Last Train

by frogsteak

AU. In an attempt to start over, Axel kidnaps his best friend and flees the ghettos of Kobe. His brothers are sent after them under the Superior's orders, but for reasons Axel could never have imagined.

19. Forget me not

Title: Last Train
Author: nikki_ntm
Beta reader: Shattered Apocalypse
Chapters: 19/20
Genre: Drama/Adventure/Suspense
Rating: M for language, violence and disturbing themes such as bullying, crime and disease.
Characters: Axel, Saïx, Larxene and Marluxia amongst others (Lea, Isa, Seifer and Org. 13).
Pairings: Implied past/present/future pairings, mainly past Axel/Larxene, current Leon/Arlene, and implied one-sided Isa/Lea.
Setting: Modern Japan (yakuza-themed)

x

Chapter 19: Forget-me-not

Arlene had cuffed Marluxia's hands behind his back. He was too heavy to move closer to the pipes where she had been tied up earlier and she was afraid of him waking up. She had the upper hand, she knew that much and yet she gripped the Taser gun tighter in fear that it would slip out of her hand and render her helpless if Demyx and Xigbar decided to walk back in.

She had found the box fuse for this room and she looked at the cables going from one side to another, giving life to the projector that showed nothing but awful things on the wall, things that her father was responsible for and things that she had lived through herself.

Without another thought she gripped the cables and tore them out of the box. The projector died and the emergency lights lit up in the room and she turned around to see that there was nothing being displayed on the wall, the screams, and voices of indifference had gone silent and she could finally breathe easy.

Marluxia moved slightly and Arlene hurried up to him, ready with the Taser gun in case he tried to get up. She was strong, but she was certain that Marluxia could easily beat her in physical strength.

"Liam." She kicked at his foot lightly to see if he was awake.

It was strange the way they had come to this. He had just been one of her many costumers. Sure, he had that little extra something, that dangerous glint in his eyes and even a sophisticated air about him, but he had been a costumer nonetheless.

He had been in Japan for two weeks when he first stopped by the hostess club down at the harbor of Kobe. Liam Rau had been a member of the triads long before he became Marluxia of the Ingô-family, and maybe he had been a nice guy once upon a time, but he had always managed to frighten Arlene with his imposing presence and that same attribute had been appealing.

"You're going to regret this, Arlene. Just like you'll regret every other decision in your life."

"I don't regret anything," Arlene mumbled as she reached for the rope she just had noticed behind a stack of books on the table Marluxia was leaning against.

"Yeah, you do. You regret being with Axel, you regret waiting for him, you regret the life you got into and you regret falling for that new idiot who'd sell you for a bottle of water."

He winced as his brain registered the pain from the hits to his body. Xigbar never pulled on his punches and for a split second Arlene allowed herself to worry for the beating Marluxia had taken, but she quickly shook it off.

"Where's Leon?"

Marluxia chuckled and looked up at Arlene, "Gone. Probably to a place where you'll never find him."

"What did you do to him, Liam? If you've hurt him –" Her voice trembled and she turned up the voltage on the Taser gun unconsciously as she glared at Marluxia with spite.

"Hurt him? All I did was to tell him the truth, Arlene. It was all it took. He looked tough, I'll even admit that I thought that I would have to pull out my big guns to get rid of him, but the notion of your past life and the double life you've been living now was enough to make him run."

She didn't want to see that look of pity in Marluxia's deep blue eyes when he gazed at her, she preferred him to be cruel so that she could hate him instead of making her hate Leon. Marluxia wasn't lying to her, he had done many things over the years, but he had never once lied to her and maybe that was one of the things that frightened her the most about him.

"I wasn't living a double life! You brought this on to me, I didn't need to know that Axel was on the run! I didn't need to get dragged into your stupid plan of revenge! I was living a good life before you came in and wrecked everything!" She tried to hold back a sob.

"You dropped everything when you thought Axel was in danger, Arlene. You agreed to my plan when you thought that you could make him pay if only a part of everything he had done to you. You were still living the life you thought you had left behind."

