Bitter End
Author: Xanthos Samurai
Pairing: Saix/Xehanort!Riku (This means Riku when he looks like Xehanort), implied Saix/Xemnas.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Slash, yaoi, whatever you wanna call it… extremely implied male/male interaction. Also, blood and guts and AU-ness.
Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, there would be a mode where you play as Riku in Kingdom Hearts II as well. Purr.
Feedback: Reviews make puppy Saix's tail wag.
Notes: Written for a request by a good buddy and beloved fan. She always gives me the absolute best requests and has turned me rather unwittingly into a huge Saix fan. This was written just because I have a bizarre thing for writing dark, morbid bloody fics. On another note, this fic is set in a Kingdom Hearts AU. All I know about it is what you see here, so don't ask. Other than that, enjoy!
The scent isn't the same, but it's close enough. Saix stares at the cloaked man so intently that he feels heat gather behind his eyes. It was him. It was him.
Riku feels eyes on his back and whirls around, unsheathing Way to the Dawn as he does so.
"Back off." His voice isn't his – it's too deep and carries a resonance that his won't hold for many a year. But the voice carries a commanding tone, stolen or not. Riku hopes that his voice is the only thing that he'll need to use.
Saix stops in his slow, creeping advance. His coat is in shreds. Long strips of it are attached only by the sticky blood holding it to his mutilated flesh. Glowing fragments of stone wink out from their places embedded deep in his skin, but Saix doesn't even seem to realize their presence. His eyes are void of all but the dancing light of desperation that shines within a broken mind. The explosion had shattered far more than just Kingdom Hearts
Way to the Dawn quivers slightly in Riku's grasp, although his hand is as steady as ever. The sword itself seems to be trying to turn away from the wreck of a being in front of Riku. Before, Riku would have argued with the keyblade, but now he knows that there are forces within the weapon that are far wiser than he. The quivering ceases as Riku lowers the blade and pushes back his hood so that he may get a better look at this… thing that Way To The Dawn has decided that he should spare.
"What were you?"
"I was yours."
The scent is stronger now that the hood is gone, but the scent is of little concern to Saix now. The face…. It's exactly the face that he has searched for. He takes another few faltering steps forward. His body is all that he has left, but even that will fail him soon.
"Let me be yours."
"Stay back," growls Riku. He would raise the keyblade, but he knows that there's no point. Once Way has made up its mind, it will never go back. Riku knows this better than anyone and yet he wishes with all his might that Way would just do what he wanted.
"You've got the wrong person."
"No… You're him."
Saix's eyes become even more unfocused and he slavers at Riku. The man denies it? But it's him… He had the scent, the same moonlight hair, the same molten-copper eyes. The image of a face shattered and strewn in bloody strips across the top balcony of The World That Never Was comes together in Saix's mind and slides over the frowning face of the other man in front of him. Wait, there is no other man. There is only his Superior.
"Superior has to remember… Remember everything that we did." Saix lurches to his feet and begins to move once again towards his master.
Riku had felt madness before. He could feel it again now as Saix moves towards him like a puppet on broken strings. The fragments of Kingdom Hearts in his body pulsate with light and throb within their cradles of Saix's flesh.
"Way, he's insane." Riku hissed to his keyblade. Way To The Dawn did nothing.
Saix is upon him now, digging his fingers into Riku's shoulders so hard that Riku can feel them pierce his skin even through the coat.
"Superior said… You said… I would live only to serve you."
A chill trickles up Riku's spine and settles in the nape of his neck as Saix's throaty words are rumbled into his ear. Their two bodies are pressed together and almost all of Saix's weight is crushing into him. The two men are so close that Saix's hair brushes against Riku's cheek and Riku can smell the blood and lightning and midnight around Saix.
"Let me… stay…" Shuddering, Saix lowers his head and leans it on Riku's shoulder. Riku can feel the humming of a fragment of Kingdom Hearts buried in Saix's temple and feels the chill seep down to his stomach. Way drops from his grasp as he sinks to his knees, Saix with him.
Saix tangles his claws in Riku's silver hair and pulls him closer for a desperate kiss. Something in Riku screams to get away, but Saix is too strong, even in his dying moments. He's pinned down as Saix rips through his coat like paper and nuzzles the bronze chest. Blood seeps from Saix's wounds onto Riku and gathers into warm, sticky rivulets that crisscross his muscled torso.
It's upon this chest that Saix rests his cheek, breathing laboriously.
"Superior… I brought you… Kingdom Hearts…"
A few hours later finds Riku still sitting on the ground, staring meditatively at a large bloodstain and several pieces of blue-green stone. Way To The Dawn was propped up against his shoulder. There was no sign of Saix to be found.
Finally, Riku stands and picks up one of the bloody stones. He gazes at it for a moment before pocketing it.
"I guess even people with no hearts don't want to die alone."