Disclaimer: Don't you think if I owned Kingdom Hearts the Nobodies might still be alive?
Trouble in Paradise
Demyx ran up the white staircase, spiralling majestically up the centre of The Castle That Never Was. He had to admit; the Superior certainly had taste. The endless web of corridors spread out in front of him; each without end. Completely unfazed by the soulless maze ahead he veered to the right towards the sound of voices.
For a reason unknown to the residents of the castle they always congregated in the bizarrely named Left Wing. The deeper Demyx ventured into the castle, the more Nobodies he found. He was soon so far into the network of blank walls that most would be entirely disoriented – but he knew where he was going. A familiar yelp echoed towards him down the straight passage. Demyx sped up, sitar knocking against his back as he ran.
The door opened inwards onto an equally desolate room. However the emptiness was relieved by a laughing mop of crimson spikes. The subject of Axel's amusement stood in the far corner, desperately fanning his flame-like hair. No, Demyx realised, Roxas' hair was actually on fire! Quickly he summoned water from the air over Roxas' desperately shrieking form and concentrated to bond the atoms until they were dense enough to douse him. A torrent of water gushed over Roxas, quelling the flame. Demyx grinned, impressed with himself. Roxas was not so impressed; dripping and with his blonde hair singed black in places he skulked out of the room.
"R-R-R-Roxas-s-s! C-Come ba-" Axel spluttered through spurts of laughter.
"Forget it." The blunt reply came as he attempted to push past Demyx.
"Aww, come on Rox! Don't you wanna hear my new song?" Demyx chimed.
"Yeah. What's wrong with you lately?" Having sobered up, Axel grabbed the arm of the smaller nobody. "Tell us! We'll understand."
"Right. Next time you have to fight off a psychopath questioning your existence you tell me and we'll have a chat." The uncharacteristic
sarcasm dripped off Roxas' tongue languidly. He shrugged his shoulder back sharply to try and loosen the grip.
"Hey, look, I know you're having a tough time lately but you've gotta trust us. We're your friends, got it memorized?"
"Great friend you are, setting me on fire." Water flew everywhere as he shook his head.
"Come on, you know that was an accident."
"I'm sure."
"Stop arguing both of you!"Demyx couldn't take it any longer. "Does it matter? We've all got another assignment to go on and we've gotta work together."
Demyx squinted up into the light of the town square. He always found it hard to adjust after traversing the corridors of darkness. Axel and a disgruntled Roxas appeared beside him. It was a day after they had argued but it was still reflected on Axel's face. As he eyed up the materialising heartless his usual smirk had none of the cunning attitude it normally emanated.
"Here we go again..." Demyx's voice rang with nervous anticipation.
"What's the point?"
"Come on Roxas! It'll be fun!"
"Killing innocent people isn't fun."
"Where'd that come from? Don't tell me you're actually getting a conscience now." Axel joked.
"Maybe it would be nice to pretend I had a heart for a moment."
"Which is why we need to harvest these hearts; to get our own ones back."
Roxas sighed and gently closed his eyes as storm clouds began to sweep over the horizon. The rain streamed down, plastering his burnt hair to his forehead. The villagers hastily headed home, not all managing to escape the smothering grip of the heartless. Demyx and Axel were oblivious to the screams. Demyx had conjured his sitar now and with a flourish began to play. The unsettlingly beautiful music made Roxas shiver. "Concentrate..." he muttered to himself, pressing his eyelids tighter. They had moved slowly forward into the centre of the square as the song of the storm got more intense. The heartless began to surround them in a dense mob of darkness, creeping in time to the chilling symphony of thunder and sitar. A scream could be heard from the distance and the last heartless scuttled towards them. The circle was now complete, the heartless, moving as one began to advance. Roxas felt heat against his face and opened his eyes a crack to see a ring of fire spring up around them, separating the fight from the rest of the world. There was a hiss and a dense black mass leapt towards him. A flaming chakra sent it flying. "Thanks..." Roxas couldn't keep relying on the older nobodies. Now was the time to fight. Now was the time to show the others what he was made of. He looked deep within himself and summoned up the power of light.
"Sora!"
The scream came from inside the ring of flames this time. Axel whirled around to see a blaze of white light fill the courtyard emanating from a small crumpled body curled on the icy cobbles, burnt hair washing over its black coat.