Chapter 6 – Broken
Twilight had long since passed, and the light stars dotted the night sky. The moon hung over the town, a sliver of a crescent barely giving any light to the people still on the streets.
Sora, Riku, and Kairi had all made themselves comfortable, already sleeping quietly on their beds, their chests moving up and down slowly.
Roxas and Namine had vanished without a trace, the door still ajar from when they left, the cold night air whistling through and flowing through Axel's hair. A leaf fluttered in, ragged, hardly looking much like a leaf anymore. It flew and landed ungracefully on his foot. He made a movement to get it off, but paused when a gust of wind burst through the door, howling madly before whisking up the leaf through the open window, and out into the darkness.
Perhaps Roxas would remember him eventually.
He knew he couldn't get his hopes up too high, but there had to be a way.
A memory…it chains to other memories…like an enormous web…when one is remembered, the chains are repaired, the web remade…perhaps Roxas has only forgotten, and will remember me… he thought, before his shoulders drooped considerably.
What was he thinking? If that were true, it would have happened already…
He stalked out the door, his mind troubled. And the memories, all the strange memories coming to him ever since he had rose out of the dark waters of the lake.
Staring up into the night sky, a howl of a lone dog in the streets filled the air, its voice wavering with sadness.
Bright sapphire eyes were staring up at the same sky.
Next to him, sat Namine, who was holding her hands tightly together, her eyes downcast. Her strange memories had not come again, but she was concerned why the memories had just come now. She perhaps something was up?
"I've been thinking about things lately…" Roxas suddenly cut through the silence of the night and the chirping of the crickets and cicadas.
Namine looked over at her brother, wondering what he had to say.
"What is up with all these strange happenings? We've lived in our old town for around twelve years now, and now, all these unnatural things are occurring…what did we do wrong?" he spat out the last part, his eyes burning with anger.
The sound of only Namine's breathing filled the air.
"Nobody ever knows why things choose to happen like this…" Namine said quietly. "It's not our fault. Don't worry."
She clasped Roxas' hand in hers, leaning on his shoulder.
Why doesn't he remember?"It's getting dark, and you're getting tired. We should get back home soon." Roxas replied, and began to get up.
A shadow suddenly tangled out of the ground, grabbing Namine and pulling her away.
"Namine!" Roxas shouted, grabbing his sister's arm tightly before stomping on the shadowy form.
The thing released its grip and fled. Roxas turned in panic.
"Come on, there's going to be more – I can feel it."
The two dashed across the street.
Several of the Heartless began to form behind them, racing after.
"This way!" Roxas shouted, pulling Namine into an alley.
Instinct flooded through his body as he suddenly found himself running up the wall and jumping over the building.
I've been here before.
They were soaring across the night sky, their forms pale under what was left of moonlight. The Heartless clambered at the wall, shrieking angrily, before sinking through the building and going through, bringing shock to the people inside.
They only pounded on, slipping through the wall once more and chasing after the two siblings.
"Quickly!"
Before they could respond though, there was a flash of red, and a wall of flames exploded behind them. Roxas grabbed her and fell to the floor before the flames could burn them.
"Axel?" Namine struggled to get up from the ground weakly.
Roxas seemed to growl threateningly.
He still doesn't trust him… Namine thought, her heart pounding against her chest.
She wanted to tell him it was all right. She wanted to tell him that their brother had returned. But then he would ask her why he didn't remember them. So she stayed silent, only watching as the Heartless were incinerated.
"Come on." Roxas said with growing distaste, getting up and stalking off. When he found Namine not moving, he stopped and stared down at her.
"Don't you remember?" She asked pleadingly. "Don't you remember all the times of peace we had before this? Don't you remember…our brother?"
"Namine, he's dead. We saw him dragged off into the lake by the Heartless. He's dead, and he's not coming back."
Namine bit her lip and fought tears. She wanted to tell him he was wrong, to tell him that their brother was back after all these years, that he was here to help. But he would just tell her Axel brought back the heartless.
For every thing she had to say, he could counter it.
She was alone. She knew things that nobody would ever believe.
Axel is our brother.
A dark shadow appeared behind her, a dark claw reaching out and grabbing her. She screamed as she began to be dragged into a dark portal. Roxas, hearing her cry, turned in alarm and saw his sister sinking away.
