~Hey guys! So this is actually a story in progress. Meaning, it was going to be a one-shot, but I am thinking about continuing it. Let me know what you think through the reviews and if it seems like you guys find it interesting enough, I'll continue it! Let me know! :D Xxx~
Roxas can't breathe. He tries to stand, but his knees won't hold, and he crumples to the ashen ground. His breath catches on a shuddering sob, as he tries to crawl toward the motionless black lump.
Staring down at him in numb shock and disbelief, Roxas glides a shaking hand over the chest of his bloody best friend. The blood had sprinkled itself along his muscular frame, a few dots of crimson on his face, disappearing into the red lining of his spiky hair.
Roxas released a clipped cry as he felt no beat within the man's chest. A slanted needle-thin scratch marred his right cheek, the cut a deep maroon against his ashen skin. His face was written in scratches, bruises and a scar at the corner of his mouth, eyes closed in death.
Teaming up with Sora and Riku, they had infiltrated the city and were making their way to the castle, when they were ambushed by Heartless and Nobodies. Whether they were working together or not, they attacked with everything they could. Making sure to hold them back from getting to the castle.
Things got dark, and the next thing Roxas knew, he had impaled a Dusk, while Sora, Riku, and Axel were kneeling to the ground, scratches and bruises covering their skin.
Collapsing to the ground, Roxas instinctively ran to Axel. Axel tried to speak, but blood bubbled from his lips instead. Roxas grabbed the cloth of his cloak and pressed it against Axel's chest with both hands.
"It's going to be okay," he said, and pressed harder, though he didn't know how to make his words true.
Axel shook his head slightly and tried to raise his arm. Roxas grabbed his hand with his own and wrapped their fingers together. Axel's hand still swallowed Roxas', though his skin was like ice.
Axel was one of the others who lay sprawled, already dead.
All the words Roxas never found time to say. All the things they never found time to do. Ripped from him with merciless finality. Gone.
But he's not gone.
"I'm still here. I have nothing left."
Miles from home, surrounded by dark creatures, forever stained by the blood of his friends. Deep inside, he hears the anguished wailing – the wordless kneeing of unbearable grief. He can't stand to hear it.
To feel it. To let it live.
The harsh kneeing inside his head becomes muted – the grief of some other boy. Not his. A Nobody wails a primal roar, but Roaxs doesn't hear it. If he listens to it, he might hear the grief-stricken wail of the boy who just lost something precious.
A yawning pit of darkness within the boy opens wide, whispering promises to take the pain. Swallow the loss. Make it possible to draw a breath without choking on the shattered pieces no one will ever fix.
Loss is a gaping hole with jagged teeth, and he can't bear it. The hope the blazed within Roxas floats like ash into the darkness. The wail of grief inside him slowly subsides into a well of icy silence – deafening and absolute. It rips the boy in two, cutting him off from everything he can't stand to face.
He doesn't try to stop it. If he feels the loss, it will break him.
Fierce winds gusted around him, coming first from one direction and then another, whipping Roxas' hair into a frenzy, tugging at his cloak this way and that. The torn fabric fluttered in his peripheral vision. The silence inside consumes Roxas.
The memory of my Axel, holding his hand with icy fingers while his life spilled from his chest is more than Roxas can bear. Fresh tears fill his eyes, causing the world to swim. He blinks and they fall searing the skin of his already raw cheeks. Shutting his eyes tight, he wills the tide of despair welling up within him to subside. A sob rises from the depths, but he caught it before it could escape. Roxas swallows hard, forcing it down.
It felt like drowning.
Grief is a yawning pit of darkness blooming at his core. Roxas can hardly stand beneath its weight.
I can't bear this. I can't.
The piercing pain of loss is a double-edged blade he can't bear to touch. How can Roxas grieve for them? Cry for them? Bleed for any of them inside when it won't change anything? It won't change anything.
Revenge takes energy. Roxas can't break until the Xemnas is dead. Because everyone's gone.
And he's still here.
Roxas embraces his rage. Let it sink into his secret spaces and make him its own until he's a stranger beneath his skin.
He wears armor on the inside, a metal forged of fury and silence, cutting Roxas off from himself.
Roxas slings the Oathkeeper and Oblivion keyblade onto his back. Gripping Sora's Kingdom Key, he forages his way through the bodies for extra weaponry. Roxas trudges over to Riku, his body mauled with dirt and scratches of Heartless. Roxas clamps his mouth shut to hold back a sob. Then Roxas' eyes went to the thin length of smooth cloth that had tumbled from Riku's pocket.
Riku's blindfold. The scream inside Roxas rips through his throat. Wild sobs choke him, and he can barely find the air to let them loose.
Roxas reaches out a trembling hand and snatches it from the lifeless boy's body.
What will he tell Kairi, and Namine?
With a careful hand, Roxas wound the satin ribbon slowly around one trembling wrist. Its softness helped to calm him, if only for a moment.
He avoided looking down as he moved forward through the wreckage, the bits and pieces, the empty limbs of Heartless and Dusks strewn across the floor.
Finally, he bent down and picked up one of Axel's chakrams. The tips of the Eternal Flames smudged and smeared with crimson.
I'm no longer a friend. I'm no longer a boy with dreams. With hope.
I'm a weapon now.
Feeling nothing but rage and resolve makes Roxas stronger.
Buildings, black and dead, stood innumerable before a glowing violet horizon. Leaden and tattered, the clouds hung low in the slate-colored sky, while the interlocking boughs of the castle created a webwork of shadow patterns over the ash-coated ground.
