CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Cid shouldered his way into the manor, glancing around with some disgruntlement. "Isn't this place a little fancy?" He dumped his bags, great, stuffed duffels that hit the ground hard, with such a series of clanks that Axel had to wonder what exactly was in them.
Behind him, Vincent eased his own bags down with greater care. "Could I get some water?"
Leon led the way to the kitchen, where Cid swung Aerith around in a hug, while Vincent perched awkwardly on one of the kitchen island stools, looking for all the world like a half-wild bird forced to sit tamely on a swing. An omelette and glass of water were in front of him moments later, the man murmuring his thanks before commencing his meal.
"How the hell are ya, Daisy?" Cid asked, setting Aerith lightly down.
"Better now that I know you're safe," she replied warmly, before ushering him to sit and serving him his breakfast.
"Aw, yeah!" The man rubbed his hands together, eyes shining, before all but inhaling the omelette. "I haven't eaten in three days," he sighed as he chewed, closing his eyes and savouring the taste of Aerith's home cooking. He jerked his head with disgust in Vincent's direction. "That bastard only eats fuckin' resold army rations."
"They serve their caloric and nutritional –" Vincent started to intone.
"Shut up!" Cid shrieked, spitting his food slightly, grabbing his water and chugging the entire thing in one go. "The minute he gets going," he grouched, back to chewing, "he doesn't stop." Axel found that a little difficult to believe, considering Vincent's… taciturn nature, but he wasn't going to be the one to doubt Cid out loud. Tifa refilled his glass and slid it back to his elbow, Axel getting a glimpse of old habits dying hard. After a further sip, and a satisfied belch, Cid was done. Leaning back, he prompted, "Okay. Who wants to go first?"
Leon immediately asked, "What happened to you back at the tower?"
"I saw the truth, is what happened to me," Cid said grimly, fishing out a fresh toothpick from a supply in his pocket and placing it between his teeth with surprising delicacy. "He had to know he was going to be seen. He let me see."
"'He'…?" Tifa hedged, dread evident.
Her worst fears were confirmed. "Ansem." Cid scowled deeply. "I saw him, clear as day. He spoke with Sephiroth, and I knew it was Sephiroth because I could see that goddamn flickering, but Ansem, he didn't look surprised at all."
"So he was playing along," Tifa argued, loyal to the end. "He recognised that Cloud had been compromised, and he knows all about what happened in the past. Maybe he saw Sephiroth, and was wise enough to not try and take him on one-on-one."
"The guy who can bend light and space?" Axel wondered aloud, remembering his own Ansem encounter. When Tifa looked at him with some anguish, he quickly apologised, "No, sorry, ignore me. I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about."
"…But, you do," Leon pointed out. "And you have a point. Ansem is capable in a fight, and can hold his own. He's the only one of us who could ever take on a Nobody solo."
"Wait, Nobodies are – stronger than we are?" Axel asked, with a frown.
"Because of their connection with the entirety of their memories," Roxas explained. "It's why you guys only ever got a glimpse. It's enough to wake you up, but not… affect you." He said this last part uneasily, with a nervous glance at Axel.
"Affect you how?" Axel suspiciously, predictably asked.
There was a pause at the table, until Cid glanced between them all and went, "Really?" Sighing sharply, he lifted his shoulders. "Fine, I'll be the bad guy." Focused on Axel, he said, blunt in every possible way, "The constant contact with their entire lifespan drives 'em nuts. It also grants 'em a power boost the rest of us don't have, because they're channelling their ancient selves twenty-four seven, so we don't face 'em alone if we don't have to. It also makes just a few of them bad fuckin' news for us." He tossed his head at Tifa. "If you hadn't ambushed 'em, we would've had issues."
"One of them was already down," she admitted, "and I was able to intimidate the other guy into retreating with their bodies."
"Yeah, but you got Vexen," Cid said, with a grin.
