Chapter 223: to come
"I kinda feel sorry for killing Demyx, to be honest…." Kairi said.
Roxas turned to look at her, a little surprised. She was rubbing her arm, nervously, and her pace was uneven.
He frowned. "This the first time you killed anyone?" he asked.
"Duh," she replied, rolling her eyes. "Killing people isn't exactly a normal thing—well, it's not for anyone that isn't one of you two."
Roxas couldn't quite argue with that one—though it wasn't like he'd killed a lot of people. The only person he could remember killing was Demyx…
"I don't feel sorry for him," Riku called back.
"That's mean!" Kairi scolded. "I mean, he was only doing his job and…" she trailed off. Whether it was because she hadn't planned on what she'd say after that, or if she didn't want to admit to killing him, Roxas wasn't quite sure. He had a feeling it was the latter, though.
"He's not really dead," Riku said. He was rather impatient about saying it, though, and didn't slow his pace at all.
"Oh yeah!" Roxas exclaimed, running a bit to attempt to catch up with Riku. Of course, that just made Riku walk even faster. "Axel mentioned something about that," Roxas continued, ignoring Riku's increasing pace. "Do you know anything?
"Apparently the entire Organization should come back later, according to some friends of mine," Riku replied, distractedly. "I forget the exact details, why..."
Roxas stared. Come back? Axel would just poof come back? It seemed too good to be true. And did that include Xion? Though, she wasn't a part of the Organization… and maybe it only applied to Nobodies…
But…
"You trust these friends of yours?" he asked Riku. He needed clarification. How could Riku be sure his friends were right?
"Well, they live in a parallel universe that runs three times faster than ours and have already seen it happen soooo…" Riku sent a look back at Roxas. "Yeah, I do."
"Parallel… universe…" Roxas began, but before he could finish with his skepticism or get an answer, Joseph came running in from the next area, tailed shortly by a red-haired boy Roxas wasn't sure he recognized. Toby, he thought his name was. Maybe. Though it might've been Tony….
Joseph skidded to a halt rather abruptly, stopping short only a few feet in front of Riku. Toby (or Tony) didn't stop, and ended up running into Joseph and promptly fell on his butt.
"I know where Namine is," Joseph blurted.
"Shouldn't you two be…? Not here?" Kairi interrupted.
"YEAH BUT NAMINE'S IN THE EDITING ROOM RIGHT NOW and it looks like they've already started working on her," Joseph said. Toby nodded furiously behind him. "Me 'n Sora tried to get there and stop them but Xigbar was in the way."
"Well, we can take him," Roxas said. "I mean, between the three of us, anyway. It's just him, right, not his clone, too?"
"Mmhmm."
"Actually, Roxas, there are four of us," Kairi corrected. "Counting Sora."
Roxas frowned at her. "I counted Sora. Who'd I miss—oh." Who he'd missed became rather obvious as Kairi glared quite impressively at him. "I missed you."
"Again."
Roxas shrugged.
"Sora's still up there with Xigbar, yeah?" Kairi asked, turning her attention to Joseph and Toby again. "And you never did answer about whether or not—"
"There's no time!" Toby interrupted. "It's Really Bad! You gotta go right now!"
"Then let's go!" Riku shouted. He was already half way into the next area.
Three Berserkers blocked his path before he could get any further than that. He swore, quite loudly, and Joseph quickly covered Toby's ears and yelled: "Riku! Language!"
Riku ignored him entirely, furiously attacking the Berserkers. He was still cursing.
Roxas chucked a Keyblade at one of the Berserkers, and started over that direction to help Riku out. But then Saix appeared, blocking the airborne Keyblade with his claymore.
Roxas glared and summoned his Keyblade back to him.
"Riku! Go ahead!" Kairi called to him. "Just go ahead!"
Riku listened without question, and darted past the Berserkers the moment there was an opening.
Saix growled and turned to go after Riku. Roxas rushed to put himself in Saix's way. Kairi was soon there beside him, and then Joseph was, and then Toby. Kairi looked determined. Joseph was glaring furiously. Toby was trembling with fear, but he was trying so hard to hide it that Roxas decided not to say anything about it.
He stepped forward, blades bared. "You killed Xion!" he spat at Saix, eyes narrowing.
Saix rolled his eyes, completely unamused. "And you, if I remember correctly. Axel insisted on bringing you back."
