Perspective
In which Roxas investigates a brave new world and everyone else hangs around.
I do not own Kindgom Hearts or any Disney properties.
Enjoy.
"Ready to fold, Number Two?"
"As if! Hit me!" Luxord slapped the card down in front of Xigbar, who was bluffing so badly the Gambler of Fate could practically taste it.
It was a slow day in The Castle That Never Was, what with the easy missions and such, and Luxord decided to take advantage of it in his usual way: playing poker, or, as everyone else referred to it: scamming people out of their munny. Whatever they called it, he was quite good.
"Ah, I fold," Axel slumped back into one of the stiff, white couches of the Grey Room, "I need a little munny for the vending machine anyway."
Demyx, who through a twist of the rules on Luxord's part now had negative chips, cocked his head, "We have a vending machine?"
"Yeah. The 'Purveyour of Un-nourishing Feasts'. Xemnas had it installed last week."
"Why?"
"Saix's been getting on him about 'morale' and 'efficiency', so he stole some self-help books from some place and decided to steal a vending machine."
"Wait, wait, wait. The books told him to steal a vending machine?"
"Of course not!" laughed Xigbar, absentmindedly pushing a pile of chips to Luxord. "He's just savvy enough to get that since self-help books rely on getting us all pumped-up and ready to do our best, it would be a radical shift from what we're used to- you know, fear of erasure?- so he decided he'd just appeal to our stomachs instead."
"But how does that make any sense? I mean, I can see the Dusks going for that, and maybe even some of my Dancers, but us? It's just plain rude!"
Xigbar shrugged. "Eh, since when did you get any dignity, Demyx? You're starting to sound like Roxas- speaking of which, where is Kiddo anyways?"
"Like I know," said Axel, "He got recon duty to some new world. He probably got lost."
Suddenly, a portal flared to life behind them. Axel's stare locked onto it while Xigbar leaned back just enough to keep an eye on the portal and Loxord's cheating hands. Demyx, having both Axel's enthusiasm and Xigbar's presence of mind but lacking the focus of the former and the subtlety of the latter, looked continuously back and forth. Naturally, he was the next person to fold.
But frivolous card tricks mattered little to Axel, watching the black-cloaked figure appear out of the darkness. It appeared to be stooped over, limping almost. This caught the others' attention and before the keybearer could answer, they had already unleashed a storm of questions and advice.
"You okay, man? You're walkin' kinda funny."
"I should hope you didn't run away from the fight."
"Walk it off, Tiger. You're still standing, right?"
"Yeah, just barely!" The four Nobodies stiffened in surprise. The voice was much higher than they had expected. The four Nobodies realized that Xion looked an awful lot like Roxas with her hood up...
"What's wrong, Xion?" Axel removed her hood. It was heavier than he had expected; less like insubstantial darkness and more like cheap leather. Fortunately, it wasn't covering up any wounds.
"I hate Wonderland. I had just finished my recon when I turn around and BAM! Some stupid heartless shoe-glues me!" Xigbar snorted at the cutesy terminology.
"It's not funny! It hasn't worn off yet!" She shook her fist, but the extra hundred or so pounds on her arm threw off her balance and she nearly faceplanted. Axel caught her just in time, nearly going down with her.
"Why don't you take a seat, eh?" he panted, he face turning red as he propped her up. "Take a load off, you get me?"
"Oh! Sorry!"
"It's all good. Happens to all of us." He patter one of the cushions. Xion sighed. Taking baby steps, she tiptoed towards the couch, trying not to fall. The floor shook with each step and she stumbled half of the distance, catching her toes in the floor a few times. But eventually she found herself in front of an empty cushion, so she sat back gently, leaning back as low as she could manage... and dropped.
Axel could have sworn that his end of the couch had been on the floor a second earlier.
"Argh! This sucks!" The couch had fallen in beneath her and she was- for all intents and purposes- trapped.
"Heh. Tell me about it, Poppet. That was a brand new couch, too."
"Thanks" she said coldly.
"Well, since you're going to be here for a while, would you be interested in a game of chance?" Luxord walked a dice along his knuckles.
"You can't play cards with a dice," she said.
"True, but you can play Yahtzee."
"Think I'll pass. I can't even reach the table." She smiled sheepishly. She really doubted if she would even be able to get out of the couch on her own.
Luxord shrugged and produced a cup and a notepad from his cloak.
"So how'd Roxas's mission go?" she asked Axel, trying to get her mind off of her weighty issue, "Better than mine, I'd imagine."
"Actually, he hasn't come back yet: he got assigned to recon in some new world. North Damn, or something like that."
"Tell me about it." She started to lean on her elbows, but wisely decided against it.
"Tell you about it? Well, I haven't been there myself, but from what the ships picked up, it's fairly normal. You know, people, big cities, stuff like that."
"Any magic?"
"Actually yes, but it's pretty weak. Not that many weird heartless running around."
"Lucky."
"As if!" Xigbar chuckled, raking in a modest-sized pile of munny, "We also gathered that there's a riot going on down there; perfect test of stealth, right Luxord?"