"Excuse me," Axel interjected, forcefully. "If you wouldn't mind going back for just a moment – you're telling me that my best friend is being driven insane," his hands, shaking too much, balled into tight fists, "because he was woken by Xehanort, instead of Roxas?" He looked around at them with disbelief. "And you think that the Nobodies are the bad guys? You – you celebrate hurting them. What the fuck," he slammed the counter and made everyone wince, the temperature in the room rising rapidly, "is wrong with all of you?" He looked at Tifa. "The 'one who was already down', his name is Demyx. He's been like a brother to me since I was a kid." Looking at the others, he went on, shoulders and chest starting to heave, "And what about me, huh? That could've just as easily been me. Roxas wasn't even supposed to wake me, you guys didn't want him to, which means that eventually maybe Xehanort would have. And I'd just be a Nobody to you. To all of you." He turned to Roxas, with a deep, stabbing pain, and said, "Even you."
Roxas flinched, but couldn't quite bring himself to say otherwise, and into the stunned silence that followed, Vincent evenly said, "Calm yourself, friend. Control your power, if you can't control your emotions."
It was said without criticism, without anger, without sympathy, and it got through to him. Drawing a deep, unsteady breath, Axel focused on easing off on the fire. He hushed it back into his depths, ever-ready, perhaps too much so, and it was like a cool breeze had entered the house, some relieved sighs breaking out.
"Axel…" Roxas tried to touch his hand, but he jerked away, almost unconsciously. Stung, Roxas pulled back closer to Sora.
Massaging his temples, Leon said, "You're asking us to accept a lot, Axel." Suddenly, Cid started looking uneasy, Axel catching a glimpse of it before Leon went on, "We were specifically told by Ansem that Nobodies are husks. The memories overwhelm them. They become… nothing of what they were before. They're nothing but shells, spies for Xehanort spread out like a web."
"But… Ansem…" Axel looked over at Cid expectantly.
"…Is a goddamn liar," Cid reluctantly confirmed.
The silence became somehow more stunned. Axel watched each face slacken, before contracting, in either pained desperation or line-inducing scowls. Tifa seated herself at Cid's side, hands squeezing together on the counter, and quietly said, "All right. Convince us."
"Well, I mean, there's no denying that Vexen was an asshole," Cid answered. "He did choose to defect. All the defectors did. Marly did. Luxord did. Even Larxene, and I thought she was a sweetie. But no, they chose, they chose power over what was right." He made a fist and stomped it on the counter, not half as strongly as Axel had.
"Tell us about Ansem," Axel said shortly, not interested in the justification.
A lot less eager about it now than he had been, Cid's gaze lingered on Axel's rigid expression before swinging to encompass the group. "…I saw him. He walked Sephiroth to his desk, let him sit, cool as a cucumber. He poured him a drink."
Tifa argued, "This still just sounds like –"
"The drink was Mako."
There was a collective… deflating. Tifa's gaze went blank, Aerith's hand clutching her shoulder for balance as she briefly dizzied. Leon closed his eyes, while Roxas clung to Sora, who, confused by the entire conversation, hugged him back. Axel scowled at the countertop.
"All the closed circuit footage is in black and white," Leon stated.
"And Mako glows. Distinctively," Cid said flatly. "Even in black and white. Ansem had an entire bottle of the shit locked up in his cabinet."
Tifa gasped quietly, seeming to struggle for breath, as Aerith's arms wrapped around her from behind. Roxas looked…
Axel was on his feet in an instant, yelling, "Roxas!" as the blond went so white he was almost translucent, eyes rolling back in their sockets, sagging towards the floor as Axel lunged, catching him just before his head could hit the tile. Startled, Sora stammered, "He just – he just dropped out of my arms."
"Roxas?" Axel was tapping his cheeks frantically, as Roxas shuddered on the floor, until Aerith's firm grip shifted him to the side and she took his place at Roxas's side.
"He's having some form of seizure," she announced. "Remove the stools from his vicinity." They were gone in an instant. "I need something to cushion his head." Axel whipped off his shirt and bundled it up, easing it gently, with Aerith's help, beneath his head. "Everyone else, remain back," Aerith insisted, and the clutter of legs and worried whispers dispersed immediately.
"What, what can I do?" Axel asked, gulping.
"Wait," Aerith told him, compassionately. She knew what she was asking. Axel just nodded jerkily, and did as he was told.
"What's happening to him?" he asked, huskily.