That threw Roxas off. He didn't remember dying. Though, he supposed he wouldn't. And… Axel'd brought him back? How? When did he die? He'd been told he'd been—
Saix lunged at him, brought his claymore down over his head. Roxas had his blades up to block just barely in time. It wasn't enough. Saix broke his defenses, swung again. The claymore hit Roxas in the stomach this time, and the blow sent him into the opposite wall.
Roxas groaned. Shook his head. Clutched his stomach. The wound seemed pretty bad, so he cast Curaga, deciding to sit a moment in its healing pool. He prepared himself with a regular Cure just in case he had to get up right away, but, for the moment, everyone was distracted. Kairi had a Berserker to deal with, and was actually fighting it just fine. Saix was, for some reason, focusing his attention on Joseph. Joseph could dart away from Saix's heavy blows with ease, but he seemed to grow more distracted with every passing second.
Roxas sighed and got to his feet, tossing up the Cure. If he didn't get Saix's attention back on him now, Joseph wouldn't last.
Roxas had only taken two steps when the area suddenly exploded with light and heat and flame. Roxas braced himself against it, but still skidded back a few paces. When the light finally cleared, Kairi was cringing, Joseph was dusting himself off, and Toby collapsed. Roxas wasn't quite surprised about that bit, though. The attack had obviously been Toby's, and it had looked big enough to wear even Axel out.
So Roxas stepped past Toby and went over to Saix. Saix was very clearly still alive, seeing as he was clutching his face and screaming in agony. Surprisingly—or, unsurprisingly—his cloak didn't seem burned in the slightest. His hair was singed, however, and Roxas didn't dare wonder how his face might look.
"Saix looks pretty scorched," Roxas laughed, turning for a moment to look over at Toby. It looked like Joseph was helping him up. Saix moved, then, drawing Roxas's attention again.
Saix pushed himself up, glaring—Roxas assumed he was glaring—at Toby.
"I should've killed you when- the moment I- I found you!" Saix coughed. Despite the cough in between every other word, the venom in his tone was clear.
Roxas raised a blade and shoved it through Saix's gut then and there. He started fading immediately. Clearly Toby's attack had done even more damage than Roxas had initially thought.
Roxas turned around to congratulate the boy, but it was then that he realized that Joseph was holding Toby in his arms. Shaking him. Screaming.
"Toby! Toby!"
xxx
He'd been afraid. That was all. Toby'd been afraid and the fear had burned through him like fire—something he knew all too well and yet even it, he feared. There was so much going on. So much happening.
Saix had nearly killed Joseph at least three times. Toby thought it was a miracle Joseph was still dodging him now. The nice girl with red hair—Kairi—was being attacked by one of those huge and quite scary Nobodies that Saix controlled. The blond boy—had someone said his name was Roxas?—was down. Wasn't getting up.
Toby didn't know what to do. He thought maybe he should help but he wasn't sure how. And, frankly, he was terrified. Of all of this. He hated fighting. He hated—no—was horrified of Saix. He wanted to run. He wanted to get out of here but there was nowhere to go to and Joseph wouldn't listen even if he said they should leave.
Too much was happening.
He bent over, clutching at his head and curling his hands into fists. Maybe he could curl in on himself and vanish. Maybe he could…
The fear-fire raged through him, threatening to consume him and all his thoughts. He wanted to get away from Saix. He wanted to help. He wanted Saix gone. And the fear-fire just burned stronger, beating at him, until he wanted to scream and stop being so afraid.
And then, quite suddenly, it exploded from him. The fear? No… but… the fire. Yes. The fire, shooting out of him as he threw his arms back. Everything was all heat and light and flame, which was wonderful. Saix screamed, and that was even better. Toby'd done it, somehow. He'd helped. He'd—
And then it all went wrong.
The energy shook him, snapped through his poor and incredibly fragile body like a whip. Everything seemed to stop. Sparks of flame caught in the air around him. And in that frozen moment, he could feel fire. Burning at him—but his skin wasn't burning.
Something was.
Something was so terribly wrong, and it horrified him. It wasn't supposed to do this. Was it? He'd never been sure what his powers were supposed to do, but this couldn't have been right.
Time picked up again, and the energy flung him to the ground. He felt the floor hit his back, and the air rush out of his lungs, and then his vision went black. The energy left him in a rush. It was too strong. Too powerful. Too much for him to contain—
And then there was nothing.
No feeling.
No energy.
No terror.
Nothing.
xxx
It'd been a moment of great pride and awe for his friend, up until the point where Joseph straightened and turned to Toby. Toby collapsed to the ground like a rag doll. The pride quickly became concern, and the concern turned to dread when Joseph reached Toby. A gentle nudge didn't rouse him. Neither did a playful kick to the side.
