A little about the Diviner here... he and Axel still don't get along too well, but they can manage, if anything. Axel and Demyx, home again... but there's a few issues mentioned in this chapter. Anyone ever read the Dark Tower series? 'Cause I'd like to think that's what happens at the end of a life.
Oh... and since they're home, that means the dogs will be around again. Yay!
There's some kinks I need to find my way around... but I can't figure 'em out on my own... I need you guys to help me out a bit, ne? I'd be much obliged. :)
Thanks to all the people keeping watch on this, the people who have added it to their favorites, and most of all, to my reviewers whom I love. You guys make my little world go 'round! All of this is for you guys. And don't feel shy to tell me when I'm getting corny. I will go back and actually delete and start over a chapter or two back just to make improvements.
The weather was just as they left it, colder even, and Demyx clung to Axel all the way back up to their floor. They burst in with more than just a little noise, and Saïx rounded the corner from the kitchen, a shy look in his golden eyes. This was the first time Demyx had ever seen the man's face, and now he understood why he hid.
An ugly scar glowered between his eyes, stretching out into a characteristic "X", the crux of which was smack on the bridge of his nose. He reached up and fingered it nervously.
"Hey. Nice to really get to meet you," Demyx said softly.
"Excuse my… appearance. I am glad to finally make your acquaintance."
"You're such a dork," Axel laughed, "Loosen up, wolf man. He's a really open-minded kid. I think he'd care less that you've got a facial scar and I'm a frigging human train wreck."
"Jeez, Axel!" Demyx scolded, "Tact! Use a little tact!"
"No, really… it's fine," Saïx said suddenly. "Dogs!"
The dogs zipped around the corner, tails (and rump, in Leto's case) wagging wildly. They took a moment to greet their beloved companions, and during that point, Saïx tried to slip away, but Demyx pinned him at the door.
"Wait… We need to talk to you."
Saïx looked like he completely understood that before Demyx even said a word, and the blond realized that the older man's hand was on top of his.
"You have a heart that is full of turmoil. You have wounds filled with infection… if you're to heal, you have to trust and give yourself over wholly."
Demyx looked like he got slapped in the face.
"Told ya he was good," Axel laughed, but it was empty, terrible sounding thing.
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"To begin… I think I must properly introduce myself," Saïx said in his characteristically quiet tone, "I was named Alexander Silas Benedict. When I was young, I had none of the strengths I possess now. I was normal as anyone else… but then I decided I was a tough kid. I joined what you would call kind of a corn-fed gang. You know? Bunch of hicks hanging out and drinking in the fields…"
Demyx nodded. He had no fucking clue, but he nodded anyway.
"I was like a king out there. They said I was a mad dog cut from the chain when I fought, and I guess they were probably right… I beat some of those kids until they couldn't stand anymore… and well… I understandably made some enemies."
"That's how he got his scar," Axel explained, placing a warm mug of coffee in the older man's hands.
"He's right."
"So… what did they do to you that gave you the scar?" Demyx asked, taking his own coffee from Axel. He sipped it and nodded. Lots of cream and six packets of sugar. Perfect.
"They knocked me down after a fight… several older men. They were mad that I was able to ding one of them pretty good… so well… they knocked me over, and I hit my head. That's about all I remember of it because that's how the damage was done. I cracked my head hard enough to do some brain damage to the frontal lobe. I was a completely different person after that. I used to be very loud and outgoing… look at me now."
He smiled a little.
"Basically, my brain overcompensated for some loss or another, and I woke up with this scar on my forehead and quite a bit of people talking to me like I was a little kid or something. I didn't argue or anything though. I just couldn't really think of any way to show them I was alright. Apparently I had been in a coma for a month or so, and it was hard to talk. I was mostly blind too. I just wasn't having a good time, but someone mentioned that the brain damage that makes someone into a complete idiot… that kind also ruins motor skills, and that those people can't do certain movements like sticking out one's tongue, and I did it. That got their attention enough.
"I kind of had to learn how to talk all over again. It was hard… but I did it. I had to deal with a new set of problems with my eyes. Infection had gotten me pretty fucked in that area. I had to learn to walk again. I was suddenly mildly dyslexic, and among other things, I started 'hallucinating'."
"Hallucinating?" Demyx echoed.
"Yeah," Axel acknowledged, "That's what they think it is at first."
"Every time I'd touch anything, I'd get these glimpses of images, and they only seemed to get worse and worse. My first really bad vision was when I accidentally brushed the doorpost of a new friend's house. He'd just moved in and he told us that someone died in the house. He wasn't shitting me either. I had a seizure and passed out in the hallway, woke up with a pretty nasty nosebleed and a headache to rival a bad hangover. That was my first real vision.
