Disclaimer: You've heard it before.
"Run for it!"
The Dancers (what was left of them) turned at Demyx's order and sped in pursuit of their retreating master as another hail of lightning bolts hammered into the ground around them, the Nobody yelped as one exploded at his feet before continuing to sprint for all he was worth towards the gates. Another series of bolts crashed down around him making his hair tingle as he shot out of the gates and immediately opened a portal and diving into it not caring where it led, emerging in a dark cavern he dropped to his knees and burst into hysterical giggles as the remaining Dancers crowded around.
"We did it?" He muttered in surprise. "We did it!"
Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the small stone and turned it over in his hand before rising to his feet.
"Good job guys" he smiled at the other Nobodies. "Almost thought we weren't gonna make it, in fact..." he threw his hood back and ran a gloved hand through his hair. "Pretty sure some of my hair didn't make it, bummer."
The Dancers hovered around impatiently as their master gave his hair a thorough inspection before determining that it had in fact survived the raid to get the stone he now clutched tightly in his hand.
"Note to Superiors: do not send your water element Nobody on a mission to attack the home of the Gods! Lightning and me don't mix" he whined before noticing the Dancers again. "OK guys, next stop the Underworld!"
He went to open another portal but the three Dancers moved in front of him, their excited motions telling him that they were already there, Demyx frowned and looked around for the first time at the area around him.
"Oh yeah, thought it seemed a little creepy around here... well that saves us some time" he smiled. "Right guys, I'm pretty sure the others have sent some backup for me, find 'em as quick as ya can alright?"
The Dancers vanished in search of their target leaving the Nobody alone, he sighed heavily and pulled his hood back up before making his way deeper into the caverns, his nerves getting shakier as he remembered the next phases of his mission, creating a large number of strong Heartless and trying to strike a deal with the Lord of the dead, Hades. He only hoped his backup arrived soon.
"Please, please, please don't be Saix..."
"Hercules! Hercules!"
Jaxon frowned as the hero wearily forced himself back to his feet, the Rock Titan having been tossed clean out of the Colliseum, shaking his head he slipped back into the shadows before the crowd could notice the strangely dressed newcomer, skulking along the back wall he smirked as Hercules dropped back to a knee in exhaustion, the guy would be easy pickings if the Heartless were to turn up.
"Ah well, always another time" he muttered to himself as he walked out into the Colliseum forecourt, looking out over the clouds he shook his head in wonder, how could guys fight this high up? Surely the thinner air made training impossible?
Maybe that's why the people round here are so tough...
Conceding his brain had a point he turned to lean against the wall and nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of three Dancer Nobodies directly before him.
"Jeez guys, would it kill you to make a little noise instead of creeping up on me?" He sighed, the Dancers exchanged a look before going back to their excited motions, explaining to the young Nobody what they were up to.
"Right" he nodded as they finished. "Well if he wasn't in trouble I wouldn't be here, lazy as he is, so where is he now?" The Dancers gave more excited motions. "Already down there? Well what're we waiting for?"
At his words a portal opened and the group of Nobodies entered, emerging in what looked like the entrance to a massive cave, Jaxon just had enough time to take in his bleak surroundings when he felt a crushing weight come down on his entire body, wincing visibly he dropped to a knee for a second to shake the wave of sickness that washed over him. He'd heard about this so called 'curse' the Underworld placed on those who strayed there, weighing them down and slowly sapping the energy from them, he hadn't anticipated it hitting him this hard though, shaking his head he returned to his feet and summoned the Gunblade, the mission now that little bit harder.
"I'm fine" he smiled reassuringly at the nearest Dancer as it actually offered a hand to him, he mentally noted to be nicer to the Nobodies he commanded. "Nothin' I can't handle, now let's go save your master."
The Dancers nodded and began floating towards the cave entrance when a boulder fell from the ceiling, crushing one into non-existance, Jaxon winced as the other two retreated to his side in horror.
"And let's be more carefull too" he added nervously entering the cave, treading carefully as it sloped downwards, the heaviness on his shoulders now accompanied by a sense of impending doom, he frowned to himself and tried to force himself to think of something else but his thoughts would immediately return to the uneasy sense that someone, or something was watching him, ready to jump out and attack him at any moment, he had never been so thankfull for the Nobodies accompanying him.
