"DiZ, Riku!"
The two turn at the voice. Riku's eyes widen in surprise.
"Namine? What are you doing back here?"
Namine pauses, hands on her knees as she catches her breath. Then, when she looks up, Riku can't believe his eyes.
Namine is...crying?
"The Organization..."
Demyx suddenly hugs Roxas, his head buried into Roxas' shoulder.
"Roxas you're--you're...alive..."
Demyx tightens his arms, as if trying to confirm Roxas' existence, continuing to mumble about how glad he was Roxas was alive and that he couldn't believe and...
Roxas puts his arms around Demyx in what he was hoping to be a comforting embrace.
"Whoa...Demyx, what happened?"
Demyx never lost control. Sure, he was crazy and hyper and could never stop singing what he called "good music", but he rarely ever lost control of his emotions. Ever.
Yet here he was now, nearly crying into Roxas' shoulder.
Roxas didn't know what to think.
"Axel said he killed you and he was all sad and I ran away cause I wanted to get away from it all you know and so I stayed at Agrabah for a while but then when I came back everyone was fi-fighting and the Xemnas was trying to kill everyone and wh-when he-he sa-sa-saw me and ca-came after me and then..."
Roxas, barely able to catch what Demyx says, suddenly feels himself stop.
"...What happened, Demyx?" He asks. He doesn't want to know the answer, he doesn't want to know the answer, he doesn't want to know the answer.
"Roxas, Axel is...Axel is...dead."
Did the world stop? It certainly felt like it did.
He feels like he can't breathe.
Yet he does.
He feels like he can't feel.
Yet he does.
He feels like he can't live.
Yet he does.
"...How?" He croaks out.
"Xe-xemnas was coming for me...An-and Ax-axel stepped in front of me a-and...he...di..."
Demyx chokes up.
"And-and...his last words-s-s...he-he-he sssaid..."
"We'll meet again in the next life...Got it memorized?"
"Namine, what happened?" Riku asks her hesitantly. Then he winces, realizing how that might not be a good question to ask first. He adds on, "...Are you okay?"
Sora was always the one to comfort Kairi, not him. Sora was always the one to make Kairi laugh, make her happy. And where was Sora when he was needed? Sleeping.
That bastard.
She fiercely wipes away her tears, a stubborn frown on her face.
"I'm fine, it doesn't matter." Her face is guarded, a carefully drawn look on indifference on her face. It might have looked real, if it wasn't for her red puffy eyes, and the streaks of streaks of dried tears. Even yet, Riku finds himself admiring how controlled her voice is.
"I snuck into one of the Organization's meetings, hoping I would hear something about Roxas. When I got in, it was mainly Axel talking to Xemnas..."
"Hey, boss, I've been wondering...if we've collected so many hearts from the heartless already...why don't we have our own hearts back yet?"
"When Xemnas didn't answer, Axel continued to talk..."
"...Are you sure you aren't collecting hearts for your own selfish gain?"
Xigbar jumps into the conversation.
"Ya know Xemnas, I've been wondering about that too...There's only seven of us left...Why do we need so many hearts?" He asks, seemingly nonchalant.
Xemnas merely smiles and looks around.
"Are there any more questions?" He asks, his voice smooth as chocolate. "Are there any inquiries that you have just been dying to make?"
A silence meets his challenge.
Then...
"Have you been using us?" Saix asks, a weird glint in his eye.
Xemnas' smile grows wider.
"Of course not."
"...And then, before I knew it, he started to attack and..." Namine hangs head down. "...I'm sorry. I had to escape before I could see anything else."
Riku rests his hand on Namine's shoulder.
"...You did what you had to do." He says in some cheap attempt to maybe comfort her. As soon as the words are out of his mouth, he feels like smacking himself. Wow, way to sound comforting.
Namine nods.
"Thank you...Riku." She mumbles quietly.
DiZ comes over to her side.
"Was there anything else?" He asks urgently.
Her gaze comes up and her guarded expression is back.
"Yes, I went to the Proof of Existence afterwards. There's no doubt about it. Xemnas is dead..." She pauses, and for a moment, her expression breaks. "...Along with Roxas."
Riku looks at her carefully, gauging her expression. However, she doesn't look at him, and instead, keeps her gaze with DiZ.
"What about the others? Are the others dead as well?" DiZ asks.
"The only ones that I couldn't tell were Demyx, Xigbar, and Luxord...Other than that, everyone else is dead."
DiZ nods, taking the information in.
"...Thank you, Namine." He says gently. "...I know this must have been hard on you..."
After a moment of pause, he gets up.
"If there's any way I can make up for it..."
He leaves the sentence open-ended and leaves the room. Namine still continues to refuse to look at Riku, instead, opting at staring at the floor. Riku looks at her...
Realization.
"...Roxas isn't dead, is he. There's no way in hell that Kairi would be that calm if Sora died..."
Namine looks up at him, and for a moment, there's a little glow in her eye.
"I'm not Kairi."
Demyx, in broken pieces, tells what happened to Roxas. How Xaldin was attacking Xigbar, how Axel had finished off Xaldin, how Saix had killed Xemnas in a kamikaze attack, how Luxord had helped Demyx get away...
Roxas could only nod along dumbly. He wasn't sure if he was listening or not, but he heard everything.
"Roxas...What am I going to do now?" Demyx pleadingly asks. "I...I don't remember a life without the Organization...I don't know what to do."
"...It'll be alright." Roxas robotically says.
The words leave a stale taste in his mouth.
Demyx hollowly laughs.
"Liar."
Roxas finds himself smiling grimly.
