axel replied with grandeur. Apparently, he was no longer perturbed by the fact that one of the most powerful men in the Organization was hunting us down, probably to capture me again. Catching sight of my expression of disbelief, he chuckled a little. "Relax, I'm just kidding. We should head back to the Clock Tower."
"Are you sure?"
"Think about it: it would've been the first place he'd have looked, so logically he won't go back there."
The dimly lamps that were struggling to provide sufficient lighting began flickering violently before I could respond. "Oh, no..." I grabbed the redhead's arm and froze in my tracks.
He laughed in amusement at my fear. "Seen too many horror movies, Raxmi?" he mocked me.
"This is exactly what happens just before people start getting murdered, Axel!" I snapped. The usually amiable-looking lamps, which now seemed like a prop from The Conjuring, began to cease their abnormal behaviour. But within seconds the flickering started up again, making me cling to him tighter.
Clasping my hand securely in his, his smirk only grew wider. "As delightful as this situation is for me right now," he said, referring to the fact that I was leached onto him, "you don't have to be scared. This kid of thing happens all the time in tunnels like these, right?"
"Not here, they don't! They've n-never done this before." I stammered as I made direct eye contact with one of the torches. That was a poor decision; the sudden bursts of light causing me to squeeze my sensitive eyes shut.
Axel frowned slightly, but still pulled me along to start walking again. "C'mon, Raxmi, it's probably just some circuit mishap. Besides," he added, "you don't have to worry. You're safe with me around. Got it memorized?"
"I really don't think –"
Zap!
The lamps gave one final burst of light before fizzling out completely.
A new surge of fear washed over me now that we were completely cloaked in darkness. "Sit tight, I'll sort this out," Axel reassured me. To my horror, he let go of my hand and pried himself away from me.
"W-what are you doing?" I asked worriedly, trying not to let my panic be too evident.
Instead of a reply, I heard a muffled thud, and then silence. "A-Axel?" I stuttered. Waving my hands around tentatively and taking feeble steps forward, my breath hitched in my chest when I felt nothing but dank, cold air that chilled me to the bone. "Stop fooling around, Axel," I pleaded softly. My own voice sounded overly loud and out of place, startling myself. The tunnels, which had always been a comfort to me, were now terrifying.
The loss of my precious vision must've heightened my other senses. Under no other circumstance would I have been able to hear the faint, almost imperceptible tap-tap-tap of footsteps that slowly approached me. The echoing thumps of my heartbeat roared in my ears, flooding my body with adrenaline and drowning out any intelligible or rational thoughts. Completely tensed up and paralyzed to the core, I was unable to prepare myself for whatever attack the approaching being would inflict upon me.
"Miss me?"
A smooth, confident voice rang out, making me literally jump a few inches of the ground. Without warning, the lamps bloomed back into life. However, they were now illuminated by an unearthly, steady fire.
Once my miniature heart attack ceased, my temporarily unresponsive brain began functioning again, registering the voice that had spoken. "You bastard!" I cried out to the man by my side, clutching my chest in relief over the fact that I was still alive.
"What, did you think I was a serial killer?" Axel grinned, wrapping his arm around me securely.
"You...I...argh!" I shoved him away in anger.
He let out a little laugh and held up his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry, babe, I just could not resist."
When my attempt to glare at him failed – am I really not that threatening? – he patted my head consolingly. "There, there, Raxmi. The big bad monsters won't hurt you now."
"Mean. You are mean."
He laced his fingers with mine, just as he had before his horribly terrifying prank. "C'mon, you have to admit, your reaction was hilarious," he chuckled as we began to walk again.
"How would you know?" I pouted. "You couldn't even see me!"
Tapping his temple, his smile oozed self-confidence. "20/20 vision right here, got it memorized?" he winked. "Nothing could escape my sight."
I smiled a little at his bold attitude, but then frowned. "I thought you told me once that you're short-sighted like me? That things far away are a little blurry."
His smile faltered for only a mere second; if it weren't for the adrenaline that still hadn't died done, I most likely wouldn't have noticed such a tiny slip. "I kinda..." he trailed off.
"'You kinda...'?"
"...made it up."
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "Why would you do that?"
He scowled in embarrassment and turned his face away, probably to hide the blush that was beginning to tinge his cheeks. "...I wanted you to feel like we had more in common..." he said sheepishly.
I had to fight the urge to giggle at his unusual awkwardness. "Aw, Axel, you didn't have to –" A noise made me freeze in my tracks. 'What that...a groan?'
Axel glanced up at the ceilings of the tunnels, as if the source of the sound was from up there. "Man, we must be getting close to the Haunted Woods," he joked.
I let go of his hand and scanned the area. There was no denying that I was a complete and utter wuss, but at least I knew the difference between a human and a ghost. Kudos to Seifer for terrifying me with countless mind-scarring pranks and horror movies over the years. "Whoa there, what are you doing?" Axel asked, eyeing me carefully as I moved towards where I believed the sound had come from.