It was then that Joseph noticed that it didn't look like Toby was…. no.
No.
He took the boy in his arms, shaking him furiously.
"Toby!" he shouted. "Toby!"
Nothing.
"What's wrong?" Kairi asked, kneeling down next to him.
"He collapsed and- and-" Joseph wasn't sure what to say, so he broke off and went back to trying to get Toby to wake up. "Toby! C'mon! C'mon, please!"
"Probably just wore himself out," Roxas said, casually. "With an attack that big—put too much into it, I'd gather."
Joseph stared up at him, confused. "Huh?"
"Lexaeus—well, one of his Replicas—warned against that when teaching me about limits," Roxas explained. "'Never put too much of yourself into an attack', he'd said. 'Especially not when you're that low on health'. It really drains you, doing an attack like that, and if you use up too much of your energy…"
Roxas trailed off there. Joseph didn't want to think about how that ended.
"But he! He wasn't hurt!" Joseph protested, frantically. "How could it of? I- I mean. It was one attack…"
"Joseph, I know, but he's also like… what? 8? 9?" Kairi shrugged, then smiled reassuringly. Or she tried to. Joseph wasn't exactly reassured. "I know kids have a lot of energy, but they don't have a lot of stamina…"
"Just give him some time," Roxas added. "I'm sure he'll get back up eventually."
Joseph swallowed, biting back tears. They thought he was just asleep. And he wanted to think that, too, but…
But he pressed an ear to Toby's chest, confirming his doubts—his fears.
"He's- he's not breathing-" he choked.
Kairi's face flared with shock, eyes wide, smile falling. She moved Joseph away so she could press her own ear to Toby's chest. She stayed there for an agonizing one… two… three seconds and then she straightened. Joseph didn't quite catch the word she said under her breath, but it didn't sound good.
Joseph turned his attention back to Toby, shaking him again, biting back tears. "Toby!" he shouted, again. Maybe- maybe they were wrong. Maybe both he and Kairi were wrong. Maybe…
"Toby please! C'mon, c'mon please wake up please please please come on." The words tumbled from his mouth in a horrible painful mess, saliva mixing with tears and he buried his face in Toby's shirt. "Please please please don't- don't- just- just wake up please—"
Quite violently, Toby was ripped from his arms. Joseph reached for him, clutched at him, screaming, shouting, but Roxas managed to break his grip all too easily. He slung Toby over his shoulder. His face was stern, but sympathetic.
"C'mon," Roxas said. "We'll take him back to C.O. to see what they can do."
Joseph got to his feet. His knees were like jelly and he thought he'd collapse, too. He didn't even exactly want to get up… But he did. Sniffling. Tears still pouring down his cheeks. He tried to wipe the tears away, but after many attempts he realized it was no use and was only making his eyes hurt and his cheeks raw.
"But- but he's…" The words caught in Joseph's throat. He couldn't say them. "What good is taking him to C.O. gonna do?" he asked. "I mean, he's not—"
"I know it looks bad," Roxas interrupted. "But… I mean, he's a Replica. Shi—Things happen." He coughed. "It could just be a Programming error. Who knows. Maybe he's not really down for the count."
"If you say so…" Joseph mumbled.
"Hey," Roxas grinned widely. "Apparently I was brought back from the dead once. Why can't he be brought back, too?"
That didn't make Joseph feel any better.
He rubbed at his head, furiously. This was probably his fault—oh, he was so stupid sometimes! Why hadn't he thought this through? Or listened to 29's warnings not to come here… or ran with Toby once Saix had shown up… or…
Don't think about it! he told himself. He shook his head, violently, trying to shake the bad thoughts out. It's not all your fault. It can't be.
He looked up again, just in time to see Kairi hurry off to the next area. He hadn't heard her conversation with Roxas, but he assumed that Kairi was going to go catch up with Riku. And Sora should still be up there, too. That was good. At least something was good.
Joseph tried not to worry about Namine, though—the thought of her had come back to him all of a sudden. And thinking of her lying in the editing room, peacefully asleep as her data was messed with was bad as the sight of Toby, hanging lifeless across Roxas's back. Joseph tried not to dwell on that long, either. Two of his friends…
He shook his head again, and set his mind on figuring out how to explain this to 29 when they got to C.O. He set his mind on how to explain why he'd thought this had been a good idea…
Except, in all honestly, he couldn't remember that reason anymore.