Chapter 5
Raging Fire
The next day Axel was lounging on the one of the sofas in the mission room waiting for a new assignment seeming more upbeat than ever.
"Hello Axel," he heard Marluxia's sarcastic voice say.
"Hello Marluxia," replied Axel just as sarcastic.
"Good job defeating those Heartless yesterday, nice to know you're not totally useless," replied Marluxia.
"You were quite conspicuous by your absence Marluxia, where were you? Having Larxene file your scythe for you?" sneered Axel.
"You know I would be more angry at that comment, if I didn't know that…" Marluxia trailed off tauntingly.
"Know what?" asked Axel standing up.
"Nothing, now I've got you guessing," chuckled Marluxia evilly before leaving him.
"That guy gets weirder every day," thought Axel a little confused.
"Axel," Saix called seeing him from the door, Axel looked at him smugly as he came over.
"You seem to have a flare for killing Heartless lately, I need you to go back to that mountain world and pick off a few dozen of them, they've suddenly infested the cave and Xemnas seems to have an interest in those diamond things you brought back last time," said Saix.
"No problem," nodded Axel.
"Are you ok?" asked Saix suspiciously.
"Me? Why?" Axel asked confused.
"You seem, different," replied Saix.
"You're working too hard Saix, why not give the machines a rest for the day, they're obviously screwing up your eyes," replied Axel uninterested.
"You're not complaining like normal," glared Saix.
"You're getting me mixed up with Demyx, I actually like to work you know? See ya," replied Axel starting to get suspicious himself before leaving through a dark corridor. Saix saw Marluxia come over then.
"Follow him," nodded Saix and Marluxia smiled evilly going too. The corridor closed and Saix looked over to one of the large windows curiously.
"Hopefully Axel's right and I am just screwing up my eyes," he nodded going about his own business.
Axel appeared on the snowy plateau and despite the deep snow on the floor the weather was clear for a change, just grey clouds and a deep mist in the distance.
"Least the wind's died down now," he thought looking over to the cave. He wasted no time in getting inside and as before used his flames to light the way to the diamond grotto, he knew when he got there Allune would be waiting for him, he'd gotten used to her following him around.
"Axel," she called seeing him enter the chamber. Allune was perched daintily on one of the large gems and smiled slightly seeing him.
"You made it out," he said going over to her and sitting with her.
"You're amazing, the way you took out those Heartless, all on your own, you must be pretty strong," she told him and he nodded arrogantly.
"That's me," he replied cockily, "Saix sent me to get rid of some more Heartless here too, funny he said this cave was infested with them."
"Haven't seen any yet," shrugged Allune.
"Still no big, you up for a little heart collection, partner," he nodded to her and Allune nodded back confidently before the diamond blade he'd made for her appeared.
"I've been practising a little when we've been apart, I think I'm ready now," she told him standing up and Axel stood too. Suddenly little dark spots appeared on the floor and lots of Heartless appeared.
"Like lambs to the slaughter," sneered Axel ready for them.
"Let's get them!" cried Allune and the two went into battle with the Heartless.
Still pumped up from the night before Axel was still cutting through Heartless like there was nothing to it and as he looked over to Allune every now and then he could see she'd improved too. The blade sparkled and shimmered as she moved, against the fluid movement of her ghostly body this was almost as hypnotic as her music, the Heartless almost seemed to stay still as she slashed through them.
"Glad she's on my side," thought Axel attacking a few more Heartless. After a while all the Heartless in the room were slain and Allune finished collecting their hearts.
"That's all of them," said Allune.
"I guess," replied Axel, "I should probably go back." Allune looked at him difficultly for a moment, she didn't want him to go and really Axel didn't really want to go either.
"Hey, want to go exploring? Maybe there's more than one chamber you know," he asked her and Allune agreed eagerly. Axel laughed a little and led her back out into the tunnel.
Using his flame he looked around hoping to find anything that he could investigate, Allune could see one wall looked really damaged and as she brushed the earth and rock away a part of it finally fell in revealing another tunnel.