Roxas gazed at the castle casted in the sky, and more importantly, the heart-shaped moon that casted over the castle like an overpowering shadow. Mud puddles gouge the gritty road, courtesy of a heavy rain shower; the still heavy overcast casting its shadow over the compound.
As of now, the only thing that keeps Roxas gripping his sanity is the pleasing image of Xemnas and the other Organization, traitors graveling for their puny lives.
Dark clouds cover the sky, and a chilly breeze is blowing, carrying hints of the storm to come. Roxas calculates no more than ten minutes before a fierce round of early spring rain hits, reducing visibility to nothing. Pulling the hood of his robe over his head, concealing his blonde hair, Roxas looks to the castle.
"Get ready, Xemnas." He snarls and dashes down the street to the castle compound.
No one seems to be following him. The alley closest to the castle twists away from the street and ends abruptly at the edge of an expanse of nothingness. Beyond, the castle looms. Immense steel ribs joined by tons of concrete as thick as twelve men standing shoulder to shoulder wrap around the estate. Every one hundred twenty yards, a turrets rises.
Roxas reaches the edge just as the first drops of rain slam into the ground. Nobodies in the turret closest to Roxas step into the steady downpour and walk north with measured precision. Roxas rises from the ledge. He stays low to the ground and race across in spurts – sprint, drop, roll into a crouch, and repeat. Beneath the curtain of rain, aided by the swiftly falling darkness, he's nothing but a shadow. In seconds though, he hears the soft whoosh of a body plummeting to the ground and braces himself.
The creature lands slightly to the right of him. He leaps forward, slam the Kingdom key into the side its head, burying it to the hilt. The thing makes a wet gurgling noise in the back of its throat. Yanking the blade free, it makes a damp sucking sound, flinging stray droplets of blood into the air. Its eyes lock to Roxas', and once the knowledge within them has hardened into the far-seeing gaze of the dead, he drags the body back under the lip of the roof.
A quick scan of the area confirms that no other guards are pursuing him. Roxas reaches the wall before the guards have completely disappeared in the distance. He estimates just under ten minutes before the guards return.
Spinning his keyblades, Oathkeeper and Oblivion, Roxas stabs them into the ground, and a luminescent bridge, as if built from the cut sliver of a dying star, coursed up to the palace.
The driving sheets of rain make it easier to avoid being seen, so Roxas start up the path. The rungs are slippery, so Roxas pull on his gloves, grasp and climb. He make it to the top. The rain pounds into his skin, but he barely feels it.
He scramble over the lip of the Wall and race into the rounded stone turret a few yards to the left. Rain pounds the walkway as he ducks inside. Falling in opaque sheets, he'd be lucky if he can see two yards in front of him. It means the guards won't see him either. What Roxas can't kill, he can elude.
The footsteps of an approaching guard draw near. Roxas pulls out Axel's chakrams, spinning it in his hand. Flattening his back against the brick wall, he hears him come closer. He steps through the doorway, soaking wet. He doesn't even notice Roxas.
Roxas takes a step forward and raises the weapon. The moment he realizes it's a Samurai Nobody, the spike easily penetrates its helmet as Roxas make him a victim of a killer headshots. Prying the spike free, Roxas loots his body for salvage. He flattens against the wall near the doorway once again, but hear no more footsteps. Even if they're masked by the rain, Roxas can stab them down before they can even say 'halt'. Slinging the chakram onto his belt, Roxas takes a deep breath and sprints out the door.
With the Alter of Naught as his destination clear in his mind, Roxas' legs carry him through the hallways and up the stairs. Crawling through Nothing's call, the lowest known area of the Castle That Never Was, acting as a sort of "basement" he squats behind some cargo while a couple Samurai Nobodies troll through the air out to an exit. This is the only entrance into the castle for people who are not members of the Organization.
Taking a small outside path in a high section of the castle, then a stairway leading to the next floor of the castle, Roxas soon reaches the Hall of Empty Melodies. This room acts as a combat training station for the members of Organization XIII as well as lesser nobodies. A large platform makes up the room with large walls facing either side of it.
Ducking behind one of the walls, Roxas listened intently as the familiar voices of Xigbar and Xaldin approach.
"I've sent a few Neoshadows to clean up the mess, but one of them reported back that Roxas was missing." Xaldin said.
Roxas hears Xigbar laugh. "If he's still alive, I bet we're in for it."
"Like that little runt could do anything by himself." Xaldin speaks.
Roxas' grip clenches the wall, sending fissures crawling across the surface. Something deep inside him pools with anger and hatred.
"I wouldn't underestimate the keyblade's chosen one. You never know what he's capable of." Said Xigbar.
"Don't make me laugh." Xaldin retorted.
As Roxas took one last look at the two members, it was as if something had shifted inside him, causing an implode. Roxas curls his lip into a fierce snarl. A deadly howl echoed through the Hall, and the next thing Roxas knew, he had pulled a spike free from Axel's weapon, raised it above his head and plowed straight into Xaldin. Roxas launches into him, the two grunting as they fell back together, landing in the middle of the training area. Roxas gripped Xaldin's collar, tightening around his cloak, and rolling one over the other, they tumbled out onto the hard turf.
Roxas could hear Xigbar's voice in shock, but felt no hands yank him off. Roxas is screaming, harsh bursts of sound that flay the air. He rises from the inert body of Xaldin, his eyes desperate and wild, he races to jump on Xaldin's back. He presses the tip of the shard into the soft tissue beneath his throat. Xaldin punches it away from his throat. The tip gouges his skin as it goes and stream of blood arcs through the air. Roxas watches and comes undone.