"Right indeed; our little key to destiny will need his wits about him if he's going to avoid the Heartless and the mobs." Surprisingly, Xion thought for a moment that there was almost a hint of worry in the man's voice, but she put that thought aside.
"I'd still rather be gathering info than stuck in this couch."
Xigbar smirked, "I'd rather you got your butt off the couch, too, Poppet."
"Hey! I was blindsided, alright?"
"Not to be- ahem- heavy-handed about this," Axel cut in, "But you and Roxas really need to stop letting things like this happen to you. Remember Monstropolis?" He was referring to a previous mission to a sweltering city populated by monsters in which Xion had returned, pale as a ghost, with icicles hanging from her coat. She was unimpressed.
"Someone was coming. I kind of had to hide somewhere."
"Yeah, but you could have picked a better door than one that led to the top of a mountain, right?"
"It's not my fault the door didn't work after I shut it. I bet you've made the same mistakes on recon."
He flashed a cocky grin. "I bet not. I look before I leap."
"Cough- Pyredain- Cough." Xigbar covered his mouth politely.
"Yeah, well, whoever heard of a chest turning a guy into a frog."
Xion giggled, regretting having missed one of Axel's few scouting assignments.
He stretched, looking in the general direction that the portal would appear from. "Somehow, I doubt Roxas is going to have such a whimsical experience as you, Xion."
She laughed. "Maybe he'll get turned into a frog, too?"
Right on cue, the portal ignited, releasing a very battered and very un-frog-like Roxas, who was in the middle of trying to smother a small flame on his pant leg. Xion ducked while the red-headed Nobody walked over to give his friend a hand. Axel had been mostly right; he was still very much human-shaped and seemed to weigh the same as when he left, but besides that, un-whimsical did not equal uninteresting.
"Whoa man, what happened to you?" Demyx moved in for a closer look at the shoe-prints that adorned the back of the Nobody's coat, as well as his head.
Roxas rubbed his face with an ash-covered glove, the sleeve of his arm patchy and frayed. "I nearly got lit on fire!"
"By what?" asked Axel, "A Heartless?"
"No; the people. Everything was going fine down in the crowd, I even sort of blended in, but then the fighting started and I didn't notice the huge buckets of molten slag they started pouring into the street!" Axel noted that his face was the same color as Xion's after her ice-cold recon. Xigbar did as well.
"Calm down, Kiddo. You finished the mission, right?"
"What? No! I was on freaking fire!"
Xigbar was still unimpressed. "Did you find out anything new?"
"They're... having a riot?"
Xigbar sighed and put a hand to his forehead. "If you'd read the briefings, you'd know that already. Go back and do it again."
Roxas and Axel's reactions were simultaneous. Xion would have joined in, but she shot the Freeshooter a dirty look instead.
"Are you insane?"
"The guy got lit on fire and you want to send him back to the same place?"
"Oh, I'm sooo sorry. Why don't you two go buy your ice cream and sit on that clock tower like you actually got something done? Get some for me while you're at it." Expertly, he threw some munny that landed at Roxas's feet. Luxord gave him a sour look, but said nothing.
Roxas was also silent, looking between Xigbar and Axel. Both were firm, both had nerves of steel. Xion could feel the tension in the air, as though someone was charging up a thunder spell. The room was silent. But there were protocols to follow and assignments that needed fulfilling, and Axel conceded with a soft, "Sorry, Roxas," before the portal opened again and Roxas went back in, his eyes bulging out of his head. It looked as though he was having second thoughts when the portal spasmed and shrank, evaporating into the air once more.
The man with the eye patch smiled. "You can thank me later, Poppet."
"For what? Scarring Roxas?"
"For more time. You're lucky that was a convenient as it was."
"Heh, yeah right."
"What's wrong?"
"He got trampled and nearly got burnt to a crisp and you sent him back, that's what's wrong!"
"Are you saying you would've gone with him?"
"No. I would have gone instead."
"I see." He flashed an uncharacteristically pensive expression before standing up and nodding. "Looks like my work here is done."
Then before anyone could say a word, the portal rose up around him, and he was out of sight.
The room was silent, save for the sound of Luxord picking up coins behind them. Demyx was dumbstruck.
"Did what I think just happened actually happen?"
"No, Demyx," Axel dismissively stated, "It didn't."
"Oh. Okay, because that would have been really weird." and with a friendly nod, he, too, was gone.
"Are you sure you don't want to play?" offered Luxord pathetically.
"We're sure."
"Lady luck is a fickle mistress indeed..." he snapped his fingers, and the two Nobodies were finally alone.
"Can you get out yet?"
Xion tried to free herself again but the answer was a disappointing "no."
"Figures. Do you think Xigbar was trying to teach you a lesson or something?"
"Xigbar? No, of course not, that would be ridiculous." She laughed at the idea, secretly dreading Roxas coming back too soon. He smiled as well, praying that she would go back to normal soon.
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
But regardless, they both agreed to never speak of that day again.
Naturally, to anyone who's played the games, status effects range from the mildly annoying (fire) to the infuriating if you've run out of panaceas and you want to jump up to a platform (shoe-glue). But then I thought, wouldn't being lit on fire be a little... painful?