"Wonder what damaged it?" she wondered peering into the darkness, Axel could hear a slight trickling and at his feet he saw a tiny stream of water seeping out of the fallen rock.
"Water, maybe there's an underground lake ahead?" he wondered.
"Wanna go see," taunted Allune.
"Not big on water but yeah, let's go check it out," nodded Axel and the two wandered through the tunnel. The path got narrower as they walked and the two were forced to walk closer and closer together, eventually the path was so narrow Allune had to walk ahead of Axel but in order to see she had to stay very close to his body, underfoot the water was making things slippery and Axel had to hang onto her shoulder with one of his hands just so he wouldn't fall, Allune didn't have to worry as she could float. Between the quiet sound of running water and the crackling of his flame silence was all that accompanied them through the tunnel, broken every now and then by Axel's footsteps on the sometimes shifting rocks, suddenly Allune stopped and Axel had to stop too.
"What is it?" he said quietly in case she'd sensed a Heartless.
"Using your flame like that, must be tiring you, why don't you stop," replied Allune and he looked at her a little suspiciously.
"Allune if you can see in the dark that's ok, but the thing is, I can't," he replied a little clueless.
"Just trust me," she replied and Axel shrugged letting the flame die out and for a moment engulfing the two in darkness.
"Good thing I don't have a problem with dark, cramped, wet spaces, with a Heartless as my only companion," he said before suddenly the tunnel was filled with a magical blue light, it was a bit bright for a moment but once he was used to it he could see a small diamond floating in Allune's hand, her flute was in the other.
"Wow, that's," said Axel amazed.
"Isn't it beautiful, your flames make them glow red, my flute makes them glow blue. Now my magic can let it lead the way," she told him and the diamond floated a little away from them.
"Well, isn't that something," smiled Axel as they started to move again with the little blue light leading the way. It wasn't long before Axel realised why Allune wanted him to stop using his flame, his now free hand was holding onto her other shoulder now and Allune hadn't even tried to stop him, it was like she wanted him to hold her. As he thought this that strange tingling sensation crept over his skin again and he stopped a little surprised. It was a tickling, nagging sensation that was accompanied by a great inner warmth and when he let go of her it stopped again.
"Axel, are you ok?" she asked interested.
"I'm, just cold, is this tunnel over yet?" he replied trying to put the sensation out of his mind. Allune nodded and looked a little beyond her light, they'd reached another chamber and come out at the mouth of a huge underground lake.
"Whoa, no way," said Axel coming out of the tunnel and seeing the chamber. The walls were high and it had a domed ceiling with ledges and walkways and a huge rock bridge over the lake just in front of a tall crashing waterfall obviously sourced further into the mountains.
"This is even better than the grotto," gasped Allune floating into the room and looking around.
"Well, I guess it could do without all the water but this is really cool," smiled Axel having a look around too. Axel checked the walls and found a few more diamonds sticking out but nothing more unusual than that whilst Allune seemed to amuse herself flying all over the room circling round and round the waterfall and gliding over the water. Axel watched her somewhat amused by her childishness, it was hard sometimes for him to remember she was a Heartless, she acted, well, like any normal human, or even a Nobody like him. Suddenly she floated over to him and held out her hand.
"Come on, come with me," she urged him and Axel shook his head.
"I'm supposed to be looking for Heartless remember, besides, I told you I'm not big on water," he replied but Allune grabbed his hand anyway and dragged him off into the air. She flew fast over the higher rocks and ledges and Axel could see there were other tunnel openings connected to some of them, he'd have to check them out some other time. Then Allune went towards the waterfall and Axel closed his eyes as she dashed past managing not to get them wet. He laughed then, this was almost as enjoyable as fighting Heartless and it was definitely more exciting then scouting the cave. Finally Allune got tired and stood down to rest on the top of the large stone bridge over the lake. Axel chuckled a little sitting on the edge of it as she sat with him curled up on her legs as ever.