Xaldin throws Roxas to the ground, but Roxas kicks his legs out from beneath him, and scrabbles across him, that terrible scream still ripping its way out of his throat as he punches, kicks, and tries to stab Xaldin with the spike.
Roxas takes his blows like they're nothing. Digging his nails into Xaldin's skin as if it's a wall he has to climb, he claws his way up Xaldin's body. He slams the hilt of the Oathkeeper into Xaldin's forehead, rendering him nearly senseless, and then flips his weapon around and drives the blade toward is throat.
Xgibar knocks him off from the side before the blade finds skin, and Roxas sprawls on the arena floor, his keyblade skittering across the alley.
Roxas pushes himself up on wobbly knees. Xigbar with Arrowguns ready, aims and begins a multi-shooting of red laser arrows.
Roxas broke forward into a sprint. He lifted his arms. Bending forward, using his gained momentum, he launched in a round-off. The world blurred, becoming a mesh of light and streaking colors. Catapulting into a midair Arabian, knees tucked in, he became weightless. The laser missed his body, but one grazed his cheek. Then, bam, Roxas' feet met the bare ground, ankles jarring from the impact on the hand, cushion-free surface.
But like a windup toy set into motion, there would be no stopping.
A millisecond later and he'd completed the second round-off, pulled through the hands-free whip, and finished the back handspring, air whistling in his ears.
His feet slammed the ground and he pushed off for the last time, hard as he could. Clutching his arms in tight, he launched upward. The air greeted him, holding him like a stray leaf in its nonexistent grasp as he twisted once, twi-
The ground rushed him, as fast as the teeth of a speeding Dragon Nobody. He completed the rotation and his heels connected with the floor.
His muscles acted without his connect, his legs carrying Roxas to launch into Xigbar. Roxas' nostrils flared in hatred. Possessed by everything he had tried to repress, by the rage and frustration he hadn't been allowed to feel, Roxas surrendered control.
Using all his strength to throw thee last whip-snap revolution, Roxas pulled himself on top on him, straightening his arms to slam the figure's shoulders to the ground. His head hit hard with a dull thud, causing his hood to tumble away. He bared his teeth at the man as his eyes focused on them in utter shock.
Roxas howled and screamed as he reared back one fist, ready to smash his knuckles straight against his face.
The blood in Roxas' veins seemed to reach its boiling point. He brought his fist down hard toward the nose of the Nobody. In that moment, all he wanted nothing more than to hear the crunch of bones. But the sound did not come. Xigbar stopped him, his large hand wrapping almost entirely around Roxas' own. Growling, Roxas yanked back on his arm, but Xigbar's clutch tightened, causing Roxas' shoulder to jam in its socket.
"What is wrong with you?!" he yelled, but Roxas didn't say anything. Instead, he hissed and his eye pupils receded to slits. It was his way of biting back the urge to cry out. Still Xigbar saw tears sting at the corners of Roxas' eyes, less from pain than from frustration.
He wanted the men to know what they'd done. He wanted them to feel everything they had caused him to feel.
He wanted revenge.
Rough hands grab Roxas' arms and pull him from Xigbar. Roxas screams and beats at the person behind him to no avail. Xaldin thrusts him to the floor and Roxas rolls to his feet. Roxas slides Axel's chakram free from his belt, flip the spikes out and spinning it in his hands, just as his friend showed him. Xigbar and Xaldin stand two yards from him, fighting stances ready as they stare into Roxas' eyes, pits of rage and misery.
Roxas raises the weapon. "Stay back." Roxas snarls at him in a voice he barely recognizes. Cold. Empty.
The men watch him, their hands trembling so badly that they'll never be able to stab Roxas before he disarms them, tie them up, and leave them for the Heartless. Rolling to the balls of his feet, Roxas lunges for Xaldin's right arm.
His left flashes out, silver streaking through the moonlight, and Roxas remembers his ambidextrous lance work a millisecond before he can slice one into Roxas. Spinning to the side, Roxas drops and rolls forward, coming up several yards away.
Roxas crouches, blade out. Something feral tears through him, obliterating teamwork, their no hearts, the kind of boy Roxas thought he'd once dreamed he'd be, and every cautious word Axel ever spoke, leaving nothing but pure, scorching bloodlust in their wake.
Xaldin's lances swing in dizzying circles, but doesn't rush. Instead, it was a distraction for Xigbar. Roxas waits until he's almost on him, and then dives forward, low to the ground, crashing into his legs and sending him flying over the top of him. A laser nicks Roxas as it goes by, but he can't feel the pain, and Xigbar drops his gun as he lands on his side.
Roxas is screaming again. Raw, agonized wails that flay the air with their fury. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Xaldin hurrying toward him, but Roxas doesn't have time for him. Whirling, Roxas lunges forward at Xigbar while he's still reaching for his Arrowguns. He sees Roxas and slashes out with a sudden laser. The thing catches Roxas' cloak and tears into it, but Roxas doesn't slow down.
He can't.
Driving his boot onto his wrist, Roxas grinds the small bones together. Xigbar yells and drops his knife.
Roxas slams his knee onto Xigbar's diaphragm and feel the air leave his lungs.
Xigbar whips out his left arm and punches Roxas in the face, and Roxas lands on his back. Xigbar's already on his feet, and Xaldin's coming for him. Their faces a mask of murderous intent. Roxas had broken Xigbar's wrist, so the weapon's in his left hand.
They're in the air, long legs dropping down. Roxas rolls to Xaldin's right as he lands beside the blonde, his arms already swinging forward. Flipping the chakram around, Roxas pushes himself off the ground and bury a head spike deep into Xaldin's chest.
