Title: Crossroad
Pairing: Axel/Roxas
Warnings: Supernatural mash-up, language, allusions to sex, innuendo, demonic possession, death.
Rating: PG-13/R
Beta: the BetaMistress alovelysilence
A/N: Charity fic for pro_kira, who decided she wanted the boys as hunters in the world of Supernatural.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, but I do get a kick out of writing for the fandom. I also don't own Supernatural or Final Fantasy. Also, 'Pazuzu' is the demon from The Exorcist.
Summary: When Axel says 'the past came back to haunt us,' he means it literally.
Axel and Roxas had been working jobs together for almost three years by the time something caught up with them. It was creeping up out of the corner of Axel's peripheral vision, but when he actually looked it was gone. Hunting supernatural entities never really made them any friends, other than the human or two they saved per job – hell's denizens were usually a different case entirely. But somewhere between Gettysburg and Lowell, between a nasty Civil-War era colonel and a Djinn haunting an old, empty mill building, Axel realized that they might have really have a problem.
It had started with a few minor omens, violent concentrated storms and the like – then Roxas began seeing people spontaneously burst into flames, a vision Axel himself never witnessed. But it certainly startled him, and for a guy who'd dealt with a fully-transformed werewolf shrieking in his face without so much as batting an eye, that alone put Axel on edge. Mostly though, he hoped figured it had something to do with Colonel Whats-his-face and his haunted battlefield-turned-campground, even though Roxas had seen such things years before.
As they drove farther north though, the omens took a more dramatic turn. The Djinn case had been difficult, even somewhat harrowing to a degree. Roxas had been thrown halfway across the floor while the Djinn's twisted, tattooed hand wrapped around Axel's throat and started to squeeze. Axel was already a bit dazed (his head had met a pillar pretty hard earlier) and the hand holding the knife was immobilized; all he could think was fuck fuck fuck, I'm dead until Roxas leapt out of fucking nowhere, a blur of blond and black, and stabbed the Djinn in the back with an enraged scream.
A hard-won, successful hunt deserved a little reward – Axel figured the only thing they were going to get from the police was an arrest warrant for trespassing, and Roxas was giving him that I'm going to fuck you in the back seat of the Camero in approximately now look so that was that. They barely made it back to the motel before Roxas started tearing articles of clothing off, had just opened the door when Roxas broke their heated kiss and shoved him towards the bed.
It was after, when they were curled up together sweaty and sated, with Roxas' cheek pillowed against Axel's chest, that the motel phone rang. Roxas' eyes snapped open, staring widely at the still-ringing phone. It was three in the morning – who the fuck was calling?
Axel grunted, the obnoxious continued ringing rousing him from sleep. He mumbled something that sounded like a very colorful curse, huffed into the tufts of Roxas' hair close to his mouth, then rolled over. Roxas rolled his eyes, and reached across the redhead's tattooed back for the phone. " 'lo?" he muttered warily.
The response wasn't human. Roxas jerked the phone away from his ear as the raging sounds of static and unearthly screams filtered through at a high volume. Panicking Roxas dropped the phone and scrambled over Axel's body, even as the redhead tried to sit up. The blond tore the phone wires directly out of the wall, smashing the receiver into bits.
The room was silent for a moment, save for Roxas' heavy breathing. Axel stared at him, realizing quickly what this might be. "That's it, isn't it?" he breathed, swallowing thickly.
Roxas' cell phone went off; there was an unregistered number on the caller id. "Don't answer it," Axel whispered. "It's just fucking with you."
"Then what should I-"
"Kill the phone. We'll get you a new one. Let's get moving."
They left the old industrial city behind, leaving nothing more than a few false names and two destroyed phones in their wake.
0o0
Three and a half years ago, Axel fancied himself a decent solitary hunter. He'd been raised and trained by one of the best after his parents were killed by a demon. Reno had sent him on his way well stocked with supernatural knowledge and keen fighting skills, though he could have done with a better car. Eventually he bought his own, a newer Camero he had modified to his liking.
Roxas ended up being one of his cases.
He'd been traveling through Louisiana when he caught word of a demonic possession unlike any he'd heard of before. It wasn't a case of some lowlife from Hell taking a new meatsuit for a ride - it was a full-on impossible contortions, strap-your-limbs-down, Pazuzu-style possession. The kid and his family had moved to the Big Easy when they started to think their house up north was haunted; when they arrived in Louisiana Roxas' mother said she'd found him scuttling on the floor like some kind of animal, eyes glowing, and he'd bent backward at an impossible angle just to tease her, cackling madly. When Axel – dressed in his best clerical garb, going by 'Father Michaels' for the moment - asked how they finally restrained him, she revealed tearfully that the previous priest had dumped a bucket of holy water on the boy, temporarily immobilizing him with searing pain. That was before the possessed boy tore the priest's throat out with his teeth.