"Either way, it was my life, and you have no right to dictate it." She leaned in closer, gritting her teeth as she inhaled slowly to calm herself, "If there's a next time for us, Liam, I'll kill you where you stand."

If he planned on saying anything in return or not, Arlene would never know. She tasered him and stood back up to walk out of the room, never once looking back as she hurried down the long corridor and back to the elevator.

She knew what she wanted to do next. She had to find Leon and have him tell her if what Marluxia had said to her was true or not. She had been abandoned through someone else before, it had taken her a long time to get over it. If Leon wanted to dump her for what he knew about her, he would have to tell that to her face.

There were no doubts left in her mind as she stepped out of the mental institution, this was the last time she ever put up with her former family, and that was final.

~ooo~

He had been walking in circles. The rooms in this long hallway were connected to each other, some rooms could only be reached by walking through other rooms. Naminé hadn't showed up to help him either, and he figured that he should just go in the direction she had pointed out for him until he reached a dead end.

He was in the room in the far right of the hallway, trying to find a door or a secret passageway, but without avail. The room didn't seem to have anything ordinary either. It was filled with the usual lab stuff that he was growing tired of seeing; test tubes, weird chemicals, empty cages, and shelves with books.

The lights suddenly buzzed and brightened more and more. Some of the lights couldn't deal with the energy surge and they exploded one by one until the surge went away and the few remaining lamps flickered briefly.

"Shit..."

Axel turned the place upside down, trying to find anything that could help him get to Saïx before they did him in. He couldn't stop and think about what he was feeling to not break down, but the images of Isa in Xemnas' laboratory haunted him, the way he had spoken like his life meant nothing to anyone, how he had been forced to relive trauma that should have been left in the past; all of it echoed in his mind.

"Axel."

This could possibly be the first time he had felt relieved at hearing the voice that had tormented him during so many nights. He turned around to face Naminé.

"Where is he?"

She smiled, "You have eleven days left."

"I know!" Axel pushed a stand of test tubes off the table behind him with an exasperated sigh, "But he doesn't! Naminé, you have to work, just for a bit longer. Where is Saïx?"

"They are trying to get rid of you. You are hindering them from strengthening the wall."

"Please, Naminé, tell me where –"

She disappeared and Axel stood back, reaching for a metal bar by one of the big shelves when he heard someone approach the room with unnervingly calm steps.

Dr. Even stepped forward slowly, putting his hands in the air to show Axel that he meant no harm. He stopped by the doorway and glanced at the mess Axel had made and he stared back at him with a slightly disapproving look.

"Are you looking for something in particular, Axel?"

"Where's Saïx?"

"Why would it matter to you? He doesn't want to see you after your little misadventure out on the roads, especially since you weakened him and then led us to him after all of your empty promises."

He smirked at Axel's confusion. Of course he wouldn't know what he was talking about, he had just learned of the things that had been done to Saïx and judging by the time it took Axel to get here, Dr. Even would say that Marluxia failed to show him all of the wonderful highlights of his research.

"What do you think the marking is, Axel? A symbol of impending doom, magically created by an insane scientist?" He saw Axel put his hand over the marking on his neck, "It's a tracking device. That's how Ansem's hologram could find you and since it stores all of its data, it was made easy for us to find what we wanted. Although, I must admit, I was forced to believe in luck when you left with Larxene. Were the dreams the hologram showed you confusing?"

Axel walked up to him and grabbed him by his collar, gritting his teeth, barely keeping himself from bashing this man's face in.

"I'm the only one who can help Saïx get better. I'm the only one down here who knows where he is. You can't harm me, Axel. Not any more than I can harm you." He chuckled when Axel pushed him away and stared at him intently. "You're coming with me willingly then?" He asked amused as he started to walk down the hallway. Axel followed, leaving the metal bar behind to keep the temptation of bashing Dr. Even's head in at bay.

