"Listen, Demyx…I'm sorry."

Demyx used what little strength he had to lift his head, looking up at the man tied to a chair across the small room from him. He shook his head. "No reason…to be sorry."

"I should've listened to you. I should have expected something like this," Vexen continued. "I was so set on keeping my son out of my world that I put him in danger."

"It's not your fault," Demyx pointed out, his voice hoarse. "You did what any parent would do."

"I'm a fool."

"You're a father."

Voices were floating in from the next room; the trade-off was getting closer. They didn't have much time to make a plan, if they could even manage that.

"We need to come up with something," Demyx said quietly, trying not to move too much- his chains would rattle against the machine he was bound to, giving him away to his captors. Any kind of movement got a severe penalty.

"I'm useless without my powers," Vexen said miserably.

Me too, Demyx thought, wincing at the memory of trying to use his powers here. Any time he tried to use water to fight, the machine kicked on and gave him a paralyzing zap of electricity. His powers were useless, unless…

He suddenly knew what he had to do. He could save Vexen, possibly save Jacob, at a cost. He could handle that; he might not have been able to, back when he didn't have a heart, but now it wasn't even a question. Just the knowledge of what he had to do.

"Vexen…I think I have an idea," he said, lifting his head a little more. "I need you to promise you'll tell Axel to make sure Jacob stays safe."

Vexen looked up at the musician. "What?"

"Promise me. And don't let Axel do anything rash. Tell him I love him."

"Demyx, what-"

He didn't get a chance to finish the inquiry. The door to the room swung open, and the two men stepped inside, armed with guns.

"Come on, you two," one of them said, beginning to untie Vexen. The ropes loosened and fell, and the other grabbed onto the chains holding Demyx, starting to unlatch them. That's when Demyx took a deep breath, gathering the last of his strength and will.

He cast a massive water attack on the entire room, shielding only Vexen from the sudden rain. It was only moments before the machine kicked in, so strong that Demyx let out a wail of sheer agony.

Electricity lanced through him, the walls, the two men- only Vexen was protected, untouched, reaching up to shield his head as every electronic in the room shorted out. Demyx smelled burning flesh, he was convulsing uncontrollably, then something just snapped.

Axel…

There was a solid ten seconds of silence before Vexen dared to lower his arms. He looked up, a thin layer of smoke shrouding the air in the room. He coughed lightly, his heart racing.

"Demyx?"

He stumbled past the fallen bodies of the two men, to where Demyx was still chained to the smoldering machine. He kneeled down, putting one hand on Demyx's shoulder.

"Kid, you did it! They're dead! I'll get you out of here, and…"

There was no response.

"…Demyx?"

He lifted Demyx's chin, and then pressed his fingers against the boy's throat, checking for a pulse. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

"No. No, come on, don't do this," he whispered, shaking the blonde. "Wake up."

A sound, but not from Demyx. From behind him. He shifted and looked over his shoulder, and his eyes widened in horror. One of the men had shifted- he wasn't dead. Then the other moaned lightly.

Neither was dead.

He looked at Demyx one last time, blinking back tears. Demyx wanted him to take care of Axel; he had to tell Axel.

The warehouse. Axel should be at the warehouse, he thought. He gave Demyx's hair a light, affectionate run-through with his fingers, and then he stood up, stepping back over the men and rushing out of the building as fast as his feet would carry him.

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"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised."

Axel looked up from where his gaze had been locked on the dashboard of Zexion's car. They were a block from the warehouse, and it was almost time for Axel to go 'make the drop'.

"What are you talking about?" he asked Zexion.

"You and Demyx."

Axel shrugged. "It just…happened."

"That's not really what I meant."

Axel looked at Zexion with a frown. "Then what do you mean?"

Zexion paused for a moment, and then he smirked. "I've never been witness to you living for someone else. You're…well, you were a selfish bastard."

"Things changed," Axel said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"You fell in love."

"Well, I don't know about that-"

"Come on. It's not like you can hide it. Look at what you're doing for him," Zexion said with an elaborate gesture of his hand. "Any other person this happened to, you would've insisted on just letting the deadline pass. You would go in, chakrams blazing, and not give a damn what happened to the hostages."

"It's…it's different."

"You love him."

"What do you care?"

Zexion shrugged, tapping his fingertips impatiently on the steering wheel. "Just confirming my suspicions."

Axel muttered something about death and chakrams, sliding down in his seat and crossing his arms. It wasn't 'love'. It couldn't be, not yet. Could it?

But Zexion was right. He'd finally started to live for someone else, and it felt like spinning out of control. Caring this much about someone felt as uncontrollable as it felt getting dumped in this new world.

It was the best thing that could've happened. That much he knew now.

He hadn't told Demyx yet, hadn't told him anything he needed to. That Demyx had made this change bearable, that he was more than Axel could've ever hoped for and more. That blonde musician had changed him more than having a heart ever could.

"It's time. Go," Zexion said quietly, breaking Axel out of his thoughts. Axel swallowed thickly; so much was riding on this. Demyx. He had to save Demyx, had to tell him everything.

He got out of the car, still fighting off thoughts, memories, and regret. He tried to concentrate on the plan, but his mind kept wandering, thinking on the things he was going to say and do when he got Demyx back.

"Axel!"

Axel stopped. He knew that voice. He'd just heard it yesterday, in fact. He turned, and his stomach did a flip.

"Vexen?"

The scientist jogged up to him, breathing hard as he caught up. He took a few deep breaths.

"You have to get out of here. Now. Where's Jacob?"

