Um.. S'up, peeps.
This little fic is dedicated to TheWriterYouFools and Duallism, for writing the best damn KH fiction I've ever seen. Go read their fiction. I'll wait.
Cool. Now, while I'm not too interested in reviews, they would be appreciated, so should you feel compelled to write one, feel free.
That's it, I guess. Have fun.
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Rage. Sora's Keyblade striking home. The sounds of battle.
Couldn't feel my arms anymore. Sitar dropping from suddenly unresponsive fingers. Legs giving way.
Clouds of something- not darkness, not light- bursting from me.
IwasdyingIwasdyingIwasdyingI-
-----
Axel gave me a look of what, in any other being, might have been sympathy.
"I'm sorry, Demyx. Zexion's dead."
-----
Nothingness.
It must have been nothingness, because night was never this black. This was a darkness so empty and still it was beyond comprehension.
I couldn't move. Either that, or I had nothing to move with. It was like my soul- all that was left of Demy, the quiet Sitarist from Radiant Garden- had been torn from my body and locked in a little box somewhere, alone and trapped in nothingness.
But I wasn't afraid.
I don't know why. A human- or perhaps anyone who had their heart, and who's soul still cared about the world it was part of- would be crying with lips they didn't have anymore, or sobbing non-existant tears.
But I don't have a heart. Not any more.
And my soul has ceased to care since Castle Oblivion.
-----
I didn't cry. I wanted to, but I couldn't. The tears wouldn't come.
Suddenly I realise the loss of my heart. Before, I had known it was gone, but I hadn't really understood it. I'd wanted it back, sure, but only so I could love Zexion with it, as well as my own.
Now I understood it was gone. I had only a soul to grieve with.
And that wasn't enough.
-----
I didn't know how long I was there, in the empty night of what must be nothingness. It might have been hours. It might have been seconds. It might have been millennia. When you have nothing but your own thoughts, time looses all meaning.
I only first began to regain time when I sensed… something.
No. Something isn't the right word. Something implies existence, and in this place, there was nothing to exist.
A better description, perhaps, would be a patch where the nothingness was thinner. A little fragment of a piece of something that had existed.
It was close. And so- roused out of my apathy by the prospect of who knows what- I moved towards it.
-----
The Superior explained the mission to me carefully, going over every detail with me till he was satisfied I knew what I was doing. I didn't care, much; if it made him "happy" to be explicit about these things, let him.
I doubted he knew I thought these thoughts, though; as far as the rest of the Organization knew, I was still Good Ole' Demyx, the kid who shouted out the words to the old songs on the radio, who cooked the meals and made the drinks and never fucked around.
Only Axel knew I was hurting in the only place I still could; and he was wrapped up in his own pain.
There had been something between him and Roxas. I didn't know what- by then I'd been too wrapped up in my own pain to care. But know Roxas was gone, and Axel was hurting too.
It hurts to be alone when the one you love was gone; but I was too lonely to care.
-----
It took what felt like seconds to reach the patch in the nothingness. When I was closer, I felt it "speaking".
I don't know how we communicated; it had no mouth to speak with, and I had no ears to hear. But somehow, we did.
Clever little sneak, it said, ruefully. I'm surprised he got me.
Xigbar?
That's me, alright. Well, kinda; my real name's Ragib, but don't tell anyone. Xigbar sounds better.
It was Xigbar alright. Out in the depths of non-existence, the Organization's second-in-command was lying.
It's me. Demyx.
Well, well. And here was me, thinking I was all alone.
Why are you out here?
Eh, the traitor killed me. I gotta give him credit, though; he's fast with a Keyblade.
For what might have been hours, we talked. Xigbar told me of all that he'd seen up to his death; the achievement of Kingdom Hearts, the death of the others, the reappearance of Riku…
But I only "listened" with half an "ear". Inside my mind, cogs were turning. If Xigbar was here, mightn't the other Organisation members be here? Might Axel and Marluxia and Luxord?
And might Zexion?
Xigbar?
Yeah?
I have to go.
He took it amiably enough. My reasons were fairly decent, and he wanted to look around himself. See If Larxene's down in this corner of hell, he said jokingly.
We parted.
I never "saw" him again.
-----
The Underworld was a grim place. The souls of the dead flooded down it's corridors and passages with unrelenting momentum, always moaning their low, agonized lament.
But for some reason, the whole place felt… right. The dead were all that I could be with, nowadays. The living and the non-existant were too much to bare.
This was small consolation, of course. My job here was relatively short. I could barely drag it out more then a few hours, and then I would be forced back to the long hours of silence in the Organization's castle. I turned my thoughts from my rapport with the Underworld, and focused on the task at hand.
-----
I remember nothing of the time between my meeting with Xigbar and my meeting with Axel. It was most likely uninteresting, in any case; there was little to do beyond move through the sea of non-existence.
Then I sensed Axel, out in the depths. I moved towards him with all the "speed" I could muster. The first words I said to him were It's boring out here, isn't it?
Demyx? was the slightly startled reply.
That's right.
What the hell are you doing out here?
Same as you. Being dead.
Oh. Right. Dude, he added quickly, you have terrible timing.
What? Why?
The next words he said gave me hope beyond human comprehension.
Because Zexion was here awhile back, and he was lookin' for you.
-----
There was so much of Roxas in the young Keyblade Master I could barely describe it. The way he moved, spoke, smiled… all of it was exactly right.
All that was missing, I realised, was Axel. Strange how the young blond nobody had been so defined by my red-haired compatriot. And strange how now that they were apart, they both seemed incomplete.
Still, it changed nothing. I was too spent inside to care.
And though I didn't know it, in the depths of my soul I was longing for death.
-----
I parted from Axel swiftly, leaving as soon as he told me where Zexion had headed. He himself had forged off into the non-existant realm to search for someone. He didn't say who, but I could guess.
My travels from then on were uneventful. The nothingness remained blank and featureless for time incomprehensible.
Then I sensed it; it was brief, a mere feather-stroke on the senses I used now to navigate. But it was there.
Seconds later, I felt it again; it grew stronger this time, heading towards me. I started forward, praying, praying it was who I thought it might be.
When we met, it spoke first.
Demyx?
My soul burst open with joy. I reached out tendrils of thought to hold him close.
Zexion.
And the grief of my "life" without him fell away.
I had him.
And that was all I needed.
