"So, how's it going?"
Demyx shrugged onesidedly. "I'm alive, so better than I expected a week ago." He mumbled like he had a mouthful of Novocain.
Axel took a deep breath. "Yeah, that was...something I'd like to never go through again. And you probably enjoyed it even less than I did. Boy, did that sound stupid." Demyx didn't comment. "So...how are your new hearing aids working out?"
"They work."
"Uh huh...how's your mouth feel?"
"Pretty numb."
"How's the rest of you?"
"Sore."
"Are you mind-blowingly traumatized, or are you just too hopped up on painkillers to engage in actual conversation?"
"Both."
"I was afraid of that..."
"They all wanted me dead, Ax." Demyx's voice was suddenly even softer and weaker than it had been, so Axel had to ask him to repeat himself. "They all wanted me dead."
Axel scratched his head. This conversation is about to go places I'd rather it didn't go... "Who wanted you dead?" If it turns out to be the voices in your head, I'm getting out of here.
"Everyone there." Demyx's eyes were downcast. "I saw their faces...I saw what they were saying...they hated me." Despite all his impulses to start bad-mouthing the crowd who had been assembled at the gallows, Axel waited for him to continue. Demyx swallowed hard. "I can still feel the rope," he whispered, running his good hand across his throat almost unconsciously.
Axel sighed and rubbed his forehead - there wasn't anything he could say. But he spoke anyway. "Well...you're safe now, at least."
"I know..." Safe...after a few hours at the tavern with the guys turned into three days of torture and a public death sentence, all because someone had discovered he didn't have a heart. It would be more worrying if Demyx wasn't traumatized after something like that. Axel might have wondered if a week shouldn't have been long enough, except he'd jerked awake at 3:30 that morning after dreaming he'd been an instant too late, and hadn't burned through the rope in time. Even knowing that had he failed, Luxord could have wound time back again and again and given him an infinite number of chances didn't make him feel a bit better.
"You didn't deserve this shit," he muttered angrily. Demyx sighed and looked away. "Why the hell'd they have to catch you? You're the only one of the bunch without the sense to fight back in the first place..." Okay, way to go, Axel, you idiot...talk about having no sense... "Sorry, I didn't mean that the way it came out."
If Demyx hadn't been on painkillers, the conversation could have become even more awkward in a hurry. But he just shrugged and accepted Axel's apology. "S'okay...I know I'm...one of th' duller crayons in th' box..."
If? Could have? How awkward could a conversation get? Yay, way to put your foot in it, Ax... "Could you not talk like that?" Demyx shrugged and looked confused. "Sheesh...if you're going to talk crazy like that, I may as well vacate the premises so you can get a little rest."
Demyx blinked worriedly at him. Between the Novocain in his mouth and the painkillers in his system, his reply was almost indecipherable. Axel shook his head in bewilderment, and he frowned. "Yer gonna...burn th'city...aintcha..."
"Demyx, why -"
"Don' do it, Ax. Rox'll follow ya...y'll get 'm in trouble...s'not worth it..."
"After what they did to you -"
"Think they'll be nicer t'you? Or t'Rox? He said he'd help ya...jus' think'a wha' they'd do t'him 'f they caught'm..." Demyx shook his head and tried to sit up. "Don' do it. Jus'...don'."
Axel held up a hand. "Demyx. Relax. I'm not a complete idiot, got it memorized? Port Royal is officially hostile territory, bad things happen if you enter hostile territory; I can put two and two together."
"Jus' don' wan' you t'get hurt..." Demyx's voice trailed off, and his eyes closed. Round one to the painkillers in a knockout decision. Painkillers, one, Demyx, nothing. Axel shook his head and left the medical wing, thinking over their conversation. Like it or not, and like it he didn't, Demyx had made a very good point. If any of them went back to Port Royal in the near future, the odds were too good that they'd end up on the receiving end of much the same treatment he had - not necessarily including being attacked with their own weapons, but it was clearly a possibility. And like it or not - and he didn't like it at all - it really behooved Axel to change his plans. He went and knocked on Roxas's door.
Roxas opened the door and looked at him warily. "Should I be ready to go soon?"
Axel shook his head. "I've changed my mind. We're not going back to Port Royal."
Roxas tried unsuccessfully to hold back a sigh of relief. "Just as well, I guess...I was having a few doubts."
