Chapter 4.
Three members of the Shardsvale Deliverance team revved their motorbikes and screeched round a sharp corner in hot pursuit of a diminutive but scarily fast figure garbed in high-heeled boots, a black tank top and fluorescent yellow miniskirt. Without warning the skinny girl whirled around and threw something small and ticking at her pursuers. As the thing hit the ground just ahead of the motorbikes it erupted in a rapidly expanding sphere of electromagnetic energy, shorting out the bikes and sending the Deliverance team crashing to the ground. Laughing to herself Larxene swung easily into the drain that she and Marluxia called home.
Lounging on a corroded metal bar when Larxene made her breathless entrance, Marluxia broke into a throaty chuckle. Running his thin fingers through faded pink hair he patted Larxene's cheek as she sauntered past. 'Chased again huh Larx? What did you do this time?'
Blowing a raspberry at his bantering tone Larxene replied, 'Deliverance was harassing some poor street kid and maybe I stepped in and mentioned who I was. They dropped the girl right smart when they thought they could bring in the Street Vixen.' Making a derogatory noise she turned back to Marluxia and cocked a hip. 'No chance of that, the bungling idiots. They couldn't catch a cold if someone sneezed on them.'
Chuckling again Marluxia hopped down from his perch and made his way over to Larxene to see what she had brought home to the Nest as they called it. 'Was it Lexaeus again? He would benefit from a brain transplant with a shrimp I'd say.'
Handing over 5 tins of fish Larxene smiled for the first time since arriving. 'Yeah, he was there with the only people around who can actually lose a battle of wits with him. Xaldin nearly crashed into Xigbar as they came round the corner. I thought for a minute I wouldn't have to even use my new EMP grenades.'
Laughing aloud Marluxia tossed the fish into a cupboard and ruffled Larxene's pristine hair provoking a growl. Dodging a punch aimed at his midriff Marluxia danced round the angry girl and delved into the third bag Larxene had brought but half hidden behind a concrete post. Pulling out a large bottle of vodka and a few bottles of pills he grinned at Larxene and with a flourish placed the drugs and alcohol in pride of place in the middle of the table.
Rolling her ice-blue eyes Larxene cuffed Marluxia upside the head and swept the vodka and pill bottles into a hidden niche behind the table. 'If it is okay with your Highness, I would like to get the supplies put away before you vanish into that bottle.' Turning to face the grinning pink-haired male minx she grabbed his loose black shirt and pulled him close, 'And this time we need to leave some for Vexen. He kicked seven kinds of shit out of me when you went through the whole stash before he got back last time.'
Sheepishly scratching his head Marluxia bit his lip. 'Shit I'm sorry Larx, I didn't know he hit you. I promise I won't even get started until he gets back.' Grinning winningly he smoothed Larxene's hair back into place and offered her a lollipop that magically appeared between his fingers.
Sighing with exasperation Larxene took the lollipop and turned away to put the rest of the supplies away. Hiding a smile she unwrapped the sucker and popped it into her mouth adjusting the plastic stick to jut at a rakish angle from her lips. 'Vexen's due to back later tonight Marl, you won't have to wait too long. And trust me, he said he would bring back something good.'
Chuckling again in his throaty voice Marluxia started feverishly stacking the load of cans Larxene was trying to pack away. Winking at her he carried 3 high stacks to another cupboard and twirled flamboyantly before deftly shutting the food away. 'Ah Larx,' he grinnned. 'You do look after me so well. Where would I be without a mother like you?' Dodging a rather more serious punch than before he scuttled away to his room yelling, 'I'll get you for domestic abuse MOTHER!'
Too tired to even bother with a reply Larxene let herself fall bonelessly onto the nasty looking couch they managed to scrounge from someone's rubbish pile. Staring at the top of the pipe that made up their main living area the blonde girl sighed again and let her eyes slide shut. She wasn't looking forward to Vexen arriving at the Nest.
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His fist connected hard with the softness of the sleeping girl's cheek, snapping it to the right and throwing her head hard into the back of the couch. Before she could even wake up properly let alone react he grabbed her ankle and swung her bodily into the concrete pillar directly across from the sofa. As Larxene lay choking for breath on the ground she stared expressionlessly into Vexen's furious pale green eyes.
'You provoked Deliverance again you stupid bitch!' He hissed, spitting out his words with venom in every syllable. 'I told you to avoid them unless they caught you red handed and you go and confront them over something that wasn't even your problem. I hope at least you ditched them a few blocks from the Nest. Huh? Did you?'
