Chapter Twenty-Four
Riku pushed the hair out of his eyes and cleared his throat. "Hey, Dragoons?" All of the heads in the room turned to him and he continued. "I feel you should know, before you go to see Emperor Diaz, what we are trying to achieve. "
The Dragoons looked around at each other and many shrugged. Axel spoke up, "Well, with the blizzard outside, it's not like we can effectively move forward anyway."
Xion nodded. "So, then? Speak up."
Riku leaned his arm on his knee as he was sitting and spoke more to the floor. "Diaz said that the world was rotten, like it was when Xemnas, the Wingly dictator, ruled it. He said that we needed to regenerate the world, or we could ultimately destroy it." Riku took a breath and saw that the Dragoons were listening to him, like they were actually interested in what he was saying.
He continued. "Diaz told me, that Winglies are only the 107th species. Soa, the creator, had willed that there be 108, and that last species would regenerate the world and lead us to utopia. That, when the Moon That Never Sets glares red, the Moon Child descends to the earth and gives a holy blessing to the world. The Moon Child is the last species, and the god that gives holy bliss to the world!"
But Paine stopped his momentum. "That's not true," she said, and everyone in the room finally noticed that she looked afraid, or at least as afraid as anyone had ever seen her.
"It is the truth!" Riku said. "Why does the Black Monster continue to kill the Moon Child if it's not?"
Paine shrunk back against the cave wall and Axel stared hard at her. She always gets like this whenever the Black Monster is mentioned…
"It doesn't want to be scorched to death that the blessed light brought by the last species," Riku said.
"Riku?" Zexion asked, "What is the relationship between the Divine Moon Objects and the birth of the Moon Child?"
"The old Winglies feared their status as the supreme species would end, and they sealed up the 108th. The keys to dissolving the signet are the gem, dagger, and mirror," Riku explained.
"So, basically, you were going to release the Moon Child, or this 'god,' by using the Divine Moon Objects," Demyx concluded.
Riku nodded. "If I don't, someone else will. No one can escape fate determined by Soa."
It was silent in the cave for a moment before Axel seethed. "If Utopia is what you're after, why Roxas?" He stood up and stepped over to Riku- no one stopped him. He picked Riku up by the front of his shirt and yelled, "What is Roxas to you?"
But Riku remained calm. "Diaz will tell you everything, when we get to Vellweb."
Axel dropped Riku and walked away, out towards the entrance to the cave. Xaldin rested his hand quickly on Xion's shoulder before going after him to calm him down.
In the morning, the blizzard was over and they started again.
Paine looked up at the ruins of the once great human city, Vellweb. The other Dragoons, Riku, and Xaldin, were walking past her slowly, and all she could remember was the one time she had eavesdropped on the most heartbreaking conversation of her life.
"I hear you two are planning on a wedding after this battle," Diaz said, and she could hear a sad smile in his voice. "You know that there is no guarantee of either of you coming back alive, right?"
But, the voice responding was happy and strong; a voice that she had fallen in love with. "Even if one of us dies, our bonds of affection are forever," Dart said, and she knew that he was looking at…
"Oh, Dart! You always know exactly what to say," the girl beside him said, and as she listened, she felt her chest tightening.
"Shana, I mean it!" And the smile in his voice was there, and she knew that she should be happy for them, for Dart, for finding happiness even if it wasn't with her, but she couldn't do it.
Diaz chuckled. "Perhaps, it will all work out! And, when you both come home, I would be honored to perform the ceremony, if you'd let me?"
"Of course!"
She fled the doorway, not even remembering why she had wanted to see Diaz in the first place.
Paine looked up at the seven towers, which had housed the Dragoons during the first Dragon Campaign, and around the base of the circle, where the humans that fought in the war lived with their families when they weren't out fighting. It was all snow-covered and broken down, but what more could she have expected?
Eleven thousand years, and I've never come back here.
"Paine!"
She looked around to see Axel and the rest of her group stopped and waiting for her to catch up. When she finally did, they started moving again as one. Paine stayed in the back of the group, and Demyx dropped back and asked her, "What were you thinking about?"
