Since Pence's death, the group had not been the same. Sora still pushed his sadness down as a gesture to his squad, but they all knew he was just putting on a mask.
The document which declared independence for the colonies was finally signed the summer of 1776, but the colonies had already thrown themselves into war.
Around September, Sora and the others had been moved to New York. Roxas had not seen Prompto since the war began, only received letters at random times; however, the letters became rarer and rarer until they had assumed the worst. Last he heard he was spying on the British. During this time, Roxas volunteered as a spy in hopes of finding out what happened to his brother.
The night Roxas volunteered, Sora stepped in front of him. "Roxas, you can't be serious!"
"Sora, if you had a brother, you would do the same," Roxas dismissed, striding past him.
Sora hurried to stand in front of him again. "For all you know, Prompto is still alive!"
"I don't care, I have to find out for myself!" Roxas insisted.
Sora looked over at Axel, who reclined in the grass next to their measly fire. "Aren't you going to stop him?"
"He's reckless, what can I say? You know I'd do the same for dear old Reno here." Axel shrugged.
Sora pursed his lips.
"There's a British encampment not far from where we are; I'm going to infiltrate the camp and find out what happened to Prompto." Roxas decided.
"What if you don't find anything?" Sora offered gently.
Roxas shrugged. "Then I suppose you were right."
With careful planning, Roxas gathered the needed materials for a convincing disguise. He returned home to see Great Uncle Cid and Prompto's wife, both of whom regarded him as if they had seen a ghost before embracing him.
"Roxas, it's so good to see that you're alive," Cindy said. "I can't remember the last time I've seen you."
Uncle Cid nodded in agreement.
"Uncle," Roxas said, "I need to borrow some supplies."
Reluctantly, Cid supplied Roxas with what he needed to disguise himself as a wagon repairman.
"Have you heard from Prompto lately?" Roxas asked before leaving, perhaps for good.
Cindy bowed her head quietly, and Cid shook his head sadly. "But on the contrary, I haven't heard anything about his death, either."
That gave Roxas an inkling of hope, but not enough to convince him to give up his mission.
"Good luck, Roxas," Cid offered.
"Please bring Prompto back to us," Cindy added.
Roxas nodded to them before disappearing into the night.
He arrived at the British encampment the next morning, showing his papers to an officer before being allowed in. His nerves itching his neck, he tread with an awkward pace to "fix" the broken wagons.
Soldiers around him eyed him at first, only to disregard them and carry on with their duties. One particular soldier gave Roxas a glance that sent chills up his spine, but still Roxas nodded in acknowledgement and continued his work. Roxas mentally recorded the man's appearance: blond hair pulled back in the usual ponytail, bluish-green eyes, and a jagged scar that ran from his left eyebrow to just beneath his right eye.
"Seifer, leave the man alone," another soldier ahead called out to the blond.
"Right, Rai," Seifer agreed, trailing after two other soldiers: one - Rai, he supposed - with black hair, brown eyes, and a stocky build; the other with silver hair, eyes the color of blood, and a frame so slim he could've been a woman. At the sight of his silver hair, Roxas almost believed him to be Riku.
Roxas finished his work and continued to the next wagon.
This continued for the next few weeks, which he escaped battles narrowly under his guise.
Those soldiers whose appearances he had memorized kept watch over him, making his skin crawl. The silver-haired soldier with the red eyes, whose name he learned was Fuu, kept especially good watch over him. Fuu reminded him of a snake, waiting for its prey to make an escape before snapping it up in its jaws.
At this point he had heard nothing about Prompto, until a single comment from Seifer ignited hope in his veins: "You look a lot like that bastard we captured in the woods several weeks ago."
Roxas swallowed cautiously. "Wh-what happened to him?"
"The slippery bastard got away," Seifer growled, kicking the wagon Roxas was crouched near.
So Prompto had been captured, but he got away. Maybe he was out searching for Roxas right now...
Despite his knowledge of Prompto's whereabouts, he decided to stay in the camp in case Prompto returned in another disguise. During his stay, he caught word that the British had captured New York City, and his stomach churned at the thought of Axel and the others not making out alive.
He picked up knowledge of British forces moving on to Manhattan, and his blood chilled at the thought of Uncle Cid and Cindy waiting for him and Prompto to return. He decided he would return to the colonial encampment with the details before they set off. Unfortunately, he contracted a cold during his time in the encampment, and he slithered away to the infirmary to nurse his illness on his own.
As he lay in his cot, mind fogged with thoughts of returning to Axel's arms, someone stumbled into the infirmary. He sat up slightly to find Fuu stumbling into the infirmary, blood seeping out of his red jacket. He didn't seem to notice Roxas in a cot as he plopped himself down two cots away from Roxas. The other soldier slept soundly as Fuu clattered to find the proper medical supplies. Roxas wondered why Fuu wasn't waiting to be treated by the doctors.
Fuu hastily applied a wet cloth to his side, letting the blood seep out into the fabric. Hastily, he took the bandages and began wrapping up his wound, when Roxas noticed the bandages around Fuu's chest. The only blood that had touched those bandages were from his new wound...or rather, her wound.
Fuu looked up into Roxas's eyes, and his skin turned cold. He rolled over to the side of his cot where the chamber pot sat, and he retched into it. He rolled back over, wiping his mouth, to find Fuu standing over him, the barrel of a gun in his face.
"I can't risk you telling them my little secret," she said, cocking the pistol in her hand.
"P-please, don't kill me...I won't tell anyone, I promise!" Roxas pleaded.
"Convincing," Fuu replied flatly, her finger itching on the trigger. "But in exchange, confirm something for me."
Roxas stared at her blankly.
"You're no repairman," Fuu decided, "no wagon would break so easily; how do you think I got my wound? Who are you, really?"
