Disclaimer: Don't own KH or the characters, but I do own this story!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Not That I Care
3
First Mission
"Fools" said I "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows."
--Simon and Garfunkel
You get to miss the sun after spending most of your time in a world without sunlight, especially when you live in a freezing castle. Axel feels a bit like a vampire, without the blood thing. The sun is always brighter and hotter when you come back into it after a time away. Axel likes the sun just fine, but this is a little ridiculous. It's afternoon, it's late summer, he's wearing a heavy black coat, and Xemnas has made it clear that he'll rip Axel's lungs out if he catches them anywhere near the beach.
Not fair.
Axel reappears on the roof and heaves a sigh. "There's a beach here," he says. "You know, there aren't many worlds with beaches. It's cruel and unusual. I mean, you never know. Heartless might show up at the beach. It could happen. We could be at the beach watching for Heartless. It would be less hot at the beach."
Roxas doesn't even look his way. The kid is dangling his legs over the edge of the roof, watching the streets below like a falcon.
"It would be less hot if you'd stop complaining about it," he says in a tired sort of way, tugging at the collar of his coat. The coat is unflattering on him, but then, it's not particularly flattering on any of them. The Superior gave Roxas the smallest coat they could find but it still looks like the coat is trying to eat him. Axel chuckles a little at the mental imagery.
"You mean I have that kind of effect on the weather? Awesome. I didn't know I was that cool. Or hot. Or both!" Axel grins, but Roxas doesn't react. He's learning quickly, taking his cues from the others, learning the virtues—or, Axel thinks, the curse—of silence. Axel's going to lose him to that silence unless he tries some different tactics.
"Soda?"
Now Roxas turns. Axel holds a soda can out to him. Roxas raises an eyebrow. There isn't much in the way of food at The Castle That Never Was, soda least of all. Plus, he is a teenager.
"Is it real? Where did you get that?"
"Stole it," Axel says nonchalantly. "There's a store down there a ways."
"You stole it?"
"Yeah, it's easy when you can just teleport in and teleport out."
"That's…not really what I meant," Roxas says in a hopeless tone.
Axel knows. He smiles anyway and tosses Roxas the can. Roxas just barely catches it before it falls to earth. Axel opens his own with a snap and a hiss.
"Lovely caffeine."
"Thanks," Roxas mutters.
"Ow!"
Roxas's head almost flies off he turns it so fast. "What?"
"Bubbles up my nose," Axel says, rubbing at the offended area.
Roxas gives him a look that Axel is coming to call the "laser-glare."
"I hate you," Roxas decides, turning away. Seems like most people come to that conclusion. Axel heaves another sigh and collapses back on the roof. The sky is that lovely afternoon blue, deep and endless. Puffy clouds dot the sky. This world will get rain later.
"Happy to be back in your hometown?" Axel asks, folding his arms behind his head. Roxas gives a little groan; no doubt he thought himself free of Axel's voice.
Never.
"It's not my hometown," the kid says in exasperation. "This is just where I woke up."
"But you don't remember," Axel points out. "You might have lived here. Your family might be here. Not that they'd recognize you."
Roxas doesn't answer. His silence sounds troubled to Axel. It bothers him, Axel knows it does—the amnesia thing. Axel knows he doesn't sleep much, because neither does Axel, and he always hears Roxas out there, wandering around the halls alone. Not that Axel cares.
Though it's interesting, he'll admit.
Roxas kicks his legs in the air and sips his soda. "Aren't we supposed to actually be—I don't know—doing something?"
"Nnnnope."
"The Superior said reconnaissance. So shouldn't we be actually doing reconnaissance?"
"The clouds are nice," Axel says and points. "Look, there's a bunny."
Axel can practically hear Roxas grinding his teeth from here. He sighs.
"Look, kid, Twilight Town hardly ever gets hit with Heartless. The corridors from the darkness to this world aren't really open yet. We're just here to make sure nothing gets in through the cracks."
"There were a whole bunch of them when I woke up."
"A fluke," Axel says, shrugging.
Roxas sighs heavily. "Some first mission."
"Cheer up. Be glad the Superior didn't ask you to wash his underwear." Axel points up again. "Look, that one's a dog."