Xaldin sags, deflating slowly onto the floor beside Roxas, and reaches for the weapon. Roxas pulls it free as Xaldin slides onto the ground. Without stopping, Roxas chucks it at Xigbar who was staring in shock and horror. He ducks down and the moment he looks up, Xaldin's lance pierces through his throat, just under his chin.
It knocks Xigbar to the ground and left twitching as he raises his arms to try and pry it loose. He makes a wet gurgling noise in the back of his throat, blood pools beneath his palm. Roxas walks over, wielding the chakram in his right, Xigbar's Arrowgun in another.
"You fucking pathetic." Roxas seethes.
Then aiming the gun right at Xigbar's other eye, he pulls the trigger.
"Go to hell." He whispers.
Dropping the gun, Roxas picks up and slings the Oathkeeper onto his back and continues to carry the chakram as a form of comfort. Turning toward the stairway, he lunges forward, not even taking notice to the blood covering his cloak. The roar of his pulse pounding in his ears. As Roxas blinks, an oozy liquid smears his vision, only to find a gash on his forehead. But Roxas doesn't stop the blood. He lets it stream down his face, drip to his cloak collar.
A message for the other members of what he's capable of, and more than willing to do.
He continues to run, power driving his steps as he reaches the Gray Area. It serves as a room in the castle that serves as a lounge for the Organization's members. The room is wedge shaped with one wall made entirely out of a giant window, out of which Kingdom Hearts can be seen floating in the distance. The room has couches and tables spread around it, and Organization members are often seen lounging about between missions.
By the sound of the commotion, word of Roxas' intrusion had spread like wildfire. Roxas stop just outside the doorway and presses flat against the wall. Going over his options, Roxas know by taking out every other member, Xemnas will be long gone before Roxas will even reach the Alter of Naught.
Four member were present. Marluxia, Larxene, Vexen and Demyx.
Demyx.
A sudden pain of longing clutches his heart. Is it even still official to say he has a heart? It used to be something metaphorically, but literally, Roxas' heart is stone cold, and yet Demyx still finds a way to worm inside and make himself a friend to Roxas.
Roxas listens close as the four of them ramble in a state of panic.
"He's gone completely nuts!" Larxene said a bitter tone. "He'll kill anyone who's in his way, so why don't we just kill him when he gets here?"
"He's not just psychotic, Larxene. He's lethal now. More dangerous to us than when he wielded the keyblade." Marluxia said, even his calm voice having an edge of unease.
Roxas coldly smiles as a sense of pride blooms at his core from the idea that he now strikes fear into the members.
"This isn't Roxas anymore." Demyx says, his voice serious and low, something the complete opposite of his usual laidback style. "Roxas is gone." There's a pause before he speaks again, his tone filled with pain. "It's best if we just feed Xemnas to him."
"I never thought sacrifice was your style." Larxene commented.
"It's not sacrifice, we're giving Roxas what he wants." Demyx retorts.
"And how exactly will that be beneficial to us?" Vexen suddenly; interjects. "The boy's a walking killing machine."
"Sora's beaten us before, until now. Who's to say we won't survive again?" Larxene snaps.
"Because Roxas is one of us." Demyx snaps. "He can kill us off for good. And ruthlessly too."
"Are you afraid?" Larxene teases.
"Like you're not!" Demyx shouts.
There's a moment of silence, and Roxas steps out and chucks the chakram in the group's direction. They all dive and duck out of the way, screaming in commotion. As it comes back around, Roxas catches it in his hand. He coldly smiles as the members study him.
Suddenly Roxas charges for Larxene, and as she lashes out, Roxas ducks and swivels to snatch one of her knives from her fingers. He then whips his arm and slams it into her head, knocking her nearly unconscious. As Larxene wobbled to the floor, Roxas drove the blade straight between his evil her shoudlerblades. She wailed, but what was more rewarding was the look of surprise and momentary confusion that came over the others faces. Smiling darkly, Roxas yanked the blade out and flipping the knife, he slammed the hilt into the side of her head again.
Larxene fell to the side, sprawling. Roxas sprang forward and crashed onto her, his elbow smashing into her stomach. Roxas straddled her hips and readied the blade of his knife.
"You little runt." Larxene sneers.
"Suck it." Roxas seethed, and with anger blazing, he drove the knife into Larxene's heart area.
She screamed out in pain. When it wasn't enough, Roxas snarled and pulled the blade out, then slashing it down again, over and over. There was a great feeling of pleasure and long overdue satisfaction, and it only made Roxas want to stab her more until the blood seeped through the fabric her black coat and splattered on his face.
As he brought down his hand for a sixth impale, Marluxia's hand sprang up and grabbed Roxas' wrist. Roxas sneered and jerked his hand back into Marluxia's face and whacked the Kingdom Key right into Marluxia's head, knocking him out on the spot.
Roxas stands, breathing deeply as he looks to Demyx.
Demyx is ready to scream, quaking like a leaf as Roxas walks over to him. His back pressed to wall, Roxas stops just short of two feet.
"You need to get out." Roxas whispers. "Now."
Roxas tries to show him he's sincere, but he doesn't know how when nothing good lives inside him anymore. So he just turns away, not knowing any other way to show Demyx he still, matters to Roxas.
Demyx calms down enough to reduce the shaking of his body. He stands straight and takes a timid step toward the battered and blood-coated boy. "Roxas," he whispered.
Roxas stiffens and grips the chakram tighter. Demyx takes notice and retracts his extending hand. Knowing there's no point in diving into a battle he's already lost, he offers Roxas his final words.
"Be careful." Then he takes a few steps back, then turning he leaves Roxas.
