Have you ever wondered if was possible for fallen Nobodies to return from the Darkness? Rather than believing they disappear forever, I feel it is possible for Nobodies to return to the light. Through this story, Axel gets his life back even though he was destroyed.
The darkest place is known as the Realm of Darkness. It is easy to get there, but almost impossible to escape. There, in the cold abyss of the darkness wandered a lonely figure.
Through his aimless walking, not a single wind breeze or sound from another being could be heard.
He had been there since he died in sacrifice to save another; his only "friend," if he could be called that. In a place where only shadows of emotions existed, he could only imagine that this was the reason he chose to give up his own life. Now he was nothing; he was forever trapped in the Darkness, with no hope of returning to the realm of the Light.
When he first arrived in the realm of Darkness, he was amazed to find he could still move around walk and think. When he discovered that existing in the Darkness was almost akin to being alive, he tried numerous times to escape. All of his attempts ended in vain. Nothing worked…nothing.
The man stopped in the eternal realm with a defeated sigh. He pulled down his hood, revealing his face. He ran a hand through his spiked ruby hair and looked skyward. Being trapped in the Darkness had done nothing to his form. Though he hadn't practiced anything close to proper nutrition for quite some time, he was still the strong, agile, tall and slender man he had always been. He blinked looking up at the expanse of pitch black above. His striking green eyes should have been filled with pain and sorrow after becoming aware of his plight, but instead, there was nothing in them; they were the eyes of a dead man.
This man was Axel; before he died, he was a Nobody in the Organization XIII as number VIII with the title name of "Flurry of the Dancing Flames." He was the Organization's assassin; the one who killed the traitors. It was ironic that he—Axel—had became the worst traitor of them all.
But as all Nobodies, he was originally a human. He was fairly sure he was a good guy back then too…maybe.
A long time ago he thought he had a future, but his life had been taken from him in a single moment. His former life and name had been taken from him under the order of Xemnas because Axel had no rights to his former name. Besides, it wasn´t not good enough for the leader of Organization XIII
Axel sat down on the ground. Why was he here anyway? Maybe a better question was WHY was he still there? "Why am I alive?" He asked out loud to no one in particular.
Since he had first arrived there, he had mulled over these questions time and time again. The only answer he ever received was silence. Neither he nor the realm could give him an answer.
Axel closed his eyes and rolled over on the ground. It wasn't long before he fell into a deep sleep.
His dreams were always repeated nightmares about skewed events during his life as a Nobody. He dreamt of how he betrayed Marluxia by releasing Naminé. The Graceful Assassin destroyed him with the scythe, winning the battle. He was then standing beside Saix who spoke about their former friendship and where his loyalty should be. His kind words shifted to a fight and as always, the conversation ended with one of his claymores flying towards him.
The last dream in the cycle always ended up with Roxas and him talking on the clock tower. The sequence begins the same; they start talking, and he feels content but soon, the Darkness takes him away. He starts to fade away like usual, but this time, something was different. This time it wasn´t the Darkness taking him away, but rather, Light! He heard a voice call out to him.
"Finally you came, I´ve been waiting for you"
Axel's eyes opened wide when he heard the voice. The Darkness didn´t take him this time, but now it was the Light?
Axel looked around; searching for the source of the voice. "Who´s there?" He called.
Nothing around him had changed, everything was still, dark, and cold… except...
Axel slowly put his hand on his chest. There was no heartbeat like normal, but it felt warm.
Has his fire returned?
He tried calling it out, summoning the flames, but nothing happened. Sneering, Axel stood up. It seemed he had gotten worked up over nothing.
Nap now fully interrupted, he chose to begin his aimless walk again, but stopped shortly after starting. He felt like someone or something was staring at him from behind. Slowly turning around, he froze when he felt the sensation of a hand on his chest.
Whipping back around to the front, Axel looked down. His eyes widened. There WAS someone else there standing with their hand on his chest.
The person in front of him smirked. "Took you long enough."
It was a young man who looked exactly like him. His face was younger, however, and his eyes were bright with life. Axel opened his mouth to say something but the words didn't come. He just stared.