"It might be a homeless person," I hushed him, making my way farther forward when I heard another groan.
He grabbed my wrist and dragged me back. "Don't be ridiculous. You can't just go around helping any homeless people you find."
His rough handling of me was surprising. I shook his wrist off, narrowing my eyes at him. "It's none of your business who I help, Axel. And besides, it's that kind of reasoning that winds up having homeless people thinking that no one's there for them."
"Whatever." What had gotten into him? "But in case you've forgotten, we have Saix and Zexion chasing us down. Having a drunkard homeless guy will just slow us down."
"You weren't worried about that befo..." I trailed off, confused by what he'd just said. "...Zexion? Wasn't it only Saix we saw?"
"Raxmi!"
I was looking directly at Axel.
I heard his voice calling my name.
But he hadn't opened his mouth.
"C'mon, let's go," Axel muttered. But I had already torn my gaze away from him to the place where I'd heard the voice. The light from the torches was already making me much bolder that when the blackout had occurred. A small movement in the corner of my eye caught my eye. It was strange. The air was shimmering.
"Raxmi!" The dismembered voice rang out again. I was sure it belonged to Axel. Yet it was definitely coming from the shimmery air, and the Nobody was still standing near me.
"We have to get out of here, Raxmi!" Axel said, more loudly this time.
He grabbed me again and forcefully yanked me backwards just as my hand made contact with the patch of shimmering air. The air made an unnatural zing and reverted back to normal. It left behind a familiar, red-headed male who stumbled forward.
He barely took a second to regain his balance before lunging forward at me and Axel.
* * *
??? P.O.V.
He had been half-awake up until now; he had insisted of repairing some old machine late last night. He had asked me to find information about our target. I had been reeling off the data that I'd learned, and the parental information had seemed to be the least important. But now he was staring at me with full attention. "What did you just say?" he demanded, alert.
"...Raxmi's mother is Sukara Taylor?"
He let out a long breath and leaned back in his chair. His face appeared to be stunned. "Unbelievable..."
"Is this Sukara person important?" I asked, sitting down opposite him. The dim lighting of the room that we were in was eradicated by the blinking screens around us that emitted a harsh, blue light. As per usual, he was too cheap to spend munny on the heating in this damn place – all our savings were wasted on electronics. The bone-chilling air only served to amplify the room's suffocating atmosphere, despite its spacious area.
As much I enjoy spending time with him, this room gave me headaches.
"'Someone important'? Have you learnt nothing?" he snapped impatiently, shuffling through his papers and cursing. "Don't you realize how critical this makes her?"
I clenched my teeth in irritation, but didn't retaliate. He was in a frenzied state right now, scanning through his precious papers for whatever information he needed. Arguing that he had never mentioned this 'Sukara Taylor' person before would serve no purpose.
Soon enough, he seemed to have found what he was looking for. He glanced up at me and sighed, rubbing his temples. "I haven't told you, I know," he admitted, and I knew that was as much as I would receive in terms of an apology. He then glanced down at the papers in his hands before handing them to me. The title heading the first page caught my eye immediately:
Profile: Sukara Taylor
I hated reading documents on any regular today, but now my sore eyes made it worse, the words on the paper forming a jumbled, confused mess in my brain as I tried to process what I was reading. "Care to explain?" I asked tiredly, handing them back to him. It had been a long day for me - running around all day, digging up information, going anywhere and everywhere in Twilight Town to find out what I could about this girl he was suddenly obsessed with. Apparently, I had stumbled upon something important.
He accepted the papers I returned to him and opened his mouth, no doubt to begin a lengthy, detailed explanation that I knew would eventually make my head spin more. "Sukara Taylor. She is..."
* * *
Third Person P.O.V.
Xemnas stared at Xigbar, a hint of surprise evident on his otherwise blank expression. "Did I hear you correctly?" he enquired, knowing full well what he'd said.
Xigbar nodded and leaned back in his chair, extremely pleased with his recon skills. "Yup, that's right boss. That little brat is Sukara Taylor's daughter."
"...Are you-?"
"-Certain? Pfft! Get real, Boss. You wouldn't catch me joking around about that chick. Me and Zexion did the recon on her and found it out together. And you know the info is solid if Zexion's the one doing the searching."
Xemnas closed his eyes briefly before opening them again, a satisfied look glinting his normally empty, expressionless amber eyes. "Xigbar...this could be very useful. Very useful, indeed."
* * *
Raxmi's P.O.V.
'What is going on?'
I already knew the answer to my own question as I dodged out of the way of the fighting males. After all, 'Axel' had transformed as soon as the entrapped man stumbled out of whatever spell had been cast on the air.
