CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

By nightfall, they had managed to lug all of Cid's shit into the manor's largest dining room. There were several, most of which the group had left sealed up when they were cleaning the place out, but for Cid, they eased open the towering windows, swept the dust, and hauled his collection of junk onto the exceptionally long dining table. Axel had no idea what even a quarter of this stuff was. It looked as good as garbage to him, but Cid was busy long into the night, welding, sawing, drilling, and hammering to cobble together his new workshop.

Axel, along with everyone else, spent the majority of the night trying desperately to sleep despite the frequent noise. Between that and the anxiety over Cloud's situation, a lot of fucking sleep was lost before the sun finally poked its stupid head over the horizon, and then, only then, did Cid fall silent.

"I'll fucking hill him," Roxas sleepily muttered beside Axel. "I am going to reach down his throat, taking hold of his vocal cords, and pull them from his body."

"Hang the body," Axel suggested, eyes closed, but sleep so far behind him all he was currently doing was pantomiming.

"Yes, by the vocal cords," Roxas approved. "I like it. Make an example of him."

"You," Axel said with a growing smile, "are brutal." He turned his head, Roxas shuffling close and propping himself up on one arm, dropping a long, slow kiss onto Axel's grinning lips.

"Do yourself a favour, then," Roxas lightly whispered, brushing his nose against Axel's, "and never get on my bad side."

Axel felt a thrill of electricity at his words, turning his body now, which Roxas began slowly caressing, wherever his wandering fingers felt like going. Axel arched into his touch, letting out a pleased hum at the slide of those fingertips moving against his skin, circling his hip, loving this more… aggressive side of Roxas. He met the boy's gaze, intense, fixed firmly on his eyes, and his breath hitched slightly. Roxas's grip on his hip tightened, pulling him in, grinding them together, throwing a leg over Axel, rolling him onto his back with Roxas on top. Axel shuddered out a sigh, eyes fluttering shut, which was when Roxas selected a section of his throat and went in for the kill, sucking hard and nipping sharply, Axel yelping, eyes shooting back open as Roxas sat over him, looking… extremely smug and pleased with himself.

"If you think I'm filling this new silence with the sounds of us, you're dumber than you look." He reached down and pressed a finger into the site he had left his mark. "But at least, with this… everyone will know who you belong to." He swung himself off Axel, and, looking cheerful, started pulling on his clothes from the end of the bed. Axel, frozen in place, lay there for a while and blinked at his back.

"You," he eventually said again, with feeling this time, "are brutal."

Roxas was already pulling on his sneakers, but he turned and granted Axel a brief peck. "Get ready. If I know Cid, he's going to start yelling for food soon."

"So that's it?" Axel groaned. "No sleep, no sex?"

"No sleep, no sex," Roxas confirmed, but, with a glint in his eye, smirked, "Not that I didn't enjoy the sight of you like that." His gaze… still held some of that intensity that had Axel flexing his hands and toes, but in the next moment, he was standing up, leaving him there, telling him, "Hurry up," before leaving the room.

Only now, with Roxas out of sight, did Axel hesitantly lift a hand to touch where Roxas had left what would be a small but prominent hickey. "That little shit," he whispered, before taking a few breaths to cool off, sitting up and rolling his neck and shoulders.

He lifted his head as, in the distance, he heard Cid bellow, "Oi, Tifa. When does the bar open?!"

Roxas hadn't been kidding about that. Sighing, Axel got dressed and made his way to the kitchen, where the smells of grease and petroleum met the tang of metal and earthiness of sooth, which then collided with… herbal tea, and bacon? God. What a combination. Overcoming this assault to his senses, Axel saw that most of the exhausted group had already gathered, apparently resigned to Cid's ways. Aerith, Sora, and Riku were among them, Axel nudging Roxas and nodding over at them. "That's got to be good news, right?" he murmured.

Roxas's eyes on his throat, he answered, "Probably."

Rolling his eyes, Axel took a seat beside him, and the group waited for Cid, as the man refused to speak before Yuffie threw the bacon under his nose and Aerith placed the tea at his elbow. "This better be worth it, old man," Yuffie warned. Cid glowered down at the bacon.

"I wanted a Tifa breakfast," he grumbled.

"And we all wanted a good night's sleep, but guess what?" Yuffie showed him her empty hands. "No one gets what they want!"

