Axel watched as his hands picked up a tiny shell and an equally tiny fork, and started prying the little mollusk from its shell. But his hands weren't his own. The skin was several shades darker and they were criss-crossed with the tiny lines of old scars.
"It's a little embarrassing when they do things like this." He heard himself comment in a different voice. It was a touch deeper than his own.
"They love you, and so they should." He looked up from his task to smile at the woman across from him. They were both sitting on cushions in a tent. The tent was fairly luxurious as tents went… the cushions were embroidered, there were a few rich tapestries on the walls and the table between them was inlaid with rich woods. But it was all practical… Axel could see that the tapestries would be light to carry, and the table was a carefully made type that could fold up for transport.
The woman across from him was not, Axel thought, as pretty as Larxene had been. The comparison was inevitable though… the coloring was almost exactly the same, although this woman's eyes were a dark blue rather than green. But her hair was the same cornflower blond and she had the same perfect, peach colored skin. She was pretty but not a beauty… her nose was slightly crooked, her teeth were a little stained and she was flat chested. But she was also slender and athletic, and moved with a dancers grace as she poured them both coffee from a silver urn.
Then she smiled at him, a smile that reached and warmed her dark blue eyes, and Axel suddenly knew she was more beautiful than Larxene could ever have been. His heart gave him a surge of warmth, and he felt himself smile back at her.
"I'm not that special, love." He protested mildly as he ate the snail. She snorted as she picked up a chicken leg from the table and gave it a nip.
"Compared to who? When a bunch of tents collapsed in that dust storm, you were out there helping dig up your soldiers. How many generals would do that?"
"Not many," He admitted, helping himself to a bit of the chicken. It was just as good as the snail, marinated in a spicy sauce then barbecued. Axel was a little puzzled by what they were talking about, then suddenly understood. Snails in garlic were not normal camp fare… his men had found them and brought them to the cooks to show their appreciation. His? No… the men his heart had commanded, a long time ago. "But I'm glad my brother isn't here to see this."
"Your brother is a twit." She said spiritedly, waving her chicken to emphasis her point. "An arrogant, self-centred prig. He'd make a terrible king."
"I won't disagree, love, but try to keep it down. You know the soldiers can hear you." She snorted again, but didn't disagree, and sipped her coffee. "I blame mother for the way he is, really." He added sadly.
"It's partly just who he is, or he would have gotten the heart of the kingdom, not you." Then she sighed. "But I'll admit your mother has made things so much worse."
"It isn't just her though. It's the entire situation." He frowned and sipped his coffee. Axel reeled a little mentally at the taste… it was stronger than any he'd ever had before and black as death. Not how he usually took his coffee. "It's not that I regret being here… but father should never have married mother. I don't care if they were always in love, marrying grandpa's widow and adopting their son was idiotic." Her laugh was clear and sweet as birdsong, and Axel felt himself smile again. But his mind was trying to decipher the family relationship. It sounded bizarre.
"Well, it's not everyone who can say that their half brother is also their uncle, with no incest involved."
"There's not many who would want to, either." He replied drily. "And mother babied him when the kingdom's heart passed him over, and father made that worse by favoring his own children. I wonder…" His tone turned thoughtful. "I sometimes wonder if the current problems are connected to the family situation."
"I don't see how your families problems, no matter how great they are, could be related to giant hostile bugs in the desert." She laughed and moved over so she was sitting beside him, and he put an arm around her waist, nuzzling her throat.
"Hmm. You know what else I think?" He asked softly, as he gently nibbled on her skin, eliciting a soft moan.
"You think that sex in a tent with at least a dozen soldiers listening is perfectly normal." She breathed in his ear, and he laughed softly.
"No… well, yes. But actually, I was thinking that I love you Kaelglas."
"I love you too, my knight. Now make love to me, please."
"Your wish is my command."
Axel groaned as the sun hit his eyes, and rubbed his face with one hand. He slowly blinked, pushing himself up on the couch. He could recall his dream in vivid detail... and blushed slightly, hoping Sora hadn't noticed any arousal. Then he frowned. Although he knew a bit about his heart now, and some of the interesting family circumstances surrounding it… he still didn't know his heart's name.
