A.N. I'm back! I'm sorry I haven't updated, but school has been unbelievably hectic with rehearsals and auditions for the musical. Many thanks to my beta, Malik's Bunny Mika, without whom this chapter would have been at least another week late.
Warning: This chapter contains blood, swearing, threats, Roxas angst and Marluxia torturing.
Pairings: Ultimately Akuroku, Soriku, Zemyx (thanks to Dualism), Marxene (Marluxia and Larxene courtesy of ShadowAili) and Marluxia and Namine.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2 or anything associated. They all belong to Square Enix. As does Final Fantasy.
Roxas yawned, shifting onto his side and burrowing deeper into the mass of blankets that surrounded him. Closing his eyes firmly, he lay there for a few seconds before grunting in annoyance, unable to go back to sleep.
Throat dry, he swallowed once before dropping to his knees and spitting violently, wiping his tongue clean as he shuddered in distaste. Wiping his mouth, he held a liquid-covered finger up to his nose and sniffed, his nausea returning at the coppery tang of blood.
Wiping his hands upon the floor he shuddered, before realizing with a start that the marks left by the burning were gone. Casting his mind back, Roxas recalled how his broken arm had mysteriously healed before his…
Rape? No, he though with a faint blush. He would be lying if he said he had been entirely unwilling. But whatever it had been, his arm been healed once he woke up, and he could swear the taste of blood had been in his mouth then as well.
Looking around he realized that he was still in the room where his...encounter with the red-haired vampire had played itself out. That life on reasoning led him to thoughts of Axel, and he began to wonder what was going to happen to him.
Was this going to be his life from now on? Though he would deny it vehemently if asked, deep down he was honest enough to admit it wouldn't be the worst life imaginable by any means.
A sound caught his attention, footsteps coming from outside the door. Axel began to step through, and Roxas thought the harsh and arrogant lines of his face had almost softened, though that could have been a trick of the light.
Staring at the vampire, he wondered idly why it was that someone who was everything he didn't want in a lover could make him feel so good. As Axel stood there, about to speak, a flash of red caught his attention.
Lifting his eyes to the ceiling, Roxas gasped at the message written on the roof in flames. As Axel began to speak Roxas just stared at him with the words on the ceiling running through his mind.
Looking at the vampire with wide eyes, he whispered the message aloud. Two simple words.
"Opposites attract."
Sephiroth walked into his younger brothers room, taking in the flushes and mussed hair of Riku and Sora with a faint smile. He stepped over to them and put a hand on each one's shoulder, giving a gentle squeeze.
"I have decided." He said, "I lost the person who was dearest to me under circumstances similar to those you," he nodded at Sora, "Find yourself in, and so I will help you."
He held up a hand to stem their thanks.
"However," Sephiroth said grimly, "You should rethink your reaction to supernatural possibilities. There are more things in heaven and earth, after all, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Snapping his fingers, he called Riku's pillow into the air, smirking at their awestruck expressions.
"Therefore, gentleman," He announced, "We will be doing a patrol around the neighbourhood tonight, and tomorrow we will build on the training in combat and magic, if you have the skill, that we will now begin."
Sephiroth had already made up his mind; if they were to come up against a vampire while rescuing Roxas, they would be prepared. He had seen enough of his friends killed by these monsters. It was time to fight back.
Axel looked down at Roxas, amused at the signs of the blond's reaction to his blood.
"Roxas," he said, "I have news for you."
Walking over to the chest-of-drawers at one side of the bed he pulled out Roxas' clothing. Axel handed it to him with a smile.
"You're free to go. I will come and get you later, but for now, enjoy the outside world."
Unlocking the door, he stood to one side, ushering his 'guest' through the red-carpeted corridors of his mansion. Opening the door he stepped outside, protected from the sun by a thick layer of grey clouds covering the sky.
"It's about eleven in the morning." He said, shaking Roxas' hand, "It's been wonderful having you, but I'm afraid I need the house to myself for a while."
Giving a small smile he waved Roxas off, calling out as the blond went.
"Town is about three kilometres to the east. And Roxy? If you tell anyone about this, I know you're aware of how upset I'll be. I will hunt you down, and we will 'hang out' together again soon, and the more upset you make me, the less you're going to enjoy it." Axel's cruel smile widened. "Have fun. Bye!"
With a wave of his hand the door swang shut. Snapping his fingers, he disappeared in a burst of flames, his last sight of the area Roxas trudging away over the flat-lands. Arriving in a back-street alley outside his town-house in Hollow Bastion. He headed straight to the bedroom and settled down to a long relaxed sleep.
Sephiroth lay in his room, tired after the training session earlier. Shockingly, despite the odds they both had the gift, and so he revised his estimate of their chance of surviving a fight accordingly. Sharpening his katana, the silver-haired man sat quietly, not seeing the point in sleeping before the night patrol with the amateurs.