Biting back a groan of agony Larxene spat out a wad of blood onto Vexen's shoes. 'They were too busy trying to avoid being crushed by their bikes to notice where I disappeared. The EMP grenades would have knocked out their GPS memory too so they couldn't just search it. You're not the only one who wants to stay out of the gaze of Deliverance!'
At her words Vexen went stock still. He had seemed very, very angry when he entered and started smashing his fists into her flesh but that was nothing compared to the expression on his face now. The whites of his eyes turned slowly pink then filled with blood red. Tilting his head with his eyes still fixed on Larxene, Vexen began to mutter under his breath. Wracked with pain and feeling decidedly foggy Larxene didn't pick up on his words until it was too late.
As the word 'Surin!' left Vexen's lips along with a flinging gesture of his hand, Larxene let out a throat-tearing scream. As Vexen voiced his ice magic through the catalyst of his native french language a dagger of ice flew through the air to embed itself deep in Larxene's right shoulder. She shuddered as the ice shard burrowed deeper and let loose another scream as Vexen sent another sliver of ice slicing into her leg. Larxene's blood soaked her shirt and began to trickle down further onto her pale stomach.
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At Larxene's first scream Marluxia had jolted upright straight out of sleep nearly knocking himself out on the pipe that hung low out of the ceiling. When her second scream of agony echoed through the pipes he threw himself off of the shelf he called a bed and just about catapulted through to the living area. The scene that met his eyes sent a chill throughout his whole body.
Larxene was lying curled in a pool of her own blood, bleeding from wounds all over her body. From every tear in her skin protruded a wicked sliver of Vexen's silver-blue ice. Standing over her shuddering body, Vexen stood with his back to Marluxia fists clenched at his sides. Slowly materializing in front of Vexen's face was a deadly long blade that was rapidly looking more and more solid. Marluxia's gorge rose in his throat as the realization slid into his mind, Vexen was going to kill Larxene as soon as the sword was made real.
Taking in the scene and Larxene's injuries had flashed through Marluxia's mind in a second. Before he could even voice a scream of fury he had summoned his own blade, a massive scythe, and hurled himself at Vexen's back.
As if by magic Vexen's arm shot out and caught the handle of Marluxia's scythe in midair. Gritting his teeth Marluxia raised his slate blue eyes to meet Vexen's green and he let out a gasp of shock. Instead of seeing a gaze of pale green, Marluxia was looking in twin pools of roiling golden madness. The shock momentarily robbed him of his strength leaving Vexen free to spin and throw both him and his scythe against the back wall of the blocked off pipe.
Marluxia hit the wall hard but managed to curl his body into a ball to minimize the impact. Rolling down the geometric curve of the wall he landed back on his feet and crouched at the ready in front of Vexen again. He flickered his eyes quickly over to Larxene and was relieved to see her customary snarl back on her face and she was pushing herself stubbornly to her feet. At the very least he swore to himself, he would buy her the time to get away.
'Vexen you bastard!' Marluxia yelled to keep his attention. 'I'll kill you for touching her!' Ignoring the pain in his back from the impact with the wall Marluxia arrogantly ran his hand through his tousled pink hair and cocked a hip, leaning casually on his scythe. 'You know you'll have to work harder if you want to take care of me rather than your tiny sister who wasn't expecting it.'
Letting out an inhuman growl, Vexen seemed to forget all about the sword he was forming from nothing and about the girl he had been so intent on killing. Fixing his alien golden eyes on Marluxia he started to circle around the perimeter of the room, moving like a stalking animal after its prey.
As soon as Vexen's attention was diverted from the defenseless body of Larxene, Marluxia ditched all of his faked cockiness. He gripped his scythe tightly in both hands, turning slowly on the spot to keep his front towards the maddened Vexen. Even though his every nerve was as tight as a bowstring, Marluxia still was not prepared for the speed of Vexen's charge or the manic strength of the man he once thought of as friend.
As he broke towards Marluxia, Vexen swept one hand down pulling his ice-shield out of thin air and almost in the same motion used the bulk of the shield to pin Marluxia's thin body helplessly against the wooden cupboards. Marluxia lost his grip on the scythe as he was flung backwards and closed his eyes in despair as it clattered to the floor. His head tilted back and the sharpened edge of the shield choking off his windpipe, the pink-haired boy couldn't even draw breath let alone loosen the death-grip on his neck.
