Roxas blinked awake at the sound of people running and jumping around on the floor above him.
"Sweet Kingdom Hearts—what now?" the teen groaned as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head. It was aching from where he had fallen out of bed and slept the rest of the night on the floor.
"Seal? Seal, wake up!" Roxas said to the lump on Axille's bed. Standing up and striding over, he shook the covers and shouted in a much louder tone.
"Get up! Get up already!"
"Roxas, I'm over here." Roxas looked up.
Axille, Makhaira in hand, was standing guard at the open door, looking out. The Makhaira's blade was resting across her chest in a kind of salute, as if at the ready.
"Axille, what are you doing?" Roxas asked, walking over to her. "Axille?"
Without looking at him, Axille stiffened and launched herself into the hall. Roxas chased after her, Keyblade pulled from the darkness, and looked to see what was making his young friend so agitated.
His question was answered when he looked out and saw Axille jumping backwards, away from a Heartless. A Barrier Master, to be exact. And, in looking around, Roxas could see soldiers of all shapes and degree running around.
"Heartless? In the castle?" the Keybearer hissed as he ran forward and slapped the Heartless' book away from it. The Barrier Master drooped, stunned, and Roxas began hammering away at it while Axille went at the soldiers. The rapier whistled faintly through the air as Axille slashed, lunged, and jumped around the quick-moving Heartless, getting into the rhythm of copying their attack patterns.
The Master shook itself awake and began slowly moving towards its book, and it was all Roxas could do to keep it from getting there. Breaking concentration for a moment, Axille kicked the book further down the corridor and went at a Commander as it changed course to get at Roxas.
The Key of Destiny soon realized, after ten minutes of repetitive, unending combat, that something was brutally wrong.
The Heartless should have disappeared by now.
"Axille!" he shouted as he barely knocked the Barrier Master unconscious again, "Something's making them stronger than normal!"
"Lo so!" Axille called back as she jumped to avoid a mass Deserter attack, "I know!"
When a Sergeant turned on him and attacked Roxas, he knew they were outnumbered.
"Axille, we've got to get out of here! We can find some other members and see if we can figure out what's going on!" he told the younger kid.
Axille looked loth to run from a fight in her own home, but she did as she was told.
When Roxas opened a portal and managed to get Axille through it, the two partners fled.
Behind them, the Heartless multiplied all over the area, drowning the normally pearl-white corridor in choking darkness.
Axel and Demyx met up with Xigbar and Xaldin as the two founding members convened in a Heartless-infested corridor. It was as if every single hallway was full of a different species of some Heartless or another; this one was full of mages.
"Xaldin, Scarlet Tango on your left!" Xigbar shouted as he jumped past Xaldin, letting off an arrow at the red Heartless that had appeared beside the Lancer's ear. The Emblem faded into darkness, releasing a heart, but causing another three to take its place.
"What's going on?" Demyx asked as he ran to help the two. Axel followed closely behind, his chakrams appearing in his hands like two flaming wheels.
"Heartless invasion. Happened while most everyone was sleeping, too." Xigbar explained shortly as he spun around and shot the Pink Concerto that was menacing him.
"Why are Wonderland Heartless in here?" Axel demanded as he shot a ball of fire at a Striped Aria. It started to spin vertically and tumbled all through the room, bumping into other mages as it was slowly eaten away by the fire that would not leave its side. Eventually, it disappeared.
"Forget that! Why are Heartless in here?" Xigbar shot back.
The Freeshooter ducked as Xaldin hurled a lance over his head. The spear embedded itself in a Green Requiem that, in a burst of inky smoke, disappeared.
Demyx pulled his sitar free from the darkness and began strumming out a complicated series of notes on it. Water clones appeared in bright blue flashes of magic as Demyx belted out his signature line (Dance, water, dance!) and sent them at the enemy. A quintet of Yellow Operas, however, dispatched the twenty-something clones Demyx had managed to conjure in a matter of seconds. Displeased and taken off his guard, Demyx retreated to the wall and strummed out another army of clones, spreading them out to take up the available space in the corridor.
Axel fought around the clones as he went for those weakest to his element; the Pink Concertos, Striped Arias, Spring Metals, and Turquoise Marches made easy targets.
Xigbar was teleporting all over the place, his guns seeming to never run out of ammo. He appeared on the ceiling above a team of Crimson Jazzes and Black Ballades and managed to cut down the group's number by about half, and the one-eyed Nobody ducked to another corner of the room as a cascade of hearts traveled upwards, disappearing into the ceiling.
Xaldin's six lances spun around him like a carousel of unmerciful death as the Lancer went at the invaders with everything he had. He and the Heartless teams were matched; he pushed back at them, they pushed against him, neither side asking nor giving any quarter. But more Heartless kept appearing. For every one the Nobodies took down, five more seemed to fill their places. The hallway was quickly becoming too suffocating for the four Nobodies to fight in, much less move in.
Demyx was the first to get his senses about him and flee. He went to aid the others in another part of the castle. They would need him, he knew. Demyx may not have been the smartest Nobody alive, but even he could tell that whoever had sent these Heartless on them...wanted all of them dead.
