Chapter 35 The Chamber of Waking
Axel's hand on Roxas' shoulder is firm as he turns his friend away from the spot where Rexick had faded. "Come on, Rox," Axel says in a low voice. "He got what was coming to him."
Roxas nods along numbly, turning his head to look back over his shoulder. He hadn't meant to kill Rexick. Rexick may have made his skin crawl, but it never made Roxas want to strike him down. The final blow against Rexick had been an instinct; a need to protect himself and Axel. Now, as his adrenaline comes down, a wave of guilt washes over him.
"Hey." Axel's hand tilts Roxas' chin up to look him in the eye. "I know that face," he says. Roxas tries to drop his gaze, but Axel doesn't let him. "He was the enemy. He would have killed us both."
Roxas wraps his arms tight around himself. "I know," he says. He knows Axel is right. Rexick hadn't given him any other choice. Still, it doesn't make him feel any better. "Rexick knew Ven," Roxas says, focusing on the mission at hand. He can't break down now or it would all be for nothing. "He said I was the vessel for Ven's heart."
Axel's hand slips off of Roxas' chin. "Yeah…" His denial about what Roxas has to do is failing. Rexick and Zack both had been so sure Roxas is the one and Axel is running out of things to say to change Roxas' mind.
He follows Roxas' gaze to the ajar door at the far end of the room. A light on the other side is pulsing in a way that is almost hypnotic, pulling them both closer. Their footsteps are the only sound. At the door, their eyes meet for a moment and Roxas pushes the door open.
Axel takes one step inside the room and freezes. It's a smaller space than he thought, circular, and with lines on the floor and the ceiling that shimmer with a pulsing light. The lines all radiate out from the chair in the center. It is the man in the chair that has Axel rooted to the spot where he stands.
The hair on the back of Axel's neck stands up. The young man looks just like Roxas. In ten years he has no doubt that Roxas would look identical to him. They have the same hair color, the same pointed chin and soft cheekbones. They have the same long fingers and slight build. The man who has to be Ven has his eyes closed, but Axel has no doubt if he opened them they'd be the same bright blue as Roxas'.
"H-how…?" Axel stammers. "I don't…"
Axel struggles to find his voice, but Roxas is too curious to be shocked like Axel. Moving forward cautiously, he examines Ven, noting every eerie similarity. Ven isn't quite what he expected. The shaggy haired, sleeping man looked helpless and vulnerable in clothes a size or two too small. He might not know Ven, but he feels a surge of relief that Rexick or anyone else who has less than pure intentions wouldn't be the one to find Ven in this state.
Behind him, Roxas hears Axel take a couple steps further into the room and he wonders if his best friend will try to stop him again. Now that he sees Ven slumbering here, he has no doubts about what he has to do.
Taking the pin Zack had given him, he places it on the armrest of the chair, hoping Ven would get it back to Zack. He pauses, watching Ven as he breathes softly. The clothes, the hair, and the peach fuzz he can now see on Ven's cheeks make him wonder how long the other has been slumbering here. Truthfully, it doesn't matter to him. He is here to a job. It's a job he doesn't understand completely, but a job he has to do none the less.
There is one thing he needs to do first, however.
He turns back to Axel who stares at Ven with an unreadable expression. The heart in Roxas' chest might not be his, but it hammers against his ribs as he walks to the best friend he ever had in his short existence.
Axel manages to drag his eyes off Ven to look at Roxas. "He's real," he says. "It's all real."
Roxas nods solemnly and looks down at the keyblade in his hand. The silver keychain that had changed it from his Oathkeeper keyblade has the same shape as the symbols that decorate the walls. Everything is connected.
"Wait, Roxas. Please." Axel grabs Roxas' arm suddenly and there is a panic to his voice. "There is something I have to tell you."
Unable to meet his gaze, Roxas ducks his head saying, "You can't change my mind, Axel. I'm doing this."
"No, it's not about that," Axel says, trying to get Roxas to look at him. "It's that…" He can't find the words. How can he say what he is feeling when he isn't supposed to be feeling at all? "Roxas I need you to know -"
"Please don't say anything." Roxas' voice is small. He tries to turn away, but Axel won't let him.
"Roxas, I have to tell -"
"Axel, please. I have to do this."
"Roxas -"
Roxas grabs the front of Axel's coat and with a jerk he pulls the taller red head down to his level. Axel lips part with a question, but he never gets it out. With another jerky movement, Roxas brings Axel's lips to his and his eyes squeeze shut as he kisses Axel as hard he can. The kiss holds all his regrets and all his fears. He hopes Axel, even without a heart, can feel that.
Axel's eyes stay wide through the kiss. His mind is screaming for him to do something - pull Roxas closer, kiss back, anything - but his body is sluggish to respond. His arms start to go around Roxas, but before he can embrace him, Roxas breaks their kiss and steps back.
Axel's arms are still reaching out for him. His eyes are still wide. "Roxas," is all he can get out in a whisper, but Roxas keeps backing away from him, shaking his head.
"I'm sorry, Axel," Roxas says, a tear track on his cheek. He raises his keyblade in front of his chest, the point resting over his heart.
In an instant Axel goes from sluggish to lightning fast. "Roxas, no!" But he isn't fast enough.
