Resurrection of the Tomboy
Axel and Marluxia stood on top of one of the Palace towers. They could see all of Agrabah from the height.
"Do you sense Sora yet?" Marluxia asked lazily, lighting a cigarette.
"Those aren't good for you" said Axel. He smiled nastily as he watched Marluxia hurl the package into the courtyard below.
"Shut up Axel. God, I don't know why the Superior had to team us up on this mission. Now do you sense Sora or not? I can't wait to sink my blade into his annoying flesh."
Axel was about to reply with some remark about getting himself killed earlier, but then he shuddered. For a minute the world seemed to spin, and he almost fell off the tower.
"Axel!" Marluxia cried. He seized the Flurry of Dancing Flames' arm before he could fall to his death. "What the hell was that, Axel?" he asked. Against his will, he actually felt a little worried about the pyro who had ruined his plans so long ago.
It took Axel a few minutes to talk. "I…I just got this chill…" he said. "I feel like something's out there…"
"A Heartless?" asked Marluxia. "We can take care of it…or we could bend it to our will."
Axel shook his head. "It's not a Heartless. It's a person. But what a person…I feel like I'm being drawn toward her…" he stopped and sighed.
"Do you think that…" Marluxia said, astounded.
Axel suddenly looked up. "It's Sora" he said. "And Roxas. I sense them both. They're traveling with…with whatever it is I can feel." They both teleported to the Bazaar to meet their new guests.
"See, we're almost to the Palace" said Lea. "I don't think that it'll be too hard to save---" suddenly she was knocked down by a small red missile that hurled from the sky.
"Aggghhh!" she screamed.
"Sora! Donald! Goofy! It's you!" the red object said.
"Iago?!" they asked at the same time. "What are you doing here?"
"Did you come to save Aladdin?" asked Donald.
Iago looked at them like they were crazy. "Save Aladdin? From what?"
"But he's gonna be fed to a desert monster if we don't hurry!" said Goofy.
"No he's---" the talking bird began, but then he looked at Lea and Rufus. "Oh, it's these two" he said.
"What do you mean these two?" asked Sora. "Are you telling me, we've been tricked?" he summoned his Keyblade.
"N-no" said Rufus. "It's just that…we…well, we…the Sultan did die…"
"They're pestering Aladdin to let them bulldoze the Cave of Wonders so he can build a company headquarters over the site" said Iago. Rufus glared at the talking bird.
"I'm going to kill you" he said, pulling out his shotgun.
"You mean like your girlfriend killed the Sultan?" Iago asked casually.
"Shut up!" Rufus snarled at him. "You said you wouldn't tell---"
"You killed the Sultan" Sora said. The trio readied their weapons and began to walk toward Lea and Rufus.
"Well, now what genius?" asked Lea. "I guess, we'll have to---" suddenly she fell to the ground.
"Huh?" Rufus asked. "Lea, are you alright?" he knelt near her.
At first Sora thought it was a trick…but then he saw that Rufus really was worried about her. His kindness overcoming his anger temporarily, he walked over to them. Donald and Goofy followed a little behind him.
"What's wrong with her?" Donald asked.
"My…head…" Lea muttered. "It hurts…did I get hit or something?" she asked. Suddenly she looked at Sora. "Roxas!" she said.
"How do you know about Roxas?" Sora asked. He grabbed Lea by the bandages that covered her chest in lieu of a shirt. "Tell me, assassin!"
"So this is what the Keyblade Master comes to" said a mocking voice from above them. Beating up and raping innocent girls. My, my…for the sake of the Keyblade's honor, I better take you out right now."
"Who's there?" shouted Donald. But the hot air was still. There was no one around, everyone usually stayed in at this hot time of day. Suddenly, a shower of razor sharp blood red objects began to rain down from one of the buildings.
"Run!" Rufus shouted. He dragged Lea behind one of the stalls. Sora, Donald, and Goofy took shelter behind a stone wall. The objects were rose petals and they sliced through stone like it was paper. A second later, Marluxia appeared in front of them, leaning on his scythe.
"You!" Sora said. "You're the one who messed up my memory!"
"Actually that was Namine" said Marluxia. He shrugged. "But fine, give me the credit. I don't care."
"Who the hell are you, pinky?" asked Lea.
"I am Marluxia, the Graceful Assassin" Marluxia said. "Number eleven in the Organization."
Sora pointed his Keyblade at Marluxia. "I already took out Demyx. I'm not afraid to take you on too."
"You only defeated him because Tine, with equal power fought along side of you…and the fact that Demyx was always a hopeless idiot. It's time for you to die, Sora" said Marluxia. "Axel! Where are you?" he growled. "He's never around when I need him. It doesn't matter though…I think I'm enough to take you all on."
"You sure?" Sora asked. "We were enough to wipe the floor with you last time."
Marluxia attacked without another word. Sora dodged as the pink scythe carved a chunk out of the stone wall he was hiding behind.
