Chapter: 010 - Quenched
Location: Dark Forest
Characters: Axel, Vexen, Lexaeus, Larxene, Zexion, Marluxia
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 for coarse language. This is Axel's chapter, after all.
Summary: Axel has a lot on his mind, even as the Renegades encounter a bit of a big, smelly problem...

Chapter 010 : Dark Forest - Quenched.


" Okay. Well. So. Whose bright idea was going downstream again?"
Axel put a hand on his hip and gave the unusually quiet group around him an accusing glare.
" It was a perfectly logical course of action," Vexen mumbled vaguely. " We all agreed. Following the stream in hopes of locating a river, and along with it perhaps signs of civilization…"
" Hate to disappoint you, but that," the redhead sneered, making a grand sweeping gesture at the soggy marshes spreading out before them, " ain't no river."

They had already walked for several hours, inwardly blaming the increasingly soggy ground on that damned persistent rain the night before. As the trees ahead began thinning out and dim sunlight hinted at open spaces up ahead they'd hoped for some well-deserved easy walking across nice, flat meadows, maybe even finding a fish-filled lake or that civilization-loused river Vexen was going on about.

Instead, they now found themselves standing on a small, comparatively dry peninsula of slightly higher ground protruding into a vast swamp stretching away into the distance on both sides. Blurred by the sticky and above all smelly mists rising from the stale water, silhouettes of distant treetops could be made out far away on the other side. They were quite small.

Larxene struggled to free her heeled boot from the organic muck after stepping too close to the dark water; it resisted, then squelched loose. The mud slowly closed over the deep footprint with a smug gloop.
" Well, this stinks!" she exclaimed, trying to rub the smelly dirt off against the grass.
" You honestly have no idea, " Zexion croaked, one sleeve pressed to his nose.

Axel crossed his arms.
" Okay, that's it, then. It was fun while it lasted, or well, no, not really. But that thing is huge, we can't walk around, and we can't damn well walk across. Only way we can walk is back where we came from, and we don't want that. So we gave it a try, all nice and dandy, but now it's time to move on, right?"
Marluxia's eyes narrowed.
" You're suggesting using corridors of darkness?"
Axel spread his hands.
" Not suggesting. It's the only thing we can do. Or do you want to crawl through there with rotten slime to the waist? You won't smell like a flower-girl anymore, though, I'll give you that."
Marluxia gave him a cold, dangerous scowl.
" Not to the waist," Lexaeus thoughtfully but matter-of-factly pointed out. " I can feel the ground only a few inches down. If we tread carefully we could probably walk across without even getting water in our boots."

Axel stared at him.
" You've got to be joking."
" Yes, certainly, Lexaeus," Vexen agreed, a look of prissy dismay on his narrow, womanly face. " You can't seriously refer to that sludge as 'water'! There's likely more tadpoles and rotten weeds in it than there are oxygen atoms."
" I meant the walking!" Axel exclaimed, throwing his hands up in exasperation.
" Look, I know we agreed to keep walking, but honestly people, enough's enough you know? This is getting ridiculous, really, the whole playing boyscouts, cloak-and-dagger sneaking through the bushes deal. That stopped being fun when you were, what, seven?"

They all stared at him.
He took a deep breath.

" It's… Look, this is all just stupid. We don't have to do this crap anymore. They think we're all dead, we've stayed nice and inconspicuous for more than a week – do you really think the Organization or Keyblade bearers will stand waiting in the Darkness for us if we open one lousy little corridor?"
" Possibly not, " Lexaeus conceded. " Probably not."
" Right!" Axel beamed. Just for once it seemed the others were actually listening.
" But then," the large warrior continued, " They might. A misstep in the marshes may get your feet wet. But a miscalculation about the Darkness will get you killed."

There was a tense silence as this was considered at quite some length.

" We need to move on," Zexion muttered, breathing through his mouth.
" I don't want to go in there!" Larxene whined, voice pitched to be as annoyingly jarring as possible.
Vexen shuddered as bubbles released from unseen and preferably unknown processes in the depths broke the surface.
" I suppose it would be counter-productive to stop now," he admitted, although his voice was decidedly strangled. "Lexaeus is right. A single mistake can bring us down. It has before."

