Greatest Struggle
Author: Xanthos Samurai
Pairing: Xehanort!Riku/Roxas, Setzer/Roxas, Roxas/Hayner, Seifer/Roxas… Sense a theme here?
Rating: R
Warnings: Slash/yaoi/"YOU WRITE ABOUT GUYS DOING WHAT?!" Also some violence, possibly language and having way too much fun with underaged characters.
Disclaimer: There is not a Xehanort-centric spinoff so therefore I do not own Kingdom Hearts in any way, shape or form.
Feedback: Don't make me use my struggle bat to get comments out of you.
Notes: This is the result of a sleepless night mulling over Kingdom Hearts. I had a request for Xehanort!Riku/Roxas in, so that was on my mind, but I also had been thinking about Setzer and how he got kind of the shit end of the stick in KH2. I haven't played Final Fantasy VI, but I always imagined Setzer to be a lot cooler than he's made out to be in the game. Between that and my fondness for making Roxas' life hard at every opportunity, the idea for this fic bloomed in my head. (Also - the other entrants are just side-character names from other FF games. I'm not claiming that they're actually in the game - I just borrowed their names. Thanks!) Enjoy!
Roxas wasn't sure what to make of it. He had won the Struggle, but as he looked down at the ex-champion on the ground, he thought he could see Setzer smirking. Could he just be imagining it? No, Setzer was definitely smirking. But why would Setzer be smirking? He had just lost!
Setzer stood with a grace that belied a real warrior and not the overconfident braggart he was often thought to be. "Come to the underground concourse tomorrow night at midnight. That's where the real fight is."
"What?" Roxas blinked up at Setzer, but the swordsman had already flounced away in a whirl of purple and silver.
"Roxas, you won! That was so awesome!" Hayner rushed up to Roxas, cheeks flushed and eyes bright with excitement. The new struggle champion turned to his friend and smiled although he was still a little bewildered.
Stopping short, Hayner frowned a bit at his friend. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm great!" Roxas smiled and the strangeness of the moment was forgotten as he went up to the beaming commentator to get his prize.
Several hours and a huge victory feast passed before Roxas once again remembered the strange things that Setzer had said right after the Struggle. As Olette and Pence smooshed sea salt ice cream in each other's faces and laughed, Roxas withdrew quietly and sat on the couch. Before he even had the chance to contemplate, Hayner sat down beside him.
"You okay?" He poked Roxas' shoulder.
Roxas rubbed his shoulder as he looked sideways at Hayner.
"I'm fine."
"No, you're doing that stupid quiet pouty thing. What's up?"
Clearly, Roxas wasn't going to get away from this one. There was no deterring Hayner when he was determined to find something out, as Roxas knew all too well. He sighed and moved over on the couch.
"Do you remember when I won the Struggle and Setzer was lying there on the ground?"
Hayner grinned. "Yeah, you totally owned him."
"Well, that's the weird part. I don't really think I did."
Now Hayner turned and really looked at Roxas. The befuddled blonde tugged at his cowlick thoughtfully, a habit he had never really been able to break. Hayner's brows knitted. Roxas was serious.
"What do you mean? You got all his spheres, right? You had him down on the ground, right? You got the trophy, right? I'd say you pretty much kicked his ass, Roxas."
Maybe I should just tell him what Setzer said, Roxas looked over at Hayner. "Okay, there's more, but you gotta keep this quiet, okay? I don't want Pence and Olette to find out."
That struck Hayner's interest. Secrets were fun, but secrets that Roxas didn't even want Pence or Olette to know? This had to be big.
"…The fence?" He asked.
Roxas nodded. "The fence." He turned to Pence and Olette. "Hey guys? Hayner and I are gonna go get some more sea salt ice cream. We'll be back in a little bit, 'kay?"
"Okay!" Pence squirmed as Olette dripped her ice cream on his nose evilly. "Hurry back! 'lette's being mean to me!"
Roxas and Hayner grinned. "We'll try!"
Once outside in the privacy of the back alley, Hayner turned to Roxas.
"Okay, what's really up?"
Roxas leaned back against the wall, appreciating the rough warmth not for the first time.
"It was weird," he said thoughtfully. "He said to come to the underground concourse tomorrow night at midnight and that's "where the real fight is." He wants me to come and compete, I guess. I have no idea."