Axel nodded. "Demyx convinced me...said it was too dangerous if we got caught, and who'd know better than him." He shuddered slightly.
"Yeah...it's horrible, what happened to him, but it wouldn't make anything better if one of us came back looking the same way."
"Or didn't come back at all; since he managed to escape, maybe Nobodies are shoot-on-sight now...yeah, Dems seems to be a magnet for shit luck some days, and I'm not that hot on inviting some of it on myself." Axel looked a little wistful. "Even if it would be fun to watch some of that city burn..."
"Axel..."
Axel held up his hands. "Did I not just tell you I'm not going back? I gotta go check my blood sugar before dinner - catch up with you in the kitchen."
Technically, Axel hadn't told Roxas or Demyx anything but the truth - he did realize Port Royal was dangerous territory for a Nobody, they weren't going back, it had been Demyx who'd convinced him, he wasn't hot on bringing any of Demyx's bad luck down on himself, it would be fun to watch Port Royal burn, and he did not tell Roxas that he, Axel, wasn't going back.
Because as soon as Roxas had gone to bed and the coast was clear, Axel did go back. Demyx had managed to convince him - that it was too dangerous to bring Roxas along. And he knew that if Roxas thought he'd gone by himself, he'd follow, and Demyx and Roxas might compare stories. Hence the careful word choices.
His first stop was the gallows. He paused for a moment to admire the way it looked in the moonlight, then realized - There's nothing beautiful about this thing. It's just a damn killing device. And it damn near killed Demyx. He was perfectly happy to kill it with fire, and spent longer than was probably wise watching the flames dance in the night as the scaffold burned merrily and eventually collapsed in on itself.
Serves you.
The inferno had inevitably attracted attention, and Axel disappeared into the shadows, pulling his hood up to conceal his extremely visible hair. He was grinning like the cat with all the cream. Now the prison.
He dodged and teleported from dark shadow to darker shadow, enjoying the adrenaline high he always got from sneaking around setting fires under people's noses. When he still had a heart, he'd always felt a little sick after it was all over, but losing it had enabled him to ignore the uncomfortable sensation and just enjoy the burning-things part. And tonight was going to be a grand night for doing just that.
But the stone walls of the prison stymied him. He could, if he so desired, summon a fire so hot even stone would burn, if he cared to risk death twice - once from the sheer power expenditure and once from wearing himself out and being captured and killed. Not tonight - he had too many other things to burn, and he really did want to return safely.
Gunpowder. I need gunpowder. But where the hell am I gonna find enough? Probably the armory, but where the hell is that?
Well, Axel couldn't exactly stop and ask someone for directions. Besides, that wasn't his only fish to fry. And speaking of fish to fry... He eyed the boats lined up along the docks, grinning malevolently. Moments later, one of them burst into flames. Packed as tight as they were, it was only a matter of time before the lot of them burned, and the docks with them. Much as he'd have liked to stay and watch them go, he knew every instant he held still could be the crucial instant between escape and safety and capture and probable death.
Next stop...the tavern.
That triply damned tavern where the whole mess had begun. One moment they'd been enjoying a drink and a night off, then a fight broke out - shots were fired - someone yelled to run for it - and then Axel, Luxord, and Xigbar were all safely back at the Castle that Never Was, and Demyx was missing in action. We were all too sure Mr. Sweet-and-Innocent-Face would weasel his way out of anything he got into to worry all that much for the first few hours...granted, we weren't expecting a fucking lynch mob...
The streets were much emptier than Axel had expected, probably because everyone was running to the gallows fire and the burning ships. On the one hand, it made hiding and escaping much easier, on the other hand, the adrenaline rush wasn't so strong without the panicked faces. The tavern was painted wood, dry as a bone, which made him feel better; one touch and it went up like paper. He paused for a moment, enjoying the blaze...and something very hard and very heavy struck the back of his head.
His last thought before collapsing was Shit, I've been caught...
AN: Oh noes! What's gonna happen to Axel?
Truly, I haven't decided yet...Has he been knocked unconscious and captured, now to face the same unpleasant fate that Demyx suffered - probably an even nastier one, since he'd been going around burning things - or did Roxas wake up, realize he was missing, guess where he went, hunt him down, and hit him over the head with a Keyblade for being such a dumbass?
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, got it memorized?