Xigbar, Xaldin, and Axel caught on to this eventually and, faced with impossible odds, had no choice but to leave as well, forfeiting yet another portion of their domain to those beings they had previously, seemingly controlled. The Nobodies retreated, each with their own bitter thoughts and goals.
Axel went to locate Roxas and Axbrem. And consequently, Axille. He wanted his protege and best friend by his side to fight with. Though, and he couldn't deny himself this...he didn't want Axille around. The kid was a detriment to him. A nuisance, in fact. She couldn't fight, and always needed someone there to hold her hand. She'd only be crying her eyes out through this entire siege, and though he usually put up with it for Roxas' sake, Axel did not want to deal with it right now.
Xigbar went searching for Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion. Maybe the three geniuses knew what was going on or how to stop it. If nothing else, Xigbar thought it would be good to start there.
Xaldin went hunting for another group of Heartless to fight, preferably with Amenxtthe at his side to fight. If not her, then another member. Luxord, maybe. Or Saix. Whoever he chose, the Lancer knew that the entire Organization only had a short time to stop the Heartless threat—or risk losing everything.
Amenxtthe dashed down the hallway of the seventh floor, Belxeo gliding along in her wake. So many things were happening right now! Belxeo had awoken her with a loud alarm call that he only used in the face of imminent danger, and Amenxtthe could hear crashing, banging, and screams erupting all over the castle!
Her staff held ready in her fist, Amenxtthe barreled down the corridor in the direction of the Hall of Empty Melodies, where a particular cacophony of noise was coming from.
Upon entrance, Belxeo let out a loud squawk of indignation that matched the furious shout that forced itself out of Amenxtthe's mouth. Axbrem, Xiyak, Knexedy, and Leixym had migrated to the room to continue fighting, and slowly the rest of the Organization were making their way there as well. To meet their adversaries, the Heartless were arriving as well. But neither side could tell if this would truly be the final encounter or not.
Amenxtthe ran to join the fray as the other young Nobodies were thrown to different corners of the room by a Red Armor. Leixym's sword flashed a bright blue before a wave of salty ocean water crashed into the foe, shorting it out. As the different body parts scrambled about and went haywire, Amenxtthe was on the scene, targeting the flailing hands. Xiyak went to help her, while Axbrem and Knexedy focused on the feet. Leaving Leixym to the head, the five girls synced their attacks perfectly so that no one part was given any more or any less treatment than the opposite. When the body put itself back together again, it was considerably weaker than it was. But still, it wasn't enough.
The powered up Heartless, like all of its allies scattered throughout the castle, was almost five times as strong as it usually was. Whoever was directing this entire ordeal, they were not a force to be reckoned with.
Axel, Roxas, and Demyx appeared in three simultaneous flashes of smoke. Behind them came Axille, Anix, Kyrox, Saix, Marluxia, Xavier, and Xigbar. The Freeshooter hadn't been able to force his way down to Nothing's Call, where Vexen's laboratory was located, and so had decided to rejoin the fight for the castle.
Oddly enough, Xemnas was nowhere to be seen.
Amenxtthe found this rather odd. Sure, the Superior liked to leave things to his expendable underlings and keep his hands clean, but surely even he would come to aid if he risked having his castle and all of his efforts crash to the ground, with no hope of pulling it back together?
Was the Superior away because he didn't care?
Did important business call him away?
Is he truly that uncaring or unconcerned of the Nobodies he's brought together?
These questions and about a hundred more swirled in the head of the avian girl as she sent Belxeo forward to distract the Red Armor as it came at them again.
Meanwhile, Axel, Roxas, and Demyx were working as a perfect trio to fight back against the onslaught of a Chill Ripper. With Axel's fire eating steadily away at its health, with Roxas and Demyx chipping away all the while, the three were proving to be a wonderful team.
Axille, Anix, Kyrox, and Saix found themselves pushed together in a corner and menaced by a powered-up Veil Lizard.
The Veil Lizard, true to its name, disappeared. Unnervingly enough, none of the four Nobodies could even chance a guess at where it might be.
It announced itself when its eyes lit up and specks of light started forming and gathering around the two glowing spheres. Seeing this, the Nobodies all dispersed and dodge-rolled away from the scene, just as the Lizard released its beams and the two rays arced towards each other, cutting across the paths the Nobodies had been on. Kyrox could feel the heat of one as it passed over his head, it was so close.
Tracking where it had come from, Saix quickly slipped over to where the eyes had shown itself and given the seemingly empty air a good, solid WHACK with his Claymore. The Lizard appeared in a psychedelic assortment of rainbow colors as it stumbled back, surprised.
The three younger Nobodies ran at the Lizard and drowned it in a salvo of sound, dark magic, and its own attacks as numbers XV, XVII, and XXV jumped on the chance to kill it off.
Beneath the attack, the Veil Lizard's forearm flailed out and caught Axille by her chest. The momentum was enough to send both the girl and her weapon spinning away from each other and they hit the wall with a thud and a clatter.