Paine looked over at Demyx and realized something- he was, probably, as ancient as she was. There was a chance. Afterall, Winglies didn't age nearly as fast as humans. He could have easily been born just as the war was ending, or maybe he was already alive and being trained when his parents went into hiding. "Just, reminiscing," she said.
"You've been here before?" Demyx tilted his head to the side as he asked.
"A long time ago… my family lived here," she whispered.
Demyx nodded and suddenly pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry," he said.
"Whatever for?" she said, getting close to pulling the knife out of her pocket and stabbing him for being too close.
"Because my kind enslaved your kind. And, for your family; I'm sorry that they're not here anymore," Demyx said. He pulled off of her and smiled a little. "But, everyone dies, and sometimes fate calls you to death a little too soon for everyone else's tastes. And sometimes, we evade death for far too long that it becomes something we yearn for, huh?" he gave her a knowing look, one that Paine really didn't like, and suddenly she appreciated that he had slowed her down enough that the rest of the group couldn't hear what he was saying.
Then, he turned and ran up to Zexion and jumped on the King's back, causing the rest of the group to laugh as Zexion chased after Demyx, screaming for him to hold still long enough that he could slit his throat. Paine smiled and kept walking while the rest of the group doubled over, laughing.
"Thanks, Demyx."
The maze that was Vellweb's inner fortress was confusing, at least. But, when it became apparent that none of the other Dragoons knew where they were going, Riku made to lead them all, but it was Paine that groaned and said, "Follow me," and took the lead position. Riku and Xion both were a little confused, but the others all just shrugged and followed.
Paine always just seemed to know these things. Like, how to maneuver through a fortress that had been unoccupied for the last eleven thousand years. Xigbar met Zexion's eyes every now and then, just enough to see that they both were questioning the how and why Paine knew what she did. Demyx stood nearby Axel, right behind Paine, and looked between them. He knew that humans had a limited life span, and that no one could live in Gloriano because it was a snowy wasteland; there was no way that Paine's family could have lived here in her lifetime. And Axel… well, his mind was obviously on one thing, and even Demyx's usually infectiously happy mood wasn't enough to make Axel smile.
She stopped the group before a large doorway, and Riku made his way forward. "This is it," he said, and pushed the door open.
The first thing everyone saw was the large man sitting on the throne in the center of the room, his face covered by his hood. He was dressed in red robes and sat on the seat straight and tall- the posture of someone royal.
The second thing was Roxas, sitting on the ground beside the chair. His hair was dirty and his wrists were bound together, and he didn't look up when the Dragoons entered the room.
He did, finally, when Axel called for him. "Roxas!" Axel ran the last few steps to the bottom of the stairs before the throne, quickly followed by Paine and Riku- everyone else stayed a little ways back.
"Axel!" Roxas made to stand up by himself, but was then pulled up and held tight by the man beside him. Axel stopped instantly, and watched as a knife was pressed to Roxas's throat and the man holding him smiled cruelly.
Paine's hand on his shoulder kept Axel from transforming immediately, and instead, he tensed. The rest of the Dragoons followed and stood behind Axel and Paine. Riku stepped forward and held out the Divine Moon Objects. "I've got them all, Emperor Diaz. Gem, Dagger, Mirror. There are no more obstacles to hinder our utopia. Please, release the boy," he said.
"Bring them here," Diaz said, and Riku walked the Objects up the steps to the throne. He inspected the three pieces, and then threw Roxas at Riku. Then, he turned away and sat back down. Riku cut Roxas's bonds, and then let him run. Roxas ran all the way down the steps and jumped into Axel's waiting arms. The Dragoons all smiled and welcomed Roxas back, save Zexion and Paine.
"What do you plan on doing with the Divine Moon Objects?" Zexion asked.
His voice was smooth and authoritative. "Didn't you hear it from Riku? My only desire is the advent of the last species!"
Riku smiled beside him. And Paine growled. "If you are the true Diaz, you should know what that implies, right?"