"Namine!" Roxas shouted, leaping forward to grab her hand. Just as he grabbed on, his grasp was pulled away forcefully. His hand slipped out and Namine vanished into the dark.
"Namine!" he shouted, his hand slipping into the closing portal to try and grasp her arm again, but the portal closed, leaving only dark flames leaping where it had been moments ago.
Flinging himself onto the ground, he cried bitterly, tears falling to the floor uncontrollably.
The fires had vanished. The heartless had vanished. Namine. Gone.
Axel walked over from the waste of the battle and looked down at his past friend.
"It's over." Roxas said quietly. "I can't go on."
Axel stared at where a black flame flickered on the dark floor. It erupted outwards before vanishing into smoke.
Namine awoke on hard cold ground. She looked up and saw nothing but darkness.
"Roxas?" she called out into nowhere. "Axel?"
The only things she received back were laughter.
She closed her eyes.
"There's nothing."
But when she opened them, she saw the beach, where they played. Roxas grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the open waters.
"Come on, let's go!" he cried excitedly.
And then, she saw the park, where she found herself being carried away by Axel, her leg bleeding.
"Is she gonna be ok?" Riku asked, trotting behind Axel.
And then she saw night sky. A shooting star whizzed past.
"Look…" Sora said happily, grabbing Kairi's hand. Namine giggled and grabbed Sora's other hand. And then it vanished.
She was in darkness once more. A figure emerged from the shadows.
"Well look what we have here." A mocking voice laughed. "Namine."
"Don't get too cocky Vexen." A deeper voice said from behind.
"Oh shut up Lexaeus, give me my time to shine." The man, Vexen, who looked like a girl in Namine's eyes spat. "Well, we didn't get our intentional target, but this will do for the time. MARLUXIA!"
"He's dressed up in that pink tutu you gave him for Christmas. You really shouldn't have." The man Lexaeus sighed as he appeared out of the dark. "I don't think we want him here now, he'll traumatize the girl."
Unfortunately, Marluxia suddenly came skipping in, wearing what looked like a ballerina outfit (don't ask where I got this), tossing roses wherever he went.
"Vexy-kun!" he sang, before receiving a hard blow on the head. "Ow! What was that for?" he growled, his outfit melting out and turning into his regular attire. "What's wrong with a bit of fun?"
"Everything." Vexen snapped before pulling Namine up forcefully. "Take her to the spare room, and keep her there. We'll wait for the others to come."
Marluxia grinned goofily and grabbed Namine before whisking her away.
"I don't know if that was a good idea…" Lexaeus said uncertainly, as thousands of flower petals tumbled down from where Marluxia had vanished.
"Well neither do I." Vexen said. "But I'm too lazy to do it, and you'll probably knock her over like the oaf you are."
Oaf! Lexaeus thought, obviously hurt.
"But I'm not an oaf! Ask Saix! He knows!" Lexaeus protested.
"Too bad, I'm too lazy to call him over as well." Vexen declared, vanishing into the darkness and leaving behind the upset Lexaeus.
Namine had been left in the room for several minutes now. A single lamp illuminated the room, her figure casting a small shadow onto the floor. Cold wind blew in through an unseen opening, and no sound came out except for the gust's whistling.
For several more minutes, she sat, until she became drowsy and fell to sleep.
When she woke up, she still only saw darkness.
That is, until she found her chin pointed towards a very sharp looking scythe. And it was pink.
"Joy." She sighed as she inched her face away from the blade.
She looked to her left and right and found her arms and legs chained to the wall. And she saw a small light from a room in front of her.
"Vexen! Why did you take my scythe?" a loud and upset voice shouted from inside the room.
"Because…you called me Vexy-kun, and you were dressed up in that obnoxious pink outfit."
"B-but it's not fair to take my scythe away! And Vexy-Kun is a very hip name."
There was a slap, and a loud squeal.
The voices soon faded away, and Namine assumed they were leaving. She struggled to move slightly, but found her arms tightly bound.
Her feet however…
Roxas laid the blame on Axel.
Axel was surprised that this would happen.
