Axel stared at the cell phone. Come on, answer the damn message... He had no way to know for sure whether or not there was anyone to answer the message - Demyx could be asleep, or lost his phone, or unable to answer it - or dead for good...
His phone beeped with a text message. 1 sec, goin outside to call.
Well, that meant there was someone on the other end...with luck, it was Demyx. Without luck, it was some random ass who'd picked up his phone. All he could do was wait for someone to actually call...
When the phone rang, he pounced. "Hello? Demyx?"
There was a long pause, and the voice that finally spoke was soft and shaky. "What the hell's going on, you asshole?"
"...Well, hello to you too...are you okay?"
"Me? Forget about me - last I knew, you were dead!"
"I was...but...I...guess I'm not anymore...I don't know why not...sorry to disappoint you all..."
Demyx's voice was barely audible. "I don't believe this..."
"Yeah, death wasn't fun enough to make me want to hang around permanently. In fact, death's a pain in the ass, got it memorized?" Just in case Demyx didn't quite believe it was him - as if the reference to his hearing aids in his first message wasn't enough - "Got it memorized" ought to convince him. And if not...well, maybe it wasn't Demyx. It sure sounded like him, though...
"'Got it memorized'...all right, you're real. I mean...I..."
"I get it. I'm having trouble believing it myself...How are the other two?"
"Sleeping...good thing you picked me to call; I was the only one awake." Demyx's voice was all over the scale - sometimes unnaturally loud with shock and maybe hysteria, sometimes almost too soft to hear. "If you ever let on I told you this, I'll kill you so it sticks before he kills me, but...Roxas cried himself to sleep."
The tremor in Demyx's voice made Axel suspect Roxas wasn't the only one. "...Are you crying?" he asked.
"Crying, laughing, what the hell ever. I thought I'd never see you again, you bastard. Ten minutes ago, I knew I'd never see you again. Now here we are, talking on the damn phone." There was a definite note of hysteria there. "You're alive..."
"Are you okay?"
"Yes. No. I don't know. I..." Pause. "I..." Another, much longer pause. Axel figured Demyx had broken down completely. "...Sorry."
"Forget it...where are you guys?"
"Back at the apartment." Demyx's voice was a little steadier now. "I'm sitting on the roof, in case you can see me."
Axel looked around - in the dim light, he couldn't see much of anything, but he didn't recognize his surroundings at all. "I can't. I'm not sure where I ended up. Hell, right now, I can't even tell you which way's north."
"Oh..." Demyx started sounding hysterical again. "So...I guess you...better stay put until tomorrow...when you might actually be able to see where you're going..."
"And you probably need sleep, if you were up at this time of night. I'll call you back tomorrow. Don't get eaten by demons before then."
Demyx laughed - yup, hysterical. "What the hell harm would that do?!"
Demyx lay back on the roof of the apartment building and half-laughed, half-cried until he choked. Sleep? Now? Yeah, right...not after that...
Eight hours ago, I thought I'd see him again in the afterlife. Fifteen minutes ago, I thought the same thing, except I didn't expect to get there anytime soon. But...he's alive. He's not dead. At least...not anymore...
How?! I don't give a damn about why, I'm just glad he's back, but how?!
I need to think...somewhere far away from here...
He stepped over to the edge of the building, looked down, swallowed, and jumped. Ordinarily, that would have been fatal, or at least extremely painful, but instead of hitting the ground, he hovered at about the second story. Once he was sure of his stability, he soared out over the ocean, hoping to clear his head. Flying was almost as soothing and refreshing, in its own way, as swimming, and he'd be sorry to lose that power when they finally went back to the World that Never Was. On the other hand...he missed food.
Eventually, he dropped out of the air and dove in. Considering the amount of electronic equipment on him, his hearing aids not least of all, this would normally be a bad idea, but he was long in the habit of using his powers to protect them from water damage. And, being able to breathe water, he could stay down there as long as he wanted. He could even sleep underwater, if he felt like it, though he might accidentally let his hearing aids get ruined. As long as he was back to the apartment before sunrise, Roxas and Zexion wouldn't even notice he was missing. That would be easy enough; he had hours...