Dr. Even used a key in the elevator that unlocked three more floors. The lights turned red as soon as the elevator passed the first unlocked floor. Axel gulped, but Dr. Even didn't seem at all fazed by the change. This was his playground.

The doors slid open and revealed a wide corridor where different images were blaring through white noise that broke into different sounds, almost like someone was zapping between channels.

"What the hell is this?"

"Subliminal messaging. It's quite an effective way to communicate with a person's subconscious. It's particularly effective if said person is in a weakened state of mind."

The images flashing on the walls didn't seem to follow any specific pattern, but Axel could see that some of them were repeated more than others. The noise that came through was the most disturbing of all. It changed from commercials that Axel hadn't heard since he was a child to a woman singing a lullaby to birds chirping in a forest to a woman sobbing uncontrollably. And then came that strange sound Axel had heard in his nightmares. It sounded like someone was talking to him through water.

"Why are you doing this to him?"

"Because he volunteered, and the experiment worked."

Axel stopped Dr. Even and made him turn around, "What experiment?" He needed to know more. Marluxia hadn't shed much light on the matter; Axel didn't even know what was true and what wasn't.

"Oh, you didn't see that part of the movie? He was used to keep Aqua's brain from deteriorating. Everybody won on the deal. I got to experiment and put my theories to the test, Xemnas could keep his beloved one, Aqua could live an oblivious life instead of trying to solve the problems of the world, and Saïx... he got to be near you without driving himself insane with the life he was living."

Dr. Even didn't seem like he had the time to joke around, he was serious and it was that stern look that made Axel want to disappear into the ground with shame and guilt.

"You might be asking yourself why I would bring you here and the answer is simple, I have to erase you to fix Saïx, and to do so you have to be present. The brain needs a concrete image to fight against, and nothing is better than the real deal."

"You're lying. Naminé said that you're trying to strengthen the wall to keep Aqua alive, regardless of what it does to Saïx. I have to break it, that's why I'm here. I can save him."

He was trembling with anxiety, he knew nothing. He could only hope that Ansem's hologram was right and what he did saved Saïx and cured him from the brain damage the experiments had caused him.

Axel had been hearing that he was going to be erased quite frequently and the realization of what that meant hit him like a ton of bricks – they were going to make Saïx forget him, not just the past month or the past year, all of it. He wouldn't even be a footnote in the story of Saïx's life. Axel would be replaced by something else, maybe some of Aqua's memories, and the thought of it made the anxiety grow stronger in his chest.

It petrified him.

"You can't save him, Axel."

"Yes, I can! That's why you've been fighting against me, because you know that I could get him back to normal."

"We fought you to get him back and to keep you from ending his life. What do you think will happen once you break the wall? Do you think that his alter ego Saïx will just crumble and fall off like a shell and reveal your best friend Isa that's been hiding in there all along? You have no idea what damage you can cause him if you break the wall, Axel. He came to us for help, he couldn't deal with his life anymore when he knocked on Xemnas' door. His guilt was eating him from the inside and slowly, but surely, driving him to the very edge of his sanity – all he needed was a final push. The thought of you rejecting him when you got out of jail, or maybe the thought of you finally leaving him behind to elope with the woman he could have gotten rid of the night he murdered Zexion. The small things."

Dr. Even couldn't hold back a soft chuckle at the scared look on Axel's face, "Imagine all of that pent up guilt, anger, frustration that's been repressed for years suddenly released within a split second, the very same second the wall that's been keeping him sane comes down. Boom..." He gestured a big cloud of explosion with his hands and smiled. "It would be nicer to just shoot him in the head, wouldn't you agree, Axel? Or would you like to see him insane? His brain engulfed with colliding memories and trauma on an endless loop until he does himself in? The choice is left to you."

Axel shook his head slowly, his mouth had gone dry and his entire body was trembling. He was starting to feel sick again, but he kept reminding himself of how little that meant right now.

"But, the computer said..."

