A/N: This is another short little chapter. The next one will be longer, if you're interested. Please review!! I'm really interested to know people's thoughts on this story. Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Disney and Square Enix do.
Breaking Point
At the top of the stairs, Demyx was waiting. He appeared suddenly from around the corner of the corridor to the bedrooms, making Kanixa start, and came to stand before them on the landing. "Demyx," she greeted warily.
Demyx smiled, but it looked dark and unfriendly. "Kanixa." He wagged a finger at her admonishingly. "You know, locking me up like that was just rude."
"I'm sorry…I just wanted some space, Demyx." Kanixa actually did feel a tiny seed of guilt about having to trick Demyx, which meant a lot in her new, apathetic Nobody state.
"Save your excuses," Number Nine ordered, voice losing any hint of playfulness. "You thought I'd just put up with it, right? That Demyx was too much of a coward to challenge anyone? Well, you're wrong."
He lifted the oddly-shaped three-string guitar he held and strummed a chord. Out of nowhere, a jet of water appeared and rammed Kanixa in the chest, knocking her down the stairs. Axel sidestepped neatly, but grabbed her hood as she flew past, keeping her upright.
"You know, Demyx, Xemnas won't be happy if you break his new toy," he commented in a bored voice.
"Oh, I won't break it." Demyx wore the nasty smile again. "Just batter it a little." He strummed another chord, and a thicker, more powerful jet of water knocked Kanixa out of Axel's grasp.
Kanixa landed towards the foot of the stairs, head cracking against the white marble painfully. She lay there for a moment, blinking back against involuntary tears of pain. Apparently Demyx had taken serious offense at being duped. And as she'd wondered, the cheerful exterior was only an exterior—he had the capacity to be just as cruel as Saïx or Xemnas. The Keyblade would do her no good here because she needed to get within range. Why couldn't she have a stronger, more useful ability like water or fire? She wondered, frustrated.
Slowly, Kanixa climbed to her feet. As soon as she found her balance, a ball of water thumped her in the chest, sending her once again flying back. The water ball splashed apart on impact, but it was followed by another, and another, and another, as Demyx strummed out a melody on his instrument. Finally, Kanixa managed to duck under one—only to have them projected lower. "Come on, stick to the beat!" Demyx called mockingly.
Axel watched Demyx launch a barrage of water projectiles at Kanixa, frowning. Demyx standing up for himself was unusual, almost unprecedented. And despite his promise of only a "battering," the newest Nobody didn't look too good as she sprawled on the floor, soaked and motionless, head lolling to one side. "Cut it out, waterboy!" he snapped. "You want to kill her?" Not that he minded, but Xemnas most definitely would…and would wonder why Axel hadn't been overseeing his mentee at her time of death.
Demyx looked over at Axel, an evil smile on his face, blue eyes hard. "Maybe I do." He began to play a slow funeral dirge on his sitar, and with every chord columns of water rained down from the ceiling to break on Kanixa.
Axel stared at the Melodious Nocturne, shocked and perhaps for the first time in his existence slightly afraid of Demyx. Who knew that a cold-blooded fighter lurked underneath the whiny, sentimental exterior? He let none of the shock into his voice as he commented, "Fine by me. I didn't want her to join in the first place. But is she really worth getting turned into a Dusk for?"
That had the desired effect. Demyx stopped strumming the sitar, and allowed it to vanish. "Oh, man," he groaned, clapping his hands to his temples. "A Dusk!" He looked across at Axel, eyes now containing their customary fearful glimmer. "Is she fading?"
"Don't ask me! Go look for yourself!" Axel gestured at the limp figure blown halfway down the hall. In an instant, Demyx had slipped through a portal and knelt beside the fallen Nobody.
"She's not," he called back to Axel, relief evident in his voice. He lifted the soaking form into his arms and opened another portal, reappearing a second later next to Axel. "See?"
Axel recoiled from the girl, who still dripped copious amounts of water. He avoided water when he could—as a wielder of fire, it made him uncomfortable. "You'd better get her cleaned up before Xemnas or Saïx comes along," he pointed out.
"I can only summon water, not get rid of it!" Demyx complained.
"So, find her some dry clothes!" Axel snapped.
Multiple sets of footsteps could be heard approaching from the direction of Xemnas's study. "...has been out of line for some time now," Saïx's unmistakable tones drifted towards the trio.
Time to disappear. "I'll take her, you distract them." Axel scooped up the unconscious Number Fourteen and leaped into a quickly summoned portal, the last traces of which faded just before Saïx and Xemnas rounded the corner to see Demyx alone with his sitar and a corridor full of water.