"I don't know yet," she answered, as, for perhaps thirty seconds longer, Roxas shivered hard enough to lock up every muscle in his body. Then, at long last, mercifully, the tension leaked away, his eyelids stopped fluttering, and, not long after, Roxas blinked up at him with confusion.
"What. Why. Huh?" He hissed in pain as he tried to sit up, Axel's hands instantly supporting him, helping to ease him up, able to feel his strained muscles spasming in protest.
"Easy, now, easy," Aerith softly murmured, as if calming a skittish horse. "Roxas, do you know where you are?"
He squinted at her. "…On the floor?" As Axel's head dropped, he said, "What? We are. Why are we on the floor? Why are you shirtless? And I thought you weren't talking to me."
Axel kissed the top of his head fiercely. "I don't care about anything else. I'm sorry. It doesn't matter. I love you."
"Y-you do know everyone's right there, right?" Roxas blushed, and they all relaxed. He was – fine. Sobbing, Sora came over and required the most nursing, by Roxas, who listened to what he'd done with utter incomprehension. "I don't… I don't remember any of it," he said with a frown, no hint of a lie about him. The guy seemed genuinely puzzled, and worried. Axel slouched helplessly beside him, holding one his hands while his other arm held his twin.
Cid was eyeing Roxas from the back of the group, a speculative glint in his gaze. "Second you heard about Ansem being turncoat, you dropped like a sack of bricks, kid."
Aerith, pressing a cold glass of orange juice into Roxas's hand, turned to him severely. "Let him recover." It was starting to look like you don't argue with the goddess of life and growth when she's on her own version of the warpath. Cid held his hands up in surrender, wandering off. Vincent, however, was staring intently at Roxas from the side. He hadn't left his spot throughout the entire ordeal, but looked more angled and shadowy than ever, in spite of the sunny morning light. He didn't speak up, per Aerith's orders, but… something was definitely brewing over there, and Axel was beginning to apprehensively wonder what it could possibly be.
When Roxas was ready to stand up, he did so, Aerith fluttering around him like a particularly anxious moth. "Really, Aerith, I'm okay," he insisted. Axel and Sora rose with him, within arm's reach at all times, and it was irritably that Roxas eventually said, "Could you guys just – give me a bit of space?" The trio retreated and let him seat himself, painfully, back at the counter.
"May I speak?" Vincent asked, mostly addressing Aerith, but it was Roxas who snapped, "Yes."
"Your memories." Vincent's black eyes glittered. "They are mangled." He glanced around at the others, who were starting to cautiously regroup. "All of yours are, in the exact same place as Cid." He shifted his gaze back to Roxas. "Right where Roxas joins the timeline. But this lad… I never realised how far down it went until the lie was broken just now, namely the lie to believe everything he was being told because Ansem was his protector."
"…Pixie dust," Aerith weakly realised, sitting heavily back on her stool. "If he had enough of it…"
"So it's just we feared. He's been collecting it since before Roxas joined," Leon bitterly said. "Using it to serve his purposes."
"Not that much, I don't think," Vincent disagreed, levelling a single, long finger at Roxas. "Mostly only where he's concerned."
"…Ventus," Leon grated out. "All of this to cover up to cover up one god?"
"But it's not just 'one god', is it?" Cid was back, his toothpick well-worked by now, brows low over his eyes. "It's collaboration with Sephiroth, which means collaboration with Xehanort. He left the damn room by a dark portal."
The room practically exploded with voices, so many talking at once that Cid let out a sharp, two-fingered whistle that split the air like a javelin and ground the chaos to a halt. "Okay, ow," Sora offered, before gesturing at Vincent. "Also, fuck this weird crow guy! There's no way Roxas is a god like all of you." He looked around at them all, then at his brother, forehead creasing in the face of the evidence to contrary. "Right?"
"I'm sorry," Vincent raised his hand, "but who is this child?"
As Sora glowered, Roxas feebly introduced, "Vincent, this is Sora, my twin. Which is why he looks so much like me. And he's actually the one that we…" He sighed. "The one we wanted to ask you here to see, because he's been having issues."
Vincent looked Sora briefly up and down. "Why? Is he not just human?"
Sora flared up. "Just-!"