"Take this!" Goofy threw his shield at the Nobody. It clipped Marluxia on the hip, but he kept coming. Goofy cried out in pain as Marluxia slashed a large gash across the front of Goofy's torso. He was going in for the finishing blow, when a large scimitar blocked the pink blade.
"Goofy! Are you okay?!" Aladdin asked. "Donald! Get Goofy to safety!" the duck carried his friend off the battle field and returned. Aladdin kicked Marluxia in the chest, knocking him back into a pile of rubble. The Nobody cursed as he broke his fall.
"Thanks Aladdin" Sora said.
"No problem" the Sultan to be said. "Who is this guy?"
"Trouble" Sora responded. He, Donald, and Aladdin dodged a shower of rose petals. They slashed the stone walls around them to ribbons.
"I will destroy you!!" Marluxia roared in anger. He swung too fast for the eye to follow. He screamed as Donald hit him it the face with a blizzard spell. Sora took advantage of his confusion to hit him several times in the back with the Keyblade.
"AXEL!" Marluxia screamed. "Where are you? I need help down here!"
Axel stood on one on the buildings, watching Marluxia fight against Sora and his friends. "Sorry Marly" he said. "But I can't jump in there. Sora couldn't win against two of us…and I need the Organization to be down as many men as possible by the time I make my move. I think you'll do. Hmmm….I think little Nexy will be next."
"Th-this would be easy if it were just the Keyblade brat!" Marluxia said as he raised his hands. Three large pools of dark red energy began to form. Objects and stalls began to get suck into them. As soon as they hit the energy, they were cut to shreds by petals that were blowing around their surface.
"Hang onto something!" Aladdin called.
"Ha, ha, ha!" Marluxia cried. "His eyes were crazed with happiness at the deaths of his enemies and his pink hair stuck up in all directions. There were left over ice particles on his face. "Hang on, all you like! You won't be able to hold on forever. Here, let me make it more of a challenge. Pillars of red energy began to shoot up from the ground, hitting the group again and again.
"Ahhhh!" cried Donald. He lost his grip and began to fly toward the deadly red pools in the center. Sora gripped his hand before he was able to go too far.
"How touching" said the Graceful Assassin. "It truly takes a heart to care for---ahhhhhh!" Iago flew at Marluxia's face, pecking and stabbing with his talons and beak. As he did, the energy pools and pillars died, Marluxia's concentration broken. He waved the bird away. Marluxia's face was a mess of small cuts and one eye bled particles of darkness everywhere. The Graceful Assassin went to one knee and put his hand over his ruined eye. "You all…I'll kill…no…I'll destroy you!!!" he roared and began to hack mindlessly with his scythe. He got Sora in several places, but the Keyblade still drove into his ribs.
"Uhhhh!" number eleven cried and sank to his knees. Aladdin slashed him across the stomach with his blade. Marluxia fell backwards to the ground---and was hit by Donald's Flare spell. He screamed in agony. When the smoke and dust cleared, Marluxia lay in a heap. "How…unfair…to lose…again to wimps…like you."
"That's how it is" said Donald.
"I…always…wanted…to see…Michael Jackson play…live…once I got…my heart…back…" he muttered, and then disintegrated into particles.
Since none of them really knew what to say to that, and someone just died, they were silent. Suddenly, they heard clapping. "Excellent! Yeah, Roxas and Sora! Take that pink haired bitch out!" said a hooded Organization member who was leaning against a wall.
"Axel?" asked Sora. Roxas stepped out of Sora's body. Axel? he asked. What are you doing here? You wanted me to kill Marluxia?
"Sure did" said Axel, taking off his hood. "See, I have a little operation going on. And when the time comes, I want Xemnas to have as little pawns as possible to move on his shitty little board."
"Explain yourself!" Sora said. He pointed the Keyblade at Axel. "I'm going to tear you up for what you did to Kairi. Then we can talk." He ran toward Axel.
"Sorry, Roxas" said Axel. "I guess Sora's just a little too hotheaded. Get it?" he said as he delivered a painful kick to Sora's stomach. It sent the Keyblade Master flying into a stall, sending fruit everywhere.
Roxas groaned. "That's a horrible pun. And I'm going to be feeling that, as soon as I get back into that loser's body, you know."
"Yeeeaaaahhhh" said Axel. "Sorry about that." He started to walk away.
"Wait!" called Lea from the ground. "Who are you? Your name is Axel?"
"Yep, Axel's the name" said the Flurry of Dancing Flames. "Got it---"
"Memorized?" answered Lea.
"Wh…what?" Axel asked. He and the girl stared each other in the eyes. "Y…you're…Lea…"
Lea looked at Axel in awe. She began to walk toward the Nobody.
Roxas spoke first. "Axel! Nooooooo! Get away from her! Don't you know who she is?!"
"Lea…" Axel said, and tears streamed down his face. "After…after all these years…after all this time…" he began to walk toward her, step by step. The two were soon less than two feet from each other.