"He's safe. Where's Demyx?"

Vexen winced. "Please, Axel, not here."

The smile that had been on Axel's face disappeared completely. "Vexen?"

"We have to get away from here, Axel, what part of that don't you understand?"

"What happened to Demyx?"

"Axel, he's dead. He's dead."

Axel stopped breathing. "No. No, you're lying."

"If I could have done anything, I would have, believe me. I didn't know what he was going to do, it all happened so fast-"

"He's not dead. He's not."

Vexen grabbed Axel's shoulder, trying to get the other man to move back toward Zexion's car. "We have to go. They're going to be coming here any minute."

"He's not dead!"

"I saw it all with my own eyes, Axel. I took his pulse."

"No no no…" Axel moaned, feeling nausea welling up in him. Dizziness. This couldn't be right. Demyx wasn't dead. Vexen was wrong, Vexen was lying. Footsteps approached, they didn't register.

"What the hell is going on?" Zexion asked as he approached the pair, eyeing Vexen in particular. "You escaped?"

"Thanks to Demyx," Vexen muttered, and Zexion looked between him and the pale, panicked looking redhead. Fairly quickly, the situation hit him. Only one thing could have Axel looking like that.

"The two men too?" Zexion asked, and Vexen shook his head.

"They're injured. Not dead. We need to move, now."

Zexion nodded, and he and Vexen each grabbed one of Axel's arms, pulling him back toward the car. Axel fought their grip, partly on instinct, and partly because the words were just beginning to truly hit him.

"We have to go back," he said desperately, pulling against their hold. "No, no, we have to go back for Demyx! We have to go back!"

"There's no point," Zexion growled, pulling harder on Axel. "It wouldn't be a rescue, it would be a body recovery."

"He can't be dead. He can't be…"

"Axel," Vexen said firmly, and then his tone grew noticeably softer. "He told me to tell you he loves you."

Axel no longer fought their grip.

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Demyx took a deep breath, and his eyes fluttered open.

The sharp intake of air quickly degenerated into a coughing fit. He winced and tried to move, his body sore and weak. He remembered firing off that attack, unbearable pain, and dying. He'd died. But now here he was, awake, no worse than he'd been before that attack.

That meant…this really was an afterlife. There was no world after this.

They couldn't die.

He looked up again, relishing the sensation of air filling his lungs. The room was empty; Vexen had gotten away. But so had those two men.

And he'd told Vexen to tell Axel he loved him. If Vexen caught up with Axel, Axel would think he was dead. This was not good, not good at all.

Experimentally, Demyx gathered his strength and summoned a water clone. The machine did nothing- it was completely fried. The water clone picked up the keys the man had dropped, and quickly unlocked the chains on Demyx's wrist before falling back into a puddle on the floor.

Demyx stood, rubbing his raw wrists and judging his options. He decided the best option was to get back to Larxene's apartment- eventually, Axel would end up back there.

He stepped shakily through the wreckage of the room, praying that Axel wouldn't do anything rash before he'd gotten to him. He only stopped to pick up the first gun he saw and make sure it was fully loaded.

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Axel wouldn't talk to anyone. He hadn't moved since Vexen and Zexion had dragged him back into the apartment and sat him in the chair by the window. He stared out the window, his entire body trembling.

Even Marluxia knew better than to try and approach the redhead. Everyone had gathered back at the apartment, ready to try and sort out a 'plan B'.

"Can't we do anything to, you know…help him?" Jacob asked, wiping tears from his own cheeks as he gestured to Axel.

"He's gonna have to work this one out on his own," Zexion said firmly. "We need to keep our minds on the task at hand. Mourning can come when we aren't trying to save the world."

"I almost feel sorry for him," Marluxia said with a snort, staring at Axel. "I still lost an entire greenhouse worth of plants for nothing, though."

Zexion rolled his eyes. "You're the only one who cares about your plants."

"You'd care if one ended up in your drink."

"Yeah, I'd care enough to take those plants and shove them up your-"

"Boys!" Larxene snapped. "Don't we have more important things to be discussing than your kinks?"

"Right. Plan B," Marluxia said. "Well, it appears that Axel will be of no use to us. Jacob won't be much good either."

Larxene nodded. "So we need to-"

The door suddenly slammed open, and in the doorway stood one of the two men, a gun in hand. Right behind him was his 'partner in crime', also armed and looking very pissed off. Both still had singe marks on their clothing and skin, evidence of Demyx's attempt on their lives.

Shots fired off, and everyone dove for the floor, but one not fast enough- three bullets tore through Zexion, knocking him forward into the coffee table, shattering it into dozens of pieces. Marluxia let out a strangled cry, and then he grabbed a vase off the nearest end table and gave it a good hard throw at one of the shooters, ignoring the shriek from Larxene as he did so.

Axel summoned a chakram into one hand, standing up, surprised to see Marluxia scrambling to Zexion's side to see if the younger man was still alive. There was the first evidence that he'd actually gotten a heart in coming here. Axel prepared to throw the chakram at the same time one of the men pointed a gun right at him.

It's okay. Shoot me. It doesn't even matter now, not now that Demyx is gone.

New gunshots rang out, and suddenly both shooters jerked and fell, the back of their heads blown open from bullets.

"Take away their weapons and tie 'em up. They don't stay dead long, I don't think."

That voice. Axel knew that voice.

He looked up from the bodies, and his eyes widened.

Within moments, his chakrams faded and forgotten, he'd crossed the room at a sprinted and crashed into Demyx with a passionate kiss, taking the younger man by surprise.