Warning: Spoilers up to the opening of The World That Never Was.
The End of All Hope
It was agony. Worse than agony.
Axel objectively knew that he didn't have a heart to be ripped out, but there was a sudden, burning, unbearable emptiness in his chest when blue eyes stared at him blankly.
It physically hurt to be forgotten.
The red-headed Nobody exhaled sharply like he'd been punched in the gut. His best friend--the only person in all the darkness and worlds to whom he'd confided his silliest thoughts and most aching desires--didn't remember him.
----
"You think it's stupid of me to hope, right?"
"Yeah! I mean, we're Nobodies. There's no way anyone'll ever find a way to make us whole while we remain separate from our other halves."
"...It is a vain and foolish hope."
"Hey, c'mon Ax. Our life isn't as bad as all that, right?"
It wasn't when you were there beside me.
----
Here he was, back in DiZ's creation, stupidly hoping again. Thinking that there was a sliver of chance that Roxas had regained some memories.
"We're...best friends, right?"
A pathetic wave of relief.
A crushing blow of despair.
"The Roxas that I know is long gone."
Resignation. Grief that shouldn't exist crippling an empty body.
----
"Listen. You won't forget me, right?"
"'Course not, Roxy. How could I forget the blond shorty with the weakest left guard that I've ever encountered?"
"Stop messing up my hair!"
"Stop whining! Geez, it's not like anyone could discern a difference."
We laughed; the threat of oblivion seeming as harmless as the distant stars.
----
Reasoning and pleading and threatening hadn't worked. Axel had no choice but to destroy Roxas or renege on his oaths to the Organization.
"Axel."
That voice had once been important enough to calm his irrational aggressions and suppress his vagaries.
"You really do remember me this time?"
Sure, Roxas remembered Axel now; just when it was too late. When Axel felt angry and betrayed and had been forced into doing what he didn't want to with no opportunity of backing out this time.
It would've been easier if both of them had lost their memories.
----
"No one would miss me."
"That's not true... I would."
"Did you say something?"
"...No. Yes. Eh, never-mind."
You wouldn't've believed me anyway.
----
Defeat was a relief, in a way. And losing the battle with Roxas was anticlimactic after the battles Axel had fought with himself.
"Let's meet again in the next life."
That hope Roxas had teased Axel for having? He was giving it back. Letting the boy with the keyblade think that his betrayal wouldn't be the end of Axel's existence. That, somehow, their friendship had survived and would survive.
"Yeah. I'll be waiting."
Let Roxas hope. Axel knew that the end would be final.
----
"So you're the new kid."
"The name's Roxas."
"Roxas. Well, I'm Axel."
"Nice to meet you, Axel."
"Sure, shorty. Hey, are you any good with those blades?"
----
"I wanted to see Roxas. He was the only one I liked... He made me feel... like I had a heart. It's kind of funny... You make me feel...the same..."
Despite his resolution and his resentment at the boy that had stolen Roxas away from him, Axel was comforted and somehow not alone at the end.
----
Notes: The title also happens to be the name of a song by one of my favorite bands, Nightwish. There is also a quote from another of their songs ("Sleeping Sun") that I feel would have also fitted with the themes in this piece: "Sorrow has a human heart." But, alas, the only quotes I used were from the game. The flashback conversation were mostly made up, except for the first two lines of the third one.