Opening his eyes, Axel found himself immersed in that terrible black again, the darkness. Immediately he yelped, scrambling to his feet, panicked. He swore in his head, insisting that, no, he was not, could not, be dead again. The thought pounded in his head, sounding like his heart had only moments ago — but was it beating now?
"Whoa, you're not dead. Don't get the wrong idea." Axel heard the voice again, and traced it to where Lea stood.
"You!" Axel growled.
"'You?' You're still not convinced that I am you?"
"Why am I here?" he demanded, ignoring the question. "What'd you do with…"
"How should I know? And if this is about the missing piece, I don't have it," Lea said, shrugging. "It's like that old wizard said. Someone else has it."
Axel's face furrowed at Lea's words.
"But I never had one in the first place. How could someone take it from me?"
"Hey, don't look at me, I don't make the rules," Lea replied, placing his hands behind his head in an uncaring manner. Axel growled.
"What's your problem?" he shouted angrily. He didn't understand why he would give himself such a hard time, if they were the same.
"My problem?" Lea repeated smugly. "You really think I'm the one that has the problem?"
Axel's mouth just dropped open in response.
"Axel!"
And as his name was shouted, the black faded away.
"Axel!" Axel recognized Sora's voice as he opened his eyes for the second time. He sat up instinctively.
"Are you okay?" Sora asked, open-mouthed with worry. He stayed quiet for a little while, looking Axel over as he stood up. When Axel winced Sora cringed, adding, "I knew I shouldn't have let you —"
"Let me?" Axel repeated lowly, his face contorting into a frown as the words registered in his mind. "I told you. I'm not your pet. You don't let me do anything. Get it memorized, already."
"I — sorry," Sora said, looking sadly to the ground. "Sorry."
"Whoa, wait a sec," the blond kid shot in. "You're mad at him for worrying about you? Something wrong with your head, too?"
"I…" Axel began, cornered. He ran a gloved hand along his neck, standing silently for a brief while. He sighed. "I'm not mad, alright?"
There was an awkward silence that followed, that, though wordless, voiced skepticism. Axel swore he heard the blond boy scoff.
"Hey, wait a second!" the sewer-kid exclaimed suddenly. "You guys don't think they're looking for Seifer?"
"Oh, no, not Seifer," Sora made a look of disgust.
"Well, knowing his name would be helpful anyway. What is it?" the sewer-kid tried instead. The group looked to Axel expectantly.
Axel thought about it. No one in this dimension (or whatever-it-was) remembered him, so would they remember Roxas? Recognizing that he was taking quite a bit too long to tell them the name, he finally spat out:
"Ventus. But he goes by a lot of names."
Ventus? Axel thought, shocked as he heard what he had just said. The name had simply floated into his head, exiting via his mouth as if the two were directly connected. I don't even know anyone with that name.
It … has a familiar ring to it, I guess, he admitted. But I don't know why or where from. I thought of Roxas, but I said Ventus. Pretty weird. But I guess I'd better stick with it. Roxas, you have officially been renamed Ventus. Got it memorized?
"Ventus?" the sewer-kid repeated. "Can't say I've heard that name before."
"Same here."
"Me neither."
"Sorry, Axel," Sora apologized, staring at the ground. Axel felt a pain in his stomach, much like the one he'd felt after overhearing the others talking, but still not quite the same. At first he nearly yelled out in fear that his heart was failing again. But that wasn't it, he realized. It was the pain that had initiated when he'd considered the possibility that the munny in the pouch wasn't his. It felt familiar. This was something he'd felt before, long before the munny pouch issue. Probably back when he had a heart.
No, it was much too familiar to be from that far back, either. He continued to think about it, and, though it took him a bit, he at last distinguished what it was — guilt.
Nothing. The two of them spent the entire day searching, poking their heads into shops and alleyways, and they'd come up with nothing. The sun had since begun its descent, and Sora's head was inclined downward as well, as if he were defeated. It was the way he'd been acting ever since the struggle incident. Axel was having trouble looking at him again.
"I'm sorry, Axel," Sora said sadly, for probably the millionth-and-first time that day. "No one's seen him."
Guilt.
"'S not your fault. Don't stress it," Axel insisted.
"I know, but… I've lost my friends before… I just hope we find him."
Axel didn't respond to the statement. Drawing in a heavy breath, he said two words:
"Come on."
"Huh?" Sora said, surprised to find Axel tugging at his shirt sleeve.
