CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Go Team consisted of Roxas, Axel, Riku, Cloud, Yuffie, and Leon. That was about two more people than Axel would have preferred, but he'd just have to hope they knew how to keep quiet and not fuck the entire thing up.

They waited for nightfall, at which point Axel called Demyx again from another phone booth. When he heard the "Hello," over the receiver, he nearly lost his will to do this, but Roxas was there with him, holding onto him, keeping him steady. Again, uncertainly this time, Demyx said, "Hello?"

"…Dem. It's me."

He heard a small intake of air on the other end. "Axel?" There was a long pause, Axel simply waiting, his head bowed. Then, sounding small and far away, Demyx said, "I… I never meant to hurt you like that. I don't know what came over me. I'm – I'm so sorry, Axel."

And god, but Axel wanted to believe him. He wanted to believe that that was just Demyx in there, talking to him like they had a thousand times over without a single thought in their heads. But 'I don't know what came over me'. That was Xehanort all over. He was back in his grip. He probably had been from the moment Roxas had zipped him out of the room. Fuck. He almost wanted to cry, but he held it back. There'd be a time for that later, maybe. At the very least, this gave Axel the strength to continue.

"I – I want to believe in you, Demyx," he said, and this was… such a true statement, he felt Cloud's eyes on him through the glass. "I really do." His voice wobbled, and Roxas squeezed his arm gently.

"…But we can't see each other anymore, can we?" Demyx sounded bitter. "You chose… him."

"I didn't choose anyone, Dem," Axel argued with him, propping an arm up on the phone box. "You were… you were hurting me."

"…I know. And I told you, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry about that." He really did sound sincere, until he went on, "It's just, that guy that was with you. The one who… took you from me. Axel, listen to me, you cannot trust him. I know they've told you that we are the bad guys, but, like… it's me, isn't it? Aren't I – me?"

Axel's teeth gritted together so hard they squeaked. "I don't know, Dem. Are you?" he asked, helplessly, before his eyes fluttered shut. With that concrete jaw, he forced himself to say, "Can you convince me?"

"Yes!" Demyx seized upon the chance, just as they expected him to. "Please. Please let me convince you."

"Will you meet me?" Axel asked.

"Where?"

"You know the park near the bypass? Between my place and work?" Well, it had been his work, at any rate.

"…There? Why not just at your place?" Demyx was on alert now, and Axel sighed heavily into the phone.

"Come on, Dem," he muttered. "You know why." When there was a silence on the other end, he added, "If you want to make it up to me. If you want to talk about what happened. You – you meet me at that park."

"Now?" Demyx asked, sounding clipped.

"Yeah. Now." Axel touched his head to the back of his hand, still on the phone box, while Roxas's hand was a comforting presence on his back. But Demyx didn't get that, did he? No comfort for him. He was… alone in there, with Xehanort.

Shit.

Rapidly rubbing his eyes, he said, with renewed force, "Go now. I'll see you there." He hung up the phone, held a hand against his mouth and allowed one, very small hitch of his shoulders, but when Axel turned and faced the group, waiting outside the box in their coats, he was stony-faced, reporting, "He's heading there now."

"We'll be watching," Leon promised, and, holding him, Roxas unzipped the two of from the sidewalk and into the centre of the park. He handed Axel a violin they had… momentarily borrowed from a store in the city, and Axel placed it between his chin and shoulder and… oh, he began playing, and it had been so long. He played like a man whose thirst was finally being slaked. His eyes closed of their own accord, the music flowing through him, Roxas disappearing from his side and leaving him there. He stood in that spot, beneath the park's courtyard lights, and let the violin speak for him. It called through the darkness, for a friend lost in the gloom.

Eventually, slowly, Demyx emerged from the darkness. He was wearing all black, and drew back a heavy hood to reveal his face, but didn't immediately make his presence known. For a long while, he remained at the edge of the light and listened. Axel became aware of him only when his boot scuffed the ground, opening his eyes and briefly continuing to play, making firm eye contact with Demyx, who circled him warily. Then, Axel let the violin drop, the last notes hovering in the air like a breath before dissipating, leaving just the two of them, staring at each other.

"Was that for me?" Demyx was first to speak, and Axel nodded. His eyes were yellow, but every other part of him was so achingly familiar.

