A Tale of Renewal and Rebirth

Dark Lady Devinity

Chapter Two

It is strange how a person can continue on without their heart. It should be biologically impossible. Perhaps that is why the heartless are monsters and creatures of shadow and nothingness. They do not exist in the realm of possibility and thus are forced to haunt the world of impossibility, the world of nightmares. And what of the nobodies in the world? They belong to both and yet neither. Light, dark, nothing. Yes, no, maybe.

Options.

XxX

If one can regain a heart and move back into the world of possibility, can they then return to their old life?

XxX

Morning light drifted down on Axel's face and brought him into the living world once again. He felt like he would never get use to the feeling of natural warmth in his veins and the pounding of blood in his ears. He could not remember how Lea used to cope with the constant sensations caused by the physical realness of having a heart. And Axel certainly had not experienced any minor emotions let alone the major rush of feeling he had been expecting once he got his heart back. However, after watching the others, it appeared that it simply took time to recognise emotion again. Vexen, Lexaeus and Zexion all showed emotion, some of which was anger and some of which was joy. Xaldin, having died a year after the three scientists but weeks before Axel, had shown more emotion that he ever had without a heart but it was often sluggish and sometimes missing. Xaldin showed an ability to feel the most emotional of feelings as he was relieved to see Xigbar, a fellow guard of the castle and a long time comrade, wake up. However, it was hit or miss whether or not Xaldin would feel some minor pang of sentiment.

Compared to Xaldin though, Axel was no better than a machine. And Axel could be so very fake sentimental when he wanted to be. He had come closer to feeling than any other nobody when he was friends with Roxas and Xion. So when he looked at Xigbar and Saix, it was as if those two were still without hearts. Especially cold, withdrawn Saix.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, Axel turned his attention to the lunar diviner. Saix was the only one out of bed, staring out a window. He had a light grip on his heart as if he didn't believe it was real. When he had awoken late last night, Saix had appeared tempted to open his own chest to see if the others were telling the truth. The fact that Saix had briefly flashed Isa's green eyes at him had convinced Axel that the hearts were real.

"Did you sleep at all last night?" Axel asked.

Saix did not give any indication that Axel's unexpected question had surprised him but Axel knew Saix well enough that he could tell that the blue haired man had been startled. Sea green eyes narrowed as they were directed at Axel. Axel was almost pleased to find that he did have the emotional ability to realise that he had missed seeing Isa's eyes. Saix's were too cold and unnatural.

"I'm surprised that any of you could sleep." Saix responded.

"The others have been here long enough to get used to everything." Axel said, shrugging. "But even if they hadn't been, being reborn or rehearted or whatever is exhausting."

"I do not think it is wise to let our guard down when we don't know anything about our captors or why we're being held in this place." Saix said.

"You think we're being held prisoner?"

"I think that if we weren't Vexen would be in the labs analyzing our blood samples. Also, that door is locked. I tried it. As far as I can tell, we cannot portal out of here nor can we summon up our weapons. I had figured that we would not be able to as we're no longer nobodies but I attempted it anyway."

"Someone here is taking care of us though. We had IV drips when we woke up and obviously someone has been feeding the others or they'd be dead. Or we'd be eaten." Axel said.

"Vexen, Lexaeus and Zexion have been dead for a year now. If they woke up after their deaths as soon as we did then they have been here for that year. If that's the case then why are they still in this room, wearing hospital gowns instead of clothes? And if they haven't been here for long at all then why did it take them so long to materialize in Radiant Garden and wake up?"

"You've been forming evil plans again, haven't you? Accept this for what it is at least for the time being. We won't know anything until a nurse or somebody shows up. And maybe one of our creepy superiors may have an answer."

Saix seemed willing to accept that proposal as he didn't say anything else to Axel and had returned to staring out the window. Axel looked around for a bit and came to the conclusion that the light that had woken him up was the first rays of dawn. No one else would be up for some time yet. Axel was often the only one up at dawn in the Castle That Never Was as he had a natural affinity for the sun and any form of natural light due to his elemental powers over fire. Most nobodies preferred to hide in the darkness. This meant that Axel had nothing to entertain himself with for the time being and he was not interested in being alone with his thoughts. Now that he had the ability to feel he wasn't sure about how he would feel about his actions since becoming a nobody. All he knew was that Lea would have been ashamed of Axel. Axel was not ready to be ashamed of himself. So instead of thinking about everything that had gone wrong and everything he had done wrong, Axel took to studying Saix's face. Saix showed the most obvious signs of having regained a heart because his eyes and ears had returned to normal. His hair was still longer than Isa had ever worn his but Axel's was still longer than what was normal for Lea as well. It had been years since they had had their hair cut so it was possible that Lea and Isa's hair had continued to grow. And that scar was still on Saix's face. Isa never had that scar.

"Why are you staring at me?" Saix asked.

"You still have the scar. I don't remember Isa ever having it." Axel said.

"Why would it matter if Isa had a scar or not?"

"I guess we failed to mention it last night. Touch your ears."

Saix almost gave Axel a strange look but he felt along the rim of his ear. Then he frowned, puzzled, and touched his ear again.

"Your eyes have gone back to Isa's as well." Axel said. "My eyes are now the colour of Lea's. You can look at Xaldin too. He lost the pointy ears as well. Our bodies are the same bodies we had when we had hearts. And apparently my tattoos are gone."

"Then I suppose Isa must have attained this scar when the heartless attacked him." Saix said calmly.

Axel winced at that (Actually winced! He was getting his emotions back!) and said, "Thanks for bringing up that fun time in our lives."

Saix blinked. "I suppose it's just my heart saying this but I am somewhat annoyed that we finally made our way into this castle only to have done so not by our own free will and as captives at that. Isa would be wondering how Lea managed that one."

Axel laughed out loud at the image of Lea and Isa being thrown out of the castle one more time after another failed attempt to sneak in. His laughter was loud enough to wake up the others and they almost berated him until they realised what he was doing. Then Vexen and Zexion were out of bed, talking in a hurry, asking Axel questions about how he was feeling and what did his heart feel like. It was exciting to see the science of heart meeting long lost emotion and brain processing again.

Everyone was so caught up in the moment of Axel's first real laugh that they failed to notice that he had started to cry in misery even as he laughed.

XxX

Is this just a setback or have you lost everything forever?

TBC