A/N: Repeat this mantra: Action verbs are my friends. Thanks to my sister and beta reader A Spot of Bother. I know how much you looooooooooooved fixing this for me.
Axel can't remember anything before waking up as a Nobody but he's pretty certain that he was a little firebug in that past life as well. He must have been an angry child. He can feel it boiling under his skin, waiting to be released in a sea of fire. He knows that the Nobodies are sins. Everything good about them had been ripped out of them with their hearts, leaving nothing but a concentrated, intense fury. But when Axel looks at Roxas, he doesn't see sin. Instead of anger there is a disturbing nothingness in the blond. No emotion. Apathy. It terrifies and exhilarates the pyromaniac at the same time, makes his blood boil until he wants to break the boy's perfect control.
Axel thinks that Roxas' other original must have been too pure to be completely turned by the Heartless. He wonders what the younger boy would be like with a heart in his chest. Lively? Would he smile? He wants to find out. He's lost all interest in the Organization's vendetta; his interest in his own heart has been replaced by a need to see Roxas' restored. And he'll kill to see that accomplished.
Roxas leaves and the Nobodies are under orders to track him down. He's to be brought back to Organization XIII by any means necessary. But then they find him.
Roxas has changed. He's almost…human. And he doesn't recognized Axel. The echoes of feelings of hurt blaze in his hollow chest and the rage threatens to boil over. Axel isn't sure who he's angrier at—Roxas for leaving, himself for letting him go, or the Organization for not caring. The Organization…the ones that consider the blond a liability. If he can't remember, he'll have to go—the orders have been given to terminate the blond. That's when Axel goes rogue. He'll fight until Roxas remembers and kill anyone who tries to stop him.
Axel sees the brown-haired boy and he knows that it's Roxas, even though it isn't. If he had a heart he's sure it would be broken. He knows that part of Roxas is still inside of this non-Roxas, that this is who the blond is meant to be, and as long as this non-Roxas is alive so is Roxas. And Axel knows he would kill to ensure that Roxas stays alive. He looks at this doppelganger, this non-Roxas, and he feels his blood boil. The anger flies through his veins and he feels the flames break through. The heat intensifies, encompassing every Dusk in the room. He knows he's dying, but he isn't afraid. He laughs; it's funny how everything concerning Roxas leads to death. And as the flames die away and Axel dies with them, a single tear escapes from the non-Roxas. And Sora picks up his keyblade and continues on, not understanding the deep ache in his heart.
~End. Press the Review button. You know you want to...