"Yes, yes, the computer did say." Dr. Even waved it off, "Who programmed the computer, Axel? Ansem. Ansem programmed the computer to do whatever it was he felt was right. The most important question here is; why did Ansem do this? Why, indeed. The man thought he was a savior – he thought that he could save people from themselves. That is why he ended up experimenting on Aqua and when he failed, he became a coward. Suddenly, he wasn't a savior, he was merely a man at the hands of a God that despised him for trying to take his place. All Ansem ever wanted was to undo his mistake, to 'save' Aqua from Xemnas and with the same stone crush Xemnas for making him experiment on Larxene. See how the circle comes together, Axel? Ansem couldn't care less for the person keeping Aqua alive. He just wants to redeem himself by brushing it all under the carpet."

Was he going to be erased from Saïx's memory either way? The question died in his mouth when Dr. Even walked further down the hallway and opened the only door they had come across down here.

"You shouldn't trust a man that sealed your fate when he entwined your memories with Saïx's. He knew what he was doing and he cares for nothing else but for his own salvation." He stepped aside and held his arm out to show Axel into the room, "You have a few minutes before I'll start the procedure. Keep him awake."

Axel walked into the room slowly; he didn't even hear Dr. Even close the door behind him when he looked straight ahead and saw that Saïx stood tied to a semi-wall in the middle of the room with the same blaring images from the hallway on the rest of the walls. He didn't look as powerful as he had done when he had walked into the lounge upstairs. He was shaking and when Axel walked in closer he realized why. There was a pool of water forming underneath him; he was soaked.

"Saïx..." Axel ran up to him and tilted Saïx's head back gently to make him look at him. His teeth chattered from the cold and he clenched his fists to feel his fingers. Axel tried to pull on the restraints of metal, completely forgetting that he was supposed to let Saïx stay here if he wanted to be of any help.

Saïx turned his attention to him slowly, like he was just realizing that he wasn't alone in this room anymore. It caught Axel by surprise when he felt Saïx stretch his head out to rest it against his cheek and he sobbed when Axel moved away slowly to take a better look at him.

"Saïx, what are you doing?"

"You're warm."

Axel shivered when he walked in close again and held Saïx as close as the metal restraints would let him. He knew that he would get cold long before Saïx would get warm, but at least it seemed to comfort Saïx knowing that there was someone else with him even though he didn't seem to be aware of who it was.

"I'll get you outta here. Just, hang in there, okay?"

"I'm glad that you're finally out..." Saïx's voice sounded broken from all the shivering, but Axel had heard him and it took him a second to make sense of what Saïx just had said. He simply nodded quietly and closed his eyes tightly while he tried to come up with anything he could say that would make this situation even slightly better.

"Lea, you have to go before they see you."

Axel stood back enough to look at Saïx. How much of Isa could there be left after four years like this? How much had he been willing to corrupt to stay strong and unscrupulous enough amongst the vultures they called family?

"Why didn't you tell me anything?" Axel asked finally and had to take a deep breath to work through the growing knot in his chest.

"Why didn't you tell me anything?" He echoed. Axel didn't have the courage to ask him whether that question was directed to him or not. He didn't have a good answer, at least not one Saïx hadn't heard before. I thought I was protecting you, didn't cut it anymore. To him it was obvious that he had done anything but what he had intended.

It was difficult to separate Saïx from Isa. They had both melted into one person. The ones that had experimented on Isa called Saïx 'Isa's alter-ego', Axel had sort of thought of him the same way; Saïx wasn't a real person, he was a persona created to please the Superior and to intimidate his younger brothers, but truth of the matter was that Saïx was Isa, morphed by the atrocities he had been forced to live through. Saïx's cold exterior had led Axel to believe that there was a barrier that he had to break in order to get to the real person inside him; to get to Isa.

"You've been here all along, haven't you?"

Dr. Even had lied to him, Axel concluded. Saïx could live with his memories, he recognized him and even called him Lea. He knew of his former life, wall or no wall, Saïx was strong enough to keep going and he could do so even without any intervention.