"Don't tell me you're thinking about not going. You've been invited to an underground struggle tournament that we didn't even know existed and you're not gonna go?" Hayner looked at Roxas incredulously, as if Roxas had just implied that he had decided to do something truly audacious, like stop eating sea-salt ice cream. Or breathe.
"I dunno… Setzer's always struck me as kind of… weird. You know?" Roxas looked over at Hayner meaningfully. Hayner just gave him a blank look. Roxas pushed himself up and began to walk in a circle, one hand on his hip and the other pointed downwards. He swayed his hips as he walked and placed his feet daintily. Hayner watched him for a moment, his face convulsing with the need to laugh. Finally, he couldn't hold it in any longer and doubled over, cracking up.
"Oh man," he wiped tears away as he sat back up. "You did that way too well. If he ever sees you do that, he's gonna be pissed."
"Look, the point is that Setzer, who is a weirdo, has invited me to go to a struggle tournament that none of us have ever heard of. It's late at night and in the concourses – completely isolated. Does this sound like a good idea to you?"
"Well, when you put it that way…" Hayner made a face. "But hey – I'll go with you. That way you won't be going alone."
"Two of us against who knows how many other people? That sounds great." Roxas gave him a look.
"I'm serious. If you get jumped, I can run off and get help."
"Thanks, Hayner."
"No, I'm serious. Let me come with you. It's a lot less likely that someone'll try to do anything if there's two of us. Plus, this is just too good an opportunity to waste. How often do you get invited to a secret struggle tournament?!"
"Never," admitted Roxas. Hayner was beginning to win him over despite himself.
"'s right. So I say we go."
"Fine. But if we get killed or whatever, it's your fault." Roxas told him.
Hayner grinned. "Awesome. Let's meet up here at 11:30 tonight and walk down there together. And no chickening out."
"No chickening out," Roxas agreed. He and Hayner pounded each others' fists and ran to get more sea salt ice cream so that Pence and Olette wouldn't get suspicious.
It was 11:45 when Hayner finally showed up. Roxas jumped to his feet as soon as he appeared.
"I've been waiting for fifteen minutes! What happened to 11:30?!"
"Sorry – it took me forever to sneak out." Hayner was grasping his struggle bat in one hand. "C'mon, we've still got time!"
"No thanks to you!" Roxas dashed with Hayner to the concourses. Both of their hearts were pounding, although neither one of them would ever admit it to the other. This could very well be the most exciting thing to ever happen to them.
They raced into the underground concourse, keeping sharp eyes out for anything that looked out of place. But everything seemed to be perfectly fine. Roxas and Hayner weren't sure if they were disappointed or relieved. A few minutes later, as the two of them approached the underground tunnel, they heard voices. The closer they got, the louder the voices got.
"Guess we found it…" Hayner glanced at Roxas. For the first time, he seemed edgy.
"Guess so." Roxas looked at the doorway in front of them and readjusted his grip on his struggle bat. Well, it was now or never. As he and Hayner had promised earlier, no chickening out. He walked through, Hayner right at his heels.
There were about a dozen people in the makeshift ring in the underground tunnel, some of them familiar faces and some of them not. Seifer, Rai and Fuu all stood in a corner, talking amongst themselves in low voices. A slim girl with short black hair who looked a little older than them was juggling a peculiar weapon that resembled four struggle bats fastened together in a cross shape. There was a tall man with silver hair and an incredibly long struggle bat. Setzer naturally stood in the middle of the mob, chatting with everyone.
"Wow, check it out…" Hayner whispered to Roxas as they walked through the crowd of strangers. "All of these guys look tough. Who knew that there were so many serious strugglers?"
"Mm…" Roxas made a noise of agreement in his throat, but he was only half paying attention to what Hayner was saying. The other half of his attention was focused on a figure standing away from the murmuring crowd.
He (Roxas assumed that the figure was male) was tall and lean and wore a tight black coat that covered him from head to toe. A black hood shadowed his face and completely obscured any guess as to his identity. He was propped up against the wall, presumably watching everything from unseen eyes as he twirled a struggle bat lazily in one hand. Roxas could tell just from the way he spun the bat that he was good. Very good.
"Ah, I see that our young challengers have finally arrived." Setzer's tone was slightly reprimanding, as though they had shown up late, even though it was still a few minutes before midnight. He glided through the crowd over to them, smiling at Roxas. "I see you brought your friend. Oh well, I expected that. At least this way we have an even number of contestants."