Roxas gulped back bile. "I just came here looking for my brother."
"Your brother?" Fuu repeated, her hand unwavering.
"The soldier you captured weeks ago," Roxas said, "his name was Prompto."
"Are you affiliated with the Continental Army?" Fuu demanded.
Before Roxas could answer, Seifer and Rai called out Fuu's name from outside the infirmary. Fuu hissed a curse, stashing her weapon and tying up her jacket. She shot Roxas a vicious glance before rolling into another cot, clutching her side.
"Fuu!" Rai called out, going to her bedside. "Are you alright? You were bleeding badly!"
"I'm fine," Fuu assured, "but...that guy over there..." She nodded her head toward Roxas, and Roxas shivered. "He told me he was a spy."
"I didn't say that!" Roxas protested, but Seifer met him at his bedside.
"I've always been suspicious of you," Seifer said, dragging Roxas out of bed by his hair. He threw Roxas outside, where Roxas attempted to scramble away, only to fail. Seifer's fists collided with Roxas' body, while Roxas desperately attempted to fight back with trembling fists.
Seifer kicked him in the stomach, and Roxas coughed up a mixture of vomit and blood. He curled up into a ball, but Seifer wasn't finished. He kicked Roxas in the back, while Roxas quietly pleaded for mercy.
Finally, Seifer finished tormenting him and yanked his hair again. Their noses just inches apart, Seifer grinned evilly. "We're going to see the captain."
He bound Roxas' wrists and forced him to his feet, pushing him all the way to the captain's tent. He peeled back the fabric covering the entrance, and he thrust Roxas forward, throwing him at the feet of Captain Sephiroth.
The soldier beside Captain Sephiroth paled when he met eyes with battered and bloody Roxas: Riku.
"Sir, this man confessed that he is a spy," Seifer stated.
Captain Sephiroth looked over Roxas, while Roxas trembled and desperately held onto the control of his stomach.
Roxas stared up at Riku, silently pleading. Riku's own stomach turned; Roxas' eyes were so much like Sora's.
"Lockhart, do you know this man?" Sephiroth asked, noticing their eye contact.
"No, sir," Riku replied.
Captain Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at Roxas. "Who are you?"
Roxas spat a fleck of blood into the dirt. Seifer kicked Roxas in the back again, expelling more coughing from him until he had produced a puddle of blood.
"That will be enough, Seifer," Sephiroth dismissed. He turned to Roxas again. "State your name."
"My name is Roxas," Roxas confessed.
"You look familiar..." Sephiroth mused.
Roxas swallowed the blood in his mouth. "My brother was the soldier you captured weeks ago; I came looking for him."
"Ah yes, Prompto Argentum." Sephiroth let the name roll off his tongue salaciously. "Pity he ran...I had a special kind of punishment for him..."
"What were you gonna do to him?" Roxas demanded.
"Nothing that is of any importance to you," Sephiroth replied, "although...you will do as a replacement..."
"Kill me if you must," Roxas decided, "I'll die knowing I died for my country, and for the ones I loved."
Axel...goodbye...
"Oh no, the punishment was far less forgiving than death." Sephiroth took a step toward Roxas.
Roxas' body trembled, and his fever was making his head spin. "Then...what were you going to do...?"
Sephiroth ignored the question. "Lockhart, clean up this mess. Then, when I'm finished with him, execute him."
Roxas shot Riku another pleading glance, but Riku bowed his head in shame. "Yes, sir."
The captain waited for Riku to mop the blood Roxas had coughed up, and the fabric of the entrance swayed as Riku left.
Sephiroth lifted Roxas to his feet, slamming him onto a table where he was just inches away from a compilation of secret notes. A cloth was pulled over his eyes, then over his mouth.
"Don't want you seeing our plans now, do we?" Sephiroth chuckled, and reached to untie Roxas' trousers.
What seemed like hours passed, until Roxas was discarded outside the tent, a sobbing, bloody mess. His trousers were tied haphazardly and still hung loosely around his aching hips.
Riku, who had been standing guard, ushered Roxas gently to an empty area to perform the execution. Roxas met eyes with Riku again, pleading silently; he didn't have the strength to beg aloud, his voice strained from screaming. Riku reached for his pistol, when a rustling in the forest behind Roxas grabbed his attention.
His hand drifted closer to the weapon, grabbing it and pointing it at the woods.
Silence held the two on edge, until a flash of blond cut through the bushes. Riku fired his gun, missing and hitting the dirt. He reloaded the gun, but he stopped to find another pistol being pointed at him.
Prompto's arm twitched, the cocked pistol shifting. He kept it aimed at the silver-haired soldier, the soldier's intense, sea green eyes watching, waiting.
"Please, I'm begging you," Prompto pleaded, "let my brother go. Take me again, if you must. Roxas is only a kid, he wasn't meant for this..."
Riku's eyes drifted from Prompto to huddled Roxas, who trembled in his brother's arms. Blood dripped from his body onto the dirt.
"Please, Riku...I'm asking on behalf of Sora..." Prompto demanded.
Riku's eyes locked onto Roxas, and Roxas drew in a sharp breath.
Roxas knew that, in his own eyes, Riku saw Sora.
"Riku..." Roxas whispered, his voice barely audible.
Riku lowered his pistol, and turned his back on the boys. "Go, both of you, before someone far less merciful finds you."
Prompto stumbled to his feet, yanking Roxas to his.
"Thank you, thank you!" Prompto sobbed.
"And Roxas?"
"Yes?" Roxas could barely produce the single word.
"Tell him...tell him I still love him." Riku finished.
Roxas nodded with whatever strength he had left. "Of course."
"Now, run."
Prompto hoisted Roxas over his shoulder, and the two disappeared into the woods.
I've been waiting to write that Prompto scene for a while, hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did