Axel looked through his pockets for the small metal bar that Xigbar had given him and he smiled at Saïx when he found it. He didn't know how long it would take for Dr. Even to come back, but he was sure that he could knock him right out if he tried anything funny.

"Are you up for a crash course in Korean?"

"Why?"

"We're going to South Korea, remember? We were just sidetracked by our past, but we're gonna leave it here, in Japan, and we'll never look back. Can you promise me that...Isa?" He tested that name on his tongue for the first time in years and he glanced at Saïx to see how he reacted to it. Saïx nodded slowly, a small smile playing on his lips.

Axel got one restraint unlocked but he had to hurry to get the other two on Saïx's right arm. He was sure that Xigbar and Demyx would check up on Marluxia and see that his prisoners had escaped, and it wouldn't take long for Xigbar to figure out where Axel had gone.

"Am I in the water tank?"

Axel looked up when it sounded like Saïx was trying to blow away water from his lips and he paled as he stood back.

"Shit."

Saïx was bleeding from his nose again and the blood dripped from his chin and down into the small pool of water underneath him. He leaned back against the wall behind him as Axel hurried up to him and tried to stop the blood from running down by rolling down his sleeves over his hands and hold them against Saïx's nose.

Axel tried to see if there was anything else in the room that he could use to stop the bleeding, but the room was empty, there wasn't even one of those trademark trolleys that he had seen everywhere else. Saïx couldn't even tilt his head back properly because of the wall he was tied to.

"Don't do this," Axel pleaded quietly, "You have to be strong, Saïx. I don't want you to forget me."

Saïx blinked slowly and he seemed so very tired when he looked back at Axel.

"Axel, what are you doing?" Dr. Even closed the door after himself and walked up to them with determinate steps that echoed in the empty room.

"He's bleeding." Axel looked to his side and saw Dr. Even frown when he noticed that Axel had tried to undo the locks on the restraints. He didn't seem at all concerned with Axel's blood soaked jumper or Saïx's lethargic state. "I can't let you do the experiment on him. You just have to fix whatever it is that's making him bleed like this."

"So you decided that it was best to just let him die." Dr. Even crossed his arms, "Is it an act of revenge or mercy, Axel?"

"He remembers me. He remembers my real name, he wouldn't be able to do that if the wall was in effect, right?"

"He doesn't remember his past life, Axel. He just knows of it, but he doesn't feel anything for it because he's detached from himself. And even if he did remember, you wouldn't be able to tell now, Axel. He's dreaming. I never managed to completely take control of his subconscious; I guess that being in the laboratory again sparked some old dreams."

"But he talked to me!" Axel turned to Saïx and looked at him, "Saïx, tell him. Tell him that you're happy that I'm out of jail..."

Dr. Even didn't wait for a reply, he rubbed his eyes and crossed his arms again, "It's a pre-recorded message, Axel. He wanted to leave a message in case Aqua took over his mind completely. I told him not to, but he worked it in there while I taught him the emergency code to the sirens in the labs."

Axel didn't look convinced and the glare he was shooting at him told Dr. Even that he should probably try to show Axel what he meant instead of coming with threats. He walked in closer, but stopped when he could have sworn that Axel had growled at him.

"Did Marluxia call you when you fetched Larxene at the hospital? Did you get a strange message?" Axel's frown was answer enough, "That's one of the pre-recorded messages in his brain. It's either dreams or memories that were vivid enough or repeated enough to survive the indoctrination. It's understandable that he would have dreams of being rescued, or at least given a chance at redemption when seeing that his plan had worked."

Dr. Even reached for a Dictaphone in his pocket and held it up, "He responds automatically to certain things, I'll show you one of them." He selected a file and played it up.

"The subscribed caller is currently unavailable. Please call later or leave a message after the signal."

Axel hadn't expected any reaction from Saïx. It was a generic answer from a cell phone with no importance whatsoever, but then the beep came and Axel heard Saïx mumble softly and he leaned in closer to hear what he was saying.

"I can't take this anymore. I'm about to do something very stupid if you don't stop me. Lea, please, help me. I don't want to be here."