Axel looked around in disbelief.

" No. You know what would bring us down? Fucking quicksand. People sink and die in these places! I don't think even Nobodies can breathe mud, can they, Mr. Science? Didn't think so. You can all go drown yourselves for all I care, but I'm outta here."

Vexen gave him a hateful tight-lipped smirk.

" What's the matter, Eight? Afraid to get wet?"
" I dunno. Are you afraid to get burned?"

It wasn't even a proper threat, just a childish retort, but Vexen went dead pale and stumbled back, hand automatically raised to summon ice or his shield or possibly both in case of an attack.
Guess that's a yes, then. Heh. Good to know.

" Enough!"
Lexaeus' voice was the thunder of mountains crashing together. He gave fire-wielder and ice-wielder alike a hard look.
" There will be no fighting amongst ourselves. All our lives depend on it."

He looked at the others.
" We should keep moving. Across these wetlands or through the Darkness. We all voted and agreed to move on foot until it is safe to leave. It's not safe yet, and so I suggest we keep walking. Any objections?"

" I don't want to. Will you carry me if I get tired, Lexie..?" Larxene protested with her most innocent little girl's voice. Axel and Marluxia snorted in unison, Zexion gave the Nymph a murderous glare.
Lexaeus met the mocking plea in the large blue-green eyes with his usual deadpan expression.
" If you have enough of your bones broken that we run out of potions, then yes."
Larxene tittered nervously and quickly danced half a step back.
" Ahaha. I'm sure that won't be necessary. Just checking. Thanks all the same."
She blew him a kiss, still smiling just like the innocent little girl she was not. The Silent Hero pointedly ignored her.
" Anyone else?"
Marluxia gave the stinking water a look of utter loathing, but kept quiet.

Axel shrugged and kicked at a soggy tuft of grass.
" I still say you're all idiots. Seems no-one wants to listen to me, though, so fine. Let's all go drown in the slime and get it over and done with."

The good news was that Lexaeus had been right; the gooey water only reached halfway up their boots, and even the mud beneath carried their weight without sucking anyone down to a literally sticky end. The bad news, of course, was that Lexaeus had been right.
It was possible to cross the unpleasant wetlands on foot, and so there would be no leaving this disgusting world soon.

It was really some rotten luck that one of the most fussily careful people in the whole group was also the physically most superior, Axel sulkily thought to himself. Even Marluxia, that arrogant sod, seemed reluctant to stand up to Lexaeus, and so they all had to do everything the slowest, safest and most tedious way imaginable.
Like, say, trudging through stinking mud when they could have jumped someplace nice and civilized, preferably sunny and with an abundance of food, drink and easy girls. Or boys. Or Roxas.

He sighed bitterly.

He should have been back in Never Was over a week ago, mission accomplished, finally able to see his little favourite partner again. Should have.
He'd carried out his orders to the letter, after all. Not a single traitor remained in Castle Oblivion, and some of the uncertain cases had quite conveniently doomed themselves; Larxene pissing off Sora one time too many, Lexaeus going up against that angry, hurting Riku-kid and Vexen messing up his little experiment and then trying to sell out Roxas to the good-guys (I still need to have a nice long talk to you about that, old man).

If you just looked hard enough, you'd find treason everywhere. It could get an honest man down, it really could.
Good thing he wasn't one.

He'd gotten a bit carried away at the end, perhaps, it probably hadn't been really necessary to sic the Replica on the intolerable little bookworm, but by then everyone else had gone down, no troublesome witnesses remained, the bastard was almost dead after his encounter with Riku anyway and who could really, really expect a howling wildfire to hold back once the glorious destruction had begun?

He'd carried out his orders nicely, rooted out every single traitor he'd been sent to deal with, and he'd been more than ready to go back, at last, to Never Was and the one single likeable Nobody in existence. Non-existence. Whatever.

And then there'd been that very, very heavy hand on his shoulder, and he'd turned in shock to find a towering and very much alive Lexaeus asking just where Zexion had gone and that had only been the start of his troubles.

