Author's Comments: I know, I know - an update for The Captive Heart Show is long overdue. I'm working on it, I promise! In the meantime, I managed to put this together for you. Hope you enjoy and hope you continue to patiently await a new chapter for The Captive Heart Show!
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani/Maxiin.
He shook his head with a sigh. Was it just him or did the breaks between his scheduled sessions of monitoring Maxiin's progress become shorter and shorter each time? Sure, there really wasn't much else to do, but he felt—for lack of a better word—that he was keeping an eye on her the most out of all the other organization members.
He spotted Xigbar watching a few screens with crossed arms and unusual silence. As he stopped next to him, he noticed a few familiar faces in the pictures. "What's this?" he asked.
"My non-existence," Xigbar muttered…then amended, "well, actually, the end of my non-existence."
His lips twisted into a quizzical frown. "Why're you watching this?"
His eye was glued to the screen showing Sora and his friends glaring up at him from a lower level. He shrugged. "Dunno. Was curious. Maxiin isn't doing anything worth reporting, anyway."
It was then he noticed a screen hovering a few feet away from the cluster Xigbar was focused on. From what he could see, Maxiin and her entourage seemed to be eating breakfast. No sound came from the screen, but the group looked like they were in light conversation. He vaguely wondered if it was about anything worth eavesdropping…
Eh. They could've been talking about what to have for lunch for all he cared. Maxiin really couldn't do much with the organization in her head.
Xigbar chuckled suddenly. "It's kinda weird watching your last moments play out like this."
He switched his focus to the screen Xigbar stared at. Illuminated bullets zoomed around the platform towards an upside-down Sora, but the boy sent most of them back towards Xigbar with a swing of the keyblade. Soon, everything went topsy-turvy, flipping right side up as Xigbar touched down on the floor.
"Let's see how you dance…"
He had to blink away his slight dizziness for a moment as the screen's images whirled with Xigbar's reckless spin and quick warp-teleports. The gunshots rang in his ears. In the blink of an eye the screen went upside-down again with glimpses of Sora and his team flashing in and out of view.
Another chuckle. "It may not look like it, but I was getting pretty damn tired at this point. That kid wouldn't let up."
His green eyes flitted to an adjacent screen. The images were faster and jerkier than those of Xigbar's screen. Xigbar appeared then disappeared every split-second, his teeth bared and his scarred face stretched tight with either a manic grin or a painful cringe. It was hard to tell. Sometimes a brown spike or two would block the right spots.
"Here it comes…"
The screen became level with Xigbar's face—that was definitely a cringe—and a swing of the keyblade to his shoulder sliced a grunt out of Xigbar. He threw his head back, his golden eye wide and disbelieving.
"I lost…?" his voice echoed. "Me…?"
One screen—the one with Xigbar's point of view—faded to black. Xigbar's coat rustled as he heaved a sigh. "And that's that." He waved a gloved hand to the screens. "Anything you wanna watch?"
His ear itched at those words. Xigbar could have been flipping channels on a TV with the way he referred to her.
She's a tool. Who cares how she's used as long as she's still useful? a voice reasoned in his head.
He shook away the train of thought. "Eh. Not really."
"Whatever." Xigbar waved a hand as he strode off. "I'll leave you to it, then. I'm bored."
Several of the screens disappeared with Xigbar's departure, leaving behind the screen with a pouting Sora glaring at a smirking Riku. Muted laughter lilted in the air as Riku's eyes locked with the screen and winked. Sora grumbled.
The group didn't look like they were in a rush to get going. That meant less of a chance of them making sudden movements. That meant another boring session watching them.
But it didn't have to be boring.
His lips twisted into a frown. He'd never actually thought about pulling up old memories. If he wanted to, he could replay any memory. It didn't even have to be his memory. He could watch someone else's memories…like Xigbar's or the Superior's…
Or Roxas'.
The thought stole his breath. Even now there were still so many questions he had about Roxas. How did he lose his memory? How did he end up in that fake Twilight Town? What exactly happened after he walked away down that dark street? If he wanted to, he could find the answers to all those questions.
And he damn well wanted to.
He raised a hand and spread his fingers, drawing up a new blank screen. He focused on that night, picturing the dark, wet street and the smell of rain and Roxas' spiky head and clenched fists. Colors began blotting the screen from the center, spreading towards the edges to copy the image in his head. Once the entire screen was filled, he touched Roxas' back and the screen zoomed into the blond's perspective.
Roxas trudged down the street, his eyes hardly drifting from the direction he walked, not even as he eliminated approaching Heartless with single swipes of his Keyblade. He breathed calmly. He moved without hesitation. He never looked back.
But he sensed Roxas was being followed. Roxas seemed to notice, too. The skin on his back tingled just from watching Roxas speed up slightly.
"Go back, Axel. I don't want you drawing suspi—"
His thin eyebrows shot up at who Roxas found upon whirling on his follower. The figure wore an Organization coat with the hood hiding his—no, her face. She looked too short to be Larxene, though. Larxene wouldn't have any reason to hide her face from him, anyway.
Before Roxas could ask—demand, really—who she was, a voice called his name. Xigbar's advancing figure sent Roxas dashing into a side alley with the girl in tow. The screen's images shook with his haste.
"Who are you?"
"That hurt, you know."
His eyes widened. The voice, though sharp and hostile, was definitely hers. Roxas ran into her after leaving? Did she know she'd run into him?
"If you intend to run away successfully, you'll need to keep your voice down."
