Chapter VIII: Those Without Hearts
XxX
"M-Marluxia?… no… it can't be… y-your dead, I saw it! I saw the keybarer kill you" Axel said, panic audible in his voice.
"Yes" the figure purred, laughing. He held his hand out and a pink scythe appeared in his hand. " Most unfortunately the body known as Marluxia is gone…I can never be whole again…" the figure looked towards the ground and shook his head. "That's why I need you Axel. He broke my body… I need a new one."
Axel went rigid and gulped. He didn't like where this was going. " Y-your not Marluxia… who are you?"
"Axel get down," Vincent snapped. Axel barely had time to duck and evade as the pink blade swung through the air where he had been a moment ago. Axel heard a few reports from Vincent's gun and the figure backed away, tossing its head.
The hood fell away to reveal a mutilated face. The flesh was black and dead, and his eyes glowed a dull yellow. The figure pulled its lips back into a grotesque smile, jagged and uneven spike-like teeth flashing. The creature roared as Axel got back to his feet and backpedaled a step.
Suddenly long strands of dull pink hair shot out at Axel, wrapping around him, strangling him. The creature laughed as Axel struggled against the hair tentacle.
"I am Marluxia, Axel," he said, laughing insanely. " Or at least what's left. And I want my body!"
Axel stared at the creatures as the pink tendril squeezed tighter. Then he realized what it was. It was Marluxia's Heartless.
Organization XIII, they were all nobodies, beings without hearts. Their hearts had been ripped away from them, lost to the darkness. There was no doubt that their hearts had become heartless. The thought must have never have crossed their minds, that their hearts were still out there somewhere.
"I'll squeeze your soul right out of you, then your body will be mine! Then I'll be whole again!" The Marluxia Heartless squealed with happiness, bouncing up and down. The locks tightened further, preventing Axel from breathing.
He heard another round of reports as Vincent fired at the Marluxia Heartless, who danced away easily. It fired a deadly hair tendril as Vincent, but the agile ex-Turk was able to bound out of the way easily.
He fired another round, one bullet tearing through the tendril wrapped around Axel. The heartless shrieked and released Axel, calling back the hair tendril. Axel swayed uneasily, head still spinning from the lack of oxygen. Once his focus came back to him he called his chakrams to him and dashed at the heartless.
The Marluxia heartless regained its composure and fired a tendril of hair at Axel. It struck Axel head on, piercing through his shoulder and slamming him against the wall. Another tendril crept up and wrapped around his neck. Axel snarled and snapped at the deadly lock of hair, but that didn't prevent it from cutting off his oxygen again.
"Vincent…" he cried with the last of his breath. Vincent dashed across the arena to where Axel was pinned, dodging the hair whips as they crashed around him, piercing the ground around his feet. Vincent dashed up to Axel and slashed through the hair with his claws, severing it and sending it reeling back to its owner. He hacked through the one around Axel's neck as well and helped him steady himself again.
The heartless shrieked as Vincent cut through the hair tendrils. It stepped away from them, whimpering and muttering to itself. "No, no, no, bad, bad, bad. You are very bad. You need to go away." Suddenly the monster bolted forward and lashed out at Vincent with its own claws. The turn backpedaled a few steps, shooting at the heartless. The bullets tore through it, leaving gaping holes in its body. It fell to its knees and hung its head, gasping for air.
Vincent smiled darkly to himself and raised the gun to the monster's head. Just then he saw darkness fill in the holes in the monster's body. It's head jerked up and tendrils of its hair flew out, grabbing Vincent. Vincent dropped the gun as one of the tendrils wrapped around his wrist. He strained against the monster, but soon it had him rendered completely helpless.
"Hey you nappy headed freak," Axel called. The Marluxia heartless looked over to where Axel was standing, recovered from his previous throttling. The monster shrieked at him angrily, which Axel merely shrugged off. "I always thought your hair was ugly," he said holding his hand out. Sparks flickered around his palm, forming a small fireball. "BURN," Axel shouted, hurling the ball at the monster. The flaming ball crashed into the monsters head, setting it aflame. It cried and shrieked, releasing Vincent moments before he too would have been engulfed with flames. The heartless collapsed on the ground, writhing, shrieking, and burning. Soon the flames died out, leaving nothing but a charred corpse. Axel stared at it evenly as he watched a little pink heart flutter away.
"Not bad, Axel," A voice called. Axel spun around to see a short, cloaked figure standing behind him clapping. " I was worried there for a minute."
"Ra…Roxas?" Axel seemed lost for words.