He almost slipped on something horrid and unseen in the dark, opaque water and wished for the thousandth time in an hour he could burn something to vent some frustration. The stinking fumes all around seemed just a tad too flammable for comfort, though; while he occasionally, or admittedly even quite often wished for a chance to burn his intolerable companions to a crisp, accidentally blowing up the entire swamp was probably a very bad idea.

It was slow going, wading though deep mud and snaring rotted weeds. Lost in thought Axel almost walked into Marluxia when Lexaeus suddenly stopped short up ahead.
" What's the hold-up?" came the plaintive voice of Vexen, who had spent the past hour or two muttering pitifully about his tired, blistered feet and ruined coat.

Lexaeus seemingly ignored him, his gaze sweeping over the area up ahead, a stretch of marshland every bit as horrible as what they'd walked through all afternoon.
" Is something the matter?" Marluxia asked impatiently, splashing up ahead to have a look for himself.
Lexaeus gave a small shrug, but looked quite annoyed.
" It gets deeper up ahead. We have to go back and find a way around."
Now that he mentioned it the land ahead did seem to have a more watery quality, no soggy tufts of grass or dying bushes.

Axel gave a heartfelt groan.
" Go back? This way we could be stuck out here forever! I thought you knew where we were going!"
Larxene looked furious and stomped down her foot with a splash.
" I hate this! Hate it! I want to get out of here now!"
A strange, wide-eyed look suddenly crossed her face and she raised her arms as though to regain her balance.
" My foot! I'm stuck!"
Her expression turned somewhat wild and her voice cracked, shrill with dawning panic.
" I'm stuck! Get me out!"
Never before had the petty crew rushed so gallantly to the help of a lady; the memory of what had happened when she fell into the stream was still painfully fresh and no one in their sane mind wants a thunder-elemental to panic while standing to their own knees in water.

" Here, Larxene, give me your hand!"
" Keep calm, Twelve, we'll get you out, just keep calm!"
" Don't pull on it too hard or fast, that'll only create a vacuum and make it stick harder."
" Stick! Maybe if we had a stick we could pry her loose? Marluxia, can you make a stick?"
With a sigh and an air of infinite patience Lexaeus nudged the desperately helpful crowd aside, grabbed the petite woman under her arms and lifted her until her feet dangled a few inches over the surface of the muddy water, then turned and put her down on a patch of relatively solid ground.
" And this is why I said to tread carefully," he declared. " Let us move on. We don't want to spend the night out here."
" Thank you, Lex," Larxene dutifully mumbled with what could have passed for genuinely cowed gratitude if you hadn't known her for the callous little sadistic bitch that she was.

Careful to walk softly, they moved on.

The sun was depressingly low on the horizon when they finally found a way around the deep watery pits at the heart of the marshlands, the warm light making sky and water alike glow with inner fire, although possibly fire had never been quite so squelchy.

" We'll not make it to the other side before sundown, will we?"
Axel's voice was flat as he grimly trudged on. His legs ached with the strain of struggling against mud and water with every step; there'd been no chance to sit down and rest since they entered the wetlands.
" No. Probably not."
Marluxia was still walking in front of him and the dainty Assassin's voice was as hollow as his own. With his robes spattered with mud to the waist and his faggoty pink hair reduced to a lanky mess he looked nowhere near lordly anymore, although he still certainly acted it.
He'd quite looked forward to killing the man, finally setting those silly petals ablaze, wiping the smug expression from his face, glimpsing true fear in those haughty blue eyes before the end. But Sora had shown up, and he'd had to count on the boy to do the job instead.
Presumably he had.

And then Vexen, Vexen of all people had gone and revived the son of a bitch.
Why was a mystery, it was no secret gentlemen Four and Eleven hated each other with a passion. Then again, Vexen had brought back Larxene as well, and if there was any one Nobody the scientist loathed even more than Marluxia, it was the Savage Nymph.
Really, what was the point of executing all those traitors if some stupid old man stubbornly brought them back again?

Something he wouldn't be able to do again, if what he'd said during their first days in the forest could be trusted. Something to do with the cards; slippery bastard must have had an escape-route programmed through the cards somehow. And outside Oblivion, cards wouldn't work. And without cards, no unexpected second chances.
Good to know. Just in case.