"Well," she taunted him flicking her hair.
"Ok, that was definitely worth coming down here," he replied confidently.
"I'm so glad," she said quietly primping herself a little after flying around so much, "you know Axel, these past few days of being with you, I don't think I've ever had better days."
"Well I gotta admit, you do liven up the usual routine around the castle," he replied.
"Axel, do you think, maybe, you could leave the Organisation, and stay here, with me," she asked him a little difficultly and he looked at her seriously.
"Leave the Organisation?" he cried confused.
"I know it's a hard thing to ask, it's just, if you weren't with the Organisation I wouldn't have to hide. We could go wherever we wanted and just, exist together," she tried to explain. Axel sighed and shook his head seriously looking away a little.
"If I left the Organisation, then I might never get my heart. Besides no one's ever left the Organisation and knowing Saix and Xemnas they probably wouldn't like the idea," he replied.
"Is what they think really that important?" asked Allune a little snidely.
"I don't care what anyone thinks of me, I don't have a heart remember. But they're both pretty powerful and you don't want to get them mad, bad enough they want to kill you without me becoming a fugitive too," he replied coldly. Allune didn't answer for a few minutes, she didn't understand what was happening inside her, she was scared. She was getting used to having such a free spirit, to being this different from other Heartless, she was scared if Axel left her, she'd just go back to being like them again.
"I remembered something, last night after I left," she told him suddenly taking out her flute and playing a little, Axel was unnerved but he could see that the flute was effecting her this time, not anything else.
"What was it?" he asked.
"I saw a man, this memory, was so cold, it was like I was freezing, I haven't felt coldness for such a long time," she told him starting to sound a little dreamy, "Anyway, this man, he was looking at me and smiling, it was a little blurry, not very clear, I could just see his eyes, they were green, like yours, but his hair, it was black, I'm sure it was. Suddenly there was another in my eyesight. The reason I think I recognised that Nobody's blonde hair yesterday, there was a girl with the man I saw. She glared at me hatefully and moved her head like she was calling something. The coldness got worse, the man with black hair, he looked back to her and then he moved away from me, I couldn't move, it was like my body was frozen." Axel watched as she told the story, her eyes were glowing blue with the flute now and although she was using her mouth to talk the flute kept playing. Every now and then the emblem on her chest sparked and she looked like she was in pain.
"Leave her, I heard that girl talk, leave her, she said. The man with the black hair, he just looked back at me with this look of contempt in his eyes, not the soft one he'd had before. That voice, just like the Nobody's, catty and evil. That awful coldness became petrifying, and the world started to blur out, the man stood away from me and left me then, he left, and went away with her…" she groaned painfully. She shut her eyes suddenly then and wrenched the flute away from her body, Axel watched her pant still with her eyes closed, water dripping off her hair, he hadn't noticed but for some reason some of her hair had turned to icicles as she'd been talking.
"The darkness, the darkness," she rambled trying to compose herself again as Axel continued to look on growing evermore suspicious of the flute in her hand, he couldn't understand why, but something seemed terribly evil about that flute.
"That, was how you became a Heartless wasn't it. That man hurt you," he looked at her understanding.
"Why am I bothering you with this, he just left me for that blonde little!" she growled angrily, "no wonder I only attract men! So they can feel what he did to me!" Allune seemed enraged, he may not have known much about her but he knew this wasn't really her.
"Allune, can you hear me?" he asked warily standing up.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Get away from me!" she cried jumping back a little and looking like she was going to fight.
"Allune what's wrong with you?" he shouted readying to defend himself.
"Have you come to hurt me too? Do what you can but let's see you hurt anyone without a heart!" she yelled back and suddenly her curved blade appeared, she really was going to fight him. Axel wasn't sure what was happening but he had to defend himself and suddenly Allune burst forward at him with the blade. He locked up with her holding her back with his chakrams but this was different from having fought her before. She wasn't holding back and just kept coming after her again and again disappearing and reappearing making it seem like he was fighting more than one of her.
