Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters in the story below....
Demyx Has A Problem
Demyx was far from amused. Actually Demyx was far from a lot of things, his home, his boyfriend, life in general. He had just been in the Underworld, but now he wasn't too sure where he was, and was rather upset about the fact. He had portalled in something of a hurry, it had been the first time he had encountered Sora face to face, and it had left him a bit shocked. What had shocked him most was that Sora looked so different from Roxas, to his eyes, yet had the same tone of voice and mannerisms. He genuinely felt cheated, he felt like he really wanted Roxas to emerge from the Sora shell, and he was angry enough with Rox still, to not have a problem actually fighting the guy!
But now he had a problem – he didn't know where he was, and, worse still, he couldn't seem to portal again. At first he thought he was still in the realms of Hades, but then he realised that the air around him felt very dry, unlike the atmosphere in the Underworld, which had been dripping with humidity. He remembered that this inability to portal had occurred once before when he had been trapped in a cave with Axel, that time they had not had their phones with them, this time however, he was on a mission and would not have dared leave the castle without it – only problem was he couldn't seem to get a signal!
Up ahead, he could see the faint glimmer of natural light, and set off in that direction, monitoring his phone for a signal, all the while. The light was further off than he had originally thought, and the cave mouth was smaller, but after more than half an hour of trudging through the shale and rocks which covered the cave floor, and some of which were sharp enough to cut through the leather of his boots, he eventually arrived at the exit. It took a few minutes only, to hoist his thin and wiry frame up and through the opening, and onto a bed of more shale and rocks, but now at least, he could feel the fresh breeze whispering across his face.
He checked his phone which now had managed to acquire network contact, then he tried opening a portal, but with no success. He dialled Axel's prepaid cell, he never used Ax's work phone since he rarely bothered to switch it on, unless it was imperative. To his great relief, Ax answered straight away.
"Hey, Dem. Where the hell are you? I was expecting you back ages ago. I thought you only went to get a damned medallion."
"Nope. Xem changed things at the last minute – he found out Sora was down here, and got Saix to give me a memo just before I portalled out, telling me to try and get Roxas back while I was here! Bastard! He conveniently forgot to mention that Sora was not alone, would try to kill me, and...oh yeah!...that my water powers are damn near useless in such high humidity! All I could do was manifest a few dozen weak forms – forget waterspouts or anything stronger, and now I have no idea where I am. I managed to portal out of the cavern OK, but then, instead of finding myself back at the castle, I found myself in another cave. This one's above ground, I know 'cos I'm outside it now, but I can't form a portal – not inside nor outside! Heeellp!!" wailed Dem.
"Dem, there's no way I can track you on this phone! I'll ring you back on the work cell, and set the computer GPS to find you. How the hell did you not make it back though, I don't get it. Was it an emergency portal?" asked Axel, still a little confused.
"Nope. Normal portal. I didn't even panic when I couldn't produce any real waterworks – to be honest, I'm not sure that Sora guy was trying to kill me too hard, I got the feeling he could have killed me if he'd really wanted to."
"Dem, I'm ringing you back on the other phone. We can discuss all this later once I've got you home! Close the line!" said Axel, snapping his phone shut. He was unsure of whether to let anyone else in on Dem's predicament, but decided to try and sort things out himself first - if he could. He rang Dem back on his work phone.
"Dem, you there?" he asked somewhat pointlessly, as Demyx answered.
"Course I'm here! It's not as if I can go anywhere! Have you found me yet? It's kind of sharp and painful here, and there's nowhere to sit down, and I'm tired, and in pain!" moaned Demyx.
The GPS search on Axel's computer began to beep loudly, "Dem, I've got your co-ordinates but according to them you are here – in the castle! I don't understand, according to all the numbers, you should be outside my room," said Axel, opening the door to check, "but you're not! So where the hell are you? I'm going to have to call in one of the big boys on this Dem. You know I'm no good with computer things!"
"OK! But not Xem or Saix unless you have to – they'd probably want to leave me here anyway since I failed at my mission - I dropped the medallion when I portalled, and failed to liberate Rox to boot!"
"OK! I'll go get Xig – he might be able to teleport to you somehow, if you are around here – I'll be back in a sec, stay on the line!"
Axel portalled to Xig's room, and banged once, loudly, before racing in. Xig, who had been catching up on his beauty sleep, was less than delighted at being interrupted, but had to laugh when Axel tripped over two of his blasters strewn on the floor, and went headfirst floorwards, putting two perfectly aligned holes in the base of the wardrobe.
"Xig," he gasped out, somewhat breathless, "Dem's stuck somewhere. Portal to my room – NOW – I've left him on the phone, he appears to be in the castle, but he isn't – you'll understand if you see my computer!" garbled Ax as he opened them a portal, groped his way up and disappeared into it.
A moment later, Xig had joined him at his computer screen.
"See your point, Ax. He should be here. Give me the phone, will you, I need to speak to Dem," stated Xig, wondering if Axel had put his own phone number in instead of Dem's in his hurry, and re-entering the number with one hand, whilst holding his other out for the phone.