The room was silent for just a second, before Diaz held up all three Divine Moon Objects and chuckled. "Total destruction."
And Riku's smile faltered. "What?"
"Riku! Now we can let the Virage Embryo, the God of Destruction, the last species we desire, arise. We can create our utopia, after the Virage Embryo purges the world."
Riku stepped backwards, down the steps, and shook his head. "You deceived me. My utopia exists in the future of this world! What I desire is a calm future, not a destroyed one!"
Demyx took two steps forward before Xigbar and Lexaeus both stopped him. They looked up at the throne, where Diaz was standing up and his hand was glowing bright red. "If you don't see eye to eye with me, then you are no use to me." Riku glowed the same color, bright red, and started to hover above the steps, and then was thrown through the floor, down to the earth a long ways.
"Riku!" Demyx screamed, and pushed past everyone to stare down the hole in the room. Xion knelt beside him and glared at Diaz.
"What kind of monster are you?" she said.
He smirked. "I don't need to hide anymore," he said, and looked at Paine, and then at Axel. "It has been awhile, Rose. Axel." And then, he pushed back his hood, and everyone saw the hair- not quite as red as Axel's, but just as spiky, and there was no mistaking the general structure of the man's face.
Axel turned his head to the side and took a tentative step forward, while Paine gasped and stepped backwards. "Dad?" Axel whispered.
But it was Paine's reaction that made everyone's head turn. "Dart! It cannot be! You died, with Xemnas! I watched it happen, I watched you die!" She screeched and pointed at the man.
"Paine, what are you talking about?" Xigbar asked.
She stopped and looked around, and saw her fellow Dragoons, Roxas, and Xaldin, all staring at her, and she just sighed. "I…"
"Rose, you never told them?" the man, Dart, said from his spot at the throne.
She looked back at the man, but Dart just laughed. "Then, I guess I can tell them, then?"
"I saw you both turn to stone, as the city fell around us," Paine said, her voice slowly starting to shake. Xion moved from her place beside Demyx and put a hand on Paine's shoulder, and Zexion and Xigbar both exchanged looks of confusion. "I watched as the Dragon Campaign came to a close with Xemnas's life ending, and I remember like it was yesterday how you told me to get away."
Roxas and Axel both tightened their grip on each other, while Lexaeus and Xaldin both tightened their fists, ready for a fight.
Dart smiled cruelly and spoke. "Yes, I was hit by Xemnas's petrification spell, and I waited 11,000 years for it to dissolve. And when I was released, I lived as the father of Axel in this age, knowing that my days with you, Rose, were long gone." Then he turned and faced Roxas briefly while he said, "Until that tragic day in Neet."
Axel pulled Roxas against his side and asked, "Wait a minute. So, Paine, you and my Dad are both heroes of the Dragon Campaign?"
Both of them nodded.
Paine looked up at Dart and shook her head. "You refer to the attack of the Black Monster on Neet. But, if you really know what it's doing, then you understand that you can not achieve what you want for another ninety years or so," she said.
All the Dragoons looked on while Dart laughed manically. "I do love how you refer to the Black Monster as a separate being, Rose," he said, and Axel stepped backwards a little and watched Paine turn more pale than she usually was. "But, Axel remembers, don't you? You remember the day it happened?"
Axel nodded, but wouldn't stop staring at Paine. What was going on?
"And, Rose, I'm here to tell you, that after 11,000 years of killing the Moon Children and its Servants, you messed up."
That got her head to snap up and she felt the anger of her Dragon pump through her veins. "What?"
All the Dragoons were pushed back against the wall of the chamber, all except for Rose, Axel, and Roxas, who watched as the rest of their companions were held in a sphere of magic, unable to do anything but listen to Dart rant.
"Eighteen years ago, the Moon That Never Sets, or as I'd like to refer to it, the Flesh of the God of Destruction, glowed red. That day, the Moon Child was born, and that night, Rose, you became the Black Monster and killed everyone in Neet, because everyone who lays eyes on the infant Moon Child becomes a Servant of the God of Destruction and must die as well, don't they?"
