They were only about halfway back to Jacob's house when it happened.
There was no warning. Demyx was at the wheel one second looking at the road, and the next a huge Heartless landed on the hood of the car. Demyx slammed on the breaks, skidding to a stop, and then something slammed into their car from the side. Another car.
Chaos, once again, as the Heartless attacked a second time.
"Are you okay?" he asked Axel, and Axel nodded, rubbing his neck. Demyx opened the car door, stepping out of the car and blasting away a Heartless with a water attack. Their car…well, Larxene's car…was totaled; it wouldn't be getting them anywhere now.
"Come on, this side!" he yelled at Axel, seeing how the other car was right up against Axel's door. Axel scrambled across the seat and Demyx helped him out of the car.
"It'll take forever to get there now," Axel said. "Especially with the Heartless attacking."
"Maybe not," Demyx said, eyeing along the street. A few people had abandoned their cars in favor of running; one guy in particular had abandoned his large truck after he ran it into a Heartless. The truck was still running.
"Over here," he said, grabbing Axel's hand and pulling him toward the truck. Axel shot fire at a nearby Heartless, and then saw where they were headed.
"Isn't this stealing?" he asked, obviously amused.
"Emergency situation, I'm sure he'll understand," Demyx pointed out, jumping into the driver's seat. Axel got in the passenger side, and Demyx slammed his foot on the gas.
They managed to get the truck to Vexen's house, and Demyx parked it half on the sidewalk and leapt out. He and Axel glanced at the house, then at each other.
The door had been knocked down.
"We're too late," Demyx said, sprinting inside. He first noticed Vexen, who was lying in rubble that used to be a table, unconscious. He rushed to Vexen's side, checking for a pulse.
"He's just unconscious," he said.
Axel nodded. "I'll check upstairs for Jacob."
No sign of Jacob. He wasn't in the house, which meant one of two things; he'd been kidnapped or he ran. There were signs of a struggle, but no blood, which was a good thing.
"We should go look for him," Axel said, starting for the door. When he realized Demyx wasn't following, he looked back. "What are you waiting on?"
"We can't leave Vexen here. The Heartless will find him," Demyx said.
"Well, we can't take him. He'll slow us down."
"Then I'll stay."
Axel obviously didn't like that idea, but Demyx didn't move from where he was. After a few moments, Axel sighed.
"Alright. But be careful. I'll come back here for you after I find Jacob."
"I won't go anywhere."
Axel left, and Demyx stood up, summoning his sitar. If the Heartless tried to overrun him, he'd need to be ready to fight. And while they certainly didn't attempt to overrun him, they did show up to fight, sometimes 3 or 4 at a time. Demyx was quickly wearing down, wondering when the onslaught would end. The first attack had only lasted about 15 minutes, and this one was already pushing 45 minutes.
When the attack finally did end, about 20 minutes after Axel had left, Demyx thought he and Vexen were in the clear. He sat down next to the unconscious scientist, allowing his sitar to fade.
Then, he heard two sets of footsteps inside the house. He stood up, expecting Jacob and Axel to round the corner. Instead, two men appeared, both in dark suits. One had long black hair, the other short light brown hair.
"Demyx," one of them said. "Perfect. We'll take you too."
"Take me?" Demyx repeated, and then he lifted his hand to summon his sitar. One of the men pulled a gun, fired- and Demyx felt barbs slice into his chest. He stumbled back, stunned, and then the man pressed a button on the gun.
Strings lit up from the gun to the barbs, electricity firing down and hitting Demyx like a cement truck. He let out a scream and stumbled back against the wall, sinking down to the floor as shocks surged through his body.
The last thing he saw before the world went black was one of the men lifting Vexen from the floor, and the other heading toward him with a length of rope.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
"Have you seen a kid with a big key?"
Axel couldn't count how many times he'd asked that question. Most people were too scared and panicked to answer, others gestured in some vague direction. Axel managed to stay on the kid's trail, which led him into another suburban neighborhood.