But Axel cut him off urgently, saying, "Shut up." He looked around the kitchen island. "If Roxas is really Ventus," he slowly proposed, "then who's the real messenger?"
One by one, they looked at Sora with a question in their eyes. The twins snorted in unison. "No way is Sora the messenger," Roxas said, just as Sora threatened, "If anyone says it's me, so help me…" They stopped and looked at one another.
"You said it!" Sora screeched, Roxas suddenly having to shield himself from a flurry of slaps.
"Well, I figured it was pretty self-explanatory," Roxas argued back. "Everyone was thinking it. And I agree with you, idiot!"
"You still said it first," Sora pouted, relenting and letting Roxas put his arms back down.
"Why not Sora?" Leon suggested, seriously considering it.
Roxas lifted his eyes and searched for the right words. "Because he's – he's just –"
"I don't do god shit," Sora supplied, Roxas nodding firmly until he remembered that, actually, he kind of did. He frowned at Sora.
"The pictures of the girl," he reminded him.
"Well, so what?" Sora floundered. "So, I draw pictures of a girl, repeatedly, for no good reason. It's, it's a tic."
"A tic?" Roxas doubtfully echoed.
"Well, does it make me the messenger?" he retorted, which, they all had to admit, was pretty weak evidence.
"Show me the girl," Vincent instructed them, Roxas reluctantly sliding off his stool and going to one of the kitchen drawers and pulling out the pages that had the girl asking for help. Placing them in front of Vincent, the man studied them closely, one at a time, before glancing over at Sora. "He made these?"
"One time!" Sora said, defensively.
"More than one time," Roxas countered, his brother rolling his eyes.
"Okay, more than one time. But I still say that doesn't make me one of you assholes." He looked around with frustration. "When's Riku coming back? He'll confirm it for you. He would know."
"How would he know, Sora?" Roxas asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Because he would," was his heated reply.
"This girl," Vincent muttered, shuffling the pages, "she's requesting – 'help'?"
"She isn't real!" Sora declared.
Vincent's stare hovered on him, Cid alertly asking, "What? Who is she?"
"...A long time ago, when you all joined Ansem, I investigated his past." This was apparently news to everyone present. Cid's arms crossed, while Leon and Tifa both frowned, but no one interrupted just yet. "There was evidence that he had once had a family – a wife, and an adopted daughter. But there are divorce records, as well. I had assumed the daughter was taken along with the wife, but…" He held up one of Sora's drawings. "She was a little blonde girl. Her name was Naminé. The girl in this picture bears a fairly striking resemblance to the images I saw of Ansem's family, even with the added years. She would be around twenty by now."
"You think Ansem's daughter is making me, a messenger, draw pictures of her?" Sora scoffed.
"We're drawn to one another, cycle after cycle," Vincent said with quiet insistence. "What if this caused Ansem to adopt the girl? What if she was one of the unawakened? Because I'll tell you something else I discovered about Ansem." His gaze was piercing. "He was struck from the register of acknowledged scholars for anti-ethical practices."
"Anti-ethical practices?" Aerith echoed, hesitantly. "What does that mean?"
But Leon was shaking his head. "No. No, because I already looked into Ansem, I did it, too, and I didn't find anything like what you're-"
"Pixie dust," Vincent flatly reminded him, halting Leon mid-sentence, his mouth closing abruptly. Looking around, Vincent reminded them all, "I am the only one here who hasn't been compromised by Ansem. That is why I'm here, no?" When no argument was forthcoming, he said, his voice growing husky from overuse, "Ansem was a researcher of polytheism, caught experimenting with real people in awakening practices. How he located these unawakened individuals, I'm unsure, but his activities were bad enough to get him ejected completely from scholarly society."
"Bad how?" Aerith persisted, seeming particularly rattled by the revelation.
"…I would rather remain the only one with the knowledge," Vincent responded, as emotionless as ever yet with a certainty now to his words, "and strongly discourage you from seeking those answers for yourself. That applies to all of you."
"And the girl?" Tifa asked tersely.
"…Well, all I can is that the odds of the resemblance being coincidental are extraordinarily low," Vincent replied. He slid the pages onto the counter. "And I can personally attest to the strength of that resemblance."