"You fuckers do," was all Cid would say, before chomping and gnashing his way through the plate of bacon. Slowly, the rest of them made steaming mugs of coffee, or accepted Aerith's tea, while they waited for Cid to finish eating and start talking.

Once they were all settled, Aerith stood at the end of the kitchen island and said, "In that case, I'll go first." With a sad, gentle smile, she said, "Cloud is just fine, but the mycelium I had on hand, while a potent ingredient in my cures, wasn't enough to fix the damage. Between my stitching, and the powdered mycelium, he has healed enough that it won't harm him to eat or drink, but speaking is still difficult for him. I have advised him not to, but… Sephiroth is still in him. So he does what he wants."

"How much longer until Sephiroth is out?" Axel asked, in dread-filled wonder. He couldn't even… begin to imagine what Cloud was experiencing firsthand.

"Another day or two," Aerith supposed, hands clasping, "if we are to follow the same schedule as… last time."

"He's been way too tame this time, though," Yuffie scowled, cupping her coffee close to her chest. "It's weird. Everything about this time is easier. Between Axel knocking him out, out of nowhere, and Sephiroth… behaving for the most part… you gotta wonder what's cooking in the background, you know?"

So far, no one but Axel and Roxas knew about the fact that Roxas had slowed down time. Everything had been so chaotic, and people had only just started accepting that he was even a god. So, credit continued to go to Axel for the impressive victory, although no one seemed quite able to figure out how he'd moved so fast. Come to think of it, no one had been asking questions about it, either. Had they just… accepted it as one of his powers, perhaps? And why… why was it giving him such a headache to think about this?

He dipped his head, feeling a little… spaced out, and thus missed the glare that Roxas sent Yuffie's way, the slicing motion he made at his neck. She held up her hands, mouthing, 'Sorry!' while Roxas, very gently, took hold of Axel's dangling hand and squeezed it slightly, anchoring him back into the moment.

Shaking his head slightly, Axel looked at him, then down at their hands, and idly squeezed back, before lifting his coffee and taking a sip, the pain vanishing from behind his brow. "So, uh, a couple days, Aerith?" Roxas prompted, urging the conversation to continue.

"…Yes," the woman replied carefully, Sora, across the counter, looking uncertain for some reason. "But between now and then, Sephiroth is likely to become… violent again. Towards others, yes, but also potentially towards Cloud." She acknowledged Riku with a small, sympathetic nod, the guy glancing down into his coffee. "Without Mako, he will increasingly try to find ways to harm anyone he can. Physically, emotionally, mentally – he has the capacity. Remain on guard, always."

"…You know, I brought the Mako with me," Cid said, into the silence that followed, causing half of the group to tense right the fuck up.

"You brought it here?" Aerith demanded.

Axel raised his hand. "I'm sorry, maybe it's just me being new here, but what the fuck even is Mako, and why does Sephiroth need it so badly? Like, no one has ever explained that far into the conversation. I just know that Cloud is – being used horribly, and that Sephiroth is creepy as fuck."

"Mako is… a perversion of the planet's life source," Aerith answered, her face twisting as if she personally felt the pain of it. "The people stopped using it as a power source eras ago, but there are still those with knowledge of how to produce it. One of whom…"

"Is Xehanort," Cid shortly said for her. "Xehanort used Mako to forcibly waken both Sephiroth and Cloud, creating a link between them that Sephiroth could then exploit. The second the Mako hit Cloud's bloodstream again – maybe by a hypothermic needle, delivered when he wasn't looking, by someone he trusted…" He trailed off, letting the implication hang.

"You're saying it was Ansem? Ansem did this? When? Why?" Yuffie demanded. "Why now?"

"You mean, why a year ago," Riku tiredly said, Sora rubbing his back softly. He really did look like shit. The fact that he'd technically stabbed Cloud was clearly fucking him up – just the type of thing Aerith said Sephiroth was seeking to achieve. "When Cloud broke through early on, he said it had been a year. So that would mean that one year ago, a decision was made, somewhere, by someone." He met Cid's gaze and sighed, admitting defeat. "But why would Ansem wait, all that time, doing absolutely nothing to Cloud, until suddenly he did? Unless he did not act…" he rapped his knuckles on the counter nervously, "…until instructed to."

"But that means that Ansem was a Nobody all this time," Yuffie exclaimed in disbelief. "I mean, at least for as long as Cloud has been possessed by Sephiroth, right?"