Roxas' stabs the keyblade into his chest, hard. He lets out a quiet gasp. The keyblade starts to glow and the white light reflects in Roxas' eyes before they roll back in his head. His hand holding the keyblade goes limp and the keyblade clatters to the ground. The keychain falls off of it and in a flash it changes, not back to Roxas' familiar Oathkeeper, but to a new, gray keyblade with an odd slightly curved design.
Axel nearly trips over it in his rush to get to Roxas. Squinting against the blinding light coming out of Roxas' chest, Axel reaches out and cups Roxas' face in his hands. "Open your eyes," he pleads, shaking him, but Roxas' head only droops forward. "No…"
Roxas' body stiffens under his fingers. Looking down, Axel watches a pink heart rise out of Roxas' chest, drifting slowly away from them like the delicate thing hadn't just ruined everything. Axel pulls Roxas tight against his chest, biting back a scream of anger at the unfairness of it all.
He feels Roxas go limp against him and as gently as Axel can, he lowers him to the ground, running a hand through the blond's hair. He looks up briefly to glare at the offending heart as it hovers over Ven. The stranger in the chair might be the spitting image of what Roxas would look like in ten years, but thanks to him, Roxas wouldn't live that long.
Kneeling beside his best friend, Axel remembers the way Rexick had faded into wisps of darkness. It's the cruel irony of being a Nobody to be made from nothingness only to fade back into nothing in the end. If any of them in this awful existence deserved something better it was Roxas.
"I'm sorry, Roxas," Axel says softly. He dips his head down and gives Roxas a gentle kiss - the kiss he hadn't had the time to return earlier. And as he pulls back he feels a soft breath on his lips that isn't his.
"Roxas?" Axel says in disbelief. Holding his own breath, he hovers a hand over Roxas' mouth and he feels it again. Roxas is breathing soft and even.
He's not fading. There is no darkness coming off of him. Losing Ven's heart hadn't destroyed him and Axel can't help but let out a relieved and almost sobbing laugh.
"You scared me, partner," Axel says patting Roxas shoulder as he runs a hand through his own hair. He lets out a long sigh. "You really scared me."
Axel glances over his shoulder to see Ven shifting in his chair. The young man's eyes are still closed, but getting his heart back is slowly waking him.
Standing, Axel bends back over to lift Roxas into his arms. With Roxas' head resting on his shoulder, Axel knows it is up to him to keep him safe. He's seen first hand the kind of revenge the Organization is capable of and after what they've done here, Xemnas won't let them walk away so easily.
Pushing that thought off for another day, Axel summons a dark corridor to take them far away from this creepy castle. Stepping across the threshold with Roxas held close to him, a soft groan behind him makes Axel pause and look back at Ven.
Blue eyes as piercing as Roxas' slowly turn to him, but before they can come into focus, the corridor closes completely leaving Axel in the familiar overwhelming darkness of the corridor with Roxas weighing heavily in his arms.
...
On the starlit shore of Destiny Islands, Axel breaths in the salty sea air. The tranquility of Destiny Islands soothes his frayed nerves to some degree, but Roxas in his arms is a heavy reminder that running away hasn't solved all of their problems. Kneeling down, he sets Roxas gently in the sand and sits beside him.
Reaching out, Axel slips a hand under Roxas' coat and puts it to his chest, waiting to feel a heartbeat. He waits nearly a minute before accepting there is nothing there to feel.
"Why did you do that, Roxas?" Axel murmurs, watching the unconscious boy for any signs of waking. "Don't you realize what you gave up? A heart. You had a heart and you gave it away."
Retracting his hand with a sigh, Axel lays back in the sand with his hands behind his head. He can still feel the memory of Roxas' lips pressed against his and the way has stomach had twisted when Roxas had pulled away. He'd been stunned, frozen, unable to stop Roxas from using that keyblade on himself.
Dragging a hand over his face, he groans. This is all too much. It's hitting him now that they're on the peaceful beach. Whether or not they will be safe there for long, he's not sure, but at least for tonight it feels like the best place to be.
Overhead the stars shine bright. All those worlds out there separating them from the chains that had held them to the Organization. He glances at Roxas lying beside him and manages a smile. It might not be perfect, but they are finally free.
Rolling onto his side placing his hand over Roxas', Axel closes his eyes and lets the sound of the waves carry him off to sleep.
And that's the end of Those Seeking Answers.
Before you freak, hear me out!
Yes this is the last chapter in Those Seeking Answers and yes it was absolutely horrible for me to end it here with Ven just waking up. THEREFORE, the first chapter in the next installment of the Dark Seeker Saga titled A Hand to Hold will be posted today as well.
That means no waiting! By the time you are reading this it's most likely already up and ready for your reading pleasure.
BUT before you going running off to read about Ven, I ask you, my lovely readers, to take a moment to write a review. I would love to hear your thoughts on this story and I know you have some.
Do you like how it's progressing? Anything you don't like? Is anything confusing? Anything boring? I'd even love to read any rants you have about what an awful spot in the story this is for me to end this fic.
Seriously, even if you have never written a review for this story or you're reading this and its months after I posted it, write a review anyway. It will make me so happy :D :D :D
Alright, that's all I've got to say! See you over at The Dark Seeker Saga: A Hand to Hold!
-Nexanda-