He hadn't wanted to hurt her but he eventually had to use his fire powers to defend himself and try and stop her assault, but instead she only flew through any barriers he made.
"This is useless, I can't hit her because of that stupid flute, but she's really mad for some reason. I'm just going to have to try and bring her to her senses, why did I give her that blade," he thought backing away a bit trying to get some distance between them. Allune stopped for a moment, she panted tiredly but still seemed too angry to just stop.
"Allune stop this, what's wrong with you?" called Axel warily.
"Your, heart…" she panted, her voice broke up a little as she breathed. Suddenly she sped forward and Axel was only just able to get out of the way in time, but instead of coming back Allune just kept going until she went right off the edge of the bridge and screamed crashing into the water below.
"Allune!" called Axel looking all over the lake from his position for any sign of her, she wasn't coming up, had she been destroyed when she hit the water? No, surely he would have seen her hearts flying away. Axel teleported down to the water's edge and continued his search for her.
"Come on, Allune where are you," he called out stopping at the edge closest to the raging waterfall. Suddenly he felt something grab his leg and the sound of coughing against the splashing water. He looked down and Allune lay slumped half sticking out of the water coughing painfully, she'd just managed to grab hold of him as she'd struggled to the bank.
"Allune, are you, I mean," wondered Axel kneeling down to her. Allune rolled over a little dozily and looked up to see Axel's face, she seemed back to normal now so Axel helped pull her out of the water and took her over to the underneath of the bridge before making a fire for her to dry by.
"Why, are you doing this," she asked finally speaking after a long while.
"Oh, right. You can't feel heat," replied Axel having finished the fire.
"No, I mean, why are you helping me, I just totally, ugh, it's all a blur," she replied huddling up as the water dripped out of her hair. Axel looked at her suspiciously, he'd been right, she hadn't meant to attack him, why then did she suddenly go nuts?
"Is it because you're a Heartless?" he asked her sitting with her.
"I don't know, I just, Axel I, I don't remember, it was so dark all of a sudden, then I just found myself in the water," she told him dully.
"You don't remember attacking me?" he asked and she looked up at him suddenly as if she were shocked.
"I," she gasped.
"It's all right, I know it wasn't you," he replied calming her a bit.
"How, I mean, I wish I knew why that happened, these black outs aren't new, and when they're over, things are never good," she confessed.
"Well for one thing you were after my heart, I think we've been over this," he smiled at her and she smiled a little relieved, "also, you didn't seem to know it was me you were attacking."
"If I could I'd go red right about now," she replied thankful she hadn't hurt him.
"The man with the dark hair, he was why you became a Heartless wasn't he?" asked Axel seriously and Allune nodded.
"I remember feeling my whole life slipping away as he walked away from me, then I blacked out and woke up that night as a Heartless, that must have been when the Darkness took me," she replied calmly.
"He must have really hurt you," Axel replied.
"I don't remember but considering the circumstances, yes he must. I guess it's the downside of a having a heart, there are so many good things, but people can hurt you so badly. Must be nice for a Nobody, without a heart nobody can hurt you," sighed Allune looking at Axel apologetically, Axel looked at her seriously and took hold of her hand saying,
"I'm not so sure."
The tingling came back as she looked up at him confused but Axel didn't let go this time, he had to know what that sensation meant and started leaning in towards her still staring at her seriously. Allune couldn't believe it as she felt his lips came to hers, he was kissing her this time, all on his own. She held onto him strongly not wanting him to ever let go and then she felt him try to stand. She stayed with him as he did and soon the two stood together in the flickering light of the fire, silent but saying more to each other now then even Axel could achieve with words.
Finally Axel let her go and the tingling went away, he knew what it was, a strange sensation only Allune could make go away, he didn't understand or know truly why or if it was even possible but somewhere in his mind, he knew he'd felt something like it before.
"I should go," he said quietly letting go of her completely and going to walk away.
"I know," replied Allune a little difficultly, before seeming to remember something and bidding him wait. Axel stopped and Allune came over to him holding something in her hands.