When a god of memory said that, there wasn't really a lot of room for argument.
Axel rubbed Roxas between the shoulders, his tension and confusion palpable, while Sora beside him wasn't faring much better. "I just, I don't understand this," the kid was mumbling. "I don't get it. There's no way." He lifted his head suddenly and announced, with great resolve, "I'm going to see Riku." He was off his seat and heading towards Cloud's room before anyone could keep up, though they scrambled in his wake. But before anyone could stop him, Sora was knocking hard on the locked door. "Riku!"
He was yanked back, but not before he heard a pounding from the other side, Riku calling through the wood, "Sora?! What is it? What's happening?" Then, after barely a second's pause, "I'm coming!"
"God, let me unlock it before he tries to break it down," Leon urged, pushing to the front and using the key to reveal a wild-eyed Riku, Cloud behind him still perfectly still in his bindings. Yuffie was on her feet from the chair, looking alarmed.
"What's going on?" she demanded, before waving over their shoulders and greeting, "Hey, old man!"
"…Is she speaking to me, or to you?" Vincent quietly asked Cid.
"You," Cid replied curtly.
Sora had taken refuge in the safety of Riku's arms, Riku asking incredulously, "What the hell are you all doing here?" As Leon locked the door behind them, in what had rapidly become a very full room, he let out a noise of disbelief. "Leon?"
"Well, since your boyfriend decided to start pounding on the door, I felt it best to let him come to you, rather than the other way around," Leon deadpanned.
"They're saying that Roxas is a god, after all, and that I'm the messenger," Sora explained rapidly, "and I just need you to tell them about how I'm not, because I'm not, I'm just normal, right?"
"The girl he's drawing is Ansem's adopted daughter," Axel provided, for context, Riku's eyes flaring wide.
"Just because one guy says it, suddenly everyone's on the bandwagon," Sora loudly complained, forgetting the company they were in because of how worked up he was.
"Oh?" Cloud's head had turned in their direction when no one was looking, and as he flickered, they realised that Sephiroth was still clinging to control. "How fascinating. So we were mistaken, were we?"
Axel immediately put himself between Sephiroth and Roxas, as Riku did the same with Sora, who had fallen very quiet. Cloud started to squirm in place, the entire group fanning out around him, caught unready but at the very least all together. Even Vincent was here, his usually set expression darkening, readying himself for if Sephiroth tried to break out. Rather than that, however, the man started laughing, a deeply unhinged sound which sent a chill through Axel's hot blood.
"Oh, I cannot wait to get back now. Ansem was wrong all this time. Oh, how we'll torment you, boy."
Another bout of laughter, as Sora shrank into Riku, who bared his teeth, dug the tip of his sword under Cloud's jaw, and snarled, "I'd like to see you try, you son-of-a-bitch. I'll be waiting for you."
"Whoa, whoa!" Leon held his hands out. "Put it down, Riku. That's Cloud."
"It's Sephiroth," Riku answered darkly, sword-tip unmoving, "and he's threatening Sora."
A thin line of red had started trickling fast down Cloud's throat, the demented grin above faltering. "…Riku," Cloud said, and his voice was wavering slightly. "Please, don't… don't…" Then he was – he was twisting, writhing, muscles bulging against the zip ties, which creaked faintly. Gasping in a great breath, like he'd just emerged from the deepest of wells, Cloud choked hoarsely, "Do it! Do it, Riku! He'll tell Ansem, just to fuck with us, kill me now, while he's in me, maybe… may…"
The laughter bubbled back up, strangling off whatever else he might have said.
"Oh, we've been saving strength, have we?" Sephiroth observed, before agreeing, voice like the hungry growl of the monster under every bed that ever existed, "Yes, kill me! Kill me now, before I have a chance to go and report to my allies!"