He rounded a corner and raised the Gunblade just in time as a dog Heartless lunged for his chest, he managed to impale it's mouth and fired a round through it into another Heartless that had appeared behind it, the smirk that had appeared was short-lived as several Heartless appeared around him and the Dancers, which immediately threw themselves at the dark creatures without him even telling them to, sighing to himself he raised the Gunblade again and beckoned the Heartless on.
The first one to attack was slashed right through before it could get near him, as was the next, two tried attacking him at once but he batted one into the wall where another boulder fell and crushed it whilst he ran the other through, he fired a round into the swarm eliminating a few sending the rest scattering allowing him to charge the few that survived and send them all fading into darkness, already feeling tired he jumped back to put some distance between him and the Heartless, the curse really coming down on him. As he struggled to shake it he saw one of the Dancers fall as several of the dog Heartless brought it down, the sole surviving Nobody joined him a the Heartless turned to face them.
The two sides took a moment to size each other up then charged each other again, Jaxon swinging wildly at every Heartless that came in range as he tried to ignore the heaviness in his limbs, two soldier Heartless jumped on his back causing him to drop to his knees as a larger one shot forward only for the Gunblade to rip through it, shaking the two on his back off and running them through he let out a growl and turned to the remaining Heartless an idea jumping into his head.
"Nuts to this!" He yelled firing the Gunblade straight up and diving for cover as the ceiling around him came down, burying all the Heartless under the rubble, coughing against the cloud of dust he barely held in a laugh as the Dancer he'd been fighting with appeared by his side.
"You made it too huh?" He chuckled, stretching to try and relieve his limbs. "Dem's taught you well."
The Dancer just made more excited motions, Jaxon frowned.
"What? Where?" He glanced round the corner and groaned. "I don't believe it! How does that kid get around so quickly?"
Sighing heavily at the sight of Sora and his companions heading down the slope towards him he stepped back and looked around, the only place he could go was a path that had him running across Sora's line of vision, not a good prospect, he could always use the darkness to portal away but sooner or later he'd have to come back this way anyway, he quickly made a mental note, it was dark, he was wearing all black, Sora would be suffering from the curse too...
Pulling his hood up further to make sure his face was completely obscured he turned to the Dancer.
"Feeling lucky?" He chuckled before dashing across the opening towards the other path, one of the group cried out in shock as he disapeared out of sight and quickly ducked back into an alcove. He swore openly to himself at being seen then clamped a hand over his mouth and stepped further back into the shadows, the Dancer joined him and began more wild motions asking what they were going to do now.
"Well, firstly we let him slip by" the young Nobody whispered as the sounds of a battle rang out through the cave, the Heartless must have returned, the two Nobodies stayed put until the sounds of the Keyblade and various spells being cast ceased and silence fell again, Jaxon summoned the Gunblade and waited but Sora didn't appear, his unease growing he turned to the Dancer and gestured for it to go and check what was going on, it nodded and slinked out of the alcove... right into the Keyblade. It turned a pained glance at Jaxon before disapearing while Sora stepped into view, Jaxon clenched the Gunblade tighter as the Keyblade Master looked right at him giving the Nobody a good look at the same eyes Roxas had used to stare holes through him when they'd been fighting together, after a moment Sora turned and headed deeper into the cave with his companions. Jaxon gave a relieved sigh.
"On your own then Jaxon" he muttered to himself stepping back out onto the path, he clenched the Gunblade tighter as the path sloped downwards. "C'mon Dem, where are you?"
Keeping Sora in sight but making sure to stay at a safe distance he crept down the narrow path until it opened up into a larger cave again, he held back in the shadows as the Keyblade Master stopped and summoned his blade, Jaxon winced and prepared for Sora to turn and attack him but the boy just stared ahead, Jaxon followed to see a coated figure charging towards them, he frowned in confusion as the figure sprinted right past Sora and the others.
"Run, run away!"