Now, 'Axel' – the one that had been by my side after the lights turned back on – had morphed into the same Nobody that had tricked me into the Castle Dungeons. 'Number VI. Zexion,' I remembered. The man who had been entrapped by Zexion's spell, and who was now attacking with a fury of fire, was none other than the real Axel. His hair was dishevelled and his black cloak was rumpled. As for his face, an angry red mark that was sure to bruise later was imprinted above his left temple, indicating that he had been knocked out.
This was all that I could process in my mind before a cage of fire rose out of the ground, confining me a few meters away from the action. I was alarmed but didn't panic; Axel had cast this to protecting me from the fight. "You think you can get her again, buddy?" Axel growled, unleashing another round of attacks on Zexion. Fuelled by pure fury, his chakrams spun and danced around in movements that were too fast for my eyes to follow, illuminated by the deathly flames of fire that poured out of Axel's being. The flames of my cage were different, however; I felt no heat near them, and they were safe to touch.
Cleary unnerved but attempting to hide it, Zexion barely managed to keep up with Axel's wrathful movements. Instead of attempting to fight back, he dodged and parried with magic, defending himself for his life. Axel flung fire balls; Zexion avoided them only to be met by a wave of flames from behind that broke through his dark shields. Axel lunged at the steel-haired Nobody's midriff with his Chakrams; Zexion deflected with a burst of reflective magic and left himself open to be slashed at his legs, shredding the bottom half of his coat. Axel raised his arms and the ground erupted into a coating of wickedly hot embers; Zexion levitated himself and extinguished the burning floor with water magic, which only created a relentless cloud of smoke that filled his lungs.
The merciless assaults didn't take long to have a n effect. Zexion finally transported himself a safer distance away from Axel, unable to maintain his defence. Scorch marks zig-zagged and criss-crossed in a bizarre fashion across his previously pristine coat. The wild movements of Axel's chakrams and rendered the bottom half of his cloak into a disarray of seared ribbons. Violently red first-degree burns decorated the skin that was exposed. Coughing and hacking, he gasped for breath as he struggled for precious oxygen. Axel had caught him off-guard; this was the result. Zexion was obviously used to manipulating battles and opponents to his advantage, not this savage array of unconventional advances.
"Un...unusually rough...aren't you...Axel?" he managed to let out, his voice raspy and breathless.
"What can you expect?" Axel commented dryly, still gripping his chakrams in a deathly grip. He made one disappear for a moment so that he could snap his fingers. As a result, the cage of fire that surrounded me vanished into thin air before I could even blink. "This is the second time you've tried to kidnap Raxmi. And surely you can't expect me to greet you with open arms after you tried to kill me last time we fought."
Zexion laughed half-heartedly, which only brought on another rounds of hoarse coughs. "'Tried to kill you'?" he repeated scornfully. "I believe you are confused, Axel. On the contrary, was it not you who tried to kill me in Castle Oblivion with Vexen's replica?"
Axel scoffed, pent-up anger still evident on his face. "Surely you can't expect me to have forgotten what happened in the dungeons?"
"Axel, I do not know what you're –"
Slam! Axel pinned him against the wall, his remaining chakram digging into Zexion's cloak. "You know what?" he threatened smoothly. He leaned further into his weapon as he spoke, making little specks of blood to form on Zexion's neck. "I'd be interested to here just one good reason why I shouldn't finish what I started in Castle Oblivion."
"Axel, don't!" I shouted, making Axel freeze. His head turned slightly at the sound of my voice. "Can't you see? He doesn't know what you're talking about," I pointed out, unsure of why I was even standing up for this Zexion person.
My words made him pause for a moment to take a closer look at Zexion's face. It was covered by a mask of collection and coolness. Underneath the mask was confusion and fear. Fear for his life.
"I swear," he repeated, his trembling voice betraying his indifferent expression, "I do not know what you are speaking of. Xemnas had ordered me to capture Raxmi and keep her in the dungeon, that is all. After I revealed my identity to her, I did not return to the cells until after it was discovered that she had escaped."
The fire elemental searched the illusionist's face for any traces of falsehood. Knowing that he still need to convince him further, Zexion let his mask slip off, showing his desparation. "I-I can help you, Axel. I can say that I didn't find you. I can turn a blind eye. Just...please. Don't."
A plea for life was enough for Axel to release his fellow Nobody. Zexion collapsed on the floor in a heap, weakened by all the events. Axel was by my side in an instant. "Did he hurt you?" he asked gently, scanning my face and body for injuries.
"No. No, he didn't," I confirmed. "I'm fine, Axel." I made a mental note to ask him about this Castle Oblivion place later.
He gazed at my face to make sure that I was speaking truthfully before smiling and stroking my hair. Then, turning back to Zexion, who had just about recovered, he questioned him again. "If it wasn't you down there that tried to kill me, then who was it?" Axel asked him, keeping a steady arm around my shoulders in case the other male attempted to attack.