When Axel arrived he would have guessed the kid was almost gone. The demon had wasted him away, leaving the eighteen year old skin and bones, his hair dirty and every inch of his skin was waxy and sunken. His wrists and ankles were bleeding from his struggles against the restraints, and were twisting still despite the pain when Axel walked in. There was a mere second's delay where the boy – or what remained of him – peered out from behind striking, hollow blue eyes before the demon took over again, twisting his features and glaring out with mad black eyes. He's mine, the demon had growled; now Axel hated demons on principle, but what he hated more was a cocky demon.
Axel managed to do what the priests couldn't and finally exorcised the demon, but the damage had been done. The boy's parents wouldn't have him anymore; he was cursed, not even the other people in town would have anything to do with him.
Somehow the kid – "my name's Roxas, you phony-ass priest" – ended up riding shotgun and made himself Axel's unofficial apprentice. With several liberal meals of diner food – fried chicken, meatloaf, seafood, mashed potatoes, the works – the kid started filling out and looking less like he'd narrowly escaped death by starvation. A trip to visit Reno at Seventh Heaven had given him an anti-possession tattoo, and a little while later a close call with a vampire landed Axel in the blond's bed, though he certainly wasn't going to complain about that development – not when Roxas was tracing the intricate patterns of tattoos across his shoulders and the small of his back with the light touch of his finger, sending pleasurable chills up his spine.
They were fine for a while, great even – they made a great team, and Axel never considered working cases solo from that point on. But if Roxas' demon had reemerged, things were about to get dicey real fast. He drove at breakneck speed towards Seventh Heaven, a bar favored by the hunters in Reno's circle that served as a veritable bunker against demons and all manner of unearthly things.
When Axel was stuck with Reno Seventh Heaven had been their base, a safe haven with arcane symbols repelling anything demonic painted into the walls, devil's traps at every single entry point to keep the filth out. In his youth Axel had seen a swarm of demons try to run it into the ground, but the supernatural barricades held. Axel credited Tifa, the owner and bartender, with this feat thanks to her extensive knowledge of magic and demonology, as well as the 'NO BULLSHIT' sign she practically carried around and the multitude of shotguns she kept behind the bar.
Reno's guard dogs met them at the door, howling and barking happily until Reno whistled sharply from the other end of the bar; both German shepherd mixes quieted instantly and trotted back to their owner, who was sitting back in his bar stool smoking, his long red hair still pulled back in its trademark ponytail. His partner Rude was examining a map beside him.
"Long time, no see kid," Reno said by way of greeting. Then he raised an eyebrow quirkily. "You two idiots still together?"
"I'm not in market for a new partner," Roxas responded with a tight smile, "and even if I was, you wouldn't be my first choice." Axel had to give him credit, when he'd first met Reno he couldn't keep up with his snide remarks; now he handled them rather well.
Reno snorted. "Kid's got quite a mouth on him," he commented.
"Does he? Really?" Axel asked mockingly, slinging his arm around Roxas' shoulders as he took a seat next to Reno. "Two beers," he signaled to Tifa while Reno bemoaned his word choice.
"Now Axel, you know I don't serve to minors," Tifa said, handing him a bottle.
Roxas pouted. "I'm twenty-one already, give me a beer."
"No really, just give him the beer," Axel turned to her seriously. It had been a very, very long trip to Seventh Heaven since Roxas was on edge and hyper-alert the whole way. "The demon spawn I exorcised from him three years ago is back on our trail," he said by way of explanation.
"That is the second time those fucking idiots have screwed things up," Reno growled, taking a deep drink of his beer. "Fucking Winchesters never learn. First they open the gates of Hell itself, then they get Lucifer all in a tizzy. I'm not surprised it came back."
"That would explain why it's suddenly back on our trail," Axel sighed. "We came to see if you'd heard anything new that might give us something to work with."
Reno tilted his head towards his partner. "Anything lately, Rude?"
"The Four Horsemen," Rude answered, trailing his finger over different parts of the map. "Nothing that matches their demon that I know of."
"Cloud's been out on the hunt more than me lately," Reno shrugged. "Oi, Spike!," he shouted, looking back towards the back corner of the bar, where one of the regulars sat cleaning his guns, a malamute at his side.
"I'll check over my notes," Cloud answered impassively, not pausing in cleaning his guns.
"Ok," Axel nodded. "You have a room open?" he asked Tifa, who was just handing Roxas his beer.
