Thanks so much to all you people, favoriting, reviewing, and/or alerting my story! It's really my first full fledged story, so bear with me. And for some reason, the last lines of the last chapter were cut off o-o Not that they mattered, but I just had to include some Sora cheerfulness so this was them:
"Sora grinned at Riku.
'Well, what are we waiting for? We've got people to save!'"
Haha, yea. Anyways, enjoy~ All your reviews and the like are so much appreciated~
Door to the Light
"And you are… Axel, if I recall correctly? I owe you an apology."
Axel narrowed his eyes, which flashed a dangerous shade of bright green in the perpetual darkness. He seemed ready to lash out with a verbal attack, but he suddenly clutched his head, slightly groaning in pain. Ansem's companion stood up in alarm and instinctively went to help him, but her attempts went unnoticed.
Thanks, Axel. You're sweet.
Please, Axel. I have to do this.
I've decided that I have to go back to where I belong.
Don't hold back, Axel. Promise.
"W-what?" He staggered back a step and looked up. A young woman with cropped, light blue hair and cerulean eyes was staring at him, concerned. He quickly shut his eyes again as pain resounded in his head.
That voice- she- who are you?
The sudden pain disappeared as quickly as it had come. He slowly opened his eyes once more to find the same sight as before. The young woman still looked at him concerned with the slightest hint of curiosity. For a moment, her hair darkened and her face became a few years younger, but her eyes were nearly the same. Axel shook his head, but the same image remained. Compelled by his own curiosity, he edged closer. She backed away a few steps, blushing, and her black hair turned blue and face became that of an older teen once again.
"D-do I know you?" she stuttered, obviously accustomed to her large quantity of personal space. Axel blinked in confusion.
"No, I... You just look a bit like someone I know... I mean, someone I think I know..." He appeared deep in thought, brow furrowed, digging through the dusty memories to decipher the meaning of his strange vision and the voices he heard. Seeing how distraught he was, she quickly forgave him for invading her personal space.
"Um, well then, I'm Aqua," she said a bit awkwardly. Perhaps introducing oneself to a person with amnesia or that is having problems with their memory is not the best idea.
"Axel. But you knew that already, so make sure you get it memorized." He grinned slightly, still a bit lost in thought.
"Why are you out here in the Realm of Darkness?" Aqua questioned. Axel gave a small laugh.
"Wish I knew myself." He turned to Ansem.
"Keep your apology," Axel spat. Ansem closed his eyes in recognition that a mere apology would not appease Axel after what he had done to Roxas. "I'd rather have an explanation. How am I here? How am I not dead- well, gone?"
Aqua gave a small gasp.
"I cannot say. No research of mine ever revealed such a thing could occur. You are already a 'special case' for a Nobody; there could be many other such cases concerning the 'deaths' of Nobodies, or rather their disappearances. Also, my memory is not what it used to be. I find my past life washed away by the tides here, leaving an empty slate with no answers." He shook his head sadly, wishing more could be done to explain him surviving.
"'Nobody?' What in the worlds is that?" Aqua had a feeling that the nobody they referred to was not the insulting use of the term.
"A being created when one loses their heart to the darkness, made of the empty shell left behind," Axel answered bitterly, as if reciting some school lesson drilled into him. "Basically someone with no heart and no emotions who doesn't truly exist."
He averted his gaze to the gently crashing waves. Aqua's eyes widened.
"So you…?"
"Don't have a heart and emotions? Yep."
"But… you seem to think otherwise."
"Well… after everything that's happened, I-" He paused for a moment to think. "It's like this bizarre illusion of humanity; it's messing with my head. Pretty much everything I was told feels- seems wrong. All because of one person, my best friend- Roxas." He laughed internally at himself for spilling out his life story to some random girl he met in the Realm of Darkness, the ghost of a bitter smile touching his lips.
"And that one person who made everything seem different, well, I couldn't even protect him. I couldn't even keep my promise with her." He slumped to the ground and slung an arm over his drawn up knees. His eyes widened in shock at what he had just said.
Her?
Aqua rested her chin on her knees, wrapping her arms around them.
"I know how you feel. I couldn't protect my friends either. At least Ven's safe, but Terra…" She trailed off, wanting to change the subject. "Who did you make a promise with?"
Axel opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out and he turned his head away, thinking hard.
"I don't know. All of a sudden, these… memories have been coming back to me of some girl I don't remember, but it feels-" There it was again- "like she's important- important to me." He sighed. Ansem looked at him curiously.
"A girl? I believe, from somewhere deep in my memories, I recall a young girl you were friends with, or at the least acquainted with. She had stark raven hair, much like Aqua's but only differing in color. And she had cerulean eyes, much like those of Sora."
Axel closed his eyes tight, trying to force memories of the mysterious girl to surface. "That… that's her, I remember… but… what was her name?" He chastised himself for not being able to remember her name. He searched frantically through every memory he had for her, but to no avail. All he saw was her face, just as Ansem had described it. He suddenly came across a memory that stuck out to him because of its seemingly damaged nature. It would crackle and cut out at moments where the person he appeared to be speaking to would have been seen, as if someone had gone in and hurriedly removed him or her. He heard his own voice echoing in his mind.
Xion… What are you gonna do?
"Xion!" he exclaimed, startling Aqua. "That was her name, Xion!"
Aqua smiled at his discovery but furrowed her brow. "How did you come to forget her in the first place?"
"Well, if I could remember that, I don't think I'd be sitting here trying to figure out her name." He grinned, obviously in a better mood now that he remembered her name. Though when he thought about her harder, he felt an inexplicable sadness wash over him like acid, eating a hole in his already empty chest. How he felt such sadness, he could not say. Before he could say anything else, a bright radiance flashed behind him. He looked at Aqua's amazed expression and turned to see the light's source.
Hovering above the water was a shimmering and sparkling rectangle of warm light, bathing the three on the beach with its blissful glow. Tears of joy streaked down Aqua's face.
"It's just like a part of the nursery rhyme Master Eraqus used to read to us when we were little- Together Keyblades of day and night can come to open the door to the light."
Axel looked at her, astonished. "You have a Keyblade?"
She nodded, not taking her eyes off the light she had not seen for nearly eleven years.
"But I don't, so how-" He was cut off by Ansem, who motioned for the two of them to stand up.
"Hurry! This may be your only chance to escape!" They quickly got up and ran over to the light. Aqua turned around to make sure Ansem had followed, but he simply stood on the water's edge, watching them.
"Come on! You have to come with us!" she yelled back to the shore, beckoning with her hand.
"No, my time here is not done. I feel I have been sent here to repent all my past mistakes and learn the errors of my ways. You two must leave- the door opened for you."
"No! We can't leave you in this place!" She tried to run back, but the light swallowed her and Ansem was gone.