The directions eventually led him to a house, where Axel simply opened the door and walked in, not in the mood for formalities. A young teenage girl and a woman were huddled against the wall, and Jacob stood in front of them, keyblade at the ready against three Heartless.
"Hit 'em, kid!" Axel shouted, summoning his chakrams. Jacob, wide-eyed and obviously terrified, clumsily swung the keyblade at the nearest Heartless. It stumbled from the blow, then scuttled around and tried to attack him from a different direction.
He spun and swung the keyblade again, this time exploding the creature in a cloud of black dust. Axel launched his chakrams at the other two, effectively destroying them.
"Are you alright?" Axel asked Jacob, and the boy nodded, still holding the keyblade in a death grip. "Well, come on, let's go. Demyx is with your dad."
"Is he okay?" Jacob asked.
"He's fine. We need to go, kid."
The teenage girl behind Jacob stood up, stepping between him and Axel. "Who are you, anyway? Don't push him around, he's having a hard time here!"
Axel raised his chakram to her neck. "Don't push me, girl, I'm really not in the mood."
"I'll be fine, Jenny," Jacob said. "I'll come back, okay? After all this is over, I'll come back here."
Axel lowered his chakram; Jenny didn't notice. She was staring at Jacob, looking a bit horrified. "What do you mean, when all this is over? What aren't you telling me? And what the hell is the big key for? And what were those things?"
"I can't explain right now. I have to go take care of a few things, but I'll be back. Promise!" Jacob said as Axel moved to pull him toward the door. Axel dragged him outside, smacking one of the few remaining Heartless with his chakram as he headed down the front steps.
He shouldn't make promises he can't keep, he thought, finally letting go of Jacob's arm when he was sure the kid wasn't going to take off.
"You getting the hang of the keyblade?" Axel asked, and Jacob shrugged.
"I think so."
"Good. You're going to be using it a lot in the near future."
Axel sped up, and Jacob had to practically jog to keep up with him. By the time they made it back to his house he was out of breath, but he ran for the open door.
"Dad?" he yelled, and got no answer. "…Demyx?"
Axel stepped inside, and right to the living room where the pair had been. They were gone.
"Demyx?" he said, worry and fear taking hold. He noticed something new- cracks in the wall where there hadn't been before. A struggle.
"Where are they?" Jacob asked, and Axel knelt down where he'd left Vexen and Demyx. A neatly folded paper lay there. He opened it up, studying the fancy script.
"Return to your home and wait for instructions," he read aloud, and then he scowled and crushed the paper in his hands. Kidnapped. But Demyx was a good fighter, hell, a great one when need be; who could kidnap him?
"It was those two men, wasn't it? The ones in the suits?" Jacob asked.
"They were here?"
"Yeah. They showed up right before those Heartless things showed up. My dad, he…he fought them and told me to run," Jacob explained. "When the Heartless showed up, I wanted to make sure Jenny wasn't hurt. They must've come back here looking for me when they couldn't find me out there."
Axel could practically feel the guilt dripping off Jacob's every word. He stood up, turning away from the wreckage of furniture.
"It's not your fault, kid. Come on, we have to go back to my place."
"Will they kill him?"
"In all likelihood…" Yes. Say yes. Don't sugarcoat it for him. "Nah."
Jacob breathed a sigh of relief, and Axel mentally kicked himself. This whole 'having a heart' thing was making him go soft.
"Come on, kid."
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
"So, bubble boy got himself kidnapped, I hear."
Axel glared at Zexion, who'd just entered the apartment with a smirk on his face. Zexion's smirk didn't fade even at Axel's glare, and he instead locked his gaze on Jacob, who shifted nervously in his chair. "And this is the scrawny kid who's going to save the world this time, right?"
"Lay off, Zexion," Larxene said, rolling her eyes. "The kid already thinks I'm going to disembowel him and eat his entrails."
"I wouldn't put it past you."
"Did you call Marluxia?"