Roxas doesn't move until the sound of Demyx's footsteps have faded off, leaving him along in the silence. Leaving Larxene and Marluxia, Roxas takes note of Vexen's absence from the battle.
It won't matter.
Let them come.
Making his way toward Naught's Skyway, Roxas watches as small pools of purple murk rippled on either side of him, swirling tendrils of black smoke wisp out, like coils of ink in water. Roxas ignored the yellow beady eyes as he raced the stairwell.
To his left, a line of stone faces carved into the side of the castle watch the storm with indifferent eyes. On his other side, a row of stone columns supported the floor above. Through them, Roxas saw a streak of lightning slice the sky in tow, the ultraviolet spear of light illuminating the crooked line of stone turrets and towers. Slowing his run, Roxas walked over to the walkway's edge. If he kept going, it was a straight shot to the alter.
As Roxas continued on, he was suddenly cut short by Luxord who had caught him from behind. Hooking Roxas around the waist with one strong arm, he held the edge of a playing card to Roxas' throat with the other.
"You can't reach him this way," he hissed in the boy's ear. Roxas wrenched his elbow up and then jammed it into his stomach. He took the blow with a grunt but did not release him.
"Let me go!" Roxas screamed.
"You don't understand," he said.
"No!" Roxas yelled. "You don't understand!"
Talking the hilt of the Kingdom Key between both hands, Roxas swung the keyblade like a bludgeon and whammed it into the side of Luxord's head.
He released Roxas at once. Roxas stumbled away from him and father up the walkway.
"Do not let him get to the alter!" Vexen shouted after him. Roxas looked back and saw Vexen run out to Luxord. Looking back ahead Roxas nearly crashed into a wall of ice. He halts his footsteps and whirls back around. He sneers, his lip curling into a vicious snarl.
As Luxord pushes to his feet, the two men gaze at Number XII. His tattered garment whipping at the wind, bloodstained and covered in ashen grit. Both men froze, locked by the intensity of Roxas' stare. His eyes had the bluish grey color of a blade, the same cold polished shine, and as he peered at the two, both men felt a strange sharpness, almost painful, a cutting sensation as if Roxas' gaze were somehow slicing them open.
Luxord made his lips move. "Roxas, you must listen to me."
"I'm done listening to any of you!" Roxas screamed at them.
With that, Roxas lowering the keyblade, he aimed the blade toward the floor and, thrusting it downward, embedded it in the floor. The ground vibrated and in an instant, the floor cracked, a spiderweb of fissures crawled toward Luxord and Vexen. Then black-throne root sprouted and constricted around the two.
Needing to keep the other members busy, and knowing his abilities to summon Nobodies gone, Roxas went to the wall and placed his hand on one of the stone men's faces. He pictured his eyes blinking in his mind, and it was no more than a split second before they did.
"Fight." Roxas whispered to the stone man, who immediately began to twist his head from side to side, causing the stone around him to crumple and fall away in chunks, revealing strong shoulders and a muscled torso, as though the rest of his body had merely been trapped within the wall. "Fight in my place." Roxas said.
Slinging the keyblade on his back, Roxas did not wait to see what would happen when the gargoyle freed himself completely from the stone. Instead he hurried down to the next green man, and the next, whispering the same word to each of them. He looked back only when he reached the end of the balcony and a short set of stone steps, which led up to a massive and windowless wooden door marked with a large shield-shaped family crest.
The golems, free from the wall, which now bore a row of body-shaped crater, surrounded Vexen and Luxord.
Each of them, seven in total, held either a club or a spear clenched in gritty fists. Some of them even bent down to pick up the larger stone chunks of fallen wall.
Pulling out a sword, Roxas dropped and kicked it across the balcony floor in their direction before at last turning back to the door. He pressed down on the lever handle and pushed against the wood, face-to-face with the coat of arms, which bore in its center a pair of outspread dragon's wings, in the middle of which blazed scrolling word Usher.
Roxas rushed into an open and dimly lit hallway. Whirling, he shoved the door shut behind him. It banged into place, its echo reverberating around him, ricocheting into the high vaulted ceiling.
Even through the thick layers of stone and wood, Roxas could still hear the shouting of his name, calling out to him just before the sharp and unrelenting barrage of clanking and crashing ensued.
As he stepped out into the open floor of the alter, Roxas slowed his steps.
The Kingdom Hearts hovered above, its golden shafts of moonlight streamed down on the alter, casting his surroundings into a shimmering halo. As Roxas reached the final step, he gasped as his body passed beyond what felt like an invisible screen of static electricity. His limbs became numbed as the sound of his footsteps echoed on the floor. He felt the intricate wall of energy cut him off from the stairs, trapping him in the tower.
Roxas walks forward, toward the black-clad figure standing close to the edge of the alter, facing the heart-shaped moon.
"You do surprise me."
Clawing his fingers, the Kingdom Key zipped into his grip in a flash of light.
"I do not as yet know how you passed through the boundary between our worlds," the voice continued. "And I certainly did not expect you would come this far. But I am impressed by your resolve."
"Excuse me if I don't seem appreciative of your compliment." Roxas seethes.
Reluctantly, Xemnas glanced over his shoulder to Roxas.
His face held a serene expression as he watched Roxas steadily with two large eyes.
"Pity, though, to think that you came all this way and have endured so much for nothing," he said. "Because I can promise that I will not let you go."
"You don't know me."
"I do. I knew who you were, before you even found out." Xemnas said. "I also know you came here to avenge the fools of which you call friends."
Roxas bare his teeth in hatred. Gripping the hilt of the keyblade with white knuckles.
"And you, you failed to see the numbers." Xemnas went on.