"Funny, I was looking for that thing forever. I signed on with Hades so I could get free roam of the Underworld; I knew that that heartless was here, I just couldn't find it for the life of me. It showed right up for you though…" The figure contemplated something for a moment before nodding and saying," you must be destined to defeat them. Ironic huh? You'd figure, being the Keybarer it's be my job to dispatch the heartless… I guess not." The figure pulled back his hood, revealing the blond haired boy Axel had parted ways with not so long ago.
"Roxas I-" but Axel didn't know what to say. He was confused, but relieved to see Roxas.
"I have to go…I knew we'd see each other again." The boy smiled and tossed something to Axel before opening a portal behind himself.
"Wait Roxas!" Axel shouted, unsure of what was happening, what he'd just been drafted into against his will. He looked down, dispersedly, then back at Roxas. " Will I…see you again?"
Roxas looked confused for a moment, then smiled and nodded. " Yeah, we'll see each other again… without a doubt." Roxas gave him a thumbs-up, then stepped through the portal.
Axel watched his best friend go with a likely chance he'd never see him again, for the second time.
Vincent groaned, getting to his feet. The Marluxia heatless had roughed him up pretty good, but he'd be fine.
"You all right," Axel asked in a tone that implied he didn't care.
"Peachy," Vincent growled.
Axel nodded and looked at his latest gift from Roxas. It was block…what the hell was he supposed to do with a block!? Axel looked it over, frowning. Nothing special about it, just an ordinary block. It felt sort of sticky to the touch though. Then it hit him, a gummi block…but what for? He shrugged and put it in his pocket. He'd figure it out eventually.
"Look," Vincent said motioning towards the ceiling. Axel looked up to see a portal had formed on the ceiling. The next thing Axel knew he'd been sucked off his feet into the vortex of the portal.
XxX
The Portal spat Axel and Vincent back out into the Coliseum.
"Axel," Demyx and Luxord both cried, running over to the roughed up redhead. Demyx instantly wrapped his arms around the pyro, squeezing him hard. " We thought you were dead!"
"Le'me go Demyx" Axel shouted, writhing in the blond boy's grasp. He shoved the boy away and dusted himself off. He glanced over at Vincent who was walking towards the Coliseum doors. " Put a hold on this happy reunion for a second," Axel said, running over to Vincent.
"you… okay," Axel asked.
Vincent looked at him blankly and nodded. " Thanks for the help Re-"
"Axel, and no thanks are necessary."
"Axel…." Vincent pondered over the name for a moment before exiting to the lobby.
Axel stood for a moment, watching the man's maroon cape disappear behind the door.
"What was that all about," asked Luxord, strolling up beside Axel.
"Just a guy…. I use to know."
" In your past life?"
"Yeah."
They were quite until Demyx had caught up with them, asking Axel a million questions.
"Can it," Axel finally snapped at Demyx. " I saw Marluxia."
"Wha," Luxord said, confusion and fear shaking his normally calm features.
"Yeah it was Marluxia… or his heartless anyway," Axel looked slightly troubled. "Then…I saw Roxas."
Luxord had revived from the shock, set back in his normal passive face, though an alertness flashed in his eyes.
"Really? Roxas? Where is he? What'd he say," Demyx asked, full of enthusiastic curiosity.
"He's gone now, but…he told me that he'd been searching for that Heartless, said that he thought I was the one supposed to destroy them. He gave me this, then left," Axel said, fishing the block out of his pocket.
"A block," Demyx said flatly. (Axel mentally laughed, as that had been his first though too.)
"No you idiot, it's a gummi block," Luxord said, knocking Demyx on the head. " But what does it do?"
"I don't know," Axel said, shoving it back in his pocket. There was a long lapse of silence before he spoke again. " If Marluxia's heartless is here…maybe our heart are out there somewhere…"
"You think," Luxord asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"Maybe…" Axel looked at the ground, as if it would yield an answer for him.
"Why don't we ask Xigbar?"
Axel and Luxord both looked at Demyx, who had spoken up.
"What?"
"Xigbar, I heard he was out on a mission nearby. Why don't we ask him. He is Number two in the organization. If anyone knows it'll be him or Xemnas, as I don't think we want to tell him, because then he'll find out we jacked the Oblivion."
"You make a good point blondie. Let's check it out."
"Road Trip," Demyx cheered. Axel glared at him and the boy silenced himself, blushing. "sorry, just excited. I don't get out much, not being good at fighting and all."
"We know," Axel and Luxord said in unison.
XxX
"Hey, what was that," Phil asked as the nobodies entered the lobby.
"Eh, nothing special. Just a little squabble with a dead guy," Axel offered, shrugging it off.