"This is killing me," Axel confessed. Demyx looked just as torn, frowning just as deeply, but with a desperation that Axel didn't recognise.

"If you come with me now, you can get your memories back," he offered Axel, expression encouraging. He held out his hand, waiting, expecting for Axel to reach back. To grasp. To agree.

"Demyx," he breathed, the crack in his voice evident even as a whisper, "I can't. You know I can't. You… you're not really you right now. But you're in there. That's… that's why I wanted to meet. I wanted that part of you to know I will bring you back."

Demyx's hand wavered in place, then, orphaned, slowly returned to his side. "That's all?" he asked, softly. "You're gonna bring me back, huh?" His face was hidden by shadow as he turned it away. "Me? You're… going to bring me back?" He was slapping Axel before Axel even knew what was happening. His head spun, ears ringing as he staggered to the side. "You stupid motherfucker," Demyx shouted, tears rolling down his face. "You're the one who doesn't remember me!" Then, shaking his head roughly, he adopted an aggressive stance. "Your friends might as well come out. Mine, too," he added, raising his voice.

From behind Demyx came a slim, bookish man and a great fucking hulk of a guy who was already cracking his knuckles and staring Axel down. They wore the same black robes as Demyx, looking for all intents and purposes like members of a cult. If Axel didn't know they were probably possessed of powers, and Xehanort, he might have put the whole thing down to a cult in the first place and tried to rescue Demyx from their clutches. Fuck; this really all had been inevitable. Axel, for his part, was joined by Roxas, Riku, Cloud, and Leon. They spread behind him in a short semi-circle, ready to fight should the occasion call for it. Demyx studied them with a look of distaste.

"Male model, male model, male model, and twink. That's your crew?" But when Roxas went to say something, he held up a hand and positively bellowed, "You are not allowed to speak." His eyes burning, he looked Roxas up and down like an insect he would dearly love to crush. "You don't ever speak to me."

"Uh, just so you know," Axel awkwardly pointed out, "that's – that's not Ventus."

Demyx stared, then slammed a hand on one hip while the other pinched the bridge of his nose. "Wait, wait, hold on." He pointed at Roxas, who glared. "You're not Ventus?"

"As much as I just want to tell you to go fuck yourself," Roxas replied dourly, "no, I'm not Ventus. I'm the gods' messenger." He looked a lot like he wanted to add a few insults to that sentence, but refrained, for Axel's sake.

Raising his hands questioningly, Demyx demanded, "Well, then where the fuck is Ventus's reincarnation?"

"We don't know," Roxas said with frustration. Demyx looked around at the smaller of his companions.

"Zexion?"

The man summoned a thick book out of thin air and began flipping through the pages at light speed. His eyes, which couldn't possibly have been physically able to read the contents, nonetheless glowed until the book suddenly slammed shut. With a wave of his hand, Zexion banished it to whatever the fuck pocket dimension he apparently had on hand. "The texts mention Lea with Ventus, but the records regarding Roxas are, naturally, sealed by Ansem. So is Ventus's cycle lineage" He shrugged a little. "So basically, I don't know, either."

Demyx sighed. "Well, that's real fucking useful." Then he looked at Roxas and sneered. "Oh, well, let's still kill him anyway, since he's fucking Axel."

"Whoa!" Axel stepped forward, holding his hands out. "Hey, since when was killing people on the menu? I thought we were here to talk."

"Yeah. About you joining me," Demyx stated, before flaring his hands out and summoning formless water into existence. It flew past Axel and wrapped around Roxas's head, entering his airways, his eyes, his ears, the blonde writhing in agony until Axel wailed, "Dem, no, please!" and a shiver passed through the man, the water crashing to the ground and Roxas dropping to the wet ground, coughing and groaning in pain.

Demyx glowered at him, golden eyes thin. "You…" He chuckled slightly, then appeared to gasp in a sob. At his side, Zexion placed a hand on his shoulder, which he flinched away from.

"Are we doing this or not?" the large man asked, a quiet but genuine question, which was when a dart shot out of the darkness and knocked the guy flat before he could react. Zexion was next, Demyx swinging about, looking down at their suddenly unconscious bodies.

From the darkness, a voice called, "Sorry, wasn't expecting the water thing!" before Yuffie swung into view from the park's treetops. She landed, Axel would swear on his life, without making a single sound, and sent Demyx a sharp look. "The next one's coming your way if you try that again!" she called. She fingered a blowdart. "Which one of us do think is quicker?" she asked, voicing the question running through his mind. With apparent irritation, Demyx reached the answer to that.