Suddenly, a thick smear of rippling black clouds spread around Roxas, vertically standing. Stepping through, the remaining member of the organization, Lexeus, Zexion, and Siax stepped through. The clouds of darkness rolled back from their coats. Roxas gripped Axel's chakram, and summoned the keyblade in his other hand.
"I've taken out everyone else, what makes you so sure you can stop me?" Roxas dares.
"Simply because you run on anger, vengeance, revenge. And those are the feeling in which the heart thrives off of. You fuel Kingdom Hearts, the more anger you feel, the more you seal your own fate on avenging those who have fallen."
Roxas charges and screams. Raising the keyblade, he swings to bring it down on Xemnas. At the last minute, Xemnas leaps out of the way, and when Roxas turns, he brings the blade up just in time to block Siax's surprise attack. Pushing off, Roxas chucks the chakram at Lexeus to distract him as he leaps out of the way of Siax and windmill kicks Zexion's book out of his hands.
As quickly as he did, Roxas then back flipped and landed on the edge of the rim and runs along the ledge toward the heart. Suddenly a wisp slams him in the side and he's sent sprawling. The chakram is just in reach of his right hand, and as he reaches for it, he has to roll to the side as Siax's claymore comes crashing down.
As Roxas comes up on one knee, he says, "I knew we should've gotten rid of you when we had the chance." He raved.
Roxas roars and charges raising his blade, lunged at him. Knocking his claymore aside, Siax's arm followed the movement of his blade, letting Roxas know he'd allowed him to make the connection. Roxas didn't doubt it.
Backing away from Siax, crossing one leg behind the other, he let Roxas swipe at him again, then blocking Lexeus' attack from behind, Lexeus easily deflected his advance. Roxas lunged again and again, and each time, they sent his blade aside with their own weapons.
The fuse of fury they'd lit within him grew stronger and shorter with each of his rebounded attacks. They were making fun of him, he thought. They were doing this on purpose to mock him, trying to make him feel weak and stupid.
Well, he wasn't. He had made it this far, hadn't he?
They had yet to attack him in return, but he knew better than to think it wasn't coming.
Losing his breath, Roxas paused and scampered, out of the weapons' reach. Over his shoulder, he caught sight of the heart-shaped moon with small pink dots rushing toward it, as if pulled by an invisible current.
When his eyes returned to his competitors, though, it was too late to sidestep or use his blade to divert the swing of Marluxia's scythe; the tip of which caught his left shoulder, splitting the skin there in a deep gash. Then Lexeus' axe sword whipped him to the side and sent him skipping along the floor, his back taking the first of the impact.
Roxas hissed, the searing pain of the wound too sharp to elicit a scream.
He raised his free hand to the gash, his fingers coming away scarlet with his blood.
"Your distractions cost you." Xemnas asserted.
Roxas pushed to his feet and gripped the keyblade, the heat of his own blood searing his free arm as it ran down to his wrist, where he could feel it soaking into the black and white checkerboard bracelet.
Rolling on the balls of his feet, he scanned his surroundings.
He was far from the Kingdom Heart. He needed to move. Roxas takes the Kingdom Key, spins it above his head before embedding it into the ground. Instantly the ground cracked and fissures, gleaming a gossamer glow, ripped along the surface, a bright light blinding everyone facing it.
Instantly, Roxas shot off sprinting toward the heart-shaped moon as if he was a bullet shot from a gun. The wind bit at his skin. He could hear it whistling in his ears long with the surprised cries of those who watched him as the light faded. Possessed by everything he had, Roxas willed his muscles to go faster, faster, faster!
He stopped short to look back. As the members rose, Roxas made the mistake of not moving. They made eye contact.
"No!" Siax yelled.
Behind him, Roxas felt a slight rush of air wash over him. But this wasn't like the crisp wind that whipped about them.
This breeze felt different, cool but not frigid, the air tinged with the acrid scent of earth decay, of ash and dust and moldering trees. Of roses. And warmth.
Roxas risked a quick glance behind him.
The heart stood at a distance of mere yards, a gleam of light casted the outline of a bridge – waiting, it seemed, for him to make the decision to enter. And Roxas knew that this doorway was really what he had come for. Not for retributions, not yet.
The only thing that mattered, the only thing that had ever mattered, he knew, was getting to that Heart.
If he ran now, he could make it. He was close enough that he wouldn't be able to stop him.
In the distance, the sky thundered and the castle slightly shook. With that, Roxas turned, rushing headlong for the open tomb. Somewhere far off, getting closer, he heard the wail of screams. Nobodies yelling. Heartless groaning.
"Stop!" the Xemnas shouted.
Roxas ran toward the bridge, the ground racing beneath his feet. He felt as if he were rushing straight into his own grave, about to catapult himself into the yawning jaws of death itself.
"Roxas!"
He could sense Xemnas just behind him – inches away.
On the ground, he saw the shadow gaining on him then falling away the moment before something fast and strong – and claw snagged his cloak. A Samurai Nobody. The nobodies Roxas was in charge of.
"Listen to me!" the Xemnas said. "If you cross that barrier, you will die! And if you die while bodily within that realm, you will become like the rest of us. The same soulless class of monster they have so ardently accused me of being!"
But it was already too late.
Roxas wasn't listening anymore.
He hurried toward the heart even as the members cry for him to stop. At first they came muffled, distorted.
Up ahead, Roxas could see a small portal big enough just for him, ripple before expanding wider, tendrils of black and white swimming inside, churning. Black-to-purple wisps of cloudlike ink, like a thousand crawling insects, whispered out. Roxas reached the darkness of the doorway.