He hadn't wanted to be dragged along on this fool's endeavour. All he'd wanted was to go back to the Castle That Never Was, report his job done and get on with his life. Non-life. Whatever.

And he couldn't damn well go back now.
No, sir, sorry, sir, I killed off all the traitors as per your orders, sir, but they woke up and ran away, didn't sound any good at all.
He could lie, of course, he was really very skilled at that. But if the idiots ever should get themselves caught, he'd be in deep-.. well, something even more unpleasant than rotting vegetation and mud, that much was clear.

So at least for now he couldn't go back any more than the rest of them. Not through any fault of his own, really, but nevertheless...

The others' vast distrust against him was no secret, but he had made sure to make himself useful. Maybe there'd come a time when they all let their guard down enough for him to...
No, sir, sorry, sir, they tried to run, sir, but I managed to track them down in the end, sir. Can I have my Roxas now?
Maybe.

Then again, who knew? Maybe they actually could find a way to escape the wrath of the Organization and hide away for good. Hell, they had three of the Organization's most ingenious scientists on their team, maybe they'd even device a way to get their hearts back and all that.
Say, Roxas, how'd you like to come stay with me? Someplace a bit more lively than Never Was, maybe, you know, get your heart back without involving Kingdom Hearts or Sor-... scratch that, just getting the kid a heart of his own should be possible, right?
Maybe.
Clever Vexen could probably think of something, crafty man that he was. He'd only need the right... motivation.
Are you afraid to get burned?

Yeah.
For now there wasn't much he could do but go with the flow, tag along and see how things'd play out.
Heh, slow, safe and tedious. Just like Zexion and Lexaeus.

The forest finally swallowed the sinking sun and suddenly the misty marshes were very dark indeed. They all slowed down, then stopped.
" Very well. Now what?"
He could barely make out Zexion's silhouette in the gloom, a smaller form next to the large shape that was Lexaeus.

" If we keep walking in the dark we'll all break our legs or drown," he helpfully supplied.
" We can't make camp here."
Marluxia's petulant voice sounded quite horrified at the prospect of resting in the muddy water. Man had a point, it would be a horrible thing to have to do.

" Everyone, stand back."
Lexaeus' steady low rumble of a voice.
Axel obediently skipped back; after Larxene's little misfortune earlier they'd all learned it paid to listen to the Silent Hero's advice while on unsteady ground.

The ground shook, mud and water boiling and splashing wildly for a few moments. Just as he was sure he'd lose his footing the rumbling died down and the water calmed.

" That will have to do for tonight. Follow my voice. There is dry ground here."

He squinted into the gloom and very carefully walked forward, following the sound of the others' squelching footsteps, inwardly cursing the swamp-gas and his inability to use fire. Suddenly and not entirely painlessly his toes bumped against solid rock. A small island of stone rose from the water, barely large enough for the six of them to lie down.

He patted the hard and comparatively clean and dry surface in disbelief.

" You could do this all along? Why didn't you just build us a bridge to the other side!"
" Why didn't you heat the place dry? Or ask Vexen to freeze a way across? There's nothing to work with here, and we are not at our strongest. Take it or leave it."
Funny how Lexaeus' voice sounded so much more harsh and dangerous in the dark. Or maybe he was just really annoyed, his solid patience wearing thin at last.

" No, no, this is fine. Really fine. Good thinking," he quickly amended. He laid down, felt someone else squirm slightly out of the way beside him; in the dark it could be anyone.

Silence fell, aside from the sound of sleepily croaking frogs and the occasional flatulent bubble breaking the surface.

He rested his head on his arms and stared up at a sky for once not hidden by branches and foliage. The mists blurred their light, but he could see stars up there, distant little pinpoints of light, beacons of other worlds, and suddenly he felt quite small and exposed.

There were no stars in the sky of Never Was.
The world of the Organization was too far hidden in the Darkness to even glimpse the lights of other worlds.

Hey Roxas, wanna come stargazing with me? There are so many worlds out there. We can find one all our own!
I'll bring the ice-cream?

Yeah.
Yeah, that'd work.

Axel closed his eyes and slept.