This is a very...sad update. I cried while writing it. Anyway...
LET'S GO!
"Demyx." It was all Axel could say. The pain of the betrayal cut straight through him. Demyx had been Axel's friend since he had come to Oblivion, two years ago. They had roomed together—at least, until the mischief they caused became too much for the teachers—they had shared everything. Demyx couldn't meet Axel's eyes.
"Don't pay any attention to him, Demyx," Zexion chided gently, obviously ticked about being interrupted. His eyes sparkled with cold light as he tilted his head to look at Demyx over his shoulder. Demyx wouldn't meet his eyes, either. He said nothing.
"Demyx, why?" Roxas's voice was quiet. He didn't sound accusing, or angry, but Demyx flinched as if the boy was shoving sharp barbs into every inch of his skin.
"Leave him alone," Zexion snapped. "Stop talking." He turned to Victor. "Are you ready?"
The man's smile was as cold as the chill that seeped down Axel's spine.
"Yes."
Zexion began to speak.
"Zwei Geist werden ein. Zwei Seelen kommen zusammen; deine und meiner. Gedanken verbinden und ein Anschluss ist gebildet. Wir existieren zusammen.1" Zexion whispered Victor's name to his rosary and slipped it around his neck.
Axel watched, stunned and confused. He had never heard this ritual before. Demyx's grip tightened.
There was a startling flash of light and the wind picked up. Demyx's grip slipped in surprise, and, throwing off the binding spell, Axel dashed forward. Zexion fell to his knees.
"Die, traitor!" Axel spat. He fully intended to break Zexion's neck. An exorcist was always weakest when in the midst of a ritual.
Demyx was too slow to react. He wouldn't catch Axel in time. Axel had always been faster than him.
"No, Axel!"
It was Roxas's shout that stopped him. The boy had risen from his slumped position and was intently watching as the leaves ripped from trees circled around his kneeling colleague.
"What? Roxas, he's going to kill you!" And Roxas just turned to look at him with a slightly sad smile.
"No, he's not."
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"Roxas?"
"Yes, Zexion?"
"I'm afraid there is a matter of grave importance I must speak to you about." Zexion gestured for Roxas to come with him as he walked. They entered an empty classroom and Zexion quietly shut the door behind them. He raised an eyebrow at Roxas's nervous expression.
"I'm not going to rape you, Roxas. Relax."
"I didn't—I never—" Zexion chuckled.
"I know." His face soon grew serious once more, as he pondered how best to broach the subject. "Roxas, there is something that you must know. I cannot—will not—tell the others, as they will undoubtedly try to stop me. I will not be stopped." He took a breath.
"Roxas, there is a chance that the cult ritual might not work." Zexion peered out the window into the bright August sunlight. The calendar to the right of the glass read 'August 20, 2008', a day before the ritual was scheduled. Roxas stopped fiddling with his cloak.
"What? Won't work? Why not?" Zexion held up a hand to try and stop Roxas's panic attack.
"There have been cases where the cult ritual has failed. This may be because what the spirit is connected to isn't within the area that is being exorcised. We have no idea what Victor is connected to. We can only hope that it is something on the grounds. If not, we have to have another plan."
Zexion reached up to pull lightly on the blinds cord of the window.
"I have an alternate plan." Roxas waited patiently for him to go on. When it became apparent that Zexion was not going to be free with this information, he prodded.
"And? What is it?"
Zexion just stared out the window. He seemed lost in thought.
"Zexion?"
"I have an alternative plan," the boy repeated, as if to himself. "It has to work."
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Zexion's eyes turned white, all color disappearing in the brilliance of the light that seemed to shine from within. Roxas, Axel, and Demyx all watched as Zexion's eyes closed and the boy sank to the ground. Demyx took a step forward, but this time, Axel put a restraining hand on his arm.
"Wait."
With difficulty, Zexion's body (for they could no longer be sure that it was Zexion's mind) regained some semblance of vertical posture. Its head tilted up toward the sky and remained motionless for many minutes.
By now, not only were the three exorcists were watching; Koen Schuyler and Anson Oblivion were observing 'Zexion's' progress. Jonathan looked ill.
Roxas couldn't help but wonder what was going to happen to him now that Victor had taken over Zexion.
Suddenly Zexion's hands flew to his head and a blood-curdling scream split the night. And then, as suddenly has it had started, it stopped.
Zexion began to speak. It was not German, and it was not English.
"Dutch?" Demyx whispered. "He never—he never speaks Dutch. Never. Only when…something's wrong."
"Ga weg!2" The cry split the night. Zexion's eyes flashed their original bright blue, and he threw himself to his feet.