"Come on," Axel said again. Sora complied, replying with a simplistic "okay". They had been standing at the side street where they had begun their search, and Axel was leading him down ramps. He finally stopped at the marketplace, dragging Sora further in to a shop that sat on the corner bordering the Sandlot and Tram Common. Axel strolled up to the shop, which bore a friendly logo of a light blue treat — a sea-salt ice cream. Sora was looking intently at the large logo as Axel leaned against the counter in front of the elderly lady shopkeeper.
"Hello, how may I help you?" she greeted, smiling. He recognized her, too, which meant she was yet another person who didn't remember him.
"Two sea-salt, puh-lease," Axel replied, unable to keep from a slight smile.
"That'll be 400 munny, sir," the lady totaled, putting the two bars on the counter.
"'Scuse me? 400 munny? These used to be 100 each! What're you running here?"
"I'm sorry," she said, hanging her head in a sincerely apologetic fashion. "We've had to raise our prices… there used to be this group of kids that bought from us every day. But they've stopped coming, and we just can't keep it that low anymore."
Ugh, more munny out of my pocket…
"Wonder what happened," Sora commented as Axel dug into his froze.
"Here," Axel said, putting the munny on the counter and grabbing his purchased ice cream, motioning to Sora that they were leaving.
"Thank y—" she gasped. "Wait, sir, you over-paid! By… quite a lot!"
"Hm? Did you hear something, Sora?" Axel replied, waving it off without turning back.
"Heh," Sora laughed, catching on. He placed a hand to his lips. "Nope, notta thing."
They left the area smiling, and he could barely make out a hushed whisper from the shopkeeper — "Thank you". As Axel turned the corner, he realized he was still holding both of the ice cream sticks.
"Oh, here," he said, holding it before Sora's face. "The icing on the cake."
"Wh — really? The… icing on the cake?" Sora's eyes widened.
"Mhm."
"Thanks!" Sora grasped it. He'd had a bewildered look on his face at first, but he was now smiling. He opened his mouth to lick it.
"Don't eat it yet. Come on."
"Now what?" Sora wondered aloud, taking the nearly licked ice cream away from his mouth.
"Follow me."
As Axel led the way to the tower, he couldn't help but imagine that he would be there.
He would be there and everything would be fine; Axel would tell him how sorry he was for everything and then things could just go back to the way they were before — they could eat ice cream atop the tower every day without a care in the world. No Organizations and no personal mysteries to worry about, just the two of them enjoying their afternoon beneath the setting sun, ice cream in hand the whole while.
He knew it wasn't going to happen, but it was a strange feeling; it was one of those feelings that prevailed over everything else, one of those thoughts that caused him to completely ignore any judgments that might be more logically adept; it didn't matter that it wasn't probable, he still hoped. It was probably the only thing he had left, anyway.
And as he rounded the corner, Axel looked — and, of course, as Axel had both known but not expected, no one was there.
"Wow!" That was what Sora exclaimed as he took in the view at the clock tower for the first time. Just wow.
"Sit down," Axel said, patting the cement beside him, hiding his sorrow. Sora sat, still gaping at the sunset. Though he'd been obviously waiting impatiently to eat the ice cream, he now seemed to have forgotten about it, enthralled by the sights that could be seen from the place. Eventually, though it took a while, he licked the ice cream. He did so without removing his eyes from the skyline.
Today makes three. Got it memorized… Roxas?
"Wow, it's salty… but sweet, too." Axel glanced over.
"You know," he said, "you're the third person I know who said that."
"Really? It must be true then, I guess?" he concluded, grinning now.
Third? Axel thought, scrunching his brow. I meant second.
"So…" Sora began, finally moving on from the sunset. "Why'd you do this?"
"Do what?"
"Come on. You know." Axel sighed.
"Just think of it as… me saying sorry for… for… er…hm," Axel hesitated and then let out an exasperated shrug. "For just being a jerk in general, I guess."
"You're… apologizing?" Sora reasoned.
"Take it or leave it."
"I think I'll take it," Sora said, confidently. He then reverted to a more serious demeanor. "So, you don't hate me?"
Axel spat out a piece of ice cream that he'd just bitten off.
"I… no." he said quickly, wiping his mouth. "No."
"Well, that's a relief," Sora said, looking back to Axel, who wouldn't look back to him. "So uh… what's the key for?"
"Key?" Axel said, blinking.
"Yeah. The one around your neck?"