Axel pulled Roxas behind him and backed farther away from Paine. "You? You're the Black Monster?"
Paine answered simply, "The Moon Child has to be killed. I stopped my own time 11,000 years ago and have been doing this just as long."
"Why would you kill the Moon Child?" Xion yelled from the sphere holding them. "It's supposed to give a holy blessing!"
Dart answered for Paine, "Because, the Moon Child gives the blessing of Destruction! In the Dragon Campaign, the humans destroyed the Crystal Sphere, which the Winglies used to contain the soul of the 108th species, Soa's plan for the destruction of the world, the Virage Embryo. The soul, free to roam, possesses a human body every 108 years, and that human would lead the soul to the flesh- The Moon that Never Sets! The Soul of the God of Destruction is what you humans call the Moon Child. Not quite the 'Holy Blessing' you were looking for, huh?" He looked back at Paine, and then continued, "But, one Dragoon found out about it, after the war was over, and in order to prevent the God of Destruction from ever being born, she has been killing the Moon Children over across the centuries, earning her the infamous title as the 'Black Monster'!"
"Why you, Paine?" Axel asked. "All this time, you..."
Then, Dart intervened and looked over at Roxas. "But, like I said, Rose, eighteen years ago, you messed up."
"How? I killed him, even though he was the Prince of Mille Seseau! And the entire ship! And everyone in Neet, because of that stupid procession of the newborn prince!" Paine followed Dart's gaze over to Roxas, and watched as Axel was also pushed back against the wall, being pulled into the same sphere as the rest of the Dragoons.
"Eighteen years ago, Mille Seseau's Queen bore two sons. Twins. The one you killed was not the Moon Child," Dart said.
Roxas gulped and started to back away from Paine as well. "A-Axel?" he called.
And then, Dart said it. "Roxas is the Moon Child."
Paine stared Roxas down, and then tapped into her Spirit enough to call her sword to her hand.
Dart laughed again and continued, "I'll even give you one more chance, Rose, to destroy the Moon Child."
Axel pushed against the side of the sphere holding him back. "NO! PAINE, DON'T!"
Roxas trembled. "Paine?"
She attacked, tears in her eyes- she had genuinely liked Roxas, but Moon Children cannot live. But, she didn't get contact with Roxas like she had planned, but instead, she saw the red armor of the Red-Eye Dragoon, his wings curled around Roxas protectively and his shoulders heaving with strain. "Axel? What are you-"
Dart laughed even louder. The other Dragoons stepped away from the wall and looked on curiously- how did Axel break the magic that Dart had cast?
"Axe, you have to let her do this! I'll kill everything if she doesn't!" Roxas said.
"He can't help it!" Dart said, stepping down and watching as Axel's armor faded in a bright red light. "Rose, you didn't realize it when you found out? Didn't realize that a survivor of Neet was among you the entire time? I'm sure he mentioned it to you at least once!"
Paine shook her head and dismissed her sword. "Not, him, too…" she whispered.
"You really messed up this time. Not only did you leave the Moon Child alive, but you even left him a Servant," Dart said.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Xaldin said.
"Axel survived Neet. He saw the Moon Child as an infant, and so will always be physically drawn to him," Paine explained. "I should have known," she berated herself.
Axel looked at Roxas and then at the ground. Was what he felt for Roxas not really love then, but just a sick, almost animalistic need to protect the God of Destruction until it destroys everything? He felt Roxas's hand on his arm for a brief moment, and then it was gone, and he looked up at his father and saw Roxas next to the man again, pulled flush to his side, and he screamed for Roxas, but Dart just laughed while the rest of the Dragoons and Xaldin took a fighting stance.
"I'll dissolve the Signet of the Moon That Never Sets, let it fall to the ground, and cross it with the Moon Child!" Dart said. "I have everything in my hands, and soon Soa's plan will come to fruition!"
"Let Roxas go!" Demyx yelled.
Roxas struggled against Dart's hold while the man said, "And you are going to kill him? To save the world? You'd also have to get past Axel, too, you know!"