As he fell into a trance-like state, focusing only on the smooth motion of the whetstone against the blade, he his breathing began to deepen, and his heartbeat slowed as he entered a meditative state. A noise shocked Sephiroth out of his trance, his eyes darting around the room to find the source.
On his bedside table, his eyes fixed on his phone, screen lit up and ringing wildly. Uncoiling and walking softly over to it, he looked at it only to see a number he didn't recognize. Rolling his eyes he ignored the prank-caller, whoever they were, and returned to sharpening his sword.
Zexion smirked.
Sephiroth was being stubborn, and apparently mundane methods weren't going to cut it.
The slate-haired vampire shrugged, waving his hand and conjuring an illusion of himself in Sephiroth's room. Face hidden under his hood he smiled.
"Sephiroth," Zexion said amusedly, "Its lovely to meet you at last. However, this is not a polite visit. I offered you a chance to live, but you turned it down. Rest assured I will not be so forgiving in the future."
Sephiroth stared at him.
"What are you doing here?" The human demanded, "Why do you care about Roxas?"
"Personally," The Cloaked Schemer said, "I don't, as you humans put it, 'give a damn', but there are deeper forces at work here. The last time one of us got attached to a human, the results weren't ideal. I refuse to stand by and see a repeat of that fiasco."
Zexion's eyes hardened.
"I can tell you have something to say, but keep it to yourself. I'm not interested, I am simply telling you, continue down this path and you will perish. Axel is not as merciful as I am."
With a flash of violet light and a burst of smoke, the vampire was gone.
Sephiroth still sat on the bed, thinking the conversations over. He swiftly came to the conclusion that this vampire was bluffing. He had sworn an oath to protect his extended family, and he meant to keep it. Checking the time, he gathered together his equipment before heading out of the house to meet Riku and Sora at their meeting place. As he strode towards the town gardens, he felt a strange sense of foreboding. Worried for his brother and Sora, he sped up, running swiftly through the night like a phantom on the breeze.
Marluxia walked through the Twilight Town Botanic Gardens, Namine by his side. Pointing out various plants to her as she told stories about good times she'd spent in the park, the rose-haired vampire enjoyed himself, basking in the beauty of the surroundings.
Excusing himself, he walked over to a rosebush, a casual wave of his hand causing a large crimson bloom to open. Turning around to give it to Namine, Marluxia blinked in shock as his lover disappeared in a flash of blue light.
As he spun around trying to spot his girlfriend, he growled as he saw Namine being held in a chokehold by a dark-robed figure. With a prayer of thanks that the darkness would forestall any awkward explanations later, Marluxia snarled, teeth elongating into fangs.
Holding a hand behind him, he stared at the face hidden under the hood, surprised that even his enhanced vampiric eyesight couldn't pierce through the shadow. Marluxia attempted to conceal the unease he felt, the web of briars weaving themselves together in his hand boosting his confidence.
Grass began to reach up to him, the green shoots weaving themselves into a robe as Marluxia dropped his human form, no longer needing it. Skin blanching unnaturally pale; his rose-pink hair began to shine with its true lustre. The vampire's eyes gleamed as the blue of his irises swirled to give way to their original olive green.
Brown grey roots wove themselves together to form a sharp blade protruding from the mouth of a human skull; the rose briars that formed the scythes handle melding to his skin and sprouting blood-red blooms. Marluxia straightened, eyes fixed on the figure holding his lover.
"Let her go." He said softly, his voice disturbingly inhuman, earthy and far too alive.
"Why should I?" A familiar voice replied, quick-silver and crackling with malice. Eyes cold, Larxene pushed back her hood, an electrified kunai sparking into existence in front of Namine's throat.
"Dear me Aconite," she hissed, eyes icy with rage. "I leave you alone for a few decades and you replace me."
Defying gravity, strands of her electrified hair began to rise in a way reminiscent of antennae, looking almost like bolts of lightning.
"And not only that, but with a filthy HUMAN WHORE!"
A black bolt of lightning blasted down from the roiling storm ahead, only to slam into the thick boughs of a tree suddenly shading Marluxia.
"You were gone Larxene," He said sadly, "I waited for you, but you were gone. In my grief I moved on, and you need to accept that I no longer love you."
"Moved on?" She said curiously. "Well then, I'll just have to win you back. You moved on when I was gone, so it seems simple enough to steal your affections back."
As her cruel smile widened, Marluxia realized her intention and desperately snapped his fingers, a hail of rose-petals whipping towards Larxene from the blooms on the scythes handle as she drew the kunai across Namine's neck, slitting her throat and sending lightning racing through her body just as the blossoms reached her.
Smirking cruelly as Marluxia dropped to his knees, the Savage Nymph chuckled as the garden wrapped itself around his grief-stricken frame, the cuts all over her body already beginning to heal.
"If I can't have you," Larxene whispered, "Then no one can."
Well, what did you think? Loved it? Hated it? Review and tell me.
Have a fantastic day.
Azrael