At the last moment, he turned and faced the members. They had not followed him onto the bridge. They look to him in shock and disbelief. Roxas looked down and saw that he was, deceivingly hovering in the air.
He stepped closer to the portal.
As he moved through, he felt the blanket of shadows engulf him. Black smoke tendrils slithered over him. Like tentacles, they wrapped their way around his arms and wrist. He felt them pull him inward.
The darkness smudged his surroundings into nothing as the cries became garbled in his ears. Though it grew louder for an instant, closer, the tones themselves began to tremble and shudder. They warbled and echoed, almost as though he'd been plunged far underwater. Through the shrinking wedge of dim light, he could see Xemnas' face smattered with fear. The gap shrunk to a mere slit. The darkness surrounded him, growing thicker, clamoring to take hold of him, like the unlimited tentacles of some formless wraith. Roxas watched as the blood seeps off his robe, and into the air in perfect spheres of crimson. The wisps wrapped his shoulders, his arms. A pair of blindingly white hands emerged from within the churning void. Like talons, they clung to his chest.
Xemnas felt his body quiver as he saw Roxas' eyes just before the darkness swallowed him, black coin-size holes fixed on him with murderous intent.
The Kingdom Heart grew bright with a pulsating golden light haloing its outer lining. Then it exploded like a firework, and billions upon billions of pink heart rained down upon the World that Never Was. Sprinkling in the streets, raining down on the castle. The members stared at the countless specks that rained down around them, each pink heart highlighted against the black backdrop of the night, like a thousand falling stars in a dead sky.
Then as suddenly as they had taken hold, the shadows released him.
Like a thick fog, they receded from Roxas, a few clinging wisps slithering over his shoulders and arms.
His robe was no longer black, but white with the intricate designs of Kingdom Hearts. Fine threads of black curled upward and chased one another downward, spreading their way across his arms, legs and torso, like veins infused with black poison. They connected and layered with one another, intertwining and weaving in and out to depict the curve of a delicate wrist, or to convey the motion of wind through the swells of gossamer veils.
Layers of glowing white draped and clung to the curvatures of his slight though tall frame, and it was as though the fabric itself was made from moonlight. A gauzy hood of white covered his head, like a cerement of the grave.
He was beautiful. Luminescent, like a sliver cut from a dying star.
His features, now gaunt and haunted, no longer held their usual innocent and compassion. Needle-tin scratches marred his right cheek, and the corner of his left. A small gash above his eyebrow sent a steady flow of blood to stream down his temple.
Yet, he was dark beauty perfected, his cheekbones high and regal. His skin held the sheen of stardust and his hair, sandy blonde, massy spikes of silk, seemed to float about him like a golden halo.
It was his eyes though, that held everyone so completely transfixed. Fringed with dark lashes, a piercing ice-blue luster, the pale color of concentrated sapphire, that could cut as much as convince, they trapped him, and he found himself no longer able to blink.
Like a gorgeous nightmare.
Roxas eased herself down so his robe lightly brushed the floor beneath him. The Oathkeeper and Oblivion were still slung on his back, Axel's chakram still clutched in his hand. A small pool of darkness bubbled at his foot, then a Shadow Heartless rose up, its yellow bug-eyes seeming different.
A line ripped across its face and its jaw unhinging, sharp teeth bared in hatred. Then suddenly it unleashed an ungodly sound, something between a woman's death screech and a demon's howl.
The members jumped back as the thing scurried over to Roxas, climbing up his legs and resting on his shoulder. As he walked, puddles of darkness began to pool around him, and as he reached out his hand, a bigger murky pooled and a Samurai Nobody emerged. His armor scratched and kinked, the slits in his helmet glowing an ominous purple. Two emerge on either side of him, each drawing a single sword.
At Roxas' feet, Heartless converged, a mess of sharp tangled limbs and withered frames, of gaping hollow skull faces and howling mouths filled with serrated teeth.
Roxas slowly raised his hand and as it was shoulder-level, knives of black lightning sliced through the air and struck the remaining members, but it didn't electrocute, instead, it coiled around their necks, and Roxas slowly rose his hand, the members clawing at their necks to no avail. Roxas stiffened his fingers, and each of the members went rigid as if they were electrically paralyzed. Then as Roxas relaxed his hand, each member dropped, stiffened and unconscious.
Looking to Xemnas, whose calm face has now contorted to presentable fear. Eyeing him closely, taking one step toward him for every two he took to get away, Roxas monitors his expression.
"Please," Xemnas utters.
Without moving a single muscle, Roxas' eyes went white and the ground in front of him cracked and burst in a line of debris and stone. His hair fluttered, hallowing his head. Xemnas was thrown back and crashed into the ground.
As he blinked his eyes open, a blade from the Samurai's sword barely missed his
Little did Roxas know, as the hearts continued to sprinkle the streets that three particular ones had drifted to his fallen comrades. Attracted like a magnetic pull, they dispersed into twinkles of light as they touched down upon their chests.
Their eyes blinked open and they groggily rolled to their sides, then pushing themselves to their knees or feet. Exchanging grunts and sighs of pain, they pushed to their feet.
"Uh," Sora spoke. "What happened?"
"Did we just . . . die?" Riku asks, hissing as the pain and bruises started to work their way into his senses.
"Hey, where's my keyblade?" Sora asks.
"Where's Roxas?" Axel as he looks around, seeing no signs of the blonde.
"Guys, something's happening at the castle!" Riku calls as he looks to the sky.
Their gazes shifted to the castle.
Thunder rattled the sky and lightning struck nearly every tower and turret it could find. The ground vibrated and Sora peeked around the alley to find a Neoshadow running toward the castle.
"What's going on?" Sora asks.