"Thank goodness it wasn't damaged by the fall," she sighed revealing the item she held. Axel looked at it amazed as he took it from her, it was a diamond, just like the others, only…
"It's shaped like…" he gasped amazed.
"A heart. I know, I found it in the grotto. See, I know what you said about the only way you can have a heart is from that Kingdom Hearts, but, I thought this way. I mean it's not a real heart but, you're still the only Nobody with one," she smiled at him kindly.
"It's wonderful Allune, it really is," smiled Axel looking at it closely, he laughed then, he couldn't believe what such a simple little thing seemed to mean to him and Allune laughed cheerfully too.
Axel said goodbye then and left into the darkness of the tunnels leaving Allune alone watching him disappear into the distance.
"Axel, you can't understand how much seeing you smile means to me. I don't understand this, I'm a Heartless, sure I technically have a heart, but I'm not supposed to be able to feel things like this, am I? I only wish Axel could understand, does he even know what love is? Maybe, maybe he does understand, I mean he kissed me, unafraid of my power, unafraid of me, no hesitation, Axel kissed me," she giggled to herself.
"So you're what all this fuss is about," she suddenly heard a voice from behind her. She turned and looked and Marluxia stood before glaring evilly and already brandishing his scythe. Allune stayed silent but looked at him warily, she wasn't sure if she could be seen.
"Why so quiet Heartless?" he taunted her.
"What do you want Nobody?" she replied strongly.
"Oh you know of us? Funny, I'd have thought Axel neglected to mention us, he seemed so busy just a few minutes ago," sneered Marluxia.
"You're that one I saw in the castle, Marluxia, the girly man," she replied arrogantly and Marluxia had a hard time trying to keep his cool.
"So you've been to our castle? I thought as much, you almost fooled us Heartless but our cameras saw you escape and now dear Axel has led me right to you," replied Marluxia ready to attack her
"Axel warned me those like you might try and hurt me but I'm no pushover and I seriously suggest you back down," replied Allune taking up her flute.
"You call that a weapon!" laughed Marluxia.
"Yes keep laughing, let's see how long you're laughing for!" replied Allune starting to play her flute, but suddenly before her spell could enact her hand was wrenched away from her mouth and bound at the wrist with a long vine, Marluxia had stopped her from playing, he knew about the spell.
"Let me go!" struggled Allune trying to get free.
"Is that how you beat Axel? A silly little instrument? He really is useless isn't he," taunted Marluxia. Allune looked at him angrily before enacting her diamond blade in the other hand and cutting herself free.
"You underestimate me Nobody," she sneered arrogantly dashing forward to attack him directly, however just as she reached him she suddenly became tangled in more vines that this time covered her entire body and worse seemed to be tightening. She dropped the blade then and cried out painfully.
"No, I don't think so, Axel is a little hot headed and very direct, perfect for your trap my pretty little Heartless, I on the other hand, well I don't like getting my hands dirty too often. You're just lucky Saix doesn't want you destroyed immediately, but don't worry, we'll let you say goodbye to Axel before you die," laughed Marluxia evilly opening a dark corridor behind him. The vines got tighter and tighter and Allune couldn't focus enough to use her escape powers.
"Axel!" she cried out painfully as Marluxia dragged her into the dark corridor.
Somewhere down the tunnels Axel suddenly heard her painful cry, he looked back a little unnerved but she wasn't there, not in this tunnel anyway. Knowing he really should be getting back Axel ran quickly back the way he'd come until he returned to the underground lake.
"Allune, Allune are you there?" he called out looking around trying to find her until his foot kicked at something which skidded across the floor. Axel looked down and saw her diamond blade, he picked it up and it was covered with little chips of bark and leaves left from Marluxia's vines.
"No," he gasped looking around hastily but he knew he was too late, "No!" Axel's chakrams appeared immediately and spurts of flames burst all over the room. He hurried back to the plateau and returned to the castle intent on finding Marluxia, and Allune.