Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I don't even own Demyx's human name.
Chapter Two
Traitorous
I woke up slowly.
I didn't hurt so much now, just a little headache and an unforgettable pain in my chest- I didn't feel too warm anymore. I stretched and opened my eyes slowly, feeling comfortable. My bed was never this cozy…
"Look who's up? It's about freaking time," came a voice from next to me.
I looked up. There was a strange, almost pressured feeling to my body, which made my head heavy. "H-hey. What's going on?" I tried to look around, but my vision swam. My voice cracked.
"You've been out almost two days," he said offhandedly. "What did you do to yourself? You came back from a mission and you nearly died in the Superior's office. Did he smack you a bit too hard or something?"
"Two days?" I asked slowly, struggling to keep up with him- he was talking fast and my head hurt a lot more now. I half sat up. "No, he didn't hit me… he actually let it slide. I must have breathed too much Underworld air or something…" It just proved that this wasn't a dream… that the pain in my chest was absolute, not dreamed up. "Have you been here the entire time, Axel?"
"Just a few minutes," the pyro stated, leaning back in his chair. "You scared Xemnas to death, for some reason. He didn't say a word about it that I know of."
"Oh… I think that's really it, though. That place can make you sick if you stay too long. Some curse. I forget exactly."
Axel shook his head. "'The Underworld curse. Affects all who aren't dead aside from Hades. Seek a deal of alliance with the God, go to Olympus and take the Olympus stone, and most importantly, confront Roxas. If the subject fails to respond, use aggression to liberate his true disposition.'" Axel flipped through a set of index cards on the table beside the bed. "Lot of stuff he expected you to accomplish, no? And you failed."
I smiled sarcastically. "Gee, that just makes me feel great!"
He rolled his eyes. "What do you care? At least he let you off easily. Can't say the same for right now. He wants to know what the hell is going on with you. As if you didn't know already."
"…What do you mean?" I stared at him, the spikes in his hair all blurring together as I struggled to focus.
Axel looked at me, clearly frustrated. "I don't know, what do I mean? Don't tell me you haven't noticed. Even if you haven't, don't tell me something didn't feel wrong. You even smell different now. There's not enough darkness."
"What are you trying to say?" I asked, though I could tell what his implication was. He knew all about what I was trying to ignore, trying to deny even though it was right there in plain daylight.
Axel stood up. I could feel his false rage emanating from him in waves. "Demyx, come with me. The Superior wants to see you."
"Wha…? Why?"
"Just do it. I'm not in the mood to argue with you right now," he snapped.
I tried to ignore the fact that I hadn't even picked a fight with him. Axel was in a bad mood, and I somehow knew that I had to deal with it. But how? I'd never done anything to him. In fact, usually we were pretty friendly.
Slowly, I stood too.
I followed Axel through the familiar corridors. Neither of us said another word, and though I tried to start a conversation, most of the time the words pattered out. Why was he giving me the cold shoulder? Why had he snapped at me before, when I hadn't given him a reason?
Why did the Superior want to speak to me, anyway?
Only when we passed the Grey Area did I notice something was up, and not just with Axel, but with everyone, and for some reason, I was the cause.
Deep down, I did know why. I just tried not to think about it, tried to avoid it while I still could.
A large hand seized me by the shoulder and grasped my neck. I sputtered wordlessly and tried to see my captor. I heard Axel summon a chakram and flung it at whoever had me. I fell to the ground and gasped for breath. Axel stepped in front of me.
"So now you're protecting the traitor?" came a voice I recognized as Xaldin's. "Isn't that… I don't know, hypocrisy?"
"My orders were to take him to Xemnas," Axel answered in a steely tone. "Alive. What the Superior decides to do with him then is his choice, not yours."
"But aren't you as angry as I am on this matter?" Xaldin asked in his manipulating tone.
Axel ignored him and yanked me to a stand. "Don't just stand there and gape, walk."
I blinked several times but obeyed.
The way he treated me- I felt like a prisoner. "What did I do?" I began weakly. "Suddenly everyone's pissed off at me. If Xemnas let my failure slide, how come everyone else won't?"
Axel grasped my arm, squeezing hard. "Don't even pretend to be oblivious," he snarled. I'd seen him this angry, but it was never directed at me. "I know you know what I'm talking about. I don't believe your act at all."
"I'm not acting," I heard myself say, and tensed, expecting him to hit me with something.
If it was even possible, Axel let go of my arm violently. The blood rush was painful- I felt another jolt. My blood couldn't be thin enough to run that quickly.
We arrived at Xemnas's office. I looked at Axel, trying to decipher his expression, but it was carefully collected. He knocked twice and the door swished open.
"I have brought Nine, like you requested," he said.
Xemnas was sitting behind his desk, looking calm. His hands were tightly clasped and, oddly enough, the fingers were twitching. "Thank you, Eight."
Axel nodded once, prodded a skinny finger in the center of my back, and retreated to the back of the room, where he leaned against a wall. No- actually, he was leaning against the door.
It was as if he was blocking my only means of escape.