"Dem, Xig's here to help. I'm giving him the phone now."
"OK, Dem – it's Xigbar. Ax has put the right info in this machine, so what I need you to do now is move!"
"Move? Move where?" questioned Demyx.
"Dem, I need you to take a few steps in any direction, say fifteen. I need you to change co-ordinates slightly so that I can try and work out what is going on."
"OK, Xig, I'm moving to my left fifteen steps. One...two..." Demyx began.
Xig and Axel looked at the door and then at each other, very confused now, since according to Dem's new co-ordinates, he should have just walked in.
"Xig," Axel asked, "where the hell is he? What is going on?"
"Truthfully, Ax," admitted Xig, muting the phone, "I have no idea what's going on. I think we may have to let the blue buttkisser in on this. I'm going to try a teleport but I'm a little worried – I could get trapped the same way Dem is and I don't know if I could teleport back, even if I find him. Give it five minutes, if I'm not back – get Saix and remind him of three years ago!"
A second later, Xig wasn't there, half a minute later though, he was back.
"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" asked Xig, his one good eye looking somewhat unhappy.
"How bad?" queried Ax, looking seriously worried.
"We're going to need Saix – is that bad enough? This happened once before, before you joined us. Dem is here, he's just fallen through a gap! Let me explain, before this castle was built there was a mountain here, filled with caverns, we destroyed most of it to construct this place, but... and this is where it gets a bit complicated...and also why you have to portal to the dining room...parts of the original structure were left intact to make the castle harder to discover...and also, to retain structural integrity. Dem is quite literally stuck between a rock and a hard place! Problem is, the air in these pockets has become compressed and heavy, you can't form a portal in there, he's actually about eight feet below us, that's the good news, but the only way we can get to him is going to be physical excavation, either through your floor or the corridor outside the library – either way, we'll have to tell the blue guy, if not the big boss!"
Axel looked horrified. Xig didn't think Ax was clever enough to have worked out that Dem had limited oxygen, so he had to assume it was telling the bosses, so he thought he'd better enlighten the red-head.
"Ax, we have about half an hour to get Dem out, going on past experience, or he'll run out of usable air, I'm going to tell Saix – you tell Dem to breathe easy, that we've found him and we're on the way – if he panics and starts to hyperventilate, he'll use up the oxygen faster, and shorten our chances of getting to him in time."
Good as his word, Xig teleported immediately. Ax picked up the phone.
"Dem, we've found you, but we're going to have to bring in some machinery to get you out. You are in the castle, kind of, but in a rock pocket with heavy air - the reason we have to portal to the dining room – apparently! Anyway, we're setting things up to get you out, sweetie. Got it memorized?"
"Sure Ax, but my battery is running out!"
"Look, Dem – I know it's a nightmare but turn off the phone – keep the phone battery as full as you can, I'll ring again once we're underway or with more instructions. OK?"
"OK, Ax," lied Demyx, "I trust you," he said, knowing Axel only used his famous catchphrase when under pressure of some kind – fear, anger, or just plain panic!
"Great Dem. Be there in a minute, got it memorized?" lied Axel, snapping the phone closed and hoping that Saix wouldn't be a complete bastard for once.
A moment later Xig portalled in with Saix.
"So, the blond dick's got himself stuck, has he? OK, Ax, calm down, we'll get your girlfriend back but not for you, don't get any ideas there – we simply need to debrief him! We'll go through your floor, it's the quickest route – so, move that desk, floor's thinnest at that point. Ring Demyx and tell him to stand clear. Got it memorized?" Saix smirked.
Axel would have killed him there and then if he hadn't known it would also sign Demyx's death sentence. Instead he helped Xig to shift the desk and then got on the phone to Dem.
"Dem, move back to where you were – fifteen steps right – we're coming in through the ceiling, so watch out for the debris. See you in a minute!" Ax felt happier now he could hear the pneumatic drill at work.
Ten minutes later, a cavern had appeared under Axel's floor, and a few moments after that a rope was being lowered down to a blond sat in a lot of rubble. Ax was a little unhappy, he was wondering if Dem would ever be safe on his own, and determined not to allow him to be debriefed alone if his mission had gone as badly as he said.
Xig was also unhappy, he was now missing the one poker game of the week he ever won at, held at a certain brothel that he and Luxord frequented. Saix was unhappy because he'd left Xem in his room, and there were certain videos and computer files he really did not want Xemnas to see.
Demyx, on the other hand, was happy. He was safe. As soon as he found himself wrapped in Axel's arms, he knew he was safe. His only upset was still not hearing the three magic little words he longed to hear.
"I love you, Ax," he whispered into Ax's ear, hopefully, as he revelled in Ax's embrace.
"Course you do," his lover whispered back, "I just saved your life!"
OK this is a bit more serious than my usual stuff. Please review - I'm getting desperate!! - but thanks everyone who has, and who's put me on their faves lists.