"He does it every time too, without exception. This is what you heard in that message, wasn't it, Axel?" He played the file again and Saïx responded just like he had done earlier, with the exact same words, and when Dr. Even played the file a third time, Axel had to put his hands back to muffle Saïx's mumble.

"That's enough. It's just some cheap trick. He answered to us escaping, there's no way that he could have prepared any answers for that."

"Oh, right. Your escape. To South Korea, right?" Dr. Even smirked, "Please, Axel. It's a well-known fact that you and Larxene were going to flee to South Korea. She did share quite a lot with Xigbar back in the day when she was still suffering from a broken heart." He spat out the last sentence like the thought of all those feelings disgusted him, "How original of you to have the same destination the second time around. Quite fitting with whatever dream scenario that one concocted in his mind."

"Fix him."

"Even if it kills Aqua, another innocent human being? Even if it sends Xemnas on a rampage that will kill another hundred innocent human beings? I'm not sure that's like you, Axel. Not anymore, not since the nightmares began. You'd rather save than kill."

"No. Not this time. I want to save him, regardless of the consequences."

"How will you know that I'm doing the right procedure?"

"I'll know with time. If you haven't done the procedure I'm asking you to do, I'll have the rest of my life to hunt you down and make your life a living hell."

"Fair enough," Dr. Even said, "It doesn't matter to me as long as I get to do it."

He walked behind the semi-wall and pulled out a trolley as he reached into his pocket for the three syringes he had brought with him. He took one syringe and held it up to the light to make sure that there were no air bubbles.

Axel looked at Saïx with a frown. He had Saïx's life in his hands, whatever he decided for him now would haunt them both forever. He could act hardboiled towards Dr. Even and spew threats of revenge, but at the end of the day Saïx was the only one at stake.

Dr. Even approached him with the syringe in his hand and Axel glared at him, "What's that?"

"To stop him from bleeding." He put a belt-looking device on Saïx's left overarm and tightened it to get to a vein easier. The sleeve on Saïx's white shirt had already been torn, Dr. Even had already planned ahead. He injected the liquid and put the syringe back onto the trolley as he reached for the other one.

"What does that do?"

"Are you going to have me explain the whole procedure? You'll just be wasting valuable time."

"Tell me what it does or I won't let you use it on him."

"It's a chemical that stimulates hippocampus and the area around it. It's to make him see you for who you are now instead of living in the past where his mind is currently stuck."

"Where are Aqua's memories stored? You said that you had implanted foreign tissue in his brain to let Aqua live through him, remove that."

"Do you think I can just cut into his brain at whim? This is going to be a complicated procedure. I cannot guarantee that Aqua will be completely removed. They've shared a brain for four years now and now that you're involved in it too, it will be difficult to separate memories without hurting Aqua as well."

"She's already dead. If she can't live using her own damn organs then she's done with. Remove her."

"He can't." Naminé's voice came as a surprise to them both and they turned to see Ansem's hologram flicker before them as she took form.

Dr. Even stepped back with a snort, "The system is malfunctioning," he mumbled.

"Xemnas has ordered him to fix Aqua. No matter what you say to him, Axel, he will follow through with his orders and delete you from Saïx's memories. You can't let him do this."

Naminé had a stern look on her face. It was weird to think that the young girl in front of him, the same girl that had tortured him in his sleep for the past four months was in fact nothing but a hologram, and yet, he felt more trust for her than for Dr. Even. Axel wanted to believe that being void of emotions would make her capable of making the right decision for both him and Saïx, she had led Axel all the way here, she had tried to show him the things Saïx had gone through for him and if she had been the one to entwine Axel's memories with Saïx's then she should be able to undo it as well.

"Can you fix him?"

"Axel, you're throwing him into the lion's den," Dr. Even warned, looking increasingly annoyed.

"I can delete you."

"That's a good thing, right?" Axel smiled sheepishly and tried to swallow the building lump in his throat, "It's a good thing." He repeated and caught a quick glimpse of Saïx before he turned back to Naminé. "His mother would've loved this."