Riku hesitated, Sephiroth sensing it and jolting forward, purposely impaling himself a short distance onto the end of Riku's blade. Riku lurched back with a horrified cry, the blood pouring now, spraying with each laugh Sephiroth could manage until he was gurgling on it. Aerith was already in motion, grabbing Riku's sword from his slack hand and using it to slash the rope and zip ties apart. "Take his feet, shoulders, and head," she commanded, the strongest in the group complying and carrying Cloud to the dining room, the others trailing behind in a panic. Cloud was placed upon the table, Aerith inspecting the wound closely. "…He wasn't aiming for an artery. He'll be all right. But this needs stitching, immediately." Over her shoulder, to Tifa, she said, "I'll need my sewing kit, a first aid kit, and bring any powdered mycelium from the basement." As Tifa darted off to collect the items, Aerith turned to everyone else, her arms held wide, Cloud's blood gleaming on her hands as she barred the way. "Everyone who doesn't need to be here, leave."
Except for Aerith and Leon, the group tumbled back out into the hall, looking at each other, dumbfounded. A short while later Tifa came hurrying along, said, "Excuse me, sorry!" and entered, carrying a collection of items, slamming the door behind her.
"Well… shit," Axel remarked, a sentiment apparently shared by all present.
"I'm sorry," Sora said, smaller and more lost than Axel had ever seen him. "I never meant to…"
"No, it's all my fault," Riku told him, hollowly. "I shouldn't have raised my blade like that. I…" He looked at his empty sword-hand dazedly, Sora winding his arms around him at the sight of his traumatised expression.
"I'm sorry," he said again, with such sincerity you could tell he meant it with every fibre of his being. "I was acting like a little kid. I'm so sorry, Riku. I got scared. I'm sorry." He held his lover closely, and, at the very least, Riku responded, wrapping his arms around Sora's shoulders and gripping him tightly.
The rest of them left the pair there, Riku refusing to move until he knew that Cloud was definitely going to be okay. Returning heavily to the kitchen, they sat about in various states of shock, until Roxas broke the stillness, reaching out for one of Sora's drawings. It was hardly portrait-quality. "…You're certain this is her, Vincent?" he faintly asked, holding it up.
The man considered, then nodded, just once, with conviction. "I'll be surprised if I'm mistaken," was all he'd say.
Cid cracked his neck, then stretched out his arms. "Fine, then. All the more reason to start setting up. If this is HQ 2.0, I need a room to set up as my new workshop. This place got any ballrooms or anything? I've got a lot of shit in the truck."
Instead of sitting around waiting, they were able to busy themselves bringing in Cid's belongings, hearing all about Vincent managing to pry open the elevator doors in Ansem's tower and rescue him, before being forced to drag half the workshop back up with him. As Roxas paused for a break, Axel stayed with him, waiting until the others were out of sight before softly asking, "Are you doing okay?"
Roxas shrugged loosely. "How did you feel, when you were told you were a god?"
Axel thought about it, wiping the grease from carrying Cid's machinery on a rag. "Scared. Confused. Certain it couldn't be true. A little hopeful that it was." When Roxas looked over at that, Axel bumped him gently with the side of his body. "I mean, it's pretty cool, right? Being at least the reincarnation of a god, and we still get access to cool powers and shit." A half-smile tugged the corner of Roxas's mouth.
"You think so, huh?" He sighed.
"Are you kidding? God of motion and time, over here." He nudged Roxas playfully, but the blond went quiet again.
Out of nowhere, he asked Axel, "What happened after the fight with Cloud?"
"I passed out," Axel said immediately, "because I got hit on the head by the butt of his sword."
Roxas seemed to relax slightly, nodding to himself, Axel sending him a quizzical look. "Being a god of time… it's not something I think I like," Roxas said, not meeting his eyes. "You know, I think I liked just being a messenger."
"Nothing 'just' about you." Axel kissed his cheek, Roxas leaning against him, resting his head on his shoulder.
"Nothing 'just' about any of us, I guess," he murmured. "…That girl, Naminé. You think she's really real?"
"Vincent seems pretty sure," Axel replied, squinting off into the distance. "And Sora being the messenger… is it really such a stretch of the imagination? Did you ever try to wake him?"
Roxas hesitated, then shook his head. "No. I could clearly see he wasn't a god, so I didn't bother. But how could I know that if it wasn't because I'm the messenger?"
Axel didn't know. No one really knew anything for sure, it was starting to look like. Being a god was very, very far from being infallible.
He wondered if Ansem was even vaguely aware of that.