Axel was absolutely reeling. He was at Roxas's side along with Leon, helping him back to his feet. Once he was sure he was all right, Axel left him with Leon, turning and demanding of Demyx, with bewilderment, "Why did you do that?"

Demyx blinked, struggling to keep up. "Wait, no, why are my guys unconscious?"

"No!" Axel crossed the distance between them and grabbed hold of Demyx by the edges of his coat and jerked him close, forcing him to meet his gaze. "Why did you do that?"

"I… I…" Demyx looked confused, Xehanort's influence seeming to dim as he found himself at a loss for words, trying to clear his head.

Axel wasn't going to give him a chance to think about it. "Why did you just try to kill a guy, Demyx? Because I'm fucking him? Really?"

Demyx crushed his eyes shut. "No, I – I want…" His eyes suddenly flashed open, and with almost a snarl, he declared, "I want! I want you, Axel," and the yellow in his irises was flaring again, Axel jolting back away from him. "And I don't care if that little shit isn't Ventus, I'll kill him anyway. You were mine," he declared, and Axel felt a wave of actual revulsion. This wasn't about love.

He snuffed a mirthless laugh. "So the possessed guy wants to possess, huh?" he asked, at which Demyx recoiled slightly.

"I'm not possessed," he said, sounding extremely unsure of that fact. "Anyway, that's not the issue here –"

"No, the issue is you wanting to own me, right?" Axel challenged. "Music wanting to own passion sounds pretty unhealthy to me, Dem. You sure you were left for Ventus? Maybe someone set Lea free." This time when Demyx came to strike him, he was ready and instead punched the guy square in the face. Demyx reeled back with a spurt of blood. Axel was pretty sure he'd just pulled a Roxas on the guy. "And since when did you get physical, huh?" he huffed, shaking his now-painful hand. "The Demyx I know would never hit anyone."

"So maybe," Demyx numbly suggested, gingerly feeling his nose, surrounded on all sides by Ansem's people, "I'm not the Demyx you know." Despite the defiant nature of his words, he met Axel's gaze anxiously, appearing not to know the answer to that himself anymore.

"Hey, Demyx? I know the feeling," Axel told him, and for a moment they cracked such twisted smiles at one another that it felt like their faces were going to break. They were both in it pretty deep, huh?

Just… on opposing sides.

"Demyx, come with me," Axel pleaded quietly.

"Axel," Demyx sighed, looking at him with a rapidly swelling face, "come with me."

There was silence as they reached the inescapable deadlock, neither one willing to abandon their faction. Axel studied him, those golden eyes as bright as ever. With clear intent, he met Demyx's gaze and said, "I know you're in there. That's what I came here to tell you." Ignoring the baleful golden glare that bore into him above a bloodied face, he vowed, "I'll find a way to save you, Dem. I promise."

"Oh, you promise," he spat, before looking desolate and asking Axel hopelessly, "Really?"

That's when Yuffie's third dart hit home. Only this time, Demyx didn't react, except to look annoyed by the pain of it. He plucked it from his neck and held it up, sending Yuffie a long look. "…This is pretty old technology," he observed. "How do you know how to make these?" Yuffie froze at this outcome.

"How are you still conscious?" she demanded.

Demyx rolled his neck, tenderly touching the site where the dart had stabbed him. "Well, you gave me a few minutes to figure out how to use my water to keep the toxin out of my system, but I never expected to see this." Axel felt a deep chill, because right now… he wasn't listening to Demyx speak. He was witnessing… some hideous, uncanny-valley mimicry occurring as Xehanort hijacked his consciousness more fully. His eyes had intensified with an unfamiliar, gleaming radiance, Demyx ticking his gaze from one of their faces to the next. Holding the dart up delicately – making sure to not prick himself – Demyx asked, "Who made this?"