"I had more… I had them about myself even, and I remembered being called Saïx. I have these memories of a man with silver hair and eyes… like the color of amber or something like that… but I can't remember him clearly. He called me Saïx. I can tell that he loved me too… in that bizarre misdirected way, I know he loved me… So I call myself Saïx now. I do it more to change my past than anything else, but when you have a marker like this," he indicated his scar, "you tend to have a hard time forgetting those sorts of things."
Demyx paused, "So… you got hit in the head and that's why you're freaky now?"
"That's the gist of it," the blue-haired man said with a shrug. His half-lidded golden eyes locked on Axel, sitting across the room with a moody look on his face. "That one though… he had it inborn."
Axel jumped.
"Really?" Demyx asked, suddenly looking excited, "How do you know?"
"He almost pulled me through a vision a few nights back."
"Feh. I thought you looked familiar…" Axel snorted, "You made me scare the hell out of my parents! And why were you touching my stuff? I thought you didn't touch other people's stuff!"
"I don't. I dare not touch other people's things… not usually at least," Saïx said softly, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Huh?" Demyx mumbled, "Why?"
"Because, Dead-Man, when I touch things, I'm given a terrible insight. It's almost always a very bad thing because of my power. I see things that no human has any earthly right to see."
Demyx placed his empty coffee cup on the table, staring hard and deep into Saïx's flat yellow eyes. They seemed strangely piercing.
"Stop. You're going too far. Opening a window to your soul like that… it's dangerous," Saïx warned.
"Demyx!" Axel scolded, "Leave him alone!"
"Sorry…" the blond said softly, "but what do you mean, dangerous?"
"I have… other abilities."
"He can open the soul," Axel explained without being asked to, "He can see all your deepest secrets and pains, but only if you're looking into his eyes."
"A touch will do it too," Saïx added. Demyx stiffened. "But don't worry. I'm good at keeping secrets. I have none of my own, so I keep others'."
Demyx looked a little shocked.
"Jeez… next thing I know you're going to tell me you're Jesus come down from heaven…" he breathed.
"Well, no… but God is sitting right over there," Saïx chuckled, pointing to Axel.
"Real funny, Wolfie," Axel grumbled, "Now cut the shit. We need to get to work. I've got big problems right now."
"You can't see?" Saïx replied evenly, "I know. It happens when you shut away your power for as long as you have… you may never regain your full potential. But… I may be able to bring you back…"
"This is all… so I don't die?" Demyx asked quietly.
"It may be," Saïx rumbled, "But someone must pay. It may be a fate worse than death. Who knows? Fate is like a fickle woman. She may be satisfied with suffering alone. Pray she is merciful."
"I saw death again," Axel said suddenly, "I'm sure of it."
"Death… that bodes ill."
"So it does, my friend."
Saïx sat there, quiet with his eyes shut for the longest time. He seemed to be hesitating, and the look in Axel's eyes was one of desperation so foreign that it frightened Demyx. He wanted to run… this room was full of ominous darkness.
"We will see… what we can offer…" Saïx said suddenly, "But we fear… that there will be no good to speak of."
"So be it. I'm ready to play my life."
"Again?" Saïx looked up with burnished gold eyes so bright they almost burned, "Like you did so many years before? Not that you would remember… it was in another life."
"I haven't found him yet, I know," he sighed, "I don't know if I ever will, but I'll keep looking."
"That was a different kind of love, was it not?"
"I'd already lost what I was living for at the time. That was all I had left." Axel shifted uneasily. "I'm going to go get something to drink. Then we'll start."
"You sent two away but they will return. The others will come too. They will be drawn to us. That's the way it's always been."
Axel ignored the other, slipped into the kitchen, and finally returned with three glasses and a bottle of gin. He poured them deliberately, handing the first glass to Demyx, who was swimming in perfect confusion. What the fuck were these two talking about?
"So… to see the future," Saïx mumbled, "I've not used you in a long time."
"Don't talk like I'm some kind of screwdriver," Axel grumbled.
"But you are a tool."
"For supposedly good friends," Demyx laughed nervously, "You two don't get along so well…"
"We never did," Axel admitted with a little smile.
"Is that so…"
"Yes," Saïx replied, "Axel always was a bit of an asshole… you'd do best to remember."
Remember? Demyx thought, and for some reason, he did remember.
That in and of itself scared the shit out of him.
"There's much… I need to tell you… things that I'd tried to forget. Maybe they're all best forgotten as it is," Axel said with a mournful sigh, "You've believed me this long… you need to hear me out and trust me one more time… Can you?"
Demyx laughed in that terrible crestfallen note that signaled he was defeated once more.
"When have you ever given me reason not to?"
Saïx held out his hand.
"Every answer you'll ever need… is right here in my hands."
Demyx reached out slipped his fingers into that strong grasp and there was pain.