Paine called her sword back to her hand. "I'll kill them both, if that's what it takes!"
She charged at Dart, and everyone else tensed as Axel also ran after her, but she hit one of Dart's magics- a wall that she was pushed back against, and landed in Axel's arms.
"All is the will of Soa! My hands start the world, and My hands end the world. Fate desires it!"
Then, a bright flash of light blinded the Dragoons and all that was left of Dart and Roxas was the echo of the latter screaming for Axel.
Lexaeus led the way through the scorching desert, followed closely by Demyx and then Zexion, who both were sharing the darkness of his shadow. Xaldin and Xion took the next place in line, their hands brushing occasionally, but it could have been accidental each time. Xaldin had found a way to retract the Dragon Buster's blade into the hilt, and it rocked against his hip with each step.
Right behind them was Axel, who hadn't said a word since they left Vellweb two days ago. No one was even sure if he was thinking, only moving forward because it hurt less to keep moving than to stop and think about what had happened. He couldn't even be happy that, for once, he could breathe perfectly fine because of the lack of water in the air.
Paine brought up the rear of their procession, still berating herself mentally for killing the wrong child. Every so often, she would look up at the sky, to make sure the Moon That Never Sets was still there.
Finally, they came to an oasis, where everyone stripped off unnecessary clothing and took a break. Demyx was swimming around a rock that Zexion had perched himself on, and asked, "Where are we going, again?"
Zexion sighed and kicked his feet through the water. "Ulara, I think she said. Don't you know about it? Paine said it was a city of Winglies," he said.
Xigbar hopped over to where they were and sat down next to Zexion while Demyx explained, "No. I mean, I think my dad mentioned it, once, but I'm really not sure."
"We're almost there," Xigbar said. "At least, that's what Paine was muttering about before." The three of them looked over to where she stood against one of the trees, staring darkly at the water like it was the cause of their problems. They went back to relaxing silently, not even bothering to talk about the problems their oldest team member had.
Xion and Xaldin, with Lexaeus and Axel nearby, were the ones to confront Paine about their new destination. "Paine?" Xaldin started when they were close enough, "What will the Winglies in Ulara know?"
A hot breeze swept through them as Paine answered. "They'll know the way I should take from here. There really is no need for you all to come along."
The slap from Xion turned all the heads of the team while Paine lifted her palm to her cheek. The other girl stood in front of her, arm still outstretched, and yelled, "Don't you understand that it's no longer just 'your problem'?" Xaldin grabbed Xion's wrist and dragged her away from Paine before the older woman turned angrier.
"Fighting amongst ourselves will get us nowhere," he said.
Lexaeus spoke up then, "No one can truly understand, Paine, the weight of fate that you have carried, but if you'll let us, we can at least lighten the load for you."
Xigbar, Zexion, and Demyx joined the group under the tree. Xigbar and Demyx's mouths were hung open a little, and they looked at each other as if to say, wow, I think that's the most that guy has ever said in one breath.
Paine didn't respond, but Axel did. "That's why we're going with you," he said, and everyone turned to see him still staring out across the pond. He looked twenty years older than before they left for Vellweb, and no one else could think of anything else to say. He stood up and brushed the sand from his pants and walked past them all. "If you have the strength to argue, we can go on."
She was the first to follow him, and everyone stared as Paine and Axel stood side-by-side for a brief moment before she passed and took the lead. Then, everyone else followed.
Disclaimer: No, no, no. Only the idea of crossing the two together is our idea.
Cy: One of my many favorite scenes in the whole game. I remember the first time I played through and then he said that she was the Moon Child and I was like, "OMG REALLY? actually, that explains a lot..." But it was still cool. And, I'm surprised that the creators of LoD didn't think to include the Servant of the God of Destruction clause in the plot, really... yeah, that whole thing with Axel protecting Roxas really being driven by the sick urge to destroy the world? Not in the game. I made that assumption myself. But, we've been having our way with this storyline the entire time, why stop now? Tune in next time for Veroxen to take them through Ulara.