Jaxon rolled his eyes and bit down on his lip to keep from laughing as the figure disapeared into a portal, there was only one person that could be, keeping to the shadows as Sora left he stepped forward and debated his next move, follow Sora and make sure he took out some Heartless? Or track down his partner as per his orders? Chuckling to himself he opened a portal to begin his search, he felt like having some fun.
Surprisingly it didn't take him that long to track Demyx down, he found the other Nobody hiding deep in the catacombs looking like he was in the middle of a panic attack, being the caring friend he was Jaxon exploited this by appearing behind him and grabbing him by the shoulders.
"Gotcha!" He yelled as Demyx actually screamed and took a wild swing at him with the Sitar, the young Nobody effortlessly ducked it and descended into laughter as his partner realised just who his attacker was.
"I... you little... Jax!" He yelled as Jaxon dropped to the ground holding his stomach. "Are you trying to kill me?"
"No, but... but... the look on your face Dem!" He gasped as he tried to calm himself down. "Almost worth pulling double duty on missions... almost" he muttered blankly, Demyx frowned.
"So, you're my backup?"
"You'd rather Saix?" Jaxon countered, raising a grin from his partner. "That's the spirit, so what've we got?"
Demyx laughed. "Well, I was supposed to make a deal with Hades, you can guess how well that turned out, so now we gotta create some strong Heartless and we're done."
"You begged for help just for that?"
"No, the help was I could get this" Demyx answered revealing a small stone to his partner.
"Ohhhhhh.... what's that?" Demyx groaned.
"It's called the Olympus Stone, the Gods use it when they come down here, prevents the curse from getting to you."
Jaxon nodded. "Nice."
"It is, you wanna use it?"
"Nah, you're gonna need it more than me, what's the plan?"
"OK, whilst the deal with Hades was going South he had a vault open, said it was where he kept all his worst souls, I was thinking..."
"We let some Heartless loose in there and enjoy the fun?" Jaxon finished.
"Bingo! But there's something else cooking down here, I overheard Hades talking about something called the Underdrome... figured I'd better go check it out."
"More recon Dem?"
"Hey, you want the machine to work..."
"You gotta use the right tools, I here ya, so I'll handle the Heartless situation?"
"And I'll handle the Underdrome."
"Gotcha" Jaxon nodded, the two Nobodies turned to leave. "Just be carefull, Sora's running around down here."
"I know, I got a plan to keep him confused, watch yourself up there."
The two friends exchanged a nod before vanishing towards their respective tasks.
"Whoa" Jaxon whispered as he entered the giant cavern, the path leading across a massive lake filled with what looked like bodies, shuddering he raised his gaze to a chamber in the distance and made his way towards it, making sure not to go near the edge of the path and risk joining the bodies in the water, eventually curiosity got the best of him and he looked back down at the bodies and froze.
Those aren't bodies... they're SOULS!
Dumbstruck, he watched as the souls floated by towards whereever they were going, shaking his head to clear it he stepped away from the edge and shuddered again.
Waitasec...
An idea forming in his head he quickly opened a portal just over the waterline, a soul still had a heart right? Maybe he wouldn't have to risk life and limb in Hades chamber if this worked. He watched with interest as a lone Heartless emerged, dropped into the water and disapeared in a burst of darkness. He gulped and stepped even further away from the edge, well, touching the water was out, the portal he'd left open yielding a flying Heartless this time, Jaxon frowned as it plunged a hand into the water and quickly drew it back as though in pain, while it was distracted one of the souls literally jumped out of the water and grabbed it before dragging it under where it too exploded into darkness.
CrapcrapcrapCRAP!!
Having seen enough Jaxon turned and carried on along the path towards the chamber ahead, keeping his eyes locked straight ahead to avoid looking back at the water, as he reached the bottom of the stairs leading up to the chamber he paused, the sense of unease growing with each passing second causing the Gunblade to appear in his hand before slowly carrying on up the stairs and into the empty chamber. Hades was nowhere to be seen, probably up at the Collisseum causing Hercules some grief, stepping out into the middle of the room he froze as he noticed the void like opening in the floor.