"You're letting Hayner play?" Seifer's voice cut through the crowd. "Roxas just brought him along and he still gets to play? He didn't even qualify."
"I seem to recall you bringing your 'posse' around when you first qualified." Setzer rose a brow in the Disciplinary Committee's direction. Seifer scowled, but backed down.
"If there are no further objections, Hayner here will compete. Otherwise, someone else will have to drop out or I'll have to step in," continued Setzer. He cast an eye over the crowd, looking for any protests. Nobody said anything and Setzer turned back to Roxas and Hayner, obviously satisfied.
"Since you're both new here, I'll explain to you how it works. You pick out of a hat to see what position you get. The contestants in slots one and two battle, and the winner goes on and so forth until just one person is left. Just like a normal struggle tournament. Simple, yes?"
Both Roxas and Hayner nodded. It was simple. The difficult part would be holding their own against all these other tough-looking fighters.
"What's the prize for winning?" Hayner had obviously been waiting to ask this since the very beginning.
"The respect and admiration of every other fighter here." Setzer's voice was cool. He looked amused as Hayner's expression fell. "However, if you were thinking of something a bit more tangible…" He smiled as Hayner brightened. "Then that depends on the winner, now doesn't it?"
The other contestants laughed a little, but Hayner and Roxas just steeled themselves. Setzer turned and looked over his shoulder.
"I've already taken the liberty of writing everyone's names on slips of paper and placed them in a hat. Vivi, if you please?"
Vivi came forward from the back of the crowd, bearing a board with a tournament roster with fourteen blank spaces in one hand. In the other was a large hat that looked exactly like the one on his head.
"Set up the board over there. I'll pull the names and you can write them down." Setzer gestured extravagantly, taking the hat that Vivi handed to him. He stuck a hand in the hat and felt around, obviously sifting around the pieces of paper inside. After a few moments he pulled out a scrap and held it aloft. "Well well. The first name is Roxas."
Roxas looked up with surprise when his name was called first. It was all chance (so Setzer claimed), but he hadn't been expecting that.
"Number two is Biggs," Setzer continued. He paused as Vivi wrote the names in the blanks. "Three is Fuu."
It went on like this until fourteen names had been called and the roster looked like this:
1. Roxas
2. Biggs
3. Fuu
4. Oaka
5. Yuffie
6. Rai
7. Seifer
8. Wedge
9. Reddas
10. Sephiroth
11. Twilight
12. Kytes
13. Jessie
14. Hayner
All of the attention was on the man in the coat who had given his name as "Twilight." Roxas had been hoping that the guy would give an actual name, but he gave an alias instead. It was just Roxas' luck, of course.
"Well, now that the places are decided, we'll hold the first fight in five minutes. Roxas, you're fighting Biggs. Go get ready."
"Wow. Good luck, Roxas." Hayner grinned at him nervously. "I bet you'll be great."
"Thanks. What's wrong?" Roxas frowned. Hayner's face had suddenly fallen again.
"That creepy dude in the coat is walking up behind you. Look fast."
Roxas turned around to find the strange man, "Twilight" standing just a little too close to him.
"What do you want?" Roxas blurted.
"Just to wish you luck." The man's voice. A sense of familiarity exploded in Roxas' head as he heard that voice. Something about it drilled into his mind and seeped into a part of his memory that he had forgotten existed.
"Wish me luck?" Roxas looked blankly at him.
"What else would I be doing? You had better not lose before you fight me in the finals."
The blonde blinked. "The finals? How do you know we're gonna get in the finals?"
"Do you think you're gonna lose?" There was a smirk in "Twilight's" voice. "'Cause I know I won't."
"Of course I'm going to win. So you had better win too. I want a fun final fight, you know. Later." He raised a hand and walked off, leaving Roxas and Hayner standing there in confusion.
"That jerk," muttered Roxas. "I'll get to the finals just to kick his ass and shut him up."
"That's the spirit, Rox!" Hayner put his hands on Roxas shoulders. "You're up, so go get him!"
There wasn't an actual ring the underground passage, so the other competitors gathered around in a circle to form their own ring. The result was a ring that was fare more dangerous than usual. The other contestants could injure you just as badly as your opponent. Possibly even worse. Biggs was already standing in the ring, tapping his bat against the ground impatiently.
