A tooth bit into Larxene's lip as she tried to keep the screaming inside her, not that she knew who she was at that moment. In her mind's eye, the pain was all she knew, the pain and the blackness hiding behind her eyelids, threatening to take her forever from her beloved. She was screaming as the poison coursed through her veins while her beloved watched over her, screaming too, only he had no poison. All he wanted was for her safety, which seemed impossible.
"Larxene?" A voice called. Roxas' fist pounded the door. He could hear her screams. "Larxene? Are you okay in there?" In a moment, the screams subsided. Roxas pressed the door open, revealing the vicious sprite curled on the floor, tears in her newly opened eyes. She stared at Roxas.
"Wh-what are you d-doing here?"
"I heard you screaming... Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."
"Oh, okay."
"Thank you, Roxas. For checking on me. It's nice to know someone cares."
"It's nothing."
"Can I do anything for you?"
"Oh, uh, could you tell me why you were screaming?"
"It's not anything special. I- I just see things sometimes, and this time, I saw death."
"Who? Who was dying?"
"... You won't like it."
"TELL ME!"
"A-axel."
* * *
Breath falling heavily, Roxas raced to the Grey Room, only to find Axel gone.
"Saix!" he shouted. "Where's Axel?"
"He left already. Why?" Saix enquired unruffledly.
"I need to tell him something. It's important!"
"No, sorry. You missed him. Wait until he gets back."
"But... He might die! You have to let me talk to him."
Saix considered that for a moment.
"Fine. I'll summon a dark corridor for you. We cannot lose one of our greatest. Make it quick."
Cold, that was the first thing Roxas noticed every time Saix summoned a dark corridor. The cool presence of the corridor was, this time, unnoticed, for Roxas had greater things on his mind. Fretfully, he nearly ran through the dark corridor into the deep forest of Halloween town. In the distance he heard a shriek, identical to that which Larxene had made when predicting Axel's death, and he dashed towards it.
Deep in the pine forest, Roxas saw an immensely enormous spiderlike Heartless, cruelly mauling Axel's left hand with its tainted fangs. The sight was gruesome, seeing Axel's body twist in pain as the venom coursed through his veins.
"ROXAAAAAAAAAAAAS!" Axel cried, tears splodging down his cheeks, matching the painted ones.
"AXEL!" Roxas ran to his best friend, kneeling beside his body, which was curled into a ball. He had stopped screaming now, and the Heartless had left. All sense had left him, seeing his friend like that.
Earth was stuck to Axel's face, but Roxas kissed him nonetheless. Axel was unresponsive, which was weird for him; when Roxas looked at his calm body and colourless face he knew. Axel was gone, Axel had left him forever, Axel was nothing.
Fire, it was like fire, seeing Axel's body disintegrate. How relevant. Like the fire he loved, he turned to ash in Roxas' arms. A single tear splashed onto the ash, steaming into nothing before it reached them. Roxas nearly smiled.