Roxas drains his soda and sets the can aside. Axel would have thrown it.
"No, it's more of a cat."
Axel looks up at him; he can't have heard right. "Say what?"
Roxas points at Axel's cloud. "It's a cat. Look at the tail."
Axel stares at him. No way! he thinks. Nobodies can't feel and, in Axel's experience, they don't have much in the way of imaginations either. It's why The Castle That Never Was is so insufferably silent. Axel has to be the annoying one, the talkative one, just to combat that silence—just to stay sane. All the others just live in that silence, moving through it like the Nobodies they are. Demyx is the only other one who—like Axel—can't stand the silence, knows there has to be something more. Demyx combats it with his music, but even Demyx can't see things in clouds. He worries too much.
Axel starts laughing.
Roxas looks back at him, annoyed. "What? I'm telling you, it's a cat. What the hell is so funny?"
Axel is still laughing. It's kind of funny. He hasn't felt this amused in awhile. He hasn't felt in awhile. They tell him he can't feel—no heart and all that. Axel wonders, sometimes.
"You're interesting."
Roxas huffs; Axel thinks he sees his face redden.
"You're weird," he says, and doesn't look up after that.
-------
"Axel. Axel!"
Axel jolts awake. "Not the pudding!"
"P—what? You fell asleep, you jackass!" Axel looks up to see an angry Roxas standing over him. He looks past Roxas to the sky; the sun is setting over Twilight Town, and the sky has turned that dark, purplish color of evening.
"I didn't fall asleep," Axel says, sitting up. "It's the heat. I passed out. I might have heatstroke, you know. You should be more concerned."
"It's late," Roxas says obviously, turning away. "When are we supposed to be back?"
Axel stretches and yawns. "Hmm. After sunset, they said. Give it a half an hour, I say." He gets to his feet and hears something crack in his spine. "Ow. See anything?"
"Just these three kids running around," Roxas says, sitting back on the edge of the roof. "My age. At least I think so."
Axel joins him at the edge. Over the roofs of the other houses they can just see three teens conversing at the end of an alley. Two boys, one a bit chubby, and a girl with brown hair. The third seems to be their leader and has spiky blond hair.
"Ah, to be young and still have a heart," Axel muses.
Roxas is watching them with an expression Axel can't read. "I wish I knew whether I really lived here or not."
"Well, if you want to get technical, you were born here."
Roxas doesn't answer. Axel supposes Roxas wasn't really talking to him, anyway. They both watch as the trio of kids leave the alley and head for home. The sun falls lower in the sky, bleeding its orange light into the gathering clouds.
"Hey," Roxas says suddenly. "What's that?"
He points down to the street below. Axel looks; a small, insect-like Heartless is scuttling through the shadows of the buildings, stopping every few feet to look around.
"Heartless," Axel says lazily, lying back down on the roof. "If there's just one, we don't have to bother with it."
"Then what about that one? Is that a Heartless?"
Axel yawns again. "If it's got that little heart emblem, kid, it's a Heartless. Those bug ones aren't even worth our time."
"That one's not a bug, though."
"Eh?"
"It's big. It's all round and stuff. Like a beach ball."
"Don't say beach to me," Axel says, but then he thinks about what Roxas just said. "Big and round?"
"There's more…different kinds…a whole bunch of the bug ones and three round ones and—hey!" Axel cuts him off by moving his head out of the way.
Heartless are streaming out of two of the alleys just below. There's dozens of them.
"You know, just saying 'there's about a hundred zillion Heartless all over the place down there' would have gotten my attention faster," Axel says, frowning at the mass of Heartless. There shouldn't be this many, not in Twilight Town. "Well, time to show off your Nobody mettle, new fish."
Axel leaps off the roof and lands cat-like on the pavement. Heartless spot him immediately and move in to investigate. Roxas lands beside him.
"I don't have a weapon," Roxas says, looking nervous.
"You need to summon it, shorty."
"How?"
"Better figure it out quickly," Axel says with a malevolent grin as the first Heartless get up the courage to attack.