Roxas slipped into the ring and adjusted his grip on his bat. Biggs was, well, big, but that wasn't necessarily an advantage in a struggle. Speed and maneuverability were just as important as size and strength. A cool calm slid over Roxas as he settled into a fighting stance. All he had to do was win.
Biggs moved first, rushing low and hard. His bat would have connected squarely with Roxas' shins and sent him sprawling to the ground had Roxas not jumped out of the way at the last minute. But he didn't get away completely – the bat clipped his ankle and a few balls rolled around the ring. Roxas rolled to grab them before Biggs could. One escaped his fingertips and rolled to the feet of the people standing at the edge of the circle. Roxas was down on the ground, fighting off Biggs with his bat in one hand as he reached for the stray ball in the other. Bats from the spectators waved around above him as he groped behind him for the ball.
Suddenly, the ball he was reaching for bounced off his head and rolled to the other end of the ring. Roxas glanced up and saw the hooded man behind him, one hand outstretched. He had obviously just dropped the ball.
"You'd better go get it," smirked "Twilight."
With a growl, Roxas shoved himself to his feet and knocked Biggs away with a savage kick to the face. Bigg's spheres flew and scattered all over the arena as he stumbled back. Blood was gushing from his nose. Biggs cursed as he tried to cradle his broken nose, get up and re-gather all of his spheres at once, but Roxas was too fast.
It was only seconds before Roxas had retrieved not only his own sphere, but all of Biggs' as well. Then it was only another half-second before Roxas swung again and hit Biggs right in the chest. The rest of his spheres bounced over to Roxas, who gathered them up easily.
"And the winner is my dear Roxas." Setzer walked over and grabbed Roxas' wrist and held his hand high. "Splendid. Now if Fuu and Oaka will kindly take their places in the ring. You two are next."
Roxas was tackled by Hayner as soon as he walked out of the ring of people.
"That was awesome!" Hayner shoved Roxas affectionately. "You totally owned him! That was so cool!"
"Thanks!" Roxas still felt a bit of post-struggle daze. He hadn't ever gone after someone like that before. Hell, Roxas hadn't even known that he was capable of being so brutal. Biggs' nose was broken and he was the one who had broken it. Although… fighting savagely like that had seemed somewhat familiar. "I still can't believe it. Hang on, okay?" He extricated himself from Hayner and walked over to where Wedge and Jessie were standing around him.
"Um, Biggs?" Roxas approached him cautiously. It was likely that he would be mad about having his nose broken and Roxas had no idea if he was hot-tempered enough to jump him. "I, uh… I just wanted to see if you were okay."
Biggs grinned up at Roxas from behind a curtain of blood,
"'s awful sweet of you to ask but this ain't the first time I've had a broken nose. I'll be fine."
Roxas relaxed a little. Biggs seemed like a good guy, even if he was huge and intimidating.
"You played a good game, but lemme give you a piece of advice." Biggs gestured for Roxas to come closer. Roxas stepped forward and crouched down beside Biggs. He wondered what the big man wanted to tell him. "You're good, but watch out for some of the others. They're not above crippling an opponent. People have died down here."
The adrenaline that had kept Roxas' blood pumping until then cut off abruptly. There was no way that he was willing to die in a struggle tournament, no matter what the prize.
"Kid? You okay?"
"Y-yeah." Roxas shook himself out of his newfound horror. "Thanks," he said to Biggs one last time.
The look on Roxas' face made Hayner's stomach sink. He walked over to his friend and grabbed him by the shoulders,
"Roxas? What's wrong?"
"Hayner, I don't know about this. I just heard that people have died doing this. I think we're in over our heads."
Hayner dragged Roxas around a corner and held him against the wall.
"We can't leave now!"
"Do you wanna die down here?" Roxas looked into his eyes.
Hayner placed his hands on either side of Roxas head and leaned forward. Their faces were nearly touching.
"Don't worry, Roxas. Nothing's going to happen to us."
"You might wanna think about that again, wusses."
Roxas stared ahead as Hayner turned to face the owner of the smug voice. Hayner and Rai were standing there smirking and looking as imposing as ever. Hayner tried to move away from Roxas, but Seifer shook his head,
"Aw, don't let us interrupt your little make-out session. Just watch yourself, Roxas. It's only going to get worse from here on out."
To Be Continued...