My eyebrows furrowed. I swear I felt a jump in my veins. "What…?" but I couldn't finish my sentence.
Xemnas leaned over his desk, radiating his authority. "Do you know why I have called you here?"
"Isn't it about that mission?" I asked, hand fluttering to my throat. "I thought you let that go…"
His look was suddenly full of malice. "You can drop your pitiful act," he snapped. "You must be smarter than you are strong- not even Vexen was able to find a logical way to approach the problem."
"I'm not acting," I mumbled for the second time, trying to look away from his sharp orange glare.
"Don't tell me you don't know," I heard Axel mutter. "You mean you haven't noticed? You ran a fever for two days and that's an impossibility for a Nobody."
I'd been denying it these past couple hours, and I was running out of ways to run away. But why was I running from something I had thought I wanted so badly?
Xemnas shook his head, and I swear his eye twitched. "You've gotten your heart back, Nine."
I sighed and tried to ignore the insistent pounding coming from my chest.
"What I don't understand is… why wouldn't you tell us you had this sort of information?"
"I don't know how it happened," I whispered.
He slammed his fists on the desk now, and I jumped. "You're a traitor," he hissed, his voice low. "And you are aware of what we do to those who betray us."
I closed my eyes, trying to get myself to believe that this wasn't happening. "I'm sorry," I almost sobbed.
"You do understand that the punishment for betrayal is death." Xemnas's voice was low, even.
I nodded once, weakly, feeling myself go pale. I didn't want to die. Not so soon after getting what I thought I wanted. I looked at Axel, for some reason wanting to gauge his thoughts, because we were kind of friends. Would he care if I died? Would he just shrug?
Yet, Axel wasn't leaning against the door like he'd first been. No, instead he was now standing in front of me almost defensively.
"Axel, what are you doing?" This was so unlike him that I couldn't help but ask the question in a shocked sort of whisper.
Xemnas seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Eight, what on earth are you doing?"
Axel said nothing, but he glared at Xemnas.
"Why are you helping me?" I murmured. "I thought… I thought I was a traitor to you."
Green eyes clashed with orange as both of them ignored what I said. I was almost completely forgotten now- it was him versus Xemnas.
"Eight, if you do not step away, you will also be considered a deserter," Xemnas threatened.
Even though I'd been here for years, I'd never exactly know the extent of the rules. Well… to put it better, I didn't really know just how loyal we were expected to be, and how much we were trusted. This was serious. This was real.
Axel was powerful, but not nearly powerful enough to hold him off for long. Me, I was practically a lost cause.
"Just do it, Axel. You don't like me all that much anyway," I mumbled.
Finally, Axel turned his eyes from Xemnas to mine. "You want me to let him kill you?"
"I don't want you to die," I stated.
Our former Superior seized hold of the distraction and dove at me. The next thing I knew, Axel had been flung into a bookshelf and I was pressed against a wall.
Knowing this was the end, I laughed a little. "What, no formal execution?"
His ethereal blades came closer to my neck. "Tell me what you know," Xemnas hissed. "You're obviously more intelligent than I estimated."
"What about Kingdom Hearts?" I asked slowly.
His grip on my shoulder tightened. "Say it," he snarled. "Now."
"I don't know," I told him honestly.
"What are you doing, asshole?" Axel whispered from across the room. "Fight!"
Xemnas backhanded me and I half stumbled, half ran across the room. Rubbing my jaw, we circled each other for a minute as Axel watched, shaking his head for some reason.
Why didn't I summon a weapon? Why didn't I use water? Why didn't I do anything?
Finally, the Superior dove at me again.
Two things happened very quickly.
First, I heard the sound of metal clashing against the ethereal blades. I tried to unfreeze myself, to at least look at what was going on, but I'd thrown my arms over my face.
Second, a dark corridor opened. I stared at it a moment, everything happening too quickly for me to comprehend.
"Go!" Axel screamed at me. "What are you doing? Go, Demyx!"
And so I ran.
I collapsed onto the ground, breathing hard and receiving a mouthful of dirt.
I sighed. I was safe, at least for five seconds.
Because I had a heart now, would I be easier to track? Then why hadn't they just found me and captured me again?
Too much was just happening all at once. Yesterday (or was it two days ago?) had just been another day, and now, here I was, exiled from the Organization.
Not to mention, I was human.
That was even harder to grasp. You would think that the change would happen slowly, like the memories slowly coming back or feeling the beginnings of emotions. But no, it had gone from blank to overwhelming in three-point-five.
I'd faked emotions as a Nobody. Hadn't most of us? I'd forged them to the point of feeling their shadows. But that was nothing compared to what was going through my mind right now.
I was just so incredibly confused. I understood that I was human now. That wasn't the problem.
There was just so much to remember. Roxas had forgotten everything when he became a Nobody. Was I going through the opposite? I mean, all throughout those few years as a Nobody… I forgot everything. I even felt it the memories slipping from my grasp then. But why? Did that normally happen?
I remember the Nobody days pretty clearly. That was a problem. But remembering when I was first a human… that was another headache.