What neither Marluxia nor Vexen had noticed was that Larxene had not tried to run. Fleeing was not in her nature even broken down to the basest level and she was not about to leave a friend, not if she was at death's door which was entirely possible. Trying to ignore the stabbing pains all over her skinny frame, Larxene flicked her hands in a complex twisting motion summoning forth her lightening charged throwing knives.
Marluxia was nearly at the point of unconsciousness when he saw a flicker of movement behind Vexen's muscled body. His eyes widened as they locked with Larxene's gaze, directionless prayers forming in his mind as she drew back a handful of knives to throw. Time seemed to stand still and the knives hardly seemed to to move through the intervening space before disappearing hilt deep into Vexen's back.
Sending a fervent plea to any listening deity to protect Marluxia, Larxene sank her teeth into her lip drawing more blood and whispered 'Corscum.' Larxene's lightening magic as opposed to Vexen's ice was accessible to her through the Latin language. As her whisper sounded from her lips four bolts of lightening flashed from thin air to ground in the knives buried in Vexen's flesh. Both he and Marluxia let out different pitch screams at the touch of the lightening before collapsing on the floor wracked with electric current. The minute Marluxia went limp, Larxene dragged herself over to him and heaved him onto her shoulders. Drawing on strength she hardly even knew she had, Larxene stood and hauled her friend out of the Nest. No direction in mind, the blonde girl staggered into the street and off into the growing darkness.
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With a jolt Axel awoke, staring wildly into the night. He didn't usually do well keeping track of time, but this was worse than normal. His last clear memory was of someone hitting their head before he caught them in his arms but after that there were only strange snatches of scenes that seemed to be viewed by someone else from a long way away.
Still lying down Axel gave his vaguely aching head a vigorous shake and immediately regretted it when stars burst before his eyes bringing an involuntary groan. Dragging a hand over his eyes Axel held his breath in anticipation of pain and sat bolt upright. He let out a shaky breath when the expected agony failed to hit and opened his eyes to see a dark room filled with darker shadows. Getting tentatively out of his bed Axel fumbled towards where he remembered Roxas' bed to be to see if the young teen was ok.
Crashing into a table perfectly positioned to assault his bony shins Axel choked down a curse. The pain did clear some of the fuzziness from his brain however and the redhead even cracked a smile when he remembered how useful his magic could be. Raising a thin eyebrow Axel held up his left hand and conjured a tiny ball of flames into his palm. Lifting the light up to head height he made his way around the various bedroom obstacles to Roxas's bedside.
In the flickering light, the sleeping boy looked even younger than usual. His blonde hair, as usual, stuck up at all angles but also a few strands framed his fine-boned face. Axel couldn't help himself, he reached down and gently brushed his fingertips across Roxas's cheek and smoothed the strands of hair back into place. Slightly bemused at his strong protective instinct towards the young blonde, Axel sank to his knees by the bed.
As Axel's mind filled with the image of Roxas falling backward he lost control of his magic, the little flame winking out leaving him in pitch darkness. As opposed to earlier, the darkness wasn't just a lack of light, it was almost a sentient being intent on smothering Axel's senses. Sucking in a shuddering breath Axel turned is head from side to side, fruitlessly searching for light with his wide unseeing eyes. He found no hint of anything other than blackness, and this total darkness threw him into a dark memory.
Cold skin against his own warm body. Fingers ostensibly caressed his chest, but in reality held his inert body to the bed, augmenting the effect of whatever drug or magic that paralyzed his movements. Only isolated impressions filtered through into Axel's thoughts, he couldn't seem to focus even vaguely on what was happening no matter how hard he tried.
Time elapsed as his body was mauled and then he felt the attentions of the shadowy figure move lower down, stroking his lean hips before tugging his boxers off roughly. The room seemed to spin around him and he once again tried to force a sound from his numbed throat to no avail. As the assailant moved up again from Axel's motionless thighs, the teen felt hot breath puffing against the most private parts of him and gave up his tenuous grasp on the world. A hot mouth enclosed his member and his vision started to fade. The last thing he saw as blackness took him was a world enclosed in a silver blizzard.
Flames burst from both of Axel's palms to burn either side of his crumpled body like guarding lights. The burst of light from the creation of the twin pillars of fire lit the room like a firework, jolting Roxas from his sleep. Still groggy with sleep the blonde had no idea what was happening, only that he could see Axel beside his bed obviously in great distress. Without a second thought Roxas slipped out from under the covers and wrapped his arms around Axel in an attempt to comfort him. He did not know it but he was mirroring the pose Axel had adopted on seeing his injury earlier in the evening.
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