"I wonder if I'll have more dreams like that?" He asked the room. He wasn't afraid of them. Vivid as the dream had been, it felt like something that had happened to a stranger. He was still Axel and, if the Footman was correct, he always would be.
But it would be nice to know a bit more about his heart.
"Is it my imagination, or is it taking a lot longer than normal to reach the next place?" Kairi asked, looking over Axel's shoulder at the vehicle's instruments.
They had finally christened it Travel Happens. The vehicle, which had been happy enough without a name, hadn't objected. Axel frowned at the instruments. Although they were ridiculously simple… mostly point and click, and the machine seemed to understand verbal commands… there were a lot of things going on at the moment he didn't understand. But one message caught his eye. "Maintenance required. Oh, that can't be good." The vehicle shuddered and seemed to change course. "Huh… it's going somewhere in particular?"
The trip took even longer after that, but finally Travel Happens came to a halt. The canopy vanished, and all three of them looked around to find they had docked at some kind of station. It was floating over a strange looking, swirling purple void and looked like a ball of steel spaghetti. As soon as they had jumped out of the vehicle, an older man with dark brown hair walked up to them. He was wearing green goggles and a dark red jumpsuit with dozens of pockets. Strange items were sticking out of most of them.
"You're here for maintenance?" Without waiting for an answer, he ran a wand along the Travel Happens. "Hrm… a bit of engine trouble. An original Sedika, Class A, registered to… the Green Witch. All repairs and expenses to be paid onto account. Well, that makes things simple. This should only take a few hours. Are you planning to stay longer? If so we can move her over to a visitor berth as soon as repairs are complete." Caught a bit off guard by the rapid fire speech, Axel could only shrug
"We'll be staying a while, I guess." It seemed unlikely that the Writer of Destiny would be here… the Green Witch HAD to be the Queen of Hearts, so she clearly knew about this place. But still, they could check. The man nodded, and waved the same wand over them, to their surprise.
"Hmmm… unimplanted. You'll have to go to the visitor centre and get some datapads if you want to do anything. Tell them you're at berth 2069. Karo!" He bellowed at a young man walking by, who started and looked over. "Take them over to the visitor centre."
"Yes sir. This way, sirs and madam." The young man smiled blandly and gestured for them to follow. The walk was somewhat boring. All they saw were more berths, and more ships with people hard at work on them. Although some of them had floating screens open and floating beside the vehicles, which was interesting. Suddenly, Sora stiffened.
"Riku!" He broke away from his startled friends and ran over to a man with very familiar silver hair, hard at work on a vehicle. "Riku, what are you doing here? How did you…" Sora trailed off as the man turned to face him. While he was similar enough to Riku to be a brother, he was clearly several years older. He was wearing black goggles that he pushed back to reveal bright green eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were someone I knew." Sora started to back up, blushing, as the other man stared at him with an unreadable expression.
"Wait." His voice was cold and sharp. "Who are you?" His gaze slid from them and fixed onto the young man escorting them like a hawk fixating on a mouse. "Karo, go back to work."
"I'm escorting them to the visitor centre." He said stiffly. The older Riku nodded.
"I will take care of that. Return to your tasks." Their eyes met for a long moment, and Axel lifted his eyebrows at the invisible battle of wills. Clearly, the younger man didn't see the silver haired one as any kind of authority figure… but Axel privately thought that the older Riku was not a man to cross. He reminded him a little of Xaldin, and a little of Marluxia… cold, serious and with a potential to stab you in the face. But the younger man seemed to disagree… still, he finally looked away.
"Have it your way Risu." Tone hard with dislike, the young man turned and walked away. Axel and Sora exchanged a glance. Risu?
Once he was certain the other man was out of earshot, Risu spoke again. "You know someone who looks like me and is named Riku? Is he younger than me, or older?" He seemed very interested in the answer, looking at Sora intently.
"Uh, he's younger than you." Risu seemed pleased by that answer. Axel decided to speak up.