The younger version of him smiled with eyes full of hope and pushed Axel to the ground.
Axel propped himself up, but quickly placed a hand on his chest. It was beginning to hurt. The younger version of him disappeared, but he couldn't be worried about that at the moment. Now the pain in his chest was getting worse.
Suddenly he felt strange. There was a particularly violent pang of pain, but he started getting visions; it felt as if his memory was coming back. He began to remember things he thought he had forgotten. He didn´t feel like Axel anymore…more like someone else… someone he could only dream he would become.
"What's happening to me?" the redheaded groaned. He fell back, feeling the changes in his mind and body at the same time.
Axel could see that his skin was turning slightly darker; like it had been kissed by the sun. His hair began to get lighter as well. The greatest change was in his eyes. They began getting lighter, now closer to light green than dark emotionless emerald. They were no longer cold. He wasn´t like that anymore, he couldn´t be like that anymore. Axel felt life in his entire body.
He closed his eyes briefly to take in this new experience. It was new, yet so familiar. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a completely new place.
He stood on some sort of pillar made of stained glass. It was a picture of him with his friends too. He could see his city and home in the background.
"What is this place? Why I´m here?" he asked out loud, and like a reply, a pillar of fire burst forth from the center of the stained glass. Axel jumped back, startled. He slowly titled his head up in wonder at the pillar but what truly surprised him was that in the middle of the fire were his two chakrams. Axel walked to the pillar and reached for the chakrams with some degree of hesitation. But they were his weapons; he knew them well: the Memorial Rings.
His finger tip just grazed the chakram, but the moment after the contact, the chakrams disappeared, and instead letters spelling out his Nobody name appeared in the flames: Axel.
"I already know what my name is, thanks." He said with a snort. However, his eyes widened when the "X" vanished in light and rest of the letters shuffled back to his real name: Lea.
"What does this mean?" He asked.
It was true that he didn´t feel like Axel anymore but that didn't mean he was no longer "Axel" did it?
Suddenly, a bright light surrounded him. Axel shielded his eyes from the intense light as it engulfed him and transported him someplace new.
xXx
Axel opened his eyes slowly; unsure of what had just happened to him.
He discovered he was no longer in the Realm of Darkness anymore, but instead laying on the ground with sunlight warming his skin. But… if he wasn´t in the Realm of Darkness anymore, where was he?
His body was a little stiff. It felt as if he had been in a state of suspended workout for some time. Still, he sat up and looked around. "Where am I?"
"I don´t know." He could hear a gentle voice. When Axel turned around, he saw that it belonged to a blonde haired girl. He recognized her instantly. "I thought you turned back in to Kairi...Naminé.
"I did, but I wanted to meet you."
Meet him?
But they had met before; many times before.
"What do you mean by 'meet me?'" he asked with a frown.
Naminé smiled shyly. "I wanted to meet the real Axel; the complete being. I wanted to see how you truly are."
When Axel heard her, he froze.
The complete Axel?
But that must also mean…
Axel's hand flew to his chest, and he suddenly understood her words. He felt a heartbeat.
"THIS CAN´T BE REAL!" he cried loudly. He scrambled to his feet. Naminé stepped back, surprised by his sudden outburst. Axel quickly fell down again, face first in the earth.
"Are you alright?"
He sat up again. He was still reeling with shocked. "I´m human…"
He couldn't help but smile as he closed his eyes enjoying what it felt like to be human again. He tried to recall and name all the emotions he had been denied from during his life as a Nobody, but it was obvious, the most prevalent emotion was happiness.
'I've waited so long for this and now it´s happening. I´m finally Lea again'
He rose and turned to Naminé with a smiling; a real smile. "It feels good being human again."
Naminé giggled at Ax- no Lea, said with a grin "Me and Axel have a lot in common, but I`m better than him. Got it memorized?"
"I can see that" Naminé laughed. She stopped and looked at him with a smile. "So, what´s your name?"
Lea grinned "So you can tell Kairi? Nuh uh! When I meet Kairi again, you'll know."