There was a silence, then at the same moment that Demyx cast the dart aside and summoned his water, Roxas vanished, and Leon and Cloud each readied themselves for a fight. Yuffie swung herself immediately into the park foliage, either to escape the danger or attack from afar, Axel wasn't sure what her deal was just yet. Come to think of it, he didn't know Leon's either. He knew Cloud had truth bombs, but those didn't help so much in a fight, which meant that it was good he had arms like fucking sides of beef. But then, from way up high, Axel heard a rumble, and glanced upward to get hit by the first few drops of an abruptly-forming storm. He looked over at Leon, whose eyes were shifting as Riku's had, and indeed were, the pair of them working together to summon a deeply dangerous, localised storm. A bright flash in the sky briefly blinded Axel, who blinked rapidly to clear his vision, even as gusting, salt-scented wind whipped his hair into his face. Leon could call lightning. Goddamn. This shit was getting intense.

But Demyx snuffed a laugh. "Really? A squall?" Axel watched with dismay as he smugly lifted his hands, and with eyes that blazed with unnatural power, he made a single wrenching motion. Whatever weather event Riku and Leon were planning was cut off as the water that had been forming above them was dragged down with such force that it slammed them to the ground hard enough to knock the breath from their bodies. All evidence of the storm vanished, the wind dying straight back down.

Cloud charged forward in the aftermath, steps slapping wetly, ducking the water that Demyx lobbed at him, and deliberately hit him in the exact same spot that Axel had. Demyx groaned loudly, clutching his face and staggering back. The whole time, Axel had been rooted to the spot, unable to do anything but watch, but at this he took a heavy, instinctive step forward. Demyx. The name was on his lips. He reached out, but a hand held him back. He looked down and saw Roxas. "Cloud, move!" the guy commanded urgently, and like a trained soldier Cloud dropped and rolled out of the way, an instant before the water on the ground, which had been slowly pooling at Demyx's feet, stabbed up and out with such force it would have easily punched a hole through Cloud's midsection.

As the spikes disintegrated back into water on the ground, Demyx pouted, "Spoilsport." He was hit hard in the back of the head by a small pouch which exploded upon impact, engulfing his face as he turned in a fine blue powder that caused him to cough violently. He dropped to his hands and knees, shaking his head frantically. "No," he gasped, with such hatred that it struck Axel like a hammer, "you won't have him!" and with a gurgling, strangled noise, Demyx began spitting blood and sank to the pavement.

He was already passing out from whatever Yuffie had tossed at him, but now – was he actually dying as well? "Demyx!?" Axel dropped at his side, rolling his face back to show unfocused blue eyes. There was still life in them, though. To Roxas, he snapped, "Kairi!" Demyx was fading fast, his eyelids sinking as Xehanort took the final thing of Demyx's that belonged to him alone.

"Sorry…" Demyx rasped.

"You shut the fuck up," Axel hissed into his face, and in the next moment, they were in Kairi's home, Roxas turning on the lights, yelling for her. She appeared pulling a thin gown over her pyjamas, rushing to drop to her knees and sort her sleep-bleary thoughts into something constructive. She felt for Demyx's pulse, then unzipped his coat and dug her hand down under his shirt to feel his bare chest.

"…His heart's stopped. It's been badly damaged. Scissors," she commanded Roxas, and to Axel, "Get water. It's for me. I'll need to keep my throat wet." Roxas returned quickly with the scissors, Kairi cutting Demyx's shirt apart for skin-on-skin contact. She immediately started humming, her palms pressed to his chest over his heart. Axel scrambled to his feet, and with shaking hands filled a tall glass at the sink, returning to her side, carefully placing it on the floor so that he wouldn't accidentally spill it just by holding it. He felt a pressure on his shoulders, Roxas tugging him back, Axel begging, "No, please," but Roxas held firm.

"Let her concentrate."

He steered Axel out of the room, Axel by this point shuddering from shock. "What happened?" he muttered. "What happened? What happened?"

"Xehanort… didn't want to let him go," Roxas supposed. "We've never tried to reclaim anyone before." Axel's shaking increased, to the point that Roxas hugged him, hoping to transfer some of his warmth to calm the man down. "You did the right thing," he told Axel softly, at which Axel gasped and slid to his knees. Roxas went with him, holding him close, letting him… letting him fight for breath. Letting him process. In the background, they could hear Kairi, her voice rising and falling to follow notes only she could see, attempting to… to knit a heart back together.

Axel clung to Roxas. "…Can she do it?" he asked, fearing the answer.

"I've never seen her try," Roxas answered, and they held each other a little tighter. Axel's shaking refused to entirely die down; small tremors occasionally passing through him as Roxas stroked his hair. All they could do… was wait.