He frowned. Of course she knew. Why did she run into him, then? She could have disappeared from the organization's radar for good…but she chose Roxas.
He pulled up a second screen, its colors bleeding to reveal Roxas' shocked blue eyes. As he watched, his list of questions slowly diminished.
He helped her leave.
"You won't have to remember anything anymore."
She took him to the sorcerer.
"Maxiin? The Kismet Scribe?"
He learned her name and her purpose for leaving.
"I…want it to stop."
She expressed her frustration.
"Be grateful that you can just worry about yourself, that you can live for yourself. Be grateful you're free to go out and find the answers to your questions, that you're free to see places more colorful than a stupid white bedroom and breathe air that doesn't reek of rain!"
She changed her name.
"Imani—"
She saw Sora.
"You know…you two really do look alike."
He became confused.
"Leaving?"
She…wanted to go back to the Castle…
"Roxas!"
He couldn't help darting his eyes from screen to screen to try keeping up with everyone, even though one particular screen belonging to a masked man in red robes caught everything without the jerkiness of Maxiin's indecisiveness and Roxas' struggle to break free from his captor.
"Run, Imani!"
"But—"
"Just GO!"
Goosebumps erupted on his skin upon hearing Roxas' voice and seeing his face contorted with pain. He saw those blue eyes clouding over just as they closed. He noticed a screen fade to black from the corner of his eye as Roxas' body went slack, his head dropping to his chest.
He exhaled the breath he hardly realized he'd been holding. So that was what happened…
"Well done, Maxiin."
It was more the words said than the foreign deep voice that shook him from his solemn trance. Well done, Maxiin? What was that supposed to mean?
His eyes landed on the screen belonging to the masked man…and widened. Not a trace of fear remained on Maxiin's face. She stood still, her dark stony eyes locked on Roxas and her jaw tight.
"It's Imani," she hissed.
The complete one-eighty instantly spelled out everything: she knew the masked man would be there to capture Roxas…and she led him there anyway.
That…bitch. She brought Roxas to his demise.
"It was for everyone's good. You know that."
The glare Maxiin shot at him was so cold and sharp that he couldn't help reeling back instinctively. In three seconds, she whirled around and disappeared into the Dark Corridor, but those three seconds were enough time for him to spot what lay beneath her glare: conflict, guilt, sorrow.
He raked a gloved hand through his spikes and growled in faux-frustration. Then why? Why would she do that? What did she have to gain from setting up Roxas?
Her curses brought his attention back to her screen. She emerged into a town and raced down the streets, the bright colors of the buildings blurring as she ran. She glanced down at her fumbling fingers often, her curses becoming more colorful than the town as she struggled to unzip her coat.
His eyebrows drew together at her. What the hell was she doing now? Where was she going? Didn't she know that the exposure to light would make her weak if she took her coat off? She'd lose the shield of darkness that counterbalanced the light.
Or was that the point? He didn't know. He couldn't tell, not even from watching past memories.
She threw the coat off. Immediately her screen tilted suddenly. Her breathing became heavy. Her footsteps slowed. Her vision blurred. The last thing he saw through her eyes before she blacked out was the front gate of a pristine white castle.
He stared into the darkness unseeingly. Well…he definitely got answers…but he got more questions in the process. He'd taken one step forward but had no foothold to take the next step.
A breathless laugh seeped from his lungs. Damn Maxiin. If Roxas hadn't run into her that night…If she'd let him leave and never followed him…If she'd disappeared completely that night…would things still have ended up this way somehow? Would Organization XIII still have been destroyed by Sora? Would the organization have gotten any closer to Kingdom Hearts?
Or did she know something that everyone else didn't? Did she know that the organization had to be destroyed so that she could rise to give them their hearts? Did she know that Roxas had to be captured and sent to that fake Twilight Town in order to set things in motion? Whose side was she on?
"Something wrong, Axel?"
He blinked, turning to the voice. Demyx arched both eyebrows at him, placing his hands on his hips expectantly. Was his shift over already?
"Well?" Demyx prompted.
He shook his head. "It's nothing," he told Demyx and himself.
The blond frowned for a moment, studying him carefully (dammit, Demyx, just drop it) then shrugged and broke his gaze. His blue eyes locked with something, widening and lighting up. "Hey," he said, his mouth curving into a grin. "She's got a nice smile."
It was then he heard it: laughter. He turned back to the screen—when did that second one come up?—and saw her. Her eyes were barely open as she tossed her head back and laughed her heart out, a bright smile threatening to rip her glowing face in half.
The corners of his lips sagged. Her smile…Talk about a one-eighty from the depressing glare he saw not even a minute ago. He didn't know she knew how to smile like that…or how to smile at all.
"Uh…is she still laughing…?"
At Demyx's uncertain question, he tried listening a little more carefully. She breathed deeply, almost gasping for air between laughs…that started to sound like sobs…
His eyes flitted to her focus. The colors were blurring and she blinked constantly. He barely caught Sora and Riku's concerned looks before she whipped her head away and strode out of the room.
"She's crying…"
From the corner of his eye he saw Demyx step closer to the screens. The blond reached up to rub the back of his neck—a rare sign that he was actually contemplating something seriously. "Maybe she remembered something sad…" he heard him mumble.
The comment echoed quietly. She remembered something…and how quickly that changed everything. How drastically she herself could change. How drastically she'd changed everything.
And how damn hard it was to figure her out.
He stifled a sigh as he turned to leave. Man, she was complicated.
Author's Afterthought: Hope you enjoyed that! Please let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!