He raises one hand as if to block them and calls on his fire. The world heats up around him and the air itself bursts into flame. Heartless sizzle and disappear in a puff of smoke and shadow. The others wise up and pull back, reorganizing.
"The hell—how did you—?" The kid sounds like he just saw Axel pull rabbits out of his ears.
"Sweet, huh? They don't call me the Flurry of Dancing Flames for nothing." Axel says, and wastes no time. He thrusts both arms out and calls the fire again. He feels warm metal through his gloves and curls his fingers around it until he can feel the weight, the solidness of his weapons. Ah, yes. He loves these chakrams. Lots of pointy ends, lots of fire. They suit him. He spins them around his fingers and looks toward Roxas, grinning like a madman.
"Show me what you're made of, shorty."
He doesn't hear Roxas's response, because then the Heartless surge forward again, a tidal wave of darkness, and Axel almost gets swallowed up.
Axel hates Heartless. They made him. They're the ones who stole his heart and left him as a shell, a nothing with a constant ache to remind him of what he lost. Axel doesn't mind the pain, or even the loss of his ability to feel.
It's the silence he hates.
So there's a certain pleasure in destroying them.
"Bring it on, baby!" he whoops and spins with his chakrams, catching Heartless as they leap for him. Fire writhes like snakes around him, lashing out to devour the dark monsters. They don't stand a chance between the fire and the whirling chakrams, but there's a surprising number of them, and they come in waves.
So much for cracks in the boundaries of the world. Does this mean the corridors of darkness have opened even here?
But fighting isn't conducive to thinking, so Axel saves that detail for another day. He lets go of the chakrams and they whip around him as if they have minds of their own, like fiery saw blades. The smaller Heartless try to crawl under Axel's defense so he lights the pavement on fire. It spreads out in ringlets, twisting and weaving to catch each sneaking Heartless.
They just keep coming. Axel catches the chakrams and spins, the blades slicing through their dark bodies before they can overwhelm him.
There's a shout from somewhere behind him. The kid—I forgot!
Axel whirls around, knocking some Heartless out of the way. "Roxas!"
But then he freezes. He forgets about the Heartless. He forgets about everything.
Roxas is fighting, and he's fighting well. He's beating back the Heartless as if they're as insubstantial as air, spinning and twirling and jumping like a dancer in a mad ballet. There's an effortless grace about him, as if he's done this a thousand times and made an art form of it. That's what it is, Axel decides. It's like an art.
Roxas is also using a Keyblade.
A Keyblade.
Roxas obliterates a whole cluster of the smaller Heartless and he finally looks up at Axel. His blue eyes widen.
"Axel, look out!"
That's when Axel notices the shadow that has fallen over him. He looks up to see a Large Body Heartless raising its arms over him, both hands clenched into one hammer-like fist.
"Oh—"
Axel raises his chakrams as the Heartless smashes downward with the force of a meteor. The impact brings him to his knees where the pavement cracks, but he just manages to keep himself from being crushed. His chakrams are embedded in the Heartless's arms; it's all Axel can do to keep his weapons raised. The Heartless is slowly pushing him down.
Okay, now I'm pissed.
He grits his teeth against the pain and prepares to call the fire, but then a whistling sound reaches his ears. He looks up to see the Keyblade spinning through the air like a boomerang. It strikes the Heartless full in the face, and the Heartless stumbles backward, releasing Axel. He springs out of the way as Roxas darts behind the Large Body to catch his Keyblade and finish it off with two lightning-fast slashes. The monster dissolves into darkness.
Roxas stands up straight and looks at Axel. He's not even winded.
"You fail," he says. "Can't even watch your own back."
Axel stares at him.
"How come you have a Keyblade!"
"What?" Roxas looks at the weapon in his hands. "You mean this?"
"No, the other giant key," Axel snaps, not feeling particularly generous. "How did you get a Keyblade? There's only supposed to be one Keyblade Master. How can you have one?"
"What's so special about it?"
He doesn't know! I can't believe it! How can he not know? Who the hell is this guy?
There's a hissing sound behind Roxas and the boy turns, but not before Axel sends his chakram flying. The weapon slices through the Heartless sneaking up on Roxas and then returns to its owner like a hawk.