Phil looked confused. He shrugged then said, " Well the other guy quit, just left. So that means you win, congratulations." Phil held out a large sack of munny, which Axel snatched up with a broad grin.
"Thanks goat dude," Axel said with a laugh as he breezed out the opposite door, out towards the world exit, the other nobodies in step behind him.
"It's Phil!" he snarled after him, but they were already gone. Phil sighed and plopped down on the floor muttering about 'no respect'. Oh well, he'd have to go clean up the arena now for the next games.
XxX
As the nobodies exited the lobby they saw Vincent once more, sitting on the stairs. Axel looked at them and motioned for them to go on. Luxord nodded and dragged Demyx away, exiting the coliseum.
"Vincent?"
"Where did you go?" Vincent's sudden question shocked Axel slightly.
Axel shrugged, not really knowing what to say. " I've been… around."
"You just… disappeared. Rude and Elena were devastated, can't say anyone else was though." Despite not having a heart, the words hurt. Vincent looked at him, then rose to his feet. "You can play pretend all you want Reno, but you can't forget who you use to be."
Axel shuddered, hearing that old name. " I remember…" he said softly, shaking his head.
"Then that's all you need," Vincent said, handing something to Axel. A key chain. "Never forget, our memories, no matter how insignificant they seem, are all we have."
Axel clutched the keychain tight and nodded. " I never forget yo," he said flashing his trademark grin. A reflection of the Turk he once was glimmered in his eyes as he turned and left.
Vincent watched, silent and solemn as ever. Once he was sure no one was watching, he smiled. "We all missed you, you crazy Turk."
XxX
Axel sat down at the front of the ship, with a sigh.
"Just remembering an old friend," Axel said, answering Luxord's unvoiced question.
"I see," was all the gambler said with a nod.
Axel punched some commands into the console of the ship and it took off on auto-pilot. The Ship, being Xemnas's, was programmed to be able to find the members of Organization XIII. It should lead them straight to Xigbar.
Axel sighed, leaning back and looking at the key chain. It had a fearsome looking three-headed dog, just like the monster they had just fought. Axel summoned his trusty old Bond of Flame in his other hand, staring at it with a certain fondness. It was his weapon, he'd always had it, but he remembered the awesome power of the Oathkeeper and it's special ability.
Axel clipped the key chain onto his chakram and stared in wonder as it transformed. Luxord looked over in shock and Demyx scampered over as well.
Rather than having four large spikes and four smaller ones between it had three spikes evenly distributed around the wheel. Each one looked like the head of a dog, as on the key chain. There were several smaller spikes between each of the dog heads, complete with a gunmetal gray sheen, making it a very threatening looking chakram.
"AWSOME," Demyx said, reaching out to touch it. Rather, Axel clubbed him on the head with it, snarling at him.
"Don't touch, just look," He snapped, holding it out so the two nobodies could see.
"So, that's how you got your other one I take. Most impressive, how'd you figure this out?" Luxord seemed quite intrigued by the weapon.
"A little key barer told me," Axel said with a lax grin, dismissing his new weapon.
This was turning out to be a pretty good day after all.
XxX
"SAIX," Xemnas screamed, infuriated.
The Luna Deviner shrunk away, head down. " I-I-I'm sorry sir. I don't know how Axel got the key I-"
"Find him," Xemnas roared. " Find him and bring my ship back in one piece. Axel you can bring back in as many pieces as you want."
Xemnas was enraged beyond belief when Saix has told him that the Oblivion was gone. The Oblivion, his precious. Axel, the trouble making pyro, had stolen it and run off with it. He was already on probation for the events that had transpired at Castle Oblivion. Now his ship Oblivion was gone, and that was a final straw.
"For his sake kill him, because if you bring him back alive, I'll make him wish he were never born."
XxX End Chapter VIII XxX
Well I hope you all liked the latest chapter. I must say I am a million kinds of sorry I couldn't get it out sooner. School was killing me up until June, cracking down, finals, blah blah blah. THEN I had summer school because of my math retardedness. Alas, its not an excuse for being lazy. I promise to update more now that it's summer. At the LEAST a chapter a month, probably two or three depending on length.
Yeah, Axel's Reno, but I'm sure you all saw that coming. Now for those of you who doubt that RenoAxel, I have a theory that I shall gradually explain over the course of the story.
Xemnas is going to beat them senseless, hahaha. I though, while I was throwing around my theories, I'd throw in how Saix got his scar, and why he hates Axel so much.
Well I'm starting on chapter nine this instant! It'll hopefully be up soon.
TTFN, Ta-Ta For Now
Axel