CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Axel woke up feeling… heavy, the following day. The light in the room suggested that it was past noon. Roxas was elsewhere, Axel pushing his body up slowly, bleary gaze catching on the faint lines marring his arms. They were a whisper of what they'd been, thanks to Aerith, but the blood loss continued to cause his head to pound. If they had been regular people, he and Riku would have bled out. As for Cloud…

Well, he wasn't going to find the answer staying in bed.

It took him a while to dress himself, every movement sluggish today, before making his way to the kitchen. For once, it was deserted; it wasn't yet late enough for anyone to start meal prep, so they were all elsewhere, busy. Scratching his head through his thick hair, Axel wandered to the refrigerator and opened it up to find his breakfast on a plate with a post-it on it reading AXLE. It looked like a Yuffie job; he was pretty sure that was just a pile of bacon. He peeled back the cling-wrap and took a few pieces, then closed the door.

Munching as he walked, he searched the hallways until he found a conservatory, light-filled and warm, in which a collection of people were gathered. The walls were clear glass, looking out over the dilapidated garden grounds, those dead flowerbeds, messy shrubs, and overgrown hedges adding that touch of class that every good party requires. There were some large, empty ceramic pots inside, as if they, too, had been meant to be hold decorative plants instead of dust and cobwebs. T

hose present were chattering at the windows, gazing out, with a collection of used teacups scattered on a nearby coffee table. His gaze darting, Axel immediately located Roxas, but also noticed that several key people were missing, chief among them being Leon and Cloud. However, as the group started to notice him, and parted, one of those who turned… was Kairi. He smiled broadly, as her face lit up. "Axel!" She crossed the marbled tiles and hugged him affectionately, Axel gladly returning the embrace.

"Good to see your face again, kid," he said softly, causing her to laugh.

"You do know I out-age you by like, millennia, right?"

"Yeah, yeah." He held her out to get a good look at her, then regretfully shook his head. "Nah, sorry, you'll always be a kid to me. I mean, look at this tiny vessel you chose."

"Excuse me!" Kairi puffed up indignantly, Roxas laughing off to the side.

"Hey, don't you laugh too much, shorty," Axel advised him, causing the blond to immediately switch to glaring.

"It's good to know you feel well enough to joke around, at least," Aerith dryly observed, Axel dropping his hands and grinning at her as Roxas sulked.

"Thanks to you. Really. Thank you."

"It's, it's nothing." Aerith turned pink and became suddenly very interested in her fingernails, while Tifa playfully nudged her, looking proud.

"And Cloud?"

"He'll live," Kairi said, but she didn't sound too… excited by the fact. "His body was badly damaged by Sephiroth, but I was able to knit it back together easily enough. It's his state of mind that worries me."

With Axel's arrival, they all drifted back to the lounges and dusty, antique armchairs. Roxas plopped beside Axel, but only because Sora was occupied with Riku, the pair remaining by the windows to hold their own quiet conversation. It was resentfully that he allowed Axel to kiss his cheek, the man chuckling at his pouting.

Continuing with the far more serious conversation, Tifa downheartedly said, "Going by last time, it could be weeks before we can get a coherent word out of Cloud."

"He has Leon this time," Aerith reminded them. "He has everyone around him. He'll come together again."

They lapsed into a somewhat dreary silence. Axel could attest firsthand to the brilliance of Kairi's healing ability, but the mind was a place that couldn't be healed by magic, godly or otherwise. "…What about pixie dust?" Yuffie suggested, at the same time that Axel's head throbbed with pain. Roxas's expression shifted uncertainly as he noticed Axel's head lower, a hand rising to massage between his eyes.

"No," Aerith was hotly replying. "Not a chance. Just because Ansem used it willy-nilly, does not mean that I am about to start manufacturing it for our use."

"But-" Yuffie started to argue.

"Yuffie, I think you should stop," Roxas sharply warned, as Axel hissed quietly and held his head in his hands.