"No time now," Axel says, wincing. For every Heartless they've destroyed, two more have come. There's a sea of darkness surrounding the two Nobodies. He shoots Roxas a grin. "Let's finish off these bastards."
For the first time, Roxas grins back at him.
-------
Axel is exhausted. He's breathing hard and he's leaving little particles of darkness behind every time he takes a step. Nobodies don't bleed, but dissolving is just as painful. He needs to get some rest soon or he could be in real trouble.
Not that he cares right now. There are more important things to worry about.
"So explain it to me," he says, trying not to sound as tired as he feels. "How did you get that Keyblade?"
Roxas shrugs. The kid isn't injured at all. He doesn't even look like he's just walked away from a battle with what was probably about a hundred Heartless. He looks like he's coming back from a stroll in the park or something.
He's making me look bad, Axel thinks, and he's glad no one's around to see them. They're walking through the castle to the Superior's office; most of the others are out on missions.
Though that was pretty awesome. Shorty's a better fighter than I thought.
"I don't know. I had it when I woke up," Roxas answers. He gives Axel his piercing look. "Why does it matter? You pretty much froze up when you saw it. What's so important?"
"The Keyblade is like—it's like an anti-Heartless or something. Its entire purpose is to destroy Heartless and release the hearts they've stolen. So when the time comes that Heartless are coming in out of the darkness and threatening things, it chooses a bearer to wield the Keyblade and save the world and stuff."
Roxas actually stops short. Aw, come on, kid, let's just get to Xemnas before I fade completely.
The kid gives Axel a calculating look. "You're telling me this thing wants me to save the world?"
"Nah, it's already got some other schmuck for the job. Some kid." Axel scratches his head. "Can't remember the name. He's been running around for awhile now, killing Heartless and locking the worlds. That's the thing, though, there's only one Keyblade, just a bunch of different Keyblade incarnations. Since the hero-guy's already got it—well, it doesn't make any sense for you to have it."
Roxas looks upset. He stares down at his gloved hands and says nothing.
"Of course, it doesn't make any sense that we exist at all, so there you go," Axel says in an offhand kind of way. He's tired of seeing the kid look so troubled. Roxas is too interesting for Axel to let him get depressed. "But the Keyblade chose you for some reason or another, so I guess that's a good thing."
Roxas doesn't answer, and for a long time he doesn't move. Then finally he keeps walking, burying his hands in his pockets. Axel sighs and trails after him, leaving dust in his wake.
-------
"You blindsided me on this one, Boss," Axel says, leaning on the Superior's desk. For support as much as out of anger. He's still leaking darkness, but right now he doesn't care. Roxas has gone back to his room, leaving Axel with the Superior. "You coulda told me he had a Keyblade."
"So it wasn't a fluke, when I saw him fight the first time," Xemnas says, folding his fingers beneath his chin. "I'm glad I decided to keep him."
"You do know what this could mean?" Axel demands. "Two Keyblade Masters? Or is the Keyblade siding with the Nobodies?"
"The Keyblade is forever against those without hearts, and Nobodies count among those. Who knows? It could mean anything. I do, however, have a theory about Number Thirteen and his Keyblade."
Of course you have a theory, Axel thinks, trying not to show his frustration. You always have a theory. And of course you're not going to tell us what the hell your theory is.
"I want you to keep an eye on him, Number Eight," the Superior continues. "Make sure that he develops his skill with the Keyblade. Whether the weapon is truly on our side doesn't matter; the hearts it releases will still go straight to Kingdom Hearts." The Superior gives a little chuckle. "I think it'll be interesting to see what happens, don't you?"
I hate you, Axel thinks. What do you know, you bastard?
"Interesting," he says. "Yeah."
Xemnas leans back in his chair. "Go tend to your wounds, Number Eight. You're getting darkness on my desk."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I actually like writing action scenes, because the whole thing plays out in my head, but then I also tend to leave things out. The scene might seem a bit disconnected, and if so, sorry!
Chapter Three, huh? The plot thickens! Foreshadowing and allusions and clues, oh my! Thanks again to those who've reviewed, I hope you continue to read and like my story. It should get more interesting from here on out!