"…Maybe that's exactly why Cloud was given Mako," Riku said, hollowly. "To avoid the lie coming to light."

"But a Nobody? Just passing themselves off as Ansem?" Yuffie insisted, looking around at the group. "They are wayyyy too unstable to pull that off for a whole day, let alone a year."

"Then, why a year ago? We're back to square one. It would answer a lot," Riku argued, his head in his hands. "That's when he started blackmailing me, for example." The majority of the group went still, while Axel, Roxas, and Sora simply dropped their gazes. "He had me helping to – to suppress your memories of Ventus, whose name and identity even I wasn't allowed to know, because he… he intimated…" Riku's volume dropped abruptly, his expression a twisted mess of regret, indecision, shame, and self-loathing. It was… hard to look at. "He never said it outright," Riku continued, forming a fist and softly, softly squeezing it, "but he made sure I knew that Sora would be… excepted from his protection… if I didn't do what I was told. He told me it was for the good of the group. He said it in front of Cloud, who confirmed it." He couldn't bring himself to look at any other them, instead lifting his shoulders helplessly. "Why would he do all that right then, if right then wasn't when Xehanort… somehow… gained access to his sanctum?"

"But why Ventus?" Axel asked, not satisfied with any of this. "Like, okay, a year ago, blackmail, blah blah, but why Roxas? Why always Roxas? And why Roxas specifically this past year?" He narrowed his eyes in frustration. "'Cause that's a lovely picture you're painting over there, Riku, but he started the pixie dust shit way before he hooked you into it."

"Axel, be careful," Aerith sharply interrupted. She nodded at Roxas, who was looking… distant, and a little blank. Axel frowned, lowering himself to hold Roxas's shoulders and stare into the face of someone who… wasn't really looking back. "We can't have this conversation around Roxas, or he may end up seizing again."

Eyes widening, Axel turned to her and asked in a furious whisper, "Why the fuck didn't you lead with that?"

"I'm sorry, I was busy with Cloud!" Aerith whispered back. "I never got time to warn everyone!"

"You were over there giving a whole speech! You could have said it then!"

"In front of him? Really?" Sora interjected, in his own hiss. "That would defeat the purpose, moron!"

"Don't call me a moron, or I'll come over there and -!" Axel's voice was starting to rise, his body lifting with it as his grip on Roxas tightened, managing to snap Roxas out of his funk.

Blinking, he shook his head slightly, then looked up at Axel and asked, "…Why are you threatening my brother?"

"…Because he's a little bitch who had it coming?" Axel faltering answered, trying to not bring up the goddamn Ventus stuff in front of him. Shit. Fucking. Okay. He lowered himself back onto his stool, letting go of Roxas and clearing his throat. "But, of course, it's all in jest."

"He does make a good jester!" Sora replied, with a wide, shit-eating grin, Axel sagging slightly at the sheer audacity of the fucker.

Cid coughed into his fist. "So, uh. Back to the original topic. Yes, I have Mako. Specifically, Ansem's Mako. I went upstairs and raided the asshole's liquor cabinet before I left."

"You should get rid of it," Aerith commanded. "It's unnatural!"

"Nothing's unnatural," Cid argued, and this one sounded old, so Axel just cut them both off.

"Look, it's early, we're all tired, can we just go back to why we're all here?" He gestured at Cid, whose bacon was long gone.

Cid, the bastard, considered it for a long moment, working on the toothpick he'd replaced the bacon with. Then, mercifully, he muttered, "Fine." He grudgingly addressed the group. "I got my makeshift workshop up and running. It's not what I had at Ansem's tower, but it'll do in a pinch, and I've made design improvements. First, the rope y'all were holding Sephiroth with; I know I made it, but that shit's like cheddar to that guy," he complained. "Buncha damn rookies. He's got some good, strong cable around him now, and I reinforced the ever-loving fuck out of his new bed, so he can at least rest properly while he recovers." He muttered off to the side, "Fuckin' – zip ties and rope, are you out of your goddamn…" He stopped himself, and returned back to the group. He looked at Roxas. "You. I brought your swords from the tower." Stomach suddenly plummeting, Axel realised that Cid must have also seen… that. When he looked at Axel for a long, lingering moment, it was confirmed. "…You're tougher than I gave you credit for," was the absolute opposite of what Axel had been expecting to hear, however.