I knew I had to be young when I became a Nobody. Younger than eighteen at least, because everyone was so surprised at my age when I joined. But- yes, and this is the sad part- I couldn't remember my birthday.
I did know something, though.
My name.
It wasn't hard to recall the naming ceremony. Xemnas did it, and it happened to everyone who joined the Organization. While I was never very good with puzzles, or perhaps just words in general, I knew that there were only so many things you could do with the letters D, E, M, and Y.
My human name was Myde.
But would I call myself that? It felt like I was stealing from him (me?). I was different from him. I'd still played the sitar, but I'd been… kinder. Maybe even smarter.
"Well, Dem-Dem?" I muttered to myself under my breath, using Larxene's joking nickname for me, "what now?"
It seemed like my whole life was an accident. I flinched at how angsty those words sounded when I wasn't even depressed, but it was true. I hadn't bathed myself in darkness to gain power to become a Nobody. I hadn't even asked to become human again.
But what would I do now? I didn't remember the name of my home world, but even if I did, I didn't have any money.
What could I do here?
Axel had sent me to the Land of Dragons. I'd been there a bunch of times for recon. I guess I was here because it seemed unimportant to the Organization, despite the myths of the dragons who slept in the land- they didn't really care much for myths. But there was power in this land. There had to be.
The place wasn't very populated, and it wasn't very big. I didn't have many options other than to just sit here and wait, maybe for Axel to come, maybe just to figure things out.
So I did.
I sat on the riverbank and traced my fingers in the water. Questions ran nonstop through my mind, but I didn't bother much to answer them.
At least I still had power over water. If they came to get me, at least I could try to put up a fight this time.
There was a rustling sound from somewhere behind me. I tensed. They were coming so soon?
But no, the voice I heard was unfamiliar. "Wak! What is he doing here?"
Was he talking about me? I looked around quickly- I guess he was.
There was another rustling and the sound of footsteps on dirt. I turned around slowly, only to have my heart skip a beat.
In front of me were Roxas and his cronies- a dog with a shield and a duck with a staff. I had found it weird that they would walk and talk, but now I was in awe.
Roxas held a Keyblade half pointed at me. "Aren't you with the Organization?" His voice was accusing.
I winced. The words stung and made everything seem more real than I thought. Uh, yeah. Not anymore. I hesitated, not knowing how to answer. "Are you?"
"Excuse me?" He looked confused.
"Aren't you Roxas?" I asked, feeling like an idiot.
"No, of course not," he said slowly, patience thinning. I wondered when he would jump and attack me. I'd avoided him once. Would I be lucky enough to do it again?
"I'll handle this," the duck said, running over and hitting me on the head with his staff. I barely felt it.
Non-Roxas sighed. He didn't stop the duck, but he didn't join 'Whaling on Demyx' either.
Clunk, clunk, clunk. I could almost hear the staff hitting my head. Was it really that hollow? Or was the duck just that weak?
"He'd not even defending himself," the dog exclaimed, almost in wonder.
Why would I? I didn't want to pick a fight with them and just make my life that much shorter. I had other things to worry about.
But still, his words dredged up one of my human memories. See, I was picked on a lot when I was a kid. I knew there had to be a reason, but that was just out of my grasp. One day, a bunch of kids had cornered me, with baseball bats and everything. The leader had said the same exact thing.
That reminded me of Xemnas's sudden hatred. Despite the fact that the memory didn't really hurt, I felt a tear slip free. Crap.
"Nobodies don't cry," Non-Roxas pointed out. I couldn't help but think of how much that sounded like a bad song title.
"Eh, it's just because my staff hurts," the duck said. I wondered if he knew how much of a douche he sounded.
"Maybe we should just leave him alone," the dog suggested.
Yes, please do that! I mentally begged. Go away from here!
"Are you crazy? He's faking it to trick us into leaving again!"
Actually… last time we fought, I ran away.
Non-Roxas hesitated between questioning me and joining his friend in ganging up on me. His choice surprised me. "Are you okay, um…?" He didn't know my name.
"Myde," I was surprised to hear myself say. The name slipped out on impulse. It felt weird to say it… but not in a particularly bad way.
I could almost see him anagramming the name. "Demyx?" Hey, he had it spot-on.
I shook my head. "No. My name is Myde."
"But then… that means you're…" He pointed at my chest, looking confused.
"Uh, yeah. I'm human." I sighed, feeling a little stressed. And then, without meaning to say it, I added, "and the Organization wants to kill me."
Dun-dun-dun! Here you go.
I'm not all that pleased with this chapter. I mean, it's okay, but I couldn't do much with it.
But I want to thank everyone who checked out that last chapter! I really appreciate you.
Not much going on in terms of news. I got contacts, but they're a little weak. Still, it's cool running around without glasses.
Oh, and does anyone know of a good book series? I really need something to read...
Thank you Ranyo Moonlight, The Moon's Berserk, NinjaSheik, Ravenr20, Sora Tayuya, anonymous reviewers Mystical, ArmyOfDuctTape, and Anna for reviewing last chapter. It's nice to see familiar faces here.
Next update: February 17th