Axel was about to answer, but a figure running toward their direction stopped him. Peering closer, the swathe familiar figure was instantly recognizable.
"Demyx" Axel whispered. Meeting the former member halfway, Axel cups his hands around his mouth. "Demyx! Demyx!"
Demyx waved in reply. Judging from the redness in his cheeks and the perspiration on his forehead, he'd been running for a while. As he approached, the ground rattled again.
"Axel," he breathed. "Thank god you're all alive."
"Demyx, what happened? What's going on?" Axel interrogates.
"It's Roxas."
Axel went rigid and Sora and Riku gathered around.
"He, h-he thinks you're all dead. He invaded the castle and killed anyone in his way!" Demyx struggled to blurt out, stuttering while trying to gasp for breath. "And now he's just merged with Kingdom Hearts."
Axel gazes to the castle, a violet-black thundercloud encircling around the alter, like a vortex its lightning flashed in the sky. Squinting his eyes, he could vaguely make out the silhouette of a figure coated in white. It was the blonde clashing against the black backdrop that Axel realized it was Roxas
The three look in awe and horror. Shock punching little frissons of panic through them. Roxas' pale skin is smudged with blood and what looks like ash. His gossamer coat is torn and battered, small splatter of blood ruining the cloak even more. And his hands. His hands are covered in dirt and dried blood, and he clutches one of Axel's chakram like it's going to disappear if he lets go.
But worst of all is the look on his face. Cold. Fierce. Empty. His blue eyes so wounded. Like someone snuffed out the Roxas they all knew and sent out a hollow shell in his place. Axel nearly crumbles to the floor, trying to adjust to this new Roxas.
"We have to help him." Axel says, and he's about to run forward in a full sprint, but Demyx stops him.
"No!" he commands. "We need to leave. Now!"
"We're not leaving without Roxas!" Axel protests.
"Axel, listen to me." Demyx asserts. "I saw him. The Roxas you knew is gone."
"What?" Sora questions, the blood draining from his face.
"Something about your deaths, changed him. He's different." He turns to Axel. "And I know you can see it."
"Which is why we should go and help." Riku interjects.
"No, we need to get out now! When he merged with Kingdom Hearts, he tore a great rift in the kingdom." Demyx explains. "We need get out before this entire place collapses in on itself."
Axel didn't budge. The urge to run to the castle and prove to Roxas he's real, alive eating away at his insides. He knew deep inside that if Roxas just saw him, he'd come back. Go back to normal, be himself again.
"Axel," Demyx said. "If we don't leave now, then there will be no one to help him."
Axel turns to him.
"He let me go, the Roxas we all once knew is still there, but if we don't leave, we can't help him."
Axel looks to Demyx, Sora, Riku, then back to the glowing figure that was Roxas. Suddenly a door appeared behind them in a flash of light. The door wobbled in its frame. Then, gradually, an inch at a time, it started to shift inward, with the heavy, thunder-like ruble of stone sliding against stone.
A gust of wind rushed out of the open tomb door, sending forth a burst of white substance, something heavier than snow, denser. The ash flowed out to mingle with their shoes in a flurry just before the darkness from behind son morphed into the familiar warm buttery glow of Twilight Town.
"Axel we need to go." Demyx sternly says.
Axel's heart jarred in his chest. The rush of blood in his ears blocking out all other sounds. He returned his eyes to the figure that hovered above the Alter of Naught. Like caressing hands, the inky darkness clung to his form, as though reluctant to let him go. Axel's body tingling from head to foot, a vibration starting inside him and growing so intense, so electrifying that he wasn't certain he would be able to bring himself to move at all when the time came.
Suddenly, Roxas' head jerked toward them. He drifted to the edge of the alter. For a moment, Axel was hopeful he saw them, but as he clawed his hand, masses of Heartless emerged from the ground.
"Axel come on!" Sora yelled.
And reluctantly, Axel's legs began to move, running toward the door while simultaneously gazing back at Roxas. They reached the darkness of the doorway, not bothering to slow down as they shot through the other side. They gasped as they passed beyond the wall of static. Whirling, Sora and Riku grabbed hold of the slab that lay partially shifted aside from the open archway. They shoved at it, and to their amazement, the door began to move, the thick stone grinding its way shut, following the command of their slightest push.
Through the shrinking wedge of dim light, Axel could see Roxas landing at the base of the tower. Axel bit back the urge to bolt through the door, wrap him in his arms and show Roxas that he hasn't lost everything. But with Demyx's hand still gripping his wrist, he knew he wouldn't get far.
Not only that, but Axel knew that this was Roxas' way of telling them to get out. For one thing, the Heatless and Nobodies didn't advance toward them and try to stop them. They only glared and watched as the door, almost preparing to strike if they dare cross through.
Sora and Riku shoved harder against the stone door, willing it to close faster, as darkness crept through the streets, spreading its fingers through the allies, working to smear them into a single black blur. The darkening stretch of road turning black, like a ribbon of ink.
The gap shrunk to a mere slit.
Both boys let go, and the stone continued to slide on its own. Both stepped back as the Heartless and Nobodies turned and started their journey back to the castle, in which had started to crumble and reshape.
As they passed by, Roxas suddenly stood in between them. They passed with caution.
Axel saw his eyes just before the door slid all the way shut. His voice caught in his throat, seized into silence as he watched Roxas' eyes dilate, the pinprick of hatred at their core expanding, consuming the blue of his irises until nothing remained. Nothing except for two black coin-size holes.
Axel felt a tremble start all over.
Roxas slowly turned and started waking away.
Then, with a low boom, the door snapped into its frame, blocking him out completely.