"Wha – are you kidding me? I went into feral god mode and gave my boyfriend a concussion," Axel disbelievingly stated. "That wasn't tough, man. That was scary."

"But I bet it felt good to be powerful, for a second," Cid challenged him, and, yeah, Axel wasn't going to deny that the power had been… intoxicating for a moment. All he knew now was to summon a vague recollection of what that felt like, and he certainly didn't… hate it. So he grimaced guiltily, and looked away, ashamed of that truth, but Cid startled him by sharply reprimanding, "No, don't do that. Don't you ever feel bad about somethin' that you didn't do." He rolled his toothpick. "That's always what's holdin' Cloud back. Those regrets, kid, toss 'em away. Or, better yet, learn." He leaned forward, stabbing a finger at his empty plate. "You caught a look at the skeleton. Most of us never even know they're there. There's no 'us' and 'them', but you, when you snapped, kid, whew." He dragged a knuckle under his nose. "Those old bones floated up, and you gotta learn from 'em. Learn all you can, even if you don't like lookin'. Remember that it's the one edge the Nobodies…" He caught himself, then amended, saying, "…that Xehanort's puppets have. That ancient contact. They'll still be tougher than you, but you can be tougher, too. I saw that on that night, so I made you a present. It's in the workshop, with the kiddo's blades."

Axel exchanged an interested look with Roxas, but Yuffie wasn't having any of that. "You can't just say that and then leave it to us to ask about it later anyway! Show everyone!" she eagerly pleaded.

"Sure, come along if you like," Cid shrugged. So, with the rest of them following like a gaggle of curious schoolchildren, Cid led the way to his new workshop, and Axel could scarcely believe he was standing in the same room as yesterday. Cid had transformed it overnight, physically in places, which probably accounted for a couple of the especially loud noises they'd heard during the night. If it wasn't for the fact that Cloud was in Aerith ICU with a full guard, he'd have honestly thought they were under attack again.

The walls were lost behind rows of shelves, large construction stations, and what looked like a person-sized, home-made computer. Letting out an impressed whistle, Yuffie conceded, "Damn, old man. You sure were busy in here."

"Of course I fuckin' was," Cid grouched, and went to the back of the room, where into the walls he had studded hooks, on which a series of weapons were secured. One set of hooks held Roxas's twin blades, Axel staring at them, and him, still trying to reconcile this image in his mind. It really wasn't the kind of thing you expected to someday be looking at when you met a cute guy in the park one day. Then, next to that, Cid hefted down a set of chunky, spiked wheels, and held them out to Axel. "Here. I thought they'd suit you most."

Axel took them with a sense of unreality, finding specific places for his fingers to fit so he could lift them – wield them. These things had a funny sort of weight at the centre of them, which made them harder to hold up initially, but which he already found himself growing accustomed to.

"Figured you'd be better deployed as a long-distance fighter," Cid grunted, eyeing him with something like approval, "since I noticed you tend to lift the temperature in your immediate area. Those are called chakram. They can be tossed, and if you learn to use 'em with your powers, you can summon 'em straight back into your waiting hands." He sounded proud of his work, Axel blinking, unsure, at first, what exactly to say to a guy who hands you weapons.

"Uh, wow," he eventually managed. "Thanks, Cid. These are – really cool."

"Cool?" Cid smacked him alongside the head, Axel yelping at the unexpected attack. "Clean your ears out and listen good, boy," he scowled. "Those are some deadly fuckin' weapons, and you better learn to use 'em right, because if we have to waste all Aerith's cures because your stupid, stupid, dumb ass couldn't figure out up from down, I will show you how they work, by using you as a crash test dummy. We clear on that?"

Having never actually asked for these in the first place, Axel did regardless think they were pretty cool, and so solemnly answered, "Yes, sir. I'll good care of them."

"That's better." Cid's expression cleared. "So now, onto step two."

"Oh, there are steps, now?" Yuffie wondered.

"Yeah, there's steps!" Cid barked back. "You got a problem with it, take it up with my ass."

"Cid," Aerith chided.

The man threw up his hands, clearly feeling like he was losing a battle here. "Why can we never just have one goddamn conversation…" he mumbled to himself, before raising his voice back to normal. "Step one was re-armament, damn it. Step two, and I know it's a doozy, because I've heard all about it from all y'all who came to visit me during the night." He held up two fingers, to emphasise his point. "We wake that Sora kid up."