She faltered, but, upon noticing Axel's state, obediently withdrew. Kairi, frowning, peered intently at Axel from the other side of the coffee table, as Roxas started rubbing his back, stimulating him back into the moment. The pain retreated – slowly. Leaning back in his seat, releasing a long breath, Axel opened his eyes and blinked until the light no longer pierced, before realising abruptly that, for whatever reason, he was the centre of attention. Roxas was even gripping his hand. Hadn't he been sulking?

"…What?" he asked. "What's everyone looking at?" He glanced down at his shirt, but it was clean.

"No, you just… zoned out for a second," Roxas said, sounding a little wooden. "Yuffie asked you a question."

"Actually, it was me, I asked the question," Aerith interjected, drawing his attention, before asking, with an oddly incisive edge, "How are you today, Axel?"

Surprised to find himself in her crosshairs, he stammered slightly. "Um. Okay? I feel. You know. Hungover, I guess." He had to admit that the brightness of everything had been bothering him for a while now. "But that's par for the course, right? After last night?" Before anyone could respond, he raised his voice and called out, "Yo, Riku! How you feeling today?"

Pulled from whatever conversation he was having with Sora, looking confused, he called back, "…Fine?"

"Hungover, though, right?" Axel asked him, sympathetically.

"…No?"

"Oh." He looked back at Aerith. "So, just me, then. I feel hungover."

Yuffie looked at him suspiciously. "Did you find the old man's liquor stash? If you did, you have to tell us where."

"That isn't it," Aerith muttered, and she sounded, if Axel's ears didn't deceive him – actually angry. Aerith-angry, which meant it was quiet and self-contained, but she did. She actually sounded pissed.

Wondering what he'd done wrong, Axel hastened to say, "I really didn't. I haven't been drinking. I just feel kind of crappy today. I'll come good, I just need to shake off last night."

Now it really was sounding like he'd been drinking. That was what you said about a wild night out, rather than an evening spent at home getting your arms sliced open and broken in multiple places. Sometimes, he really did just have to step outside himself and kind of go 'what the fuck, dude'. He hoped he never lost that part of himself.

"…Yes. Of course." Aerith shook her head slightly, and smiled, but her lips were thin. "You could do with a vitamin boost, that might help. Why don't you come down to my workshop later, and I'll get something to fix you up?"

"Oh! Cool!" Axel nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, sure." He still wasn't sure what the deal was – the air felt weirdly tense, and not just because Aerith was behaving differently; it had been that way from the moment he'd snapped out of whatever daydream he'd been away on.

Regardless, all of that was put on the backburner when Sora and Riku finally came to join the rest of them. They didn't sit, instead standing side by side, Sora with his hands folded behind his head, a deep frown on his face. Next to him, looking similarly grave, Riku announced, "Look, guys, we need to call an emergency meeting. Cid's workshop, as soon as possible. Find the others, and get yourselves there. I'll go get Leon and Cloud."

Looking alarmed, Aerith argued, "You can't do that, Cloud's recuperating! Bring Leon if you must –"

"Sorry, Aerith, but Cloud's a requirement." He glanced at Sora. "We need all the information he's got, and Sora thinks he can get him to talk."

"I strongly advise against this," Aerith declared, rising to her feet.

Tifa rising with her, looked just as offended. "Cloud is finally free from Sephiroth, and you want to force an interrogation session with some freshly woken messenger?" she demanded.

"This freshly woken messenger," Sora loudly interrupted, lowering his arms, "might be the key to stopping Naminé from getting killed, and has the only confirmed means of speaking with a god who isn't on the radar, so maybe consider that before you go shitting all over my divine profession."

Axel blinked. "Goddamn." He looked at Roxas. "Where was that when it was you?"