"Axel!!" Roxas screamed. He ran at his best friend. But he had already been joined to his other, and he passed right through Axel like a ghost. "No, Axel" he said. "Don't do it, man."
"Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flames" Lea said softly. "I know you…I have dreams about a man in a black robe…doing things that I'd never imagined possible…"
"We fought the Heartless to prove that girls could fight, remember?" said Axel.
"I….I do remember" said Lea. "We fought the Heartless…and we lost. I thought that if only I was a man…I could have been better prepared. And then I woke up on a strange world…and was adopted by Rufus as his personal assassin."
"I went to the Dark Beach" said Axel. "And was adopted into Organization XIII."
"Sora! Sora, wake up!" Roxas pleaded. "Stop him, Sora. Beat him if you have to! Please, just stop him! Don't let him get joined to some exotic dancer!"
Axel smiled as his body began to glow and stretch. "End of the line, partner" he said to Roxas in an echoing voice. "It was fun while it lasted..." his increasingly transparent face grinned. "Come on. Don't tell me that for all your complaining, you didn't enjoy it when you found Sora at last. You did, didn't you?"
Roxas nodded tearfully. "I'll miss you, buddy. I'll miss all the good times. I'll miss what we did in the Twilight Town Clocktower---"
"Hey!" Axel said sharply. "What happened in the Clocktower, stays in the Clocktower! Remember!?"
"Oh, sorry" Roxas said. Amazingly, for a transparent spirit, he managed to blush deeply. "I remember."
"Besides" said Axel. "In the words of a great man 'I will never be just a memory.'" He smiled, and then was gone in a flash of red light that smelled of smoke. His empty robe fell to the sandy ground in a heap.
"What was that?" Lea asked. She felt her chest, arms, and legs, and then her head. "I feel…strange…" she started to say, and then she let out a piercing scream and fell to the ground.
"Alright Roxas! Fight, fight, fight!" Axel said, clapping his hands as he watched the confused boy whirl around after fighting for his life against the Dusks.
Lea and Rufus bent over the body of the dead Sultan. "Good job Lea" he said. "I might have to give you a pay raise." They had to leave soon, but the President of Shinra Inc. always had time to praise her. That was why she followed him.
"Don't stop moving, or the darkness will overtake you!" Axel shouted as he lept down in front of Sora and his friends in the space between the worlds. The Dusks clustered around them, eager to tear their flesh to bits. He had been marked as a traitor, so they felt the same way about him as they did about Sora. But Axel didn't care. He had made his decision. He was going to help Roxas.
"Roxas…" Lea muttered as she sat up, rubbing her head. It felt like someone was banging on it with a hammer. "What was that…." She groaned. She felt like there were too many memories floating around in her head. Memories of Rufus and some boy named Roxas were conflicted and fought for dominance in her sore skull.
"Are you, okay?" said a voice. She looked up to see the dog like being called Goofy bending down to talk to her. His terrible injury from Marluxia had been healed. Marluxia? How did she know his name? The pink haired man had shouted it, but….but she also knew that he liked flowers and his room in the Castle That Never Was, was bright pink. He hated her…no he hated someone named Axel.
"Yeah…I'm fine…" Lea thought. She felt her face grow hot as she noticed that the red and yellow bandages that were covering her chest through her silvery vest were coming undone. She suddenly felt disgust as she rewrapped them. Ugh…why do I have these things anyway? They're so bothersome to have to cover. I used to just walk shirtless whenever I wanted to, when my robe got to hot. Where did these thoughts come from?
"That man…he disappeared…where did he go?!" asked Rufus. He looked around.
"You won't find him" said Sora, getting up from the fruit stand. He rubbed his stomach. "Ouch…damn it…Axel got
(No he didn't, no he didn't he got absorbed and you know it, you know)
away…" Sora's voice trailed off. "Where is Axel?" he asked.
"He…just…went into Lea…" Rufus said, pointing at the girl.
"He did?!" Sora gasped. And then he suddenly was a tearful wreck. It was so sudden. One minute he was fine, the next minute he was sobbing like crazy. "Oh he did didn't he?!" Sora cried. "Axel! Axel, I'll never see him again! It's not faaaaiiiiirrrr!" he wailed. He wept and wept.
"Uh…Sora…?" asked Aladdin. "Was he a friend of yours?"
Lea got up. Her legs were shaking so much that she could barely stand. She wiped sweaty strands of red hair out of her eyes. She looked at her hands in surprise and shock. One minute they seemed to be her hands, tanned, calloused and long fingered. The next second, they were covered with black gloves. She covered her face with these odd, shifting hands. "Who am I?" she screamed. All of them, Sora, Rufus, Goofy, Donald, Aladdin, and Iago looked at her in silent surprise.
None of them could answer that.
Well now Axel's met his Other and has been absorbed. Don't worry, he'll still have a large role in the story with his plans to overthrow Xemnas. In the next chapter, the Radiant Garden crew go up against Saix and Zexion. It will be an adreneline rush, I promise! By the way, that quote was from Sephiroth in Final Fantasy Advent Children.