((an)) I'll have you know I hate this. It was supposed to be rythmic, but seems rather droning. But, you know, whatever. A friend called Amagumo specifically asked for me to put this up, and besides, other people might just like it. (You should go read Amagumo's stories, you know. She's a great authoress, just be sure you're not terrified of slash.) Have fun. ((/an))

-

-

-

There's a pain in my chest and I don't think it's going away. My breathing is getting smoky, as if my lungs were filling up with carbon monoxide. They burn, too. Oh gods do they burn. Maybe it's some sort of twisted irony that my last passageway to oxygen is sealing shut with what feels like flame, or that my ribs are being worn down by some sort of file- like one of the ones Larxene always used. It's mellow, and sort of dulled...as if I were standing at one end of a long highway and the pain was on the other side. "You're…fading away…" I think that's what the brunette is saying, the one that's really Roxas. My hearing's starting to shrivel away to a dried piece of nothing, and everything is getting converted into static by my ears. Well, that's what happens when you put your whole being into an attack. You know what I mean?

There's a pain in my chest and I don't think it's a good thing. I'm smiling, for some reason, while I reply with something, I'm not even sure what. Not that Nobodies actually have beings…right? Anyway, I digress. Go, find Kairi. Using my voice is something akin to dragging a pair of safety scissors across my vocal chords and feeling them snap, one by one… Oh, almost forgot…sorry for what I did to her. "When we find her, you can tell her that yourself." Poor child, you seem so determined, so far into denial, further than myself, even. There's a growing sense in the hollow space where my heart's supposed to be that I'm not going to make it, and with the knowledge of our Nobody bodies pounded into us by Xemnas…I clutch at the space and glance away. Think I'll pass. My heart just wouldn't be in it, you know? Haven't got one. I laugh weakly-- sandpaper against my throat.

There's a pain in my chest and I don't think I should fight back. Gods, were my arms always this heavy? "Axel, what were you trying to do?" You sound so sad, Roxas…Sora. I can't even tell anymore, you look so much alike…but one or two of the few remaining synapses in my brain connect for a brief moment…Sora, I'm talking to Sora. I wanted to see Roxas. He…was the only one I liked… He made me feel…like I had a heart. There's no blood, no stinging pain of a broken bone. Just the mild feeling of my whole body smoldering slowly, as if each shred of darkness that's swirling past me were a tiny flame. I could call irony, again, but I think there's some sort of rule against using it twice in such a short amount of time…screw it, it's irony. It's kind of…funny… You make me feel…the same…

There's a pain in my chest and I don't think I mind. I shake my head, quickly, and the resulting whirlpool sends my senses into overload. I can't even breathe for a moment, but when my wits return to me, I pull whatever vocal chords I have left together and speak. It hurts so much… Kairi's in the castle dungeon. Now go. There, all to save some pathetic girl, all to help some pathetic blue-eyed boy…but he's you, Roxas, in a way, and maybe by doing this I'm helping you somehow…I can only hope. "Axel…" I grin like a maniac, the kind of smile that would have sent sane men running. For just a second, I swear I heard your voice intertwined with Sora's… You leave, abandoning me to my dissolving body and a strange room without a horizon.

There's a pain in my chest and I don't think I'll live. My senses are deteriorating fast now, my breathing growing hazy and uncertain, I'm twitching as my mind decays into some kind of cesspool. I can't feel the ground anymore, or the slivers of darkness encasing me, or the whirling as those strange blue wisps of clouds drift by. …Funny...funny, this ending…in this place of the prettiest azure, like a sunrise. I wonder…is this really it? All those years…and now this…funny, the Dusks are coming back. After everything I went through to get rid of them all. There's one by my head…a heavy, choked voice speaks. Hey, little guy. Sorry to leave when we've just met, but…you know how it goes. It takes me a second to recognize it as my own. But then…I guess it doesn't really matter whose voice it is, now, does it? Everything's so heavy…my mind feels frozen around the edges, and the pain has dimmed to dull pinpricks against my skin. Darkness flickers in my peripheral, threatening to overwhelm my vision. Let it overwhelm.

Roxas… But I don't know what to say.

There's a pain in my chest. I think I need to sleep.