When gravity took it to the floor, the mask disappeared and Axille stumbled to her feet, too dazed to call it back again. As if sensing her disorientation, the Veil Lizard turned on the younger Nobody and disappeared. But no one had to play the guessing game as to where it was going. It was headed straight for Axille.
Shaking her head, Axille saw Kyrox and Anix running towards her and felt the hot breath of the Veil Lizard as she was suddenly pushed up against the wall. She couldn't see where it was, but she didn't have to. Axille could recall the basic anatomy of the Heartless from fighting it, and so watched for the light rays.
When they appeared, Axille had only a split second to move. Pressing her hands against the wall and pushing off in the same moment, Axille aimed her feet forward and kicked the Lizard square in the chest, knocking it backwards, into visibility, and off of her.
Once she was freed, Axille summoned her mask to her again and held it in a defensive position, waiting for the Lizard to attack.
What she hadn't counted on, however, was it ducking down and doing a spin kick, right underneath her legs. She was thrown off balance and when she landed, she felt herself being crushed and suffocated by the Lizard's tremendous weight. The table had been turned, and the gathering waves of light at the Lizard's eyes warned of her impending disappearance.
Her arm and weapon trapped beneath her and her entire body squashed by the Lizard, Axille could only watch in horror as the Lizard reared up and readied its attack. She shut her eyes tight and waited for the emptiness...
CLANG!
Axille's eyes opened in an instant. All at once, the Lizard was stumbling backwards with Axel repeatedly throwing his chakrams at it. Roxas and Demyx were finishing off the Chill Ripper and Axille sprang to her feet, watching in fascination as Axel depleted the Veil Lizard's health, with Kyrox and Anix ever in the background, helping him finish.
The simultaneous disappearance of the Red Armor, Chill Ripper, and Veil Lizard sent the Hall into spiraling silence as each Nobody took a momentary reprieve.
Axille was breathing heavily, getting over the shock (or was it pseudo shock?) of nearly being killed, but her breath was steadily growing easier.
She looked at Axel with wide eyes and was about to say a word of extreme gratitude when the redhead suddenly turned on her, his green eyes dancing with a furious blaze.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" he shouted. The volume of his voice was enough to send Axille a step back. She could only stare in fear and confusion as Axel advanced, venting his spleen out to the girl.
"Why can't you do anything right?" he demanded, "You can't fight, can't protect yourself—must you always need someone to save you?"
"Axel—" Roxas began. Axel cut across him, as if he hadn't heard.
"And it's not just that, either!" the furious redhead continued, "Why were we saddled with such a useless kid? You're too young to do anything right, you can't use your so-called 'element' for anything, and what's worse, you drag everyone down with you!"
Somehow, Axille knew it was the stress of the day that was making Axel scream at her like this, but that still didn't erase the hurt. But despite the miniscule trace of knowing he was just irrational right now, Axille just couldn't cling to it. As Axel just shouted at her, cursing her ability, her age, her uselessness, Axille found her trust in knowing Axel didn't mean any of it fading.
"Axel—!" Roxas said, more urgently this time. He had seen the faint tears pricking at Axille's eyes and while he knew Axel was just being pseudo emotional right now, they didn't need any of this. "Axel, leave her alone! She's doing her best!"
Now Axel turned on him.
"Her best isn't enough! Her 'best' is going to kill her, and we'll have to clean up the mess afterwards!" he exclaimed, "She can't do anything! Why are you standing up for her like this?"
"Because if I don't, no one will!" Roxas shouted back.
"Guys!" Kyrox shouted, raising his voice above the two. Axbrem and her comrades had arrived by now, and the scene was becoming too large for anyone's liking. "Enough! We don't need this right now! There are still Heartless in the castle, and we have to focus on hurting them, not each other!"
"He's right!" Demyx said, speaking up for them all, "The Heartless are our main priority! Leave Axille alone, Axel, she did her absolute best!"
The mullet-headed Nocturne turned to Axille and saw her tear-stained face looking back at him. No other words were shared as Axille turned and ran from the room, throwing herself out into the maelstrom of Heartless that awaited her outside. Maybe it was suicide, or she was just running away, but she was gone.
"Axel—you're a jerk, you know that?" Roxas said harshly as he ran out after her.
"Not cool, man. You went too far." Leixym added as she too, left to find Axille.
"Make yourself useful, and instead of breaking us down, go jump off the Altar of Naught, will you?" Xiyak growled as she disappeared in a puff of smoke.
One by one, the Nobodies disappeared to different parts of the castle, and soon the pyro was left alone.
He looked up at the sound of faint, barely discernible clapping. A black cloak swished towards him and Axel could only look at the figure approaching him with an unfazed expression on his face, though underneath, a hurricane of anger and regret reigned.
"Well done, Axel...well done indeed." the new arrival said. Their voice was soft, smooth, but was it real or fake? The truth, or a front to lull him into a false state of security?
Axel could only stand in stiff uncaring as the new figure dropped their hood, revealing the traitorous countenance beneath the dark, secretive material...