Demyx shot forward, away from Axel's restraint and flew to Zexion's side. He seized the boy by the shoulders to support him.
"Zex, hey Zexion. Can you hear me? Zexion!"
"Dem…yx?" It was a faint, distracted whisper, but still an answer. Demyx let out a sigh of relief.
Roxas watched from a distance, aware of Axel's arm wrapped protectively around him. He, obviously, did not believe Zexion to be sound.
The blue-haired boy, supported by the blonde, began to walk toward them. Axel's arm tightened, and Roxas felt his heart slow, almost to a stop. But Zexion smiled tiredly at him, and his fears quieted. He pulled out of Axel's hold, despite the red head's quiet protest, and moved toward Zexion. Demyx gently slipped Zexion's pure black rosary off the boy's neck. Attaching it to a thin silver chain, he began to screw the cap off of a bottle that hung around his neck. Roxas had never noticed it before.
The three spirits watched as well. Anson looked bored, Jonathan looked hesitant and vengeful, and Koen looked murderous.
"He has no right to inhabit Zexion," he muttered furiously.
Demyx leaned Zexion against a tree for support while he prepared…whatever it was that he was doing. All of them seemed distracted. It was then that Zexion struck.
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Xemnas could no longer feel Zexion. He could feel and see Roxas as plain as day, but Zexion's mind and soul had become…warped. Anger and fear coursed through the bluenette's mind, and Xemnas shuttered to think about what must be going on. He longed to go to them and provided what help he could, but he knew it would be useless.
He knew what Zexion was doing. He could only hope the boy made it out alive.
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Zexion's hand pulled the knife out of his boot with surprising speed. Eyes glinting a hard brown, he pivoted on his heel and lunged toward Roxas. The knife did not waver from its course to Roxas's neck. This time, Axel was too slow.
But Demyx wasn't.
The knife slid into the blonde's shoulder and he bit his lip to keep from crying out. Instead, he slid the rosary on the silver chain into the bottle around his neck.
"Ego mos thee futurus tersus.3" The liquid in the bottle glowed slightly, and Demyx pulled the rosary free. It flashed clean and untarnished silver in the pale light cast from the moon.
Axel sprang forward and grabbed Zexion, freeing the knife from its position in Demyx's shoulder. The boy hissed in pain as he felt warm blood course down his arm, but he paid it no mind. He detached the chain and flung the rosary around Zexion's neck.
For a moment, the world stood still.
Then the screaming began. It was unlike anything Roxas had heard before, even from the other ghosts being exorcised. This sounded like torture.
Zexion began to struggle wildly to remove the rosary, but Axel had his arms pinned.
"What now?!" Axel shouted at Demyx.
"I don't know!" the blonde frantically replied.
They were both saved from doing anything when Zexion's struggles and screams came to an abrupt end. His eyes had returned to their normal blue, at least, for the moment. His face was slightly twisted in pain, but otherwise, he made to sign that anything was wrong. The rosary was burning the flesh of his neck.
The blue-haired boy grit his teeth and spoke, wrenching himself from Axel's grasp and grabbing a hold of the silver cross of his rosary.
"Mein Geist ist meine eigenen. Meine Gedanken gehören mir. Du haben keinen Ort hier. Mein Leben ist meine eigenen. Du besitzen mich nicht! Reinigen mein Geist, Körper, und Seele. Ich bin kostenlos. Vergessen ist ewig!4"
The wind picked up again, and Roxas took a step back, but couldn't avoid being knocked over. Something sharp bit into his arm. An unnatural howling began, softly at first, and then growing steadily louder until it was all that could be heard. The spirits disappeared.
And then Roxas remembered.
It was only something Zexion had mentioned in passing, months earlier when Roxas was still in the early stages of his training. It was called Possessio quod Discidium, or Possession and Separation. It was a ritual used when exorcists didn't know what a spirit was attached to. It shifted the focus of the spirit's energy to an object chosen by the exorcist. Simply put, this was the possession aspect of the ritual. The spirit is forced to connect with the object. Then, the spirit is exorcised, thus completing the separation. Unfortunately, the spell could hardly ever be used because the spirit had to be willing to have its focus moved.
In rare cases, Zexion had said, spirits had been bonded to humans; living, breathing human beings. But it was almost unheard of because in every living human, there resides a spirit. If another spirit is introduced, then they fight for dominance and the stronger spirit wins. The lesser spirit is not repelled from the body, so both reside in the human, constantly fighting for control. This struggle usually leads to death or madness. The act of bonding a spirit's focus to a living human is looked down upon as reckless and dangerous. A taboo.