Stepping into his room, Axel allowed a dark smile to cross his face, picturing Demyx attempting to explain away the flooded corridor to Xemnas and Saïx. Amusing himself with that mental image, he deposited Kanixa on the floor by his fire pit, not wanting to get the contaminating moisture on his bed. Not bothering to summon his chakrams, he just pointed lazily at the pit, and the charred wood that remained burst into flames. Axel added a few fresh pieces for good measure. That ought to dry her out, he thought, satisfied. Now all he had to do was wait. Taking a seat on the edge of his bed, he pondered the very strange last few minutes.
Demyx had actually started a fight with someone. And won by a landslide. "You think you know someone," Axel sighed, shaking his head. Who would have thought the whiny little sitar player actually had a backbone? He supposed it was lucky Kanixa had triggered Demyx's dormant aggressive streak. Otherwise the water-wielding brat might well have unleashed his monsoon on Axel instead. In technique, Axel outclassed Demyx easily, but since his attacks relied on fire all the mullet-sporting little punk had to do was get in a lucky dousing and the fight would be over.
Kanixa didn't share that problem, so why had a lightweight like Demyx been able to crush her when gossip went that she'd disarmed Saïx? It must have been beginner's luck, as Axel had suspected. She'd need to pick up skill fast if she kept annoying Organization members at this rate.
On the floor, Kanixa's eyes fluttered open, and she sat up slowly, wincing. "Ow," she said simply.
"You've got a real talent for annoying Organization members," Axel commented. "Too bad it didn't come with a talent for fighting."
Kanixa didn't fire back a retort. Axel sat in silence for a moment, disgruntled. What was the point of needling someone if they ignored the barb? "I can never wear this again," she observed, looking down at her black Organization coat. "Water ruins leather. Who do I speak to in order to get a new one?"
"Saïx is the quartermaster…" Axel began, just thinking aloud.
"Perfect. Just who I wanted to see," Kanixa said in a flat tone.
"You might catch him in a rare good mood. If he's capable of it, disciplining Demyx should put him into one." Axel smirked.
" 'Disciplining?' " Kanixa repeated, gazing at Axel.
"Xemnas won't have been pleased with that mess in the hallway."
"I don't remember Xemnas being there." Kanixa frowned.
"It did happen right outside of his study," Axel reminded Number Fourteen. "And Xemnas isn't deaf."
"I suppose," Kanixa conceded in a bored tone. "So, Saïx will be in the Superior's study?"
"No, they're probably in Saïx's little house of horrors—hey! Where are you going?" Axel demanded.
"To see the quartermaster," Kanixa replied, halfway out the door.
"You don't want to go in there," Axel said, stepping in front of her to block the door to room number seven. He leaned against it, folding his arms. "Saïx gets a little crazy when he draws on the moon's power. I guess you could say he's a real lunatic." Axel smirked.
"Fine. Well, there's no point in keeping this." Kanixa stepped out of her ruined Organization coat, revealing her nonstandard baggy jeans and a magenta t-shirt that, also soaked, clung to her thin frame.
"Don't you have anything black?" Axel demanded. An Organization member wearing pink? His lip curled. Not even Larxene, the Organization's only female, had deviated from the Organization's dress code of somber black.
Kanixa shrugged. "This is what I woke up in. Well, this and my coat."
Axel stroked his chin. "You might fit in one of mine…" Anything to cover up that hideous pink shirt. He stepped back into his room. "Come on!" he barked when Kanixa didn't follow. With an eye-roll that Number Eight couldn't see, she came to stand just inside the doorway. "Stand by the fire," Axel ordered. "I'm not letting you get my spare wet."
Kanixa obeyed, edging as close to the leaping flames as she judged she could without being singed. Turning her back to the fire, she folded her arms. "It won't fit anyway," she said flatly. "Not that I don't appreciate the offer, but your clothing would fit a particularly undernourished six year old."
Axel shrugged. "If you want to walk around in your wet clothes, fine," he said, sounding bored. Instead he felt a ghost of irritation, irritation that he'd made the offer in the first place. He should make Number Fourteen's life a living hell because she dared to try and take Roxas's place, not lend her clothing! "I was just trying to do the rest of us a favor and cover up that flamingo you're wearing." He smirked.
"I can see my time is wasted on you," Kanixa replied, eyes flashing. Brushing past him, she moved towards the door. Before she could touch the doorknob, it turned of its own volition and the door opened to reveal Saïx.