Kairi suggested to the others that Roxas was just broken, because Namine was the closest one to him in their family. But Roxas refused to leave the closet he was seeking refuge in. For the first day, Axel left to search for Namine without telling anyone. When he returned, he had a deep cut down his arm, but nobody saw it since he had hastily gone and changed into a new cloak, as his old one was cut as well. Roxas had not come out for the entire day. In fact, there was no sound coming out from the closet, only quiet breathing. Sora suggested he go console him, but Riku thought against it.
Axel knew their trust was slipping out of his grasp. Soon he would be an annoyance, and they would probably gang up on him. Maybe in his sleep.
The thought somehow made him laugh. He stopped quickly. He realized it had been a very long time since he had felt the emotions return.
The second day began. Roxas still had not come out. Axel left once more.
A bright morning sun shone above the town, beckoning for activity to begin. Axel squinted through the light into the far distance of the town.
Little sister is waiting for you.
"Namine is not my sister." Axel said quickly to himself, trying to stay in reality.
He began his walk to the end of town. When he arrived there, he saw himself staring into a long blue lake, almost like an ocean. Except for there were cliffs on the other side. And as well as that, it was continuously surrounded by land. A breath of wind whistled through his hair.
Something is on the other side, waiting for me.
"She's not my sister." Axel said furiously again, stomping into the water.
The water was not very deep. It only went up to his ankles at first, but after a few long minutes of wading through, it was now up to his knees.
"Great." He spat in fury, but continued moving.
But as he continued his decent into the lake, he found himself getting lower, and lower, and even lower than lower.
As well as that…
"What am I doing this for?" he sighed to himself. "If I keep on going, I'll only drown or something…"
He froze, and remembered what had happened several days ago.
Yes. He had emerged from water. But how did he get into the water in the first place?
He turned and began running twice as fast as he had before, his movements hindered by the water.
A fishlike Heartless emerged out from the ocean and began swimming rapidly after him. Several Shadow Heartlesses appeared on the shoreline.
Axel hesitated. If he went forward, he would probably end up getting swallowed by heartless. But if he turned around, Mr. Fishy would attack.
To his surprise, he chose Mr. Fishy. Summoning his chakrams, he jumped into the air before flinging them down onto the round fish below. It shrieked in anger before exploding, and he began his trek into the water again, now running instead of walking. Several of the Shadow Heartlesses ventured into the water, some of them receding in nervousness, but others still chased after.
The water was now at his chest, and his cloak was getting in the way. The heartless, on the other hand, were gaining.
He began to run faster than before, and suddenly felt the floor under him vanish. It was just water now.
Swim you idiot! He shouted to himself as he found his arms and legs unmoving.
He was sinking; his face was hardly above the water anymore. He took a gasp of breath just to feel himself being dragged down.
The area became dark, and he felt the last bits of air fall out of his mouth.
Namine awoke. She had been resting for several hours after she had been struggling to move the scythe towards her. She had gotten extremely close.
The scythe was nearing her hand now. She only needed to kick it over at the right timing so it would chop her shackles apart.
But if she missed…her arm would be cut off.
She looked down at her legs. Their bindings were only crude looking knots, unlike the steel cuffs at her arms. They would be easy to unbind.
Namine stared around.
Nobody was here. She edged her foot slowly towards the scythe.
Her foot was getting closer and closer…
And then, her leg slipped suddenly as someone opened the door, and the scythe went down on her.
She gave a wince of pain as the stinging sensation shot through her arm. The scythe clattered to the floor, a warm drop of blood trickling down her hand. A single spot of blood was lined on the edge of its blade.
"No need to struggle, it'll only hurt you in the end." Vexen's cold voice floated into the room. "Don't you want to see your little friends?"
Namine struggled even more, the blood still coming out.
"Resisting huh? It really won't do you any good." His voice drawled out, stalking over and picking up the scythe. "And trying to escape. Don't worry, your friends will try and save you. But they'll only be running into a trap. And you'll be the one to blame."
Vexen laughed as he left, swinging the scythe around just to be hit ungracefully with its end.
"OW!"
And he vanished into the dark, leaving Namine alone once more.
I guess…that was a bit fast. The fan fiction server must have been down because I posted the fifth chapter several (2) days ago, but I only received the alert just yesterday. Oh well. So this might seem a bit messy, but I try not to let that happen. The rest of the time for now might be re-editing some parts. Now that I read over some things, I feel the sudden urge to change things. Oh well. It is good to edit sometime.
Thanks for the reviews! I appreciate it a lot!