Well, maybe he would have, if luck had been with him. But by the time he wandered back at the crack of dawn, still pretty soaked, Roxas was wide awake and staring out the window. His bleak, terrified expression changed to rage when he saw Demyx approaching. "Uh...hi...Roxas...what's up?"
"Where the fuck did you disappear to and why?" Roxas's tone suggested it would be tough to come up with a right answer. Shit, what the hell do I tell him?
Demyx sighed. The truth. "Axel called in the middle of the night last night."
He was promptly thrown back outside, with a few new bruises and torn stitches, and accompanied by a long stream of curses. "You fucking asshole! You think that's fucking funny?! I ought to tear your goddamn head off, you bastard! You sick little piece of shit! What the fuck would you do that for?!"
Demyx stared at the closed and locked door. "But...he...really...oh, damn it..."
Roxas glared angrily at his cell phone. Axel's name was on the caller ID; this had to be a continuation of Demyx's sick joke. "Did Demyx tell you to call, fuckwad?" he snarled.
There was a very long pause on the other end. "...Yes, he did, because apparently you threw him out of the building and locked the door on him. He'd like you to let him back in, if that's okay?"
He refused to admit how familiar the voice was. It wasn't possible. But he'd never realized Demyx had such a cruel sense of humor... "Fuck him, and fuck you too."
A long, incredulous silence. "...The hell?!"
"Get off the phone. You're not really Axel. Axel's dead, dammit!"
"Do I have to say 'Got it memorized' to get you to believe I am who I'm supposed to be?"
"Demyx told you about that."
"For the love of Kingdom Hearts, Roxas...what's it gonna take?"
Roxas tried to think of something Axel would know and Demyx definitely wouldn't. He came up blank. Then let's try something else. "If you're really Axel..." he asked in a soft, seductive tone, "why aren't you calling me Roxie-baby like you usually do?"
There was a very, very long pause on the other end. "...Are you really Roxas? And if you are, are you drunk? I've never called you 'Roxie-baby' in my life, and if I ever did, I think you'd kill me."
Roxas almost dropped his phone. He'd been expecting the impersonator on the other end to scramble to make up for his "mistake". "You...you really are Axel."
"Who were you expecting? King Mickey? Kingdom Hearts on a hot dog bun...what, did you think Demyx was trying to play a sick joke on you? Do you seriously think Demyx is capable of pulling a sick joke, period?"
Roxas could barely put two words together. "No...I...how...you're not...Ax, I can't..."
"Would you let Demyx in before he gets eaten by a demon? The hell was that - did you just drop the phone?" Roxas didn't hear him - he'd dropped the phone and was racing to unlock the door.
Axel cursed at his phone - way to drop a call. Well, at least he had a little time to get his bearings now. He'd spent the night in an abandoned fire department - not the most comfortable place, at least for him, but better than sleeping out in the open. Looking out at the window, he could see the ocean. Well, the apartment was near the ocean, so maybe if he followed the coast long enough...With a sun in the sky to help him get his bearings - wasn't that nice! - he could tell the coastline here ran more or less straight east-to-west, and the ocean was east of the apartment where the coast ran north-to-south, so if he went due east...
After the coastline turned in a slow curve back west, he started to wonder if maybe he was on a different island entirely. It didn't seem big enough to encompass what he'd seen in today's meanderings and the terrain he'd grown familiar with in his last life. Kingdom Hearts, did that make for odd thoughts...At least, being a Nobody, he wouldn't run the risk of finding his own dead body somewhere - which was possibly the single most disturbing thought he'd ever had...
His cell phone rang again, and he answered, hoping this call wouldn't get dropped too. "Hi, Demyx...Roxas ever let you back in?"
"Yeah...he's kind of in shock, a little. Can't blame him. So am I - I'm walking on air."
"Literally?"
"...Uh, no. Not literally. Zexion doesn't even know yet - he must have worn himself out completely. Managed to wake him up for about five minutes for stitches and he passed right out again."
"Stitches? Stitches for what?" Axel was slightly distracted - he was getting the strangest vibes from just inland...
"Me. I managed to tear a couple out. Nothing serious...where are you?"