"...I do not know," he repeated.
"He had your powers," Axel pointed out, narrowing his eyes. "He replicated a Keyblade, and then he replicated my chakrams."
Zexion's eyes widened in shock. "But that's impossible. Even I cannot replicate a Keyblade. If the person you fought indeed used one, then they must have been a legitimate wielder. There is no way for somebody to replicate one that could function as the original. Why do you think Vexen is so obsessed with Roxas and Xion? He has been trying to figure out a way to copy their weapons in a realistic manner."
'Vexen.' The name rang a bell in my mind. A memory sprung to my mind: on the day that Axel met me for a second job, he had brought Demyx with him instead of Roxas, saying that the younger one was occupied by Vexen. I frowned. "So the person that Axel fought had to have been a Keyblade wielder?" I asked.
"It appears that is so," Zexion agreed.
"It couldn't have been Roxas or Xion," Axel stated defensively before anyone suggested it. "They wouldn't...they'd never fight me like that, surely."
"You said that the person replicated your chakrams," Zexion mused. "Our youngest members have only just learned to master their own weapons; I highly doubt that they have gained the power to efficiently replicate and wield others."
Axel nodded. "Sora's M.I.A., so it can't be him. Besides, that kid is determined but he wouldn't turn lethal for no reason."
"Perhaps it was Riku," Zexion suggested, frowning at the thought. "But even that seems unlikely. He has been avoiding the Organization. I cannot think of a reason for him to have been there in the first place." I tried my best to keep up with the conversation. Now they were throwing out names that I hadn't even heard before.
"There could be other wielders out there that we don't know about. Seems like everyone has a keyblade these days."
Zexion was about to respond, but then he cut himself off. He glanced around before closing his eyes, bringing his hand to his nose. "Saix is approaching," he informed us, opening his eyes. "I can smell him."
"Smell him...?" I repeated, confused.
"It's one of his crazy abilities," Axel told me. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small vial of green liquid, then tossed it to Zexion. "Here. This'll keep you intact until you get your hands on an elixir."
He eagerly downed it in one gulp. The various burns quickly faded away, and the scattered wounds on his neck formed by Axel's death threat also healed. Nodding his thanks, he formed a Corridor of Darkness for himself. "You two better get out of here. If my estimate is right, Saix should be here in about ten minutes."
Once Zexion had departed, I focused my attention on Axel. "Are you okay?" I asked him in concern.
"Just peachy," he replied, chuckling ruefully. "C'mon, let's ditch this place. Guess you were right about your horror-movie kidnapping theory after all."
I smiled triumphantly, then made my suggestion hesitantly. I had wanted to take him somewhere else first, but this detour might be a better idea. "Can we go to Seifer's house?"
"Seifer?" Axel repeated his name with distaste.
"If I tell him you're not a threat, he'll understand." 'I hope,' I added in my mind.
Axel sighed, clearly not please with the idea, but made a Corridor presumably leading to Seifer's house anyway. "Come, milady, pray escape with your noble knight from this treacherous vale of war," he invited grandly.
"Because you're the very definition of nobility," I laughed, taking his hand. Together, we both walked into the Corridor. It closed up behind us, leaving no trace that we were ever there.
A/N: I'MBACKI'MBACKI'MBACKI'MBACKI'MBACKI'MBACKI'MBACKI'MBAAAAACK! ...Well, technically I was never gone...what I mean is, I'M BACK WITH THIS STORY! :D
*dodges rocks and pitchforks*
From the bottom of my heart, I am so, so, so, immeasurably sorry. I never intended to make you all wait so long for an update. Only recently I looked at the dates of this story – I could've sworn I'd posted in July – and I saw that it was dated late May! Say whaaaa? I've kept you waiting for FOUR MONTHS?!?!
Apart from not keeping track of time (one of my good friends just yelled at me over Viber a few hours ago for having amnesia and keeping you waiting xD), I could give you a whole LIST of reasons for why I've taken so long. But that would take far too long, and the last thing you guys need is my whining to 'brighten' your day. Although, I can give you one of the smaller reasons...
*every time I turned my laptop on to start writing chapter*
Mum: What are you doing? Are you doing a report for chemistry?
Me: No...
Mum: Are you finishing your book report?
Me: No...
Mum: Are you doing research?
Me: No...
Mum: Are you doing anything school-related?
Me: No...
Mum: THEN PUT THAT LAPTOP AWAY, do you think you can achieve academic excellence by wasting your time, do you expect good grades to simply land in your lap, you need to study, you got only got 95% on your geometry test, it is UNACCEPTABLE...
And so on xD But anyway! Most of my major exams are out of the way now, and music exams are almost over too. I promise, you'll never ever have to wait this long again. (EDIT 2017: lmao this bullshit)
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