"It was over here, in me, saying the same thing to him," Sora stated. "I might be mortal or whatever, but you people fucking need me, and I expect to be treated as more than the glorified errand boy Ansem reduced my brother to." His severe expression, and rather more intimidatingly, Riku beside him, dared anyone to talk back. Tifa, however, shut right up, Aerith lowering her gaze apologetically. "Now I understand," Sora continued, compassion in his voice, "that you guys are trying to protect Cloud. I don't want to hurt him, either, and I don't intend to. It's just, now that Sephiroth has left him, and he knows Naminé isn't the real messenger because of my big mouth, we just. We have to save her, you guys." He looked around, helplessly. "Right? Do you really think that Xehanort is going to just let it go that she's not the messenger, after all these years? He kills other gods. Regularly!"

Placing a soothing hand on his shoulder, Riku said, "If we're going to be taking the fight to Xehanort anyway, this is as good a place to start as any. Naminé said that she's 'nowhere', but also somewhere that Roxas knows. However, before we get to that, we need everyone in the same room, and yes, that includes Cloud." Meeting Tifa's and Aerith's gazes steadily, he assured them, "We wouldn't ask if we didn't need him, and Sora isn't going to harm him. I believe in him."

They looked at each other, holding some silent conversation, before glancing over at Yuffie, who shrugged her consent. Reluctantly, the pair nodded theirs, hand grasped together, and with that, the group split, Roxas and Axel heading out while Kairi went with Sora and Riku.

Glancing at him as they headed for Cid's workshop, Roxas asked, "Are you… okay?"

Wondering why people kept asking him that, Axel regardless was patient as he replied, "I mean, apart from the pounding headache, yeah, sure. No. I don't know." He went back to massaging his forehead. "It just hurts, is all," he mumbled, missing the look of anguished regret that flashed across Roxas's face.

When he glanced over, Roxas was smiling tightly, an expression that was pinched at the edges. "Maybe Aerith will be able to help," he said neutrally, gripping Axel's hand tightly. They walked the rest of the way wordlessly, arriving at the workshop before anyone else, before even Cid. However, by the time the others started turning up, Cid and Vincent were among them. And then, very last, came Leon… and Cloud.

He was healed externally, to the point that even his old scars had vanished. Kairi's work was extraordinary to witness, considering Axel had basically watched the guy die. Cloud's broken, lacerated, exhausted body was as good as new, and Axel personally knew exactly just how new it really was. But the look on his face… it was like no one was home. Leon led him gently every step of the way, as if Cloud had lost his entire will to exist. Axel had only got a glimpse of Sephiroth during his tenure as Cloud's Mako-denied phantom, which had been… terrifying, and ferocious. He couldn't even begin to imagine what an entire year of having that presence inside you was like, or what it must have been like, being piloted like he was nothing. No wonder Cloud had shut down in his wake. He was beginning to see, with a slight wince he couldn't quite hold back, what Aerith and Tifa had been so worked up about. Cloud was barely even Cloud.

But, with everyone watching, Sora pulled up a chair for Leon to lower the man into, which he did with the greatest, most tender of care. When his fingertips slid away from Cloud, the blond twitched slightly, but otherwise didn't respond. "Okay," Leon said flatly, straightening up and backing away several steps. "Now, do what you said you can."

"What I think I can," Sora reminded him with a raised finger, Leon impatiently dismissing the caveat.

"Just do it."

"Okay." Sora swung his arms, taking a few deep breaths. To the group, he said, "I've been practicing on Riku, so I think I have this down, but like. Please don't hate me if I'm wrong." This was mostly for Riku's benefit, the man shaking his head softly in response, Sora smiling at him hesitantly, before focusing on Cloud. Exhaling slowly, he knelt down, then reached for Cloud's hand, inert on his thigh. Riku bent down with him, taking hold of Sora's shoulders to keep him steady as he drooped. For a long minute, nothing happened. Leon started shifting from foot to foot, looking increasingly thunderous, while cautious hope dimmed from some faces.

Then Cloud's eyes slid shut, going still for a moment, before an almost imperceptible flutter began beneath his lids. "…Leon?" His lips moved, his voice holding none of the guttural quality that the sword-stab and abuse from Sephiroth had previously caused. His eyes remained shut, a slight frown creasing his brow. "Leon, where am I?"

At his side in an instant, Leon gripped