Naminé nodded in understanding but looked a little sad. Lea bent down and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Hey, what´s wrong?" he asked, worried of it was something he had said, but before he knew it, she hugged him tightly.
"I´m so glad you're back!"
Lea hugged her gently. "Me too, kid. Me too." He let go and the blond girl backed away with a smile.
"See you soon."
"Before you know it," he replied with a wave, and then Naminé vanished. Lea turned toward the city behind him, and decided he was going to tackle his new found human existence by achieving three different objectives:
1. Get rid of the cloak (long black trench coats no longer suited him)
2. Find someplace to live
3. Grab some ice cream (He had missed this most of all)
It didn´t take long for the former Nobody to return back to human life; he found a easy job and a cheap place to live (for now)
In the evening sat Lea on a roof top eating his favorite flavor of ice cream as he brought from the duck; Scrooge or something . He had a new outfit that suited him much more than the Organization XIII coat he previously wore. He was no longer part of that group and he wanted a complete transformation. He now wore a bronze colored undershirt overlain with a white t-shirt. His pants were black jeans, dark brown shoes and around his neck was an orange scarf with bronze accents.
After he finished his ice cream, Lea sat back on the roof and enjoyed the feeling of the sun against his skin, and the sounds of the city. There were people walking, birds chirping and the low hum of traffic in the distance.
It wasn't long before his pleasant rest was interrupted. Something blue and soft landed on his chest. He sat up, eyes full of shock and anger.
"Hey!" he exclaimed looking down. It was furry and looked similar to a dog-cat-bunny…thing. After a moment, he identified the odd looking creature as the alien Stitch. It rolled off of his chest, and Lea sat up, a little angry at the assault on his chest.
"Thanks for nearly giving me a heart-attack." He growled and rubbed at the area of impact.
Stitch looked sadly up at him, and Lea quickly put his hands up in apology. "I´m sorry little fella."
The experiment's ears turned up again and it looked happy once again. Lea pointed at it and added "but you can´t just jump on people like that. Got it memorized?"
Stitch nodded. Lea grinned patted the alien on the head before rising to his feet and looking around. He still had no place to call home... real home
"Alright…I gotta go now. See ya." He decided not to worry about where Stitch had come from and focus on finding a home.
He jumped down from the roof, but a moment later, he felt the alien land on his shoulder. Stitch looked at him with a creepy smile. Lea tipped a brow. "So you want to come with me?"
"Stitch will!" the alien exclaimed happily. Lea laughed and started walking with the alien perched on his shoulder. He could handle a little company for the time being.
He started walking in no direction in particular. He walked for a while before stopping in front of a house. Looking up with surprise, a smile soon spread across his face. He knew exactly where he was.
Stitch looked at him quizzically. Lea noticed his expression and answered him. "This is my home…"
Stitch's ears flopped up and down and he laughed jumping through a broken window. With an intrusion like that, Lea was forced to follow him.
His old house was battered. There were broken windows, the paint was peeling and the wood constructing the house was worn and weak.
Displeased, Lea opened the squeaky front door of his old home and coughed at the dust that his entry had unsettled.
He walked to the dinner room and saw a memory of him and his brother play fighting with his parents laughing at the display.
Lea turn away and almost ran up to his old room and like he had only been gone for a week (if he ignored all the broken furniture, dust and cobwebs) everything was exactly where he left it. He made his way to his room and sat on his bed. He picked up the video game controller that was on the floor. Stitch had followed him with something in his hands. Lea looked at him and addressed him warmly. "May I see?" The alien had a picture, and when Lea's saw the image he almost cried. It was a picture of him and his brother standing beside their beloved parents; they were all so happy together but they could never be together again.
His father Laurence and his mother Jennifer were both dead; taken by the Heartless.
His older brother on the other hand was nowhere to be found; his absence was a mystery. Lea hoped more than ever that he still was alive, but the chance was pretty small.
He sighted and wiped the single tear from his eye before standing with a determined expression. "This is my home and it always will be!"
Stitch titled his head, not knowing what Lea was talking about. "Home?"