Axel's head snapped up. "Marluxia's here too?"
Larxene nodded. "Close. Just over the border, in Canada. He's here on business this month."
"What business is that?"
Zexion smirked. "He's a botanist."
"…Why am I not surprised?"
"And he still wants to kill you."
"That doesn't surprise me either."
A knock on the door interrupted the conversation. Zexion opened it partway, looked out, then opened it the rest of the way. Marluxia stepped inside, looking exactly the same as Axel remembered him- including the glare.
"Axel. I was hoping you'd die sooner, before I lost the list of ways in which I wanted to kill you."
"That's too bad. I mean, it must have taken you weeks."
Marluxia's fists clenched and he opened his mouth to speak, but Larxene gave him a warning glare. "If there's any fighting to be done, it'll be outside my apartment. That vase there is worth more than both of you combined."
Axel was about to poke at the vase just to see what she did when there was yet another knock at the door. Zexion opened it yet again, frowned, and then looked down.
"Person's already gone…but I think this is what we've been waiting on," he said, leaning down and picking up a tape player off the hallway floor. Axel stood up and snatched it out of Zexion's hands, setting it on the coffee table and hitting 'play'.
Just some shuffling, first. Then an unfamiliar voice.
"Axel, I'm sure by now you know the situation. We have Vexen and Demyx in our possession and will not hesitate to kill either one. Bring the keyblade wielder to the warehouse on the corner of Vine and 76th tomorrow night at 10pm, and both of them will be let go. Miss this first deadline, and we will kill your boyfriend. Miss the second drop point, and the boy's father will die. No tricks, or they both die."
More shuffling. Then a muffled voice, the sound of tape being torn off skin, crackling, and a heart-wrenching scream of agony. Demyx.
Everyone in the room winced, except for Larxene, who was hypothesizing under her breath as to what kind of voltage they were using.
"Tomorrow night. Don't screw this up," the voice said, and then the tape went dead. Axel started to breath again, not even aware that he'd stopped when he heard that scream.
"Those bastards. I'll kill 'em both. I'll burn this whole fuckin' city down," he snarled, standing up and heading for the door. Only Zexion grabbing one arm and Jacob grabbing the other could keep him from going on a fiery rampage.
"Axel, come on. This is a time for planning, not drastic measures. You do one thing to set them off and Vexen and Demyx die," Zexion insisted, pushing Axel back down on the couch. "I know where that warehouse is. And if you guys are willing to put in a bit of effort, I have a plan."
Jacob nodded fervently. "Anything."
"Not you. You're sitting this one out," Zexion said to Jacob, who immediately stood.
"They have my dad, I have to do something!"
"The whole point of this plan is making sure they don't get their hands on you. If you die, we're all screwed. Which is why you're staying here."
"Just go with it, kid. You'll have your chance," Axel said, grabbing Jacob's arm and pulling him back down into his seat. Zexion explained the plan, which was just crazy enough that it might work.
Larxene and Marluxia were on their cell phones in moments.
"Yeah, Joe?" Larxene said. "That empty warehouse on Vine and 76th. I want to buy it. Immediately. Yeah, I know the stupid killer black things are holding all the paperwork up, but I'm sure you can pull some strings and get it done…right? For me, Joe?"
"Yui? You know that project we've been working on?" Marluxia was saying into his phone. "Toss the papers. I want all the belladonna we're growing trucked here, to New York."
A pause. "Yes, the entire greenhouse worth of it. All the plants. No, the oleander stays. Just the nightshade."
Axel crossed his arms. "It worries me that he has truckloads of deadly plants to just throw away."
Zexion chuckled. "Just never leave your drink unattended."
"Do you think they're Nobodies? From the last attack?" Axel asked, and Zexion shrugged.
"If they are, makes it that much easier for us. We'll know how to take them down for sure."
This had better work, Axel thought, taking a glance over at Jacob, who was curled up on the couch studying the keyblade, completely lost in his own little world. For all our sakes, it had better work.