Chapter Seven:

The Rematch

It took Raxet a long time to work up the courage to take Luxord's advice. In the end, it was mostly because she was pissed at being locked up in the castle. Every time she tried to go somewhere, Xemnas would insist that he was too busy to take her, and that the other Nobodies were on assignment. Her temper rose every time, and he attempted to consol her with pretty words and once even a flower. She froze the bud and it snapped off to land on his foot with a heavy crash. Eventually, it got to the point where…well….

"Axel!" She caught him in the hall, tripping him with her foot. He hadn't seen her at all, and as a result was sent sprawling.

"Damnit, bitch," He scrambled back to his feet, dusting his robes off. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I challenge you."

"Wha-a-at?" He looked at her like she was crazy. "You what, Raz?"

"I challenge you. You beat me on the first day I showed up. I think I can beat you now. I want to prove it. I challenge you, fucker. Scared?"

"Of you?" He pushed his hand through a wall, opening a darkness door. "Did you tell Xemnas?"

"He'll figure it out." She stepped forward aggressively, pushing Axel through, following behind.

"What's the sudden rush, Raz?" She hadn't even stopped to examine the world he had chosen.

"Shut up and fight," She spat at him, drawing her scimitars and standing tense and ready.

"You seem really anxious, Razer," Axel stood at his ease, summoning his chakram but not lighting them. "That time of the month?"

"Tch!" She bit off a reply, leaping at him and swinging her swords.

"Woah!" Axel protested, blocking with his left hand and deflecting. She recovered with inhuman speed and came at him again, striking wildly. Axel continued to block, his defense superb, but unable to make an offensive move.

This continued for some time, until Axel was able to vault himself away from her, spinning his chakram into flames.

"I don't know what your problem is, but I'll be damned if I let a girl like you beat me!" He yelled over the roaring of the fire.

"You keep talking—you're just trying to stall!" She hollered back, bracing her scimitars by tensing her forearms. Axel advanced and both of them winced as their weapons collided and sent shockwaves up their arms to their torso. Raxet spun backwards, trying to get behind him to stab at his weak point. He blocked and disarmed her left hand; her scimitar was sent flying across the open, grassy plain.

She scrambled after it, ice forming along the dry ground in her footprints. "Where are we?" She panted, pausing in her advances to scan the surroundings.

"Agrabah," Axel replied, stepping back, keeping his chakram alight anxiously.

"Nice." She commented briefly, before charging again.

Three hours later, they were both exhausted. Blood dripped from innumerous minor wounds. Raxet was burned in several spots along her hands and arms. A deep gash ran across her left cheek, but heat had already served to sterilize the wound. Axel was bleeding from slashes left by Raxet's wild scimitars. Neither of them could stand up straight, and neither of them was willing to drop their weapons.

"If…this keeps up…we'll Fade…." Axel panted, wearily tossing his chakram. It spun slowly through the air, and Raxet still almost couldn't dodge it.

"I don't…care…." She panted back. "I'm going…to prove…." But she didn't finish the thought. A thin sheet of ice ran out from beneath her planted feet, ducking beneath Axel's black boots. He couldn't keep his balance, and toppled over, the flames on his chakram dissolving in the ice with a hiss.

"Say it." She grunted, keeping her scimitars braced, unwilling to let them drop before she had won, even if it cost her the last ounce of her strength.

Axel stared at the sky, pale blue unbroken by a single merciful cloud. He tried to stretch out his arm to reach his chakram, which had fallen from his grasp with the loss of his equilibrium. He half-sat up to try this, and he looked at her as he reached.

"Say it," She whispered again, stepping forward. Axel bit his lip. She didn't recognize the expression on his face. Oh, there was agony. She could see that. But there was something else, too. He was considering something. He let his arm fall.

"I give," He gasped, falling back with a sigh. "Damn you, bitch," But there was no real menace in his voice, as if he was too tired to put any feeling into the words.

Raxet didn't reply, simply sheathed her swords and collapsed, finding perhaps the only patch of grass within a two hundred yard radius. They lay there like that for some time, neither talking, each focused mostly on their breathing.

Then came a sound neither could ignore. The unmistakable thud of a pack Heartless, materializing. Raxet twitched, her hands moving to her scimitars. Axel sat up stiffly, as the creatures advanced slowly, the bandits swinging their blades.

"Gettup, Raz. Duty calls." He swung the chakram, knocking three Heartless back Raxet attempted to stand, using her scimitars as bracers. Axel watched her out of the corner of his eye.

"Here," He grunted, pushing a darkness door open between them. "Go back, tell Xemnas that…that there's still far too many Heartless…" He broke off, slicing at another Heartless, then continuing, "In Agrabah. Sora's being lazy."

"Why just me?" She swung weakly at a Heartless, parrying the creature's blow.

"Because—if we both hop through the stupid things will follow us," That was bularky, and they both knew it. She turned around and began to battle the Heartless, their backs almost touching.

"Just do what you're told!" He gasped as a Heartless nearly penetrated his defense, and he kicked it aside.

"No!" She yelled, a sword in each hand, dealing as much damage as she could.

"If something happens to you—" He broke off, apparently engaged elsewhere, unable to complete his thought.

"What?" She turned around to face him, bracing the hilt of her swords on her hips. "If something happens to me what?"

"Xemnas'll get pissed off at me, that's what!" He turned, in his turn, to face her, one hand still jammed in the darkness door.

"Well he can just fuckin deal!" Raxet was glaring all out at him, and he was glaring all-out back, both of their frustrations reaching peak.

"Get out of here, Raz, before—" He jumped, keeping the darkness door open, but allowing a sword to slice beneath his feet. He had almost just been rendered a foot shorter.

"Before what?"

"Before you get hur—" He broke off, pulling his hand out of the darkness door, reaching out to catch her as she fainted, Heartless encircling them.

Raxet heard him swear, but her eyelids were too leaden to open. Her head was throbbing again, and it felt like someone had hit her in the chest with an anvil. The pain was almost too much to bear, but there was just enough relief from it that she couldn't seem to lose consciousness. Was she fading? It felt like she was floating away.

She could hear sounds that didn't come from Axel's battle with the heartless—sounds that weren't his swearing and the heartless hissing. There was laughter, and a bubbly, high pitched, delighted squeal.

"Raxet!" She suddenly felt much more solid, and there was a heaviness to her limbs that kept her from moving, but she was suddenly shifting…someone was rolling her over, slapping lightly at her face. "Raxet! Raxet!" Who…Axel. She blinked, but was unable to hold her eyes open.

"Dammit…" She heard him curse. "You…almost Faded." Did he sound relieved? Was he glad she hadn't? Or was there something else there? Of all the Nobodies, she found herself thinking, he seemed to be the one with the most layers. What….why was she thinking that now? She should be thinking about how much it hurt when he touched her—his skin was much too warm against her ice. She felt herself rising—he'd picked her up.

"Bitch," He muttered, his breath short and his voice heavy. "You're gonna ruin everything, you stupid whore," Did he think she was unconscious? That she couldn't hear that? She grumbled internally, telling herself she'd get him back. She felt the surroundings shift as Axel stepped through the darkness door, bearing her back to Castle Oblivion.