"You have enough cash?" she countered. "We don't take credit cards."
"Whaaaaat?" Axel scoffed. "I'm practically family! Don't you trust me?"
"Of course I trust you, honey," Tifa said sweetly, lowering her eyelashes coyly and leaning against the bar to display ample cleavage. "Just not your credit balance. Don't want the Feds knocking on my door, no thank you. Cash, up front."
Axel sighed and pulled out his wallet, unfolding a couple of bills. "God help you, Cloud. Your girl's a wily one."
Cloud paused; "God can't help any of us now," he said sullenly, which earned him a dirty rag to the face from Tifa.
0o0
They woke to Reno and Cloud's dogs barking in the middle of the night. Roxas had nearly flown out of Axel's arms, gun in hand, at the sound, awaking Axel in the process as well. They hastily pulled on jeans and shirts then headed down into the main bar area, meeting Cloud and Tifa along the way.
"Think you brought some company, Axel," Reno snapped when they got to the foot of the stairs, the barrel of his gun aimed at the open door and the figure poised at its threshold.
"No one I invited," Axel responded, shoving Roxas behind him roughly.
"Fuck you," Roxas grumbled viciously, breaking his grip and moving to stand beside him.
"That's the spirit, Roxas!" an unfamiliar voice cheered sarcastically from the open door. "Oh my, my, look how you've grown." The figure took better shape after a moment, that of a middle-aged man – balding, with pure black eyes and a toothy grin.
Axel felt Roxas freeze beside him, saw his hands begin to shake. "Come back for seconds, bitch?" Axel jeered; if he'd done away with this fucker once, he could do it again.
"Second time is always the charm," the demon snapped, a wide grin on his face. Then he stepped forward, right into the trap set at the door. "Well what d'ya know, a Devil's Trap," he said in mock disappointment. "Gosh darn it, you got me."
"What do you want?" Reno demanded.
The demon just smiled. "Infant," he responded derisively, spitting on the floor. "I'm just here to deliver a message." His black eyes travelled and found Axel, still keeping Roxas behind him. "Hey there, Roxie," he purred, licking his lips. "So nice to see you again - may I say, you look delicious."
"FUCKER!" Roxas screamed suddenly, firing his gun and catching the demon's human captive right between the eyes. Before he could fire another shot Axel grabbed him again and pushed him safely in the background. Meanwhile the demon shrugged the bullet wound off, saving the damage for when it left the body it was using.
"Well that's no way to greet an old friend," it simpered.
"Out with it," Tifa shouted, stalking up to the demon and putting the business end of her shotgun within a foot of his head. "What do you want?"
"I wasn't quite finished with you yet," the demon said, gaze still focused on where Roxas was being hidden behind Axel's back. "Got cockblocked by a puny human with delusions of heroic grandeur," he continued, eyeing Axel dangerously. "Coitus interruptus, if you will. I bet you taste even better though, now that you've had a little more…experience."
"Well guess what?" Roxas raged, even almost laughing. "You can't possess me anymore! My soul is mine now."
"Who says I need to possess you? Have you spoken with your family lately, Roxie?" the demon asked, almost off-hand as he examined his human host's nails.
"They shunned me. They're not my family."
"Maybe so, but-"
"Can we put a lid on this idiot?" Cloud interjected loudly. "Why the hell are we talking to it? If you would be so kind, Tifa?" Tifa immediately began to chant one of her more powerful exorcising spells.
"You can't run forever," the demon continued ranting at Roxas, ignoring Tifa. "And he's certainly not going to protect you forever. You think you can defeat me? You'll never escape, and when the day comes I'll tear you up from the inside-" then its mouth opened grotesquely, and the black smoke that made up the demon poured from its host's mouth until the man fell dead and the smoke dissipated.
"Well," Reno said, clearing his throat. "That was interesting."
Tifa handed Axel and Roxas shovels. "You two can take care of the body," she said simply and followed the other two back up to their rooms.
"Wait, how did I end up doing the dirty work too?" Axel demanded jokingly. Roxas' hand on his arm stopped him. "Hey, what's up?" he asked quietly, his tone softening.
"Don't leave me," Roxas murmured.
"Of course not," Axel answered cavalierly. "You're stuck with me, remember?"
"On second thought," Roxas made a show of rethinking his decision, chuckling to himself.
"Shut it," Axel said, leaning down to see what the best way to carry the body would be. "We'll find a way, and you know it."
"You know, I think maybe we better use Reno's car for this. Don't want the Camero's seats getting all bloodied."
"You know, I like the way you think," Axel said with a broad, scheming grin as he hefted the body up.