"Still trying to figure that out...not sure I'm even on the same island...I've just been wandering past a lot of old warehouses and a falling-down harbor..." He shouldered open the door to what looked like a falling-down slum. "Holy shit. Or unholy shit."
Demyx blinked in confusion. "What's going on? What did you find?"
"I'm...not sure..." Axel sounded uncertain and a little awed. "This ring of stones...with carvings on them...just standing here in what I thought was a slum..."
Carved stones, in the middle of a slum? "Maybe...some urban renewal project that failed? Some kind of sculpture?"
"I don't know...I'm getting the strangest vibes from them...like...I don't think humans had anything to do with them..."
"Um..." Demyx scratched his head. Well, in this world, maybe they didn't. "Take a picture."
"Can't. This phone doesn't have a camera." Pause. "Just...the strangest...almost looks like writing on them, but...I - aaaaaah!"
"Axel? Axel!" Demyx stared at the phone in horror as the connection went dead.
Whatever horror Demyx might have been "feeling" was nothing compared to what Axel was going through. Kingdom Hearts, I found the door to Hell.
He shivered uncontrollably, pulling his robe closer around him. Isn't Hell supposed to be hot? It's so cold in here...so cold... Looking around at the iron walls that surrounded him, he wondered if those red stains on the walls were rust or blood.
Well...this isn't necessarily Hell...I guess...just because it feels so ugly and rotten...
He took a few unsteady steps towards a window - and immediately collapsed to his knees. Pain suddenly exploded in his empty chest - worse than being sliced open by that demon, even worse than having his heart torn out - as if whatever force was behind all that was wrong in the worlds had tried to get at his heart and, finding it missing, was going after his soul instead.
Kingdom Hearts...if I die here...will I be trapped here?
Biting through his lip, he pulled himself the last few feet to the window, ignoring the burning pain in his chest and the agonizing chill in every joint. Every stumbling footstep and gasping breath seemed to echo endlessly around the hard, ugly walls of the fortress. Dragging himself up to where he could look out, he saw the fortress was surrounded by burning firepits and boiling lava. Suddenly, the air seemed hot enough to burn even him. It was burning him - his skin was starting to blister as he watched. But - fire couldn't burn him - no fire in the worlds could hurt him...
This really is Hell.
Desperate for an escape, he looked behind him, to where he'd suddenly appeared when he'd touched the stone. That colorful, swirling mist - a way out - maybe? He half-stumbled, half-crawled; half-dragged himself through, half-fell through the mist - and found himself in the middle of the standing stones. He staggered out, careful not to come within six inches of any of them, and retrieved the cell phone he'd dropped. It showed several missed calls, all from Demyx, so he called back.
"Hey...Demyx...sorry...call got dropped..." His voice came out as a wavering croak.
Demyx's voice was high and raw with panic. "Axel, what happened?! Why'd you scream like that?!"
"Nothing...just took...a quick side trip to Hell...I think I'm gonna be sick." He snapped the phone shut so Demyx wouldn't have to listen.
"Come on, you've been asleep for almost twelve hours straight..."
Zexion rubbed blearily at his eyes. "Well, I had been awake for nearly thirty before that...I was in need of...a little rest..."
Roxas shook his head. "You've had 'a little' rest, I think...you'll never believe what happened."
"Try me."
"Axel called. He's still alive. Or came back to life. Something."
Zexion stared at him blankly. "...Oh..."
Roxas could have punched him. "'Oh'? Is that all?"
Zexion flopped back onto the bed. "...I need to think...for a very long time..."
"Rox? You in here?" Something in Demyx's tone said "this is important".
"Fine, do some thinking..." Roxas dragged himself out the bedroom door, feeling like he'd been run over by a steamroller. "What's up?"
Demyx was staring at his cell phone. "Something...really weird...just happened..."
Roxas sighed. "Try to explain it, as clearly as possible."
Demyx took a deep, shaky breath. "Well...I called Axel back, to ask him where he was...he couldn't tell me that - he told me he thought he was on a different island...and while we were talking, he suddenly found this ring of stones with writing on them...he was telling me about them, and suddenly he screamed and the line went dead. I tried calling him back maybe five or six times - I finally give up on that and he calls me." He gulped. "He said he'd taken...a side trip to Hell. I don't know if he was pulling my leg or if that's what really happened."