"Hey, now," Riku immediately began, as Roxas flared up and prepared to go on the attack… but they were both stopped by Sora, who, with a single raised hand, silenced their protestations on his behalf.

"Sora?" Roxas gaped, about as shocked as he might be if his twin had woken up with a further triplet in the bed.

"…I've thought about it," Sora explained, frowning, "I mean, I had the entire night to think about it, since sleep wasn't an option." Everyone but Cid nodded sagely at this. "But the basic conclusion I keep coming to is that someone needs help. Right?" He looked around at them. "I mean, I know the world needs help from that Xehanort guy, but this girl, Naminé, she's – asking for help, somehow, through me?" He looked at Roxas, then Riku, who cupped his face helplessly, then shrugged, and nodded.

"It's starting to look that way," he admitted.

"Well, then," Sora said, quiet but determined, "I want to. I want to help her. If that means wading knee-deep into god shit, well." He sighed dramatically. "I'll take the bullet."

Riku stared at him for a moment, in awe, then hugged Sora tightly. He whispered something inaudible in the kid's ear, Sora smiling beatifically in response. Roxas was shaking his head in amazement. "So, will it – hurt, or anything?" Sora asked, just slightly nervously, as Riku reluctantly released him. "When do we do it? Right away?"

Everyone looked at Roxas, who glanced around, mouth opening and closing a few times, before he eventually said, "I mean – I guess? I never expected to be doing this. Like, ever. Ever."

"That makes us a pair, then," Sora said, with a crooked, understanding grin.

"So… now, then?" Roxas asked, looking around for any objections. Met with either nods or shrugs, he turned to his twin, drawing a deep breath. "Okay, then. Sure. This isn't weird. I'm just. Waking Sora from his nap." He put his hands on Sora's shoulders, the other immediately mirroring the movement as they touched their heads together. "I don't know how this is meant to happen for the messenger," Roxas told him, "so just… remember who you are, got it? Remember that you're Sora."

A shadow passing over his face, Sora nonetheless nodded. "Do it."

Roxas worked himself up to it, then looked up into Sora's eyes, and Axel felt a pulse radiate outward, starting from Roxas. In the next moment, Sora's eyes were rolled back and fluttering, his body going completely limp. This… was not what had happened to Axel. Or to anyone, judging by the shock with which they all watched him hit the floor. Then Riku was crying out, "Sora!" and going to his side, but – this wasn't like what had happened to Roxas. This wasn't a – what was it? Broken seal? He wasn't seizing, was the point. He was absolutely rag-dolled. Rather, the only part of Sora that was moving was his eyes, like he was having… a very intense dream?

"Rapid eye movement," Axel mumbled, then pointed with his chakram and said it again. "Rapid eye movement! He's – seeing something."

"What the hell's he seeing?" Roxas demanded, ducking down and starting to panic. "He's human! He doesn't have a long memory to even see!"

"Well, how do you know?" Yuffie asked, hands on hips. "I mean, we thought you were the messenger all this time. How come you can see who's a god and who's not, if it's not because of that? What do you see in us that you don't see in Sora?"

"What do I see?" Roxas echoed. "I see – I see…" He looked around at them all. No – more sort of… at their solar plexuses, the same place where Axel had seen the glow of his own existence when he'd been woken. Roxas, apparently, could see it at all times. "It's like… a glowing cable," he said, struggling for words, holding Sora's head in his hands. He looked at Sora. "Sora's cable is – short. Like all humans. But all of you, I see… it's like a jumble. The cable is so long, it twists in on itself, and in on itself, until it becomes this bundle that glows so brightly I can't help but notice it."

"…Timelines," Axel faintly realised, all eyes swivelling to him. Roxas tilted his head, looking disheartened, but it just wasn't something they could keep to themselves. Vincent already knew, anyway, as did Kairi, even if she was off the radar. "Roxas is – or Ventus was – the god of motion, and time. He's seeing… it's the timelines, he…"

"Oh, come on!" Roxas cried out, as Axel dropped to his knees, the pain so intense it struck him blind. He dropped noiselessly to the floor, chakram landing on either side of him, darkness filling him like a vessel.

"This is why I don't approve of pixie dust," Aerith fretted.

"For fuck's sake, can you people not remain conscious for ten goddamn minutes?"

"Roxas, just yesterday it was you."

"Then clearly, Riku, we have issues! Lots! And lots! Of issues!"

…And Axel was gone.