"Wha — oh, that." Axel wrapped his fingers around it, feeling the cold metal through his gloved palm as Sora waited. He'd forgotten about it.
He glanced down to it, twirling it amongst his fingers. He genuinely had no idea what the object could possibly be used for. There was nothing he owned that would need to be unlocked. In fact, he had nothing that even had a lock on it. So, he concluded, it most likely wasn't his; the possibility still remained that he had forgotten what it was for, but he found that unlikely, seeing as he remembered Sora and Roxas and the Organization. Despite knowing it probably wasn't his, though, he felt a bizarre compulsion to keep hold of it. It was as if the mystery of its existence had already become a driving force in his search for Roxas, as if it represented Axel's search for himself — no, not even that; it didn't only represent Axel himself. The key was the symbol of all of the Nobodies' lives, of everyone's — they all came about with no clear purpose, yet they still existed. The key was the mystery of life itself.
"Ya know, kid, you ask a lot of questions."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Well, you've got to be careful. Some people don't really go for that. Usually the people who prefer to do the question-asking themselves. And they like to tie you up while they're at it."
"Yeah. I think I've met people like that."
"Hm," Axel replied lamely, finally ceasing to twirl the key.
"You changed the subject."
"…Can't blame a guy for trying."
"Well if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to… but… we're… friends now, right?"
"…Right," Axel agreed.
The stomach pain had dulled.
Much like his first flight in the gummi ship, Axel nearly hurled the second time around. To be honest, he didn't understand how Sora could stomach it, much less look so ready-to-go afterward. Perhaps it was something that just took getting used to. Or maybe Sora was just special.
After arriving, and as if in a single bound, Sora was already at the hotel. Axel, now knowing his way around the town, wasn't as worried about keeping up with him, but was ceaselessly amazed at how unlimited Sora's energy seemed to be. He supposed that it was a merit of being a child. Like he needed another reason to miss being a child.
"Hello!" Sora called, knocking hard on the Green Room's door. When no one answered, he repeated himself and then barged in. "Is anyone here?"
"Oh, hey, Sora!" A girl's voice appeared from above them. Instinctively, Axel and Sora looked up, spotting the teen girl that had been in the Red Room with Axel the other day. She was hanging from a light fixture, and now dropped down to the floor.
The hell's she doing up there? Axel wondered. Now this girl's just weird…
"Oh, hi, Yuffie."
"Glad you're here. It was getting soooo boring."
"Where is everyone?" Sora asked, eyeing the empty room.
"Well, Cid's at the shop and Aerith and Squall went down to the cavern." She went on to mockingly pucker her lips.
"Oh…"
"So, how'd it go? I take it you didn't find Hades's friend."
"Hades?" Axel repeated, blinking.
"Yeah, you. Your hair looks like it's on fire. I thought it was a pretty good name, considering Spiky is already taken."
"I've already got a name, you know — most people do. It's Axel. Got it memorized?"
"Pft, Axel, shmaxel. Would you rather be a part of a car or the god of the dead?" she replied, smirking. Axel was about to respond and say that the kind of "axel" she was referring to was spelled differently, with the "l", before the "e", but Sora spoke before he could. Axel did soon realize, however, that this was kind of a lame argument anyways, in that an "axel" (spelled the way he spelled it), was a figure skating trick, which he supposed most people probably wouldn't consider to be cooler than being part of a car.
"She's just playing, Axel," Sora assured, sensing some tension.
"I know," Axel said, sitting at the chair by the table, shrugging. He put his legs up. "Something's been up with my sense of humor… Normally I would have come up with some stupid name for her by now, like short-shorts, but I guess I'm just not feeling it, you know? I digress."
It took Sora a few seconds to realize Axel was playing as well, but then he laughed.
"Short-shorts?" Sora said, still laughing.
"Short-shorts?" Yuffie repeated glumly. "That's what you come up with?"
"Hades? That's what you come up with?" Axel mocked.
"I told you, Spiky was already taken!" she said exasperatedly.
"Why can't we just call everyone by their real names?" Sora interjected, still apparently finding amusement in the subject.
"She started it," Axel said, shrugging with a cocky smirk.
"Started what?" a deep voice interrupted, opening the door. After putting his legs down, Axel recognized him as the brown-haired man whose name he was unfamiliar with, but by logical deduction concluded was named Squall. Now able to get a better look at him, Axel surveyed his clothing (which was basically pants, a T-shirt and a fur jacket). Afterwards, Axel noted him to be rather muscular with a scar through the bridge of his nose and forehead. Next to him was Aerith.