Naminé didn't seem to get the reference, her expression remained the same. Dr. Even mumbled something under his breath. It didn't faze Axel that Dr. Even was almost taking a passive approach to what he was about to decide, Dr. Even didn't matter to him, he sort of faded into the background of blaring images on the wall.

"Can't you leave a small memory of me in there?"

"You're harming him, Axel."

He nodded slowly and his sigh was shaky as he came to a decision, "Fix him, Naminé."

She tilted her head slightly and smiled softly as Axel heard that scream he had only heard once before. It was the same scream he had heard in that basement in Ansem's mansion. The sound of it made it almost seem to him like it was distorting the room and he turned around to face Saïx. The blaring images on the wall made him dizzy and he put one hand by Saïx's head to rest against the wall before he passed out.

"Saïx, remember me. At least a little, okay?"

He could neither hear nor see if Saïx replied. The sound was overpowering and the room began to lose all resemblance of form. It looked like they were stuck in a vortex that had torn the room into oblivion and suddenly Axel could feel a strong wind blow through his hair and make a shiver run down his spine. He opened his eyes and saw a sea of black with spots of light. The observation deck he was standing on was illuminated in an orange light and he reached his hands out to grip the handrail in front of him as he recognized the Kobe Port Tower.

The windows were crashed and the wind had tilted the small vending machines that weren't nailed to the floor.

"You're impossible to forget. Believe me, I try all the time."

Axel looked to where the voice came from and saw Isa stand further away, looking at the view of the Kobe harbor, maybe trying to find the fishery where they had once worked at. Was this a memory? He had taken Isa to the Kobe Port Tower once on his 20th birthday. It had been their last normal year together, after that year hell had broken loose and whenever it had seemed like they had reached some type of normality, something else happened that once again shook their worlds.

"Isa?"

Maybe this wasn't a memory. Maybe Naminé had given them a window of opportunity to say goodbye while she put everything in order, or maybe he had finally lost what little sanity he had left and he had gone back to the last day of his and Isa's life.

"Did I hurt you?"

The wind blew stronger and the observation deck changed colors together with the column that spiraled up and lit its surroundings with the colors of the rainbow. He couldn't see Isa's face properly and it felt like there was an invisible wall between them that made it impossible for Axel to come closer.

"Not any more than I hurt you."

He could see the waves crash against the pier, but the wind up here drowned out the sound and made everything beneath them look like a big picture. Kobe was like he remembered and yet it was completely different now. He was losing his best friend to a force greater than him and he believed that there was no one to blame but himself.

"Do you think we can run away from this? We could run through our memories and stay somewhere where Naminé can never find us." Axel kept his gaze firmly onto the harbor and hoped that the wind masked the heaviness in his voice.

"Isn't that a movie?"

"Yeah. We could run away like they do in the movies." Axel took a deep breath and he blinked quickly to work away the tears building in his eyes. He wanted to reach out for Isa and run, get them both into safety, far away from all of this, but he knew that it was futile. He couldn't make decisions for Isa, he couldn't force him into recreating the life they had lived and lost. Not anymore.

"Isa, let me see you again, even if it's just once, let me see you."

Silence. For a moment Axel thought that maybe he had gone deaf, the silence weighed as heavy as his heart felt and he realized that he was holding his breath once Isa spoke again.

"In a year," he said, "On my birthday. We can meet here."

The tower started to break apart and sucked into an invisible vortex above the top of the tower. Axel tried to run up to Isa, but the vortex was bending both space and time, and it didn't matter how much he tried, he couldn't move forward.

"Isa, that's a promise you have to keep! Isa!"

The scream drowned out both his voice and his thoughts. It was stronger than the vortex and as everything disappeared, becoming black, the scream kept echoing in his mind like the nightmare that had haunted him nights on end. He didn't see that nightmare again, because in the end, that nightmare had become his reality. This was his final stop and there were no more trains to catch.