Roxas stared. "Are you still on the phone with him, or -"
Demyx shook his head. "He told me he was going to be sick and hung up. I - he sounded like he was in a lot of pain - maybe he really -"
"Not unlikely, considering the structure of these worlds."
Roxas glared back at the bedroom door. "I thought you were busy thinking."
"Thanks to Nine's information -" Zexion was still rubbing at his eyes, as if exhausted - "it came together much faster than I expected. The Nexus is four closely linked worlds in one - the lowermost world, Stygia, bears a close family resemblance to Hell. And the two central worlds - Valhalla and Purgatorio - are dying. It's not altogether unlikely that when the world itself is dying, the boundaries between death and life start to blur for its inhabitants. A return from the dead is no longer so impossible, in that situation. The ring of stones Eight found must have been a gateway into Stygia. Nine, did he say anything else about where he was? His surroundings, geography, landmarks?"
Demyx shrugged. "He said he'd found the stones in a slum. And he'd walked past a lot of old warehouses, and he mentioned something about a harbor." Roxas's mind was still boggling a little from Zexion's explanation.
"Ah..." Zexion flipped open his lexicon to a map of the world. "Harper Island. Not utterly inconvenient, assuming one has some way to travel over water."
Roxas immediately looked at Demyx. Demyx rolled his eyes. "I can carry one. Unless I'm not supposed to include myself."
Axel staggered out of the slums and back to the shoreline, feeling a little too shaky - like it was from more than being sick to his stomach. Well, he was still stiff, and he could still feel that pain in his chest...it wasn't so bad now, thankfully...
I need food.
He shook his head. He'd be able to find some later, once he got his bearings.
No, I really, really need food.
Well, maybe he had something in his backpack. He collapsed onto a dilapidated bench, slid his backpack off - when had it gotten so heavy - and started sorting through it with trembling hands. He didn't find anything to eat - he should have replaced that candy bar - but he did find his blood glucose monitor.
No! Must have food!
Maybe his blood glucose was too high - hopefully he hadn't lost his insulin pump. That would leave him pretty well screwed. He checked quickly - it was right where it should be, and connected. And it still had some insulin left. He forced his hands to stop shaking long enough to prick a finger for a drop of blood to test.
When he saw the result, he swallowed hard and turned his insulin pump off. Then he opened his cell phone again. "Demyx...hey, sorry'f I keep buggin' you, jus' your name's on top of th' address book."
"Sorry, what? Are you okay?"
"I said, sorry if I keep buggin' ya...I'm in trouble."
Pause. "What kind of trouble?"
"Sugar trouble. Not enough, kinda sugar trouble - s' at 48. And I don' have anythin' to eat t'fix it."
Muffled cursing. "Oh, that's lovely. Well, we think we know where you are, or Zexion thinks he knows - we just have to figure out how to get there."
Axel's stomach growled like a wild animal. "Bring food. Please." Now he was faced with a dilemma. Try to scrounge for food, and use up what was left of his blood glucose at a faster rate, or sit here, conserve his blood glucose, and hope his friends arrived with food before he went into a coma or had a seizure or something? Eventually, "sit and wait" won. "I'm outside 6160 Harper...and hurry." He summoned an origami tiger and lay back on the bench, hoping that if he went to sleep, he'd wake up again in the same body.
"There's not enough time. This will have to do."
Lucky - his daylong attempt to get everyone to call him "Lucio" or something else less retarded had yet to produce results, even from himself - watched closely as the Elementalist jumped into the air and kept rising instead of coming down. As the other two retreated back into the apartment building, he followed the airborne man, even though the little Paladin was setting off all his "enemy - kill" signals. With a Wizard along, he wouldn't have stood a chance anyway. Besides, he had better things to do than pick a fight with an angel.
Like finding the red-haired Nexus Champion, and finding out why he'd had his name on a sheet of paper in his pocket.
Racing from shadow to shadow, keeping pace with the Elementalist's shadow, was more fun anyway.
AN: Typing this up piece by piece on a borrowed laptop. There are better working conditions. Uh oh, Demyx is being followed.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Nexus War, got it memorized?