She looks really comfortable next to him, considering the big, menacing scar and all… He's got the "don't-do-anything-stupid-or-I'll-kill-you" look down, too.
Axel himself wasn't concerned by either feature, however; he had probably about twenty centimeters on the guy and was pretty sure he'd be able to hold his own in a fight, his heart missing or not (and the earlier incident excluded).
"Oh nothing," Yuffie assured, shifting her eyes a little suspiciously. "Well, er, how was the cavern? Dark and depressing as always?"
"A little dark, yes," Aerith said, smiling. "But still nice. So, did everything go okay?"
"Well, um…" Sora's hesitation was blatant as he looked to Axel for approval. Without much thought, Axel was aware of what Sora was thinking about mentioning, and sighed.
"Yeah, everything went fine," Axel said, rolling his shoulders. "Blacked out for a little bit, no big deal. You know the dri —"
"Wait, what do you mean, 'blacked out'?" Aerith interrupted, clearly noticing his attempt to rush the information past her.
"It really wasn't a big deal," Sora defended. "He was only out, for like, a minute."
"He fainted, you're saying?" She replied to Sora, then turned to Axel, her eyes widening. "How can you say it's not a big deal? It's your health."
"I can't help but think I'm the one in a better position to make judgments about my health," Axel snapped a little (or a lot) rudely.
"Stop it," Sora said, probably feeling the same frustration he'd had when Axel was fighting with Cid. Yuffie and Squall's eyes met at this point, both acting misplaced and giving the other an identical look. Yuffie was kicking her legs on the small bed against the wall of the Green Room as if she were bored or nervous. Squall was standing still, leaning against the westernmost wall, but from his face looked almost as restless as Yuffie.
"I… I'm sorry," Aerith quickly apologized. "It's just, you know, Merlin told us to monitor his symptoms."
"…Alright," Axel said, taking in a deep breath. "I got hit, I fainted. Sora saw it. Consider the symptom monitored."
"You're not getting off that easy," Aerith pressed. "What'd you get hit by? Whatever caused it — that's what you need to watch out for."
"Not sure what caused it," Sora replied, "I didn't hit him very hard, so I don't think it was that…"
"You hit him?" Aerith said, her eyes widening. "What were you two doing?"
"No, no, it wasn't like that. It was just a game."
"I'm not sure I'd like a game where you hit people…"
"No, but it was just with a little bat. With a foam tip. It's not like it hurts or anything. That's why at first I thought he was kidding."
"Aerith." Axel said her name for the first time. She looked a little surprised. "It wasn't him, okay? It was a …coincidence."
"Well then what happened?" she tried again, desperately.
"Er… Look. It won't happen again." He said it certainly, but inside himself he was aware of the doubt. Axel had no idea what had caused it, and Lea, at least outwardly, seemed not to know either.
I've really got no clue what it could be. It just seems… random. He hardly touched me. I mean, for Pete's sake… Sighing after thinking for a little longer, he decided to give up. If it's only happened once I can't really identify a pattern. Guess I'll have to… wait and see. But for now, he settled, it was a coincidence.
At this point he questioned actually coming clean and telling them, but something was stopping him. There was something inside of him that was pushing him to stay quiet, to keep his encounters with Lea a secret. Axel found himself wondering if it was Lea — himself.
"How do you know that?" She looked at him curiously.
"I guess I don't," Axel admitted.
"Aerith, if it happens again, we'll come back. Okay? Just give him another chance."
"Well… alright. But please, Axel, don't fight. I just don't think it's a good idea."
"…Alright," Axel replied, but not entirely truthfully. It stung a little to say it because he wasn't sure he'd be able to avoid fighting completely during their searches. Though he would try to avoid any hostility, if he felt it truly necessary, he knew he would engage in it regardless of her warning.
"Thank you." Now it was a continuous sting.
"Well, I think I'm going to turn in," Axel said, standing up and stretching.
"What? It's so early!" Sora exclaimed.
"What can I say? Snooze-land is calling."
"Let him sleep, Sora," he heard her say as he closed the door behind him.
He knew that she probably just wanted him to rest, and honestly it annoyed him — he was fine, he'd been fine this entire time; he didn't need anyone to bother over him. But Axel found it very easy it ignore this annoyance. Sleep, after all, could protect from anything.
It was the greatest escape he had ever found.