"So do you know Riku then?" On the surface, it seemed unlikely. But Riku could have gone some strange places when he was lost in the darkness.
"Not personally. He's my youngest brother." Risu seemed completely oblivious to the surprise he called all of them, and continued matter of factly as several jaws dropped open. "He was a fourth child, on a special license. So he was adopted out before he was born. But his cryo chamber was lost in transit. I've always hoped he was alive somewhere." Risu paused a moment, looking over all three of them thoughtfully. "Forgive me, but you seem to be from less advanced worlds… has Riku been living on a similar world?" His tone was casual, but Axel crossed his arms, feeling more than a touch suspicious.
"Why do you want to know?" Something was off, he could smell it. Risu tapped at his goggles absently as he met Axel's eyes.
"I would like very much to meet my brother. But if he's living on one of our worlds, I would only cause trouble for him." Risu explained blandly.
"He's in Traverse Town, taking a summer course." Sora volunteered. A smile played over Risu's lips, and Axel had to fight the urge to glare at the brunette. He didn't think Risu was lying, precisely… but there were a hundred and one ways to skin the truth to the bone without actually lying. "We could take you to see him." Risu's smile widened.
"That would be wonderful. But, before we go… what has brought you here?" There was a beep behind him, and Risu moved his hand to switch something off without looking.
"Well, we're looking for stories…" Sora started launching into the things they wanted, but was soon cut off by Risu's laugh. Kairi and Axel exchanged a glance at the bitter, cold sound while Sora looked confused.
"You're not going to find that here. Fiction of that sort is outlawed. You could get in trouble even for asking." Axel blinked at that, and Kairi and Sora both looked more than a touch shocked. A world that outlawed fiction? "You might as well leave as soon as they fix your vehicle, if that's what you want."
"You're sure?" Axel pressed, still not trusting this strange Riku double. But Risu just smiled at him.
"Oh, I'm very, very sure." The bitterness in his tone was convincing. Axel nodded thoughtfully, considering Risu for a moment. He was sure the other had some kind of ulterior motive in wanting to leave this place, besides meeting a brother he'd never seen. But then… Axel had a distinct feeling they'd only touched the tip of a very unpleasant iceberg of reasons why anyone would want to leave this place.
"Well, if you're coming along, I'm Axel. This is Sora and that's Kairi. Got it memorized?" Without waiting for a reply, Axel turned his back on the silver haired man. "Let's go see how they're coming on the Travel Happens."
The sooner they left this place, the better.
With Risu's help on the vehicle, it was done even faster than the man had predicted. The first sign of trouble came when he leaned over to quietly talk in Axel's ear.
"Get in the backseat. I'll take the driver's spot." Axel frowned, but leapt into the second spot while Kairi and Sora took the back. As soon as Risu jumped into the vehicle, the older man with brown hair noticed.
"Risu! What are you doing? Get out of there immediately." Risu's laughter was as cold as an ice flow and full of contempt as he replied.
"I'm tendering my resignation, superior." Axel started slightly at the unintentional echo, the name the Nobodies had called Xenmas. "Fare ill." The canopy appeared and the vehicle slammed out of its moorings so fast that Sora and Kairi yelped, and Axel had to hold on for dear life. Fortunately, straps immediately spooled out… something that had never happened before, but they'd never tried to test what the vehicle could do.
The next several minutes were a complete nightmare to all of the passengers. The vehicle dipped, swerved and dodged as several other vehicles tried to catch it in tractor fields. Risu was laughing wickedly as he wrung every drop of speed and maneuverability he could out of Travel Happens. Finally they lost their pursuers, and punched through the darkness to Traverse Town.
"That was fun." The vehicle vanished, and Kairi started to retch as she fell to her knees on the ground. Sora wobbled on his feet, looking like he was about to be sick. Only Risu was unaffected. He glanced at them and smiled. "Sorry to deceive you slightly, but I knew they wouldn't be willing to just let me go."
"Risu?" Axel said with a smile, then as the other turned to look at him, punched him in the face. The silver haired man dropped to the ground, stunned.
Axel didn't like being used.