I don't own any Final Fantasy, Disney or Kingdom Hearts characters.
Chapter 7
It had been two weeks since Axel "moved" into Max's place. He was showing signs of quick recovery then when he first showed up. "Probably because the Organization is involved," Max noted once he noted that Vexen commented on the redhead's bones being less broken and no longer needing a body cast for it.
"He's still got quite a ways to go," Vexen commented.
"Really? For how long?" Max basically demanded.
"I would say about five or six months," Vexen replied nonchalantly.
"What? You can't be serious!?" Max practically exclaimed. "Isn't there any way you can speed up the process?" Max was at this point on his knees, clawing at the blonde scientist's robes.
"There is one way," Vexen pondered after snagging the hem of his cloak from Max's gloved hands.
"Really?" Max asked, looking up to the scientist's eyes.
"But it would require work," Vexen finished.
"Well, get on with it. If it speeds up Axel's recovery and gets him out of my place asap. I'm all ears," Max got some sort of cold feeling in his shoulder as soon as those words escaped his lips. He then looked up at Vexen, who returned with a sly smile.
"It would require a replica, I have data on all of the Organization members. If I so chose to, I could create a replica of the Superior himself," Vexen explained.
"A replica, you mean like-" Max was about to say before Vexen placed a hand onto the dog man's face.
"Yes," Vexen answered.
"Okay, but what about this hypothetical replica? How will it get Axel out of my hair," Max demanded.
"That remains to be seen. Now, no more word of this," Vexen commanded and with that he was gone in a bolt of darkness.
Max was beginning to despise Axel more and more. He didn't need another snarky redheaded creeping on him to the Organization and meddling in his strategy to get as far away from this place as possible with his buddies. The anthropomorphic dog barely got a say now in days. He wished he still had Pistol and Roxanne around at least they knew how to listen instead of hustling back and forth between the Organization for the mediocre reconnaissance tasks, getting medicare from other worlds because they didn't receive it due to not being officially workers for the Organization, and so much more. Max planned on fleeing, it's not like those big wigs would go out of their way searching for a couple of no name slaves. They had do everything for themselves; find a place, work their asses off each and every day for no appreciation and no compensation, get their own food, make their own food, clean their own run down place, and etc. It was infuriating! At least, Goofy treated him better despite being a bold faced liar.
Max wanted to pull the plug on Axel's treatment but something in him wouldn't allow him. Was it his conscience? No! Max had discarded that years ago when he killed Roxanne just to get this place. He recalled the desperate look on her face as he hesitantly swung Excalibur down on her. She shrieked and nothing was left of her.
Max hated this apartment because it reminded him of Roxanne. It was small and out of shape but the memories of his transgression against his late girlfriend just to "enter" the Thirteenth Order and "get a home" were burdensome to say the least. Xemnas was a horrible monster, more heartless than any Heartless that the grown man had ever encountered upon his travels. Why should Axel be tormented or punished because of Max's own guilty qualms? That would make him as low as the Superior himself, right?
Besides Max had other errands to run while he was still here. Namely checking upon a certain rookie while Vexen prepared the Axel replica. "God, those were some words that didn't belong together, Ah-yuck! Best to call it a night!" Max noted while he landed a fist against his jaw before going to bed.
The night was the same as any other nights in a city that never had a sunrise, bleak and restless. Barely anyone save for a certain Nobody managed to get any sleep. Max knew who that was, his name was Roxas. The sandy blonde haired rookie basically returned back to the blank slate he was upon joining the Organization. Saix had tasked the adult bloodhound to give the boy pointers but something about it just reeked. Perhaps, it was that faint voice that whispered in Max's droopy ears last night.
"They'll destroy you if you get on their bad side?" Max mouthed the words upon waking, stretching and putting on his black Organization XIII cloak that he had riddled among many dirty clothes and objects of his small bedroom.
Max glanced at the room, recalling how his dad would bust in each and every morning. Goofy was usually wrapped in bath towels, one on his head and the other around his waist. "Mornin' son," he would say bursting in with the vacuum.
"D-DAD!" Max would utter, grabbing whatever was closest to him to cover himself up with.
Goofy would set eyes upon Max's room and cross his arms. "Max, I thought we talked about this," the old hound man would respond with a look of disappointment.
"Yeah, yeah! But could you please knock before entering?!" Max would grumble.
"Ah-yuck, sorry Maxey," Goofy would have said before shutting the door, knocking and then asking to be let in.
Max would have gathered all of the junk laying on the floor and shove it into his closet and then say, "Come in!"
Of course, Maxey no longer had a father to argue with anymore. Goofy was long gone taking care of some spiky haired humanoid brat. His pops had ditched him for those old buddies of his. Max sat at the kitchen counter when he reflected upon his dad, he could have sworn that he saw that creep in his glass of orange juice. Smiling and going "Ah-yuck!" in his usual aggravating fashion. Max blinked away the distortion, grabbed the glass and hurled it at the sink.
"Max, you can't do that!" PJ chastised him as he stopped the glass from colliding with the gray tiled wallpaper with an aura of pinkish violent light.
"I KNOW, LEAVE ME ALONE AND STAY OUT OF MY LIFE!" Max shouted, standing up but then saw PJ's reaction.
PJ had placed the glass on the counter, ignoring the outburst. Max took this time to run out of the apartment, disregarding Bobby's "Whoa harsh!" comment and Axel's machines going off and his labored breathing. Rushing into the utter darkness to the forsaken mechanical whitish gray castle that hovered above the City That Never Was, Max ascended the crystal blue flat ramp up and up till he was inside. Inside the Castle That Never Was, this might get his thoughts straight.