Lea nodded. "Home. Someday it will be like the old times, someday a family will live here… maybe not mine, but a family never the less."
Few days later, Lea was lying back on a wall, playing with his chakrams; Memorial Rings out of boredom. Sure there was still a lot of cleaning up that needed to be done in the house, but just like anyone, he got tired of it and chose to take a break.
Because he was staring at the sky, he didn't see the figure approach him. He heard a shrill "Hi there! Who are you?" And quickly sat up. He saw a teenage girl with short black hair. She was dressed in all black with a black head band.
Lea balked surprised by the intrusion.
"Hey little girl, I´m Lea…got it memorized?"
She sat down beside him, and starred long and hard at him. She then nodded. "Yup, I thought so."
Lea lifted a brow, but she just grinned "I know it was a long time ago, but I remember you. You and someone else were running away from one of the guards from the castle. I think it was because of some painting inside the castles walls"
Oh he remembers that, good god Dilan (Xaldin´s Somebody) was mad of that little prank inside the castle, was it him or Isa who got that stupid idea?
Definitely Isa.
Lea grinned recalling the situation. "Heh heh, yeah. We use to do that all the time."
"No kidding?" she exclaimed which made Lea grin even more.
"No kidding. By the way; I didn´t get your name."
The girl smiled and jumped up with her large shuriken in hand and stated "I´m the great ninja Yuffie!"
"Come again? Great?" He asked Lea. He couldn't help but think she was a joke. "You´re not great, you're just a little girl."
Yuffie showed off her ninja abilities but it didn´t impress Lea. He rose and stretched his arms. He called forth his chakrams which appeared in a burst of light and fire. He smirked at her.
"Do you call that fighting?" He asked."I show you little girl!"
Yuffie grinned. She was also ready for a good battle. "You got it! The loser pays for ice cream!"
Lea attacked her. "That´s a deal!"
Lea and Yuffie jumped into battle, enjoying the thrill of battle. Lea was surprised he could use his fire abilities so well even though he was human. It was a little weak compared to his original strength, but with a little training, he could return to original might.
After a long fight, Yuffie lost in the end. Lea let his chakrams vanish in fire with a grin "you pay for ice cream" he took his scarf off and laid it on the wall, Yuffie nodded as response "Okay!" she ran off and returned again with two ice creams.
While they ate, Lea didn't notice that Stitch had eaten his scarf in thought it was food.
"What did you do?" Lea screamed when he discovered the half devoured scarf. Lea angrily chased Stitch around the Garden, bento on inflicting some form of revenge. Yuffie couldn´t stop laughing at the sight.
xXx
Few days later walked Lea towards the great maw where he enjoyed the silence and watched at the sunset, his life has change to the better but still he wished at his friend someday could enjoy these happy days with him, all of them. "Come back soon okay?" he asked and walked back to his home.
xXx
Lea knew that the castle was no longer off limits for the people; it was really difficult to get rid of his old habit of sneaking around.
He crept around inside the castle, just as he did when he was a kid. His heart was pouting and his blood was pumping with pure excitement. He walked toward the hall and hid. When he was sure no one there, he ran further into the castle.
He was aware that nobodies were still around, but sneaking around was still a fun sort of game to play. Lea after all, was still a teenager at heart.
But he wasn´t stupid. He knew this place was the first place where the Heartless arrived to drop off their gathering of hearts, so just to be sure, he had donned his old cloak again to protect him from detection.
The redheaded stepped through a door and saw, much to his surprise, that it was different than any of the other rooms inside the castle. It was clean and not so…broken.
Lea walked into the room and picked up what looked like a journal from the table in the middle of the room. He flipped the first page open and began reading. Lea eyes widened when he realized he was not alone in the room.
He could hear someone behind him. He turned around just about to summon his chakrams but before he could do so, a strong force smashed him into the right wall. He was suddenly cold; frozen, and he could hardly feel his finger tips.
He landed heavily on the floor and looked down. To his horror, it appeared as someone had frozen his hands solid. He couldn't use call his weapons.