When a spirit is bonded to a living human, the separation portion of the ritual must be handled with care. If botched, the one exorcising may exorcise both of the spirits out of the body, leaving the human still living, but in a state typical to that of being in a coma. They will never wake up. In rare cases, though, the spirit of the human may attempt to attach itself to something else while being exorcised, and then be shifted back into the body. Only 0.5% of the time these rituals occur does this succeed.
The only good thing that can occur from this ritual is that the spirit originally intended for exorcism will be exorcised forever.
So that was it. That was Zexion's back-up plan. To get Victor to be willing to shift his focus from whatever it was before to Zexion. Then Zexion would exorcise Victor away.
Roxas could see why Zexion hadn't told anyone else of his plan. Demyx, for sure, wouldn't have liked it and Xemnas would never stand for it. He would insist that there was another way.
But what if Zexion made a mistake?
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Xemnas felt the change immediately. The rest of the exorcists' heads snapped to the direction the howling was coming from.
"What—what is that?" Larxene asked, Voicing everyone's thoughts.
"That," Saix began sadly, "is what is left of Zexion."
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The room shook. Seifer could feel it tremble underneath his feet and swore.
"Can't those bastards do anything right?" he snarled. Hayner jogged over.
"What's happening? If it doesn't stop soon, were going to have to deal with panic." He was right. All around them the students who had stayed during summer break were looking around, trying to figure out what was happening. A few began to huddle together in fear, glancing at the exits. Seifer pushed his way up onto the stage.
"Everyone, please. Stay calm. We seem to be experiencing a slight earthquake, nothing to worry about. We are perfectly safe in here. Just calm down." He met Cid's eyes across the room.
What the hell is going on? his steely stare demanded. Cid just shrugged and shook his head. Seifer internally growled as he hopped off the stage.
The rumbling continued. Someone shrieked.
"Shit," he muttered as he walked over to join the other five Twilight Town residents. "They better wrap this up soon. There's no way in hell we can stop a stampede."
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As the wind died down, Roxas realized that Axel and Demyx had been thrown a few feet from Zexion. They were crumpled in a heap, and Roxas rushed over to see what had happened. The ghosts slowly reappeared. Roxas didn't notice that something was off.
"Axel, Demyx! Are you okay?" The red head stirred, but Demyx didn't move. "Demyx?" Roxas reached out to place a hand on the blonde's shoulder. His shoulder.
Demyx was still bleeding. Roxas hurriedly looked for something to stop it, but there was nothing.
Then Axel sat up.
"Roxas?" Roxas's head snapped to look at his boyfriend. There was just too much going on!
"Axel? Are you okay?"
The red head nodded. "Your arm is bleeding."
Right. His arm. Roxas peered down at his left arm and saw that the shoulder of his sleeve was in tatters. Perfect.
Gripping forcefully, Roxas ripped his sleeve off. He carefully tied it around Demyx's wound. He wasn't sure if it would help, but it certainly couldn't hurt. He moved to maneuver Demyx into a more comfortable position, but the boy shot up.
"Zexion!" he gasped and clutched his shoulder. He nearly fell from loss of blood and exhaustion. But he forced himself up. "Zexion!"
The three boys all turned to where Zexion lay. All around him was bare dirt. All of the grass had been ripped up and there were leaves strewn everywhere.
"Zexion!" Demyx called brokenly.
Koen hovered above the boy's prone figure, the sadness on his face evident.
"No," Roxas whispered.
Demyx pushed himself into a standing position. Once more he nearly fell, but he stumbled over to his love. Axel and Roxas were too shocked to move. Roxas had been so sure that Zexion wouldn't make a mistake.
"Zexion…" Demyx's tears streaked his face as he collapsed next to his boyfriend. "Dammit, Zexion, get up." Demyx shoved Zexion's shoulder. "Get up!"
The spirits watched sadly as Demyx vainly tried to rouse his friend.
Zexion's previously fully silver rosary slipped out of the front of his robe. Two of the beads were black. Demyx continued to try and wake his lover.
Eyes open, Zexion didn't move.
1 "Two spirits become one. Two souls come together; yours and mine. Thoughts join and a link is formed. We exist together."
2 "Leave!"
3 "I will thee to be clean."
4 "My mind is my own. My thoughts belong to me. You have no place here. My life is my own. You do not own me! Cleanse my spirit, body, and soul. I am free. Oblivion is eternal!"
Oh dear. Poor Zexion. T_T Why do I torture those I love? Anyway, the next chapter is in production, so stay tuned!
And, as always, REVIEW!