"Doesn't matter. We're not meant to exist. We're living a lie of a life already." He spits out bitterly.
Demyx mirrors his expression.
"...It's nice to know I can always count on you for a little angst whenever I want, Roxas."
"As long as you don't sing, I'm fine with that."
"Hey, Roxas! Get up!"
Roxas turns.
"Roxas..."
Roxas ignores the voice.
"Roxas, if you don't wake up, I'm going to get the Landlady..."
He shoots up like fireworks, hands up in the air.
"I'm up! I'm up!" He cries. "Please don't call her up, she's scary..."
Olette giggles.
"Oh Roxas, you're so silly sometimes." She says and grabs his hands, suddenly dragging him out. "Now c'mon, let's go!"
He tries to pull back, not wanting to leave his nice...warm...bed.
"Go where? Olette, I'm not even dressed...Augh, Olette, you're hurting me!"
"Then stop resisting! Come. ON! I have something I want to show you!"
And somehow Roxas finds himself being pulled out of bed, dressed in thin pajamas, and being brought downstairs. With a flash, Olette opens the door to the living room...
"HappyBirthday!"
In the midst of jumbled joyous celebrations and calls, Roxas can only stare dumbfounded and shivering in the morning cold.
"...What?"
Hayner sighs.
"Come on man, after all this preparation, that's the best reaction you can give us?" He whines.
Roxas only blinks.
"But today's not my birthday...I don't know when my birthday is, remember?"
"Yeah, but today's the day we found you in the forest!"
Roxas scratches his head.
"Really?"
Hayner gives him a deadpanned look.
"Did you honestly forget?"
"Are you awake?"
Cloud's voice cuts through his dream-like state and suddenly, the air seems much too cold.
Roxas blinks a couple times, opening his eyes. Hollow Bastion...Demyx...Axel.
He closes his eyes.
"No," He responds. "I'm not."
There is silence.
A sigh.
"...How's Demyx?"
"He's been inquiring about you. Apparently, you've been missing for a year. Tifa now calls me kidnapper."
Roxas wishes he could lift his mouth up into a smile. But he's so tired, so lazy, so...dead.
"...You should get up. He's been asking for you."
Roxas still doesn't move, his eyes closed.
"Hey Cloud...how do you face someone...if you've let them down?"
"Hmm...You look lonely."
"Eek!"
Demyx jumps, and turns towards his intruder. It was that women...name...name...
"Tee...Tee..."
She swings down and sits beside him on the roof.
"Tifa. You know, for a guy, you scream extraordinarily like a girl." She smiles teasingly.
Demyx looks down.
"...I've been told that." With a hang of his head, he adds, " A lot."
Tifa grins.
"Consider it a compliment. I'm telling you, it's one hell of an intimidation factor when fighting." Tifa pokes him in the shoulder. "Oi, what's got you down?"
"...Why do you care?"
Tifa shrugs.
"You kind of remind me of someone I once knew." She explains vaguely. "And don't think you can change the topic on me."
Demyx looks at Tifa, his gaze going back forth from her to his hands.
"I...well..."
"Come on. You can tell me." She cajoles.
Demyx is silent, the words forming sentences, forming beginnings in his minds. He chooses one.
"...I kind of feel like...I'm lost. In darkness." He sighs. "Kinda like...no matter where I turn, I have no where to go. I don't have a path or a goal, and anything I do just leads me further into the darkness..."
He winces.
"That probably sounded stupid, didn't it..."
He looks over at her face, cautious, almost afraid of what she'll say...
She's staring into the distance. Her eyes are lowered, distant...and her face...
It looks so sad that Demyx almost gives her a hug.
"No...I understand."
Her voice is so quiet, that it's almost a whisper... The wind blows.
For a moment, they are silent, staring at the gray morning.
Tifa suddenly straightens up, a cheerful grin spreading across her face.
"Don't worry! All you need is a little light to surround you, so the darkness won't swallow you." She takes his hand. "Here, let me give you some of mine."
For a moment, Demyx swears that his hand had actually glowed. What the...Was all the booze that he stole from Xigbar actually getting to him...? Was he starting to see hallucinations now?
She jumps up.
"Now, c'mon, let's go inside! Roxas might even be awake by now!"
...Did the world seem a little brighter? Did that hole in his chest feel a little lighter?
He nods, and pushes himself up.
"...Yeah."
How do you face someone if you've let them down...?
It was weird, Roxas realized.
To see Cloud so...open.
The emotions on Cloud's face were like...falling stars in a weird sense. They would flash by, mere seconds, and would be gone...yet...
Roxas could read his face perfectly.
(Regret. Confusion. Nostalgia. wishfulness anger affliction bitterness lamentation anguish remorserepentdisappointmentdiscomfortsorrowandohhowhewantedtocry...)
He could...understand him perfectly.
And it somehow hurt him to see Cloud like this. (Cloud was supposed to be the strong one, the guarded one who rarely showed any emotions, the protecting older brother to everyone...)
Such a broken voice.
"I...don't know."
AN: Yup, another rushed chapter due to limited time on the computer. Yar, I hated this chapter. It's all...explanation-y totally confusing order timeline-ish. And it's also one of those crossroads (kind of) chapters, where I have to decide a lot of things. I really hope I made the breaking up of the Organization decently realistic. Hopefully. Yeah, and while I'm ranting about things I don't like...I don't like my characterization of Demyx (and Roxas. And Cloud.). But Demyx I made so...Urgh, I really wanted to make an evil!Demyx but it didn't fit in...And yeah, I make Roxas and Cloud really angsty, don't I...I'm trying to keep them in character, and show character development, but it somehow feels like nothing's happening. Meh.