"They found us." The figure in front of him said in an all too familiar voice.
Lea's eyes widened and he gaped as he recognized the figure. "Vexen? I thought you were dead!"
The blond haired man looked at him with a sideways glance."Yes I was dead; thanks to you." Said Vexen´s Somebody "But now we´re back."
"We?" Lea asked. He tried to pull the ice from his hands but the second in the room gripped his collar lifting him from the ground. Lexaeus quickly flung him in the chair in the corner of the room.
"Yes, we Axel." He growled in a low voice. "Did the Organization send you?"
Lea gaped but quickly pulled himself together. "Hold on a second, I´m not Axel! I´m human!"
Vexen and Lexaeus exchanged glances with each other, both thinking, could they trust him or not?
Vexen walked to Lea and put his fingers on his throat, feeling a pulse. He sighed and nodded to Lexaeus who smashed the ice and set Lea free.
"We were forced to be careful." Vexen explained or rather Even if Lea remember correctly "Nobodies can´t have this information of how they become humans. If Xemnas find out we will return as humans, he would search after us and kill the returning Nobodies…" Even shivered of the thought to been killed again.
Lea grinned "Don´t worry about that, they all death. Sora killed every single one of them"
Aeleus and Even both looked relieved to hear that Organization XIII was gone. Even sat down on a chair "I never thought this day would come. Now we can step out into the light again, living a normally life perhaps" His eyes light up with hope. "And maybe we can rebuild our home again"
"How long have you two been here?" Lea asked. It seemed like they had been human for a while. Maybe he could figure out how long he had been in the Darkness. Aeleus there once were Lexaeus crossed his arms. "We returned here about half a year after our Nobodies died. It succeed us get contact with Marluxia, he´s returned only few days before Aeleus. And Ienzo, well…" he trailed off and turnd his eyes away like he wouldn´t talk about that. was Ienzo still missing?
Lea scratched his neck, now feeling a little bad about killing all of them. "I´m sorry about the Castle-" Aeleus dismissed Leas apology with a wave of his hand. "No need. You're forgiven."
Even nodded, then quickly switched to his scientific mode."May I ask, when did you- your Nobody die?"
Lea shrugged "Not long after Sora saved Radiant Garden from that psycho computer, you know the one there ran amok. Sora saved the day as usual and letting everyone remember this worlds real name; Radiant Garden" Even and Aeleus turned to each other with a strange look in their eyes. Even smirked before muttering a quick "interesting."
"What?" Lea asked.
Aeleus replied calmly."What you're telling us happened just two weeks ago."
Lea's mouth hung open and he nearly toppled out of the chair. He hadn't been in the Darkness very long at all, lesser than a week! Even smiled and stood. He started toward the door. "I expect that this mystery surrounding you will turn out to be very interesting…you; the one connected to the Keyblade Masters."
Lea glared at the blond, not sure what to make of Even's statement. "Thanks, I´m already feeling a lots better"
"With that face of yours I don´t think so" sound a young voice, Lea turned to the familiar face and couldn´t help smiling "I see you got out too, how ya feeling Ienzo?"
The teenager Ienzo smiled "A lot better than expected, considering you killed me with the replica"
"Yeah, sorry about that" muttered the red haired, scratching his neck a little embarrassed.
Ienzo smirked, he turned on his heels and asked Lea to follow.
The young apprentice lead Lea to Ansem´s study, Lea walked to the picture and laughed "Is it just me or do you also feel this is an dream?"
Ienzo smiled "Not even my best illusions works that well" the smile faded as the boy looked down at his hands "but... the shame is far worse than I thought…"
Lea turned back to the boy with a grin on his face "My advice; you just have to move forward and- hey!"
he jelled surprised but angry too when the boy suddenly have trowed a book after him, Ienzo smirked "That´s for killing my Nobody"
Lea angry frown turned into a smile then laugher, Ienzo followed and they both forgot the past of the Nobodies, however; there were still much to be done.
I´ll thanks Kanarah J of helping me with the story
You can read more about Lea and the others in the story saga "Return to Radiant Garden"