"Now, if I was a evil God of Death, that's probably where I'd keep my bad guys" he muttered to himself, only half joking. The dark clouds and lightening flashes emanating from the void causing his unease to grow even more, clutching the Gunblade tighter he stepped up to the edge and looked in, unable to see anything more than dark, forboding clouds he sighed and shook his head.
Well Jaxon, if you were sane you'd turn around and walk away now...
With a somewhat maniacal giggle the young Nobody took a deep breath and jumped into the void, all he could see was clouds and lightening rushing past him forcing him to close his eyes against the sensation, after what seemed like forever he felt his feet hit solid ground and slowly opened his eyes again and took in his surroundings, it actually reminded him of the corridors between Worlds, different colors flashed around him as far as he could see, smirking to himself he began walking forward, senses all working overtime to keep his guard up as he clutched the Gunblade tighter still.
For somewhere Hades keeps his baddest of the bad this place is pretty empty... maybe Herc the jerk cleaned him out? Or maybe it's a...
Jaxon's thoughts came to an abrupt halt when he caught sight of someone standing in front of him, their back as turned but in the gloom he could make out a set of red spikes making up the person's hair...
No? No it can't be...
"Axel?" The person stiffened and turned to face him revealing it was not in fact his former ally.
"Axel? Never heard of him..." Jaxon frowned as he recognised the scruffy clothes and face that now looked him up and down.
"Reno?"
The man frowned. "Have we met?" Jaxon threw his hood back making his eyes go wide. "Hey! You're that kid! From the night those things attacked us!"
"Guilty" Jaxon shrugged casually. "I take it you were in the building when it went down?"
Reno growled. "That's right, one minute we're helping survivors, the next I'm here."
"Tough break" the young Nobody shrugged again, turning to walk away.
"So how come you're here?" Reno asked suddenly. "Choke to death on a school cafeteria fishstick?"
Jaxon laughed but didn't stop. "Actually pal, I'm not dead, just here on a job."
"Ya don't say?" Reno chuckled as another figure blocked the young Nobody's path, the huge man Jaxon had seen with Reno before. "Well, that's cool, me and Rude have been bored out of our minds down here, ain't we partner?"
The huge man nodded with a small smirk before cracking his knuckles, Jaxon sighed and glanced over his shoulder to see Reno drawing a stick out of his pocket, the sound of electricty crackling bringing another sigh out of the young Nobody.
Wonder if Dem's having as much fun as I am...
"Let's see here... if the subject fails to respond, use aggression to liberate his true disposition... right. Did they ever pick the wrong guy for this one..."
Jaxon winced and sprang back to his feet as another Rude punch hammered into the ground where his head had been, he ducked a swing from Reno and elbowed the smaller man away then turned back to the fast closing Rude, a round from the Gunblade sent the big man sprawling allowing him to focus on Reno, the Gunblade and electro-rod clashing in a shower of sparks time and time again. Jaxon knocked the Turk away and took a moment to clear his head, the curse was even stronger in this place, Reno took advantage and charged at him again, the young Nobody raised the Gunblade out of instinct and gasped as it went right into the man's stomach with a horrible sound, Reno gagged for a moment then chuckled and looked up at him.
"Yeah... kid?" He laughed. "We're dead? You can't hurt us... but..." he plunged the rod into Jaxon's chest, the young Nobody screamed as electricty poured through his body before exploding sending him skidding across the floor. "We can hurt you."
Jaxon groaned and raised himself to a knee as Reno approached, he waited until he was close and went to fire the Gunblade but a huge hand knocked it out of his, he turned only to be grabbed by the throat by Rude and raised into the air.
"Forgetting someone?" He smirked as Jaxon choked and clawed at the hand that was slowly cutting the air off from his lungs, his feet kicked at the man's ribs but Rude just continued to lift him higher off the ground.
"Tough break kid" Reno mocked as he drew alongside his partner. "But I think slowly choking to death is about right after what you did to us... hell I might just call us even."
Not if I can help it...
One last plan forming in his head Jaxon rolled his eyes back and went limp, Rude let him go and he slumped to the ground as a portal opened above the Turks heads, Rude glanced up just as a lone Heartless dropped out and plunged it's claws into his chest, the guy couldn't even gasp before it had drawn them back out clutching his heart, Reno frowned as the huge man dropped to a knee.
"Yo, Rude? You OK man? You look..." Jaxon smirked as his voice also cut off as the already changing Rude thrust a hand into his partner's chest, the young Nobody opened his eyes and rolled to his feet as Reno slumped to the ground, the Heartless that was once his partner already devouring his heart, Jaxon chuckled.
"Well, I'll leave you two to run wild here for a while" he nodded before surrounding himself with darkness, he emerged in Hades chamber, already choosing the words with which he'd brag to Demyx.
"Awww, did you have to stop? I was enjoying the show!"
Jaxon whipped round so quickly he heard his neck click, there before him stood Hades, God of the Dead, the pale blue glow around him already bringing the temperature down causing Jaxon to shudder.
"Hey, how are ya? Hades, Lord of the dead" he greeted holding out a hand that Jaxon didn't accept. "What? Don't trust me? Don't blame ya, the blue skin thing is a bit of a turn off..."
Jaxon blinked as he tried to mentally slow down what the God was saying.
"So anyway, what brings you to my lovely domain? More specifically just why are you running around turning my prisoners into Heartless?"
Jaxon gulped. "Well... I'd love to explain but..."
"You gotta go? No problem, have a safe journey, let's not wait so long until the next time OK Jaxon?"
"Yeah... I..." Jaxon froze. "You know my name?"
"Uhhh, hello? God? I know almost everything, your name, your partners name, what your Organization is after... and you kiddo" a scroll appeared in his hand. "Are some piece of work, in fact you had an afterlife I'd bet my immortality that you'd be joining those guys in that vault."
Jaxon stared at him for a long moment. "You know everything about me?"
"Pretty much."
"What about who I used to be?"
"Oh, your complete being as your boss calls them? Yeah, I got a file on him somewhere... why?"
"You know about who I was?" Jaxon asked more desperately, the longing almost plain in his voice. "You know what I was like? What happened to make me... this?"
"Yep."
Jaxon sighed and looked the God in the eyes. "Tell me."
Hades laughed. "Tell you? Sorry kiddo but you get nothing for free around here, you gotta give something up."
Jaxon nodded. "What did you have in mind?"
"Well, you're looking for your heart aren'tcha? Tell you what, you pledge your soul to me for say... a millenium, maybe two, and not only will I tell you what you wanna know, I will help you get your heart back, whaddya say?"
The hand was held out again, Jaxon stared at it, all the answers he wanted? His heart back? Just for working for this guy? It couldn't be any worse than the grunt work he was doing in the Organization... then again he'd be giving up his entire life, his free will, his best friend... he stared at the offered hand again and shook his head.
"No."
"I'm sorry?" Jaxon could have sworn Hades turned slightly red for a moment. "What?"
Jaxon sighed heavily. "I said no."
Hades frowned for a split second before the grin returned to his face. "I don't offer second chances my Heartless friend, sure you wanna turn this down?"
Jaxon met him with a glare. "I want to know about my past almost as much as I want my heart back, but I'm not gonna throw away what I do have to make a deal with the Devil. Sorry Hades but no dice."
The God once again flashed red for a moment before the calm salesman demeanor returned. "Fair enough, to each their own and all that, by the way have I shown you this neat trick I can do..." as he spoke the floor beneath Jaxon vanished and he disapeared into the pit that appeared, Hades laughed to himself.
"Well, guess I can have fun the old fashioned way..."
"Jaxon, how in the name of Kingdom freakin' Hearts do you keep getting yourself into these situations?"
The young Nobody looked around in confusion at his new surroundings, he was in an empty room, well, empty from what he could make out in the darkness around him. Despite not being able to see much he had a strange sense of familiarity with the place, almost as if he'd been there before...
Wait... oh crap this is Castle Oblivion!
Panic rising Jaxon tried to open a portal to vacate the room as fast as he could but nothing happened, frowning in confusion he held out his hand and focused as hard as he could but nothing happened, taking deep breaths to calm himself he tried to summon the Gunblade but to no avail.
"What the..."
"Oh I can explain" Jaxon whirled round to find Hades standing a few feet away, sporting a grin that left the young Nobody very uneasy.
"You! What've you done to me?" Hades chuckled.
"Me? Nothin', it was your mind that brought you here."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'll leave you to find out kiddo, but I will say this, welcome, to your deepest. Darkest. Nightmare."
With that he disapeared in a cloud of smoke, before Jaxon could begin to ponder what he said he heard the sound of a portal opening and closing, he turned to find himself staring at the back of another Organization member, his eyes were drawn to the long blonde hair causing him to gasp as he realised just who was standing before him.
"V... V... Vexen?" He whispered, the other Nobody began chuckling.
"So, you remember me do you boy?" Jaxon shook in apparent terror as he fought to keep his voice steady.
"Of... of course man, we were... are in the Organization together... right?"
"Actually you were right the first time, we were in the Organization together, until this happened!" He whirled round and Jaxon almost screamed as he stared at Vexen's face.
His pale. Sunken. Dead. Face.
"You did this Jaxon!" He hissed, pointing to the young Nobody. "This is all on your head!"
"Me? But I... I didn't do anything!" Jaxon replied trying to back away only to bump into something, he turned and went almost as pale as the face of Lexaeus.
"Your rashness to face Riku led to this" he muttered.
"Yes" Jaxon turned to see Zexion stepping out of the shadows, just as dead as the other two. "You were told not to grow overconfident, and yet you did, you failed to stop Riku, you were the reason we all had to try instead!"
"And you are the reason we failed!" Vexen added.
"Wait... wait!" Jaxon yelled backing away again. "You can't blame me for this! You could've just not fought him!"
"Good point dude" came yet another voice behind him, Jaxon turning to see Xigbar staring at him. "But I think we can blame ya for this!" He pointed at his own corpselike face.
"Xigbar? But... you're not..."
"He's a good as" now Xaldin emerged. "We all are, thanks to your doing!"
"Traitor" added Saix, appearing directly next to the young Nobody, who fled across the room in a panic.
"What... I don't..."
"Then let me remind you" Jaxon gasped again before turning to face Roxas and Xion. "You let us go when you were told to bring us back!"
"But... you wanted to go, you wanted out..."
"You think I wanted to destroy Xion?" Roxas snapped back. "You think I wanted to be captured? Have my memories of Axel erased? Get stuck inside Sora with no control or free will?"
"I... I didn't..."
"You didn't mean to?" Axel's voice rang out. "But you did! And yet I'm the traitor?"
Jaxon shook his head. "I'm not seeing this... this isn't real!"
"As real as you are" chuckled Luxord as the rest of the Organization surrounded the young Nobody, he turned to flee and froze.
"No... no!"
"No what?" Snapped Demyx, now just a corpse like the others. "Betrayal hurts doesn't it Jax? Now you know how I feel after what you did!"
"Dem... I... I only did what I thought was right!"
"But what about your best friend? By letting them go you cost all of us a chance to get our hearts back! You betrayed the Organization, you betrayed me!"
Jaxon dropped to his knees as the Organization closed in, only looking up when he heard Xemnas voice.
"Now then, how do we dispose of this traitor?"
"Ow, ow, ow!" Demyx whined as he staggered through the Underword in search of Jaxon, every step sending a shock of pain through his shoulder, did they really expect him to do any better against Sora? Sure calling him Roxas a few times to confuse him was all well and good but still, fighting him wasn't exactly a good idea when you could barely fight yourself. It had only taken one good blow to the shoulder he was now favouring to convince Demyx to take off and call it a day, all the more humiliating once he realised he'd lost the Olympus stone, now he was looking for his partner so the two could retreat back to the castle with what little dignity they had left.
"C'mon Jax?" He moaned as he entered the cavern above the river Styx. "Don't make me go back to Hades chamber just to find you?"
Then again, did he need Jaxon just to leave? The kid might be doing a good job and him getting in the way might ruin the hard work he'd done, maybe a better plan would be to go home and explain that Jaxon had everything well in hand, yeah, that was a good...
"Noooooo!"
Demyx's head snapped up, that scream sounded almost familiar.
"Jax?" He whispered before shaking his head, was he in trouble? No, no Jaxon was too tough to let a little thing like this... another scream rang out and he found himself charging towards Hades chamber, shoulder forgotten.
Hang in there partner!
"Well Jaxon" Xemnas asked as the young Nobody continued to blankly stare at the dead faces around him. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"I... I didn't... I couldn't..." Jaxon fell silent again, Xemnas laughed.
"Very well" he opened his hand and slammed it against Jaxon's chest, immediately the young Nobody began screaming, pain like nothing he'd ever felt before coming from every part of his body, he couldn't see, he couldn't breathe, yet the pain wouldn't stop, he could hear the others' laughter over his pleas for Xemnas just to end it yet it still carried on, just when he thought he could take no more he felt the pain stop abruptly, a second later the rest of his senses disapeared.
"Oh my..." Demyx gasped as the Dancers he had sent in dropped a delirious and screaming Jaxon at his feet. "Jax? What has he done to..." He fell silent as Hades appeared before him and instinctively stepped between him and his partner as the God glowed an angry red and his parter continued crying out in agony.
"Is it too much to ask" Hades began. "For just five minutes where someone doesn't poke their noses into my business!"
As he finished he hurled a fireball in the direction of Demyx, the Nobody flinched but the Dancers took the hit and disapeared, Hades began to form another one but Demyx reactied first.
"Water!"
Hades was knocked off his feet by the force of the water that crashed down on him allowing Demyx to open a portal and literally throw Jaxon through it before following himself and quickly closing it, dropping to his knees he grabbed his wildly thrashing partner and tried to get through to him.
"Jax?"
"Dem! Dem make it stop!" Jaxon screamed, eyes wide open but seemingly unable to see him. "Make it stop please!"
"Jax, calm down, you're safe now!"
"I'm sorry Dem, I had to do it! I had to let them go! I'm sorry! Just make it stop! Make it stop Dem!"
"I will partner, just calm down!" Demyx pleaded, Jaxon just continued to thrash around.
"They wanted to go! I had to let them! Dem please make it stop!" He shrieked, almost in tears at whatever was tormenting him, Demyx sighed.
"Sorry Jax" he muttered as a bubble formed over the young Nobody's face and popped, dousing him with water, he coughed and choked before Demyx finally managed to grab him.
"Jax listen" he said firmly. "It wasn't real OK? Whatever you saw, it wasn't real!"
Jaxon's thrashing stopped, but his breath remained ragged as Demyx held him.
"D... Dem?" He whispered.
"What is it partner?"
"If that... that's what the afterlife is like... maybe non existance would be better."
Demyx laughed in spite of himself. "You might just be right there partner" he smirked. "C'mon, let's go home."
"How is he?" Demyx glanced up at Luxord without stopping his playing.
"He's asleep now, took a while to calm him down enough, gonna be having nightmares for a while though."
Luxord chuckled, Demyx glared at him but still didn't stop playing.
"Lucky you were there to save him" the other Nobody commented. "Sometimes I wonder if he's the luckiest player in this game..."
"Well if that's what you call luck you can keep it" Demyx almost snapped, Luxord chuckled again.
"Have it your way" he muttered leaving Demyx to play alone, losing himself in the music he finally allowed himself to think, the mission had been hard even before things started going wrong, once it did it had just snowballed, his shoulder still stung quite badly, and his partner was clearly going to be mentally uneasy for a while after Hades interference. Demyx sighed heavily, seeing Jaxon that helpless had actually scared him, the sight of his best friend almost crying in fear and pain... he dismissed it to the back of his mind only for Jaxon's screams to replace it.
I had to do it! I had to let them go! I'm sorry...
Demyx frowned, just what did that mean? His eyes went wide as he remembered the next words.
They wanted to go! I had to let them...
"No" he whispered, his fingers slipped and a string snapped as he dropped the sitar and grabbed the railing in front of him. Let them go? Let them go? He could only mean...
"How could you?" He whispered staring down the hall towards Jaxon's room, shaking his head in disbelief. "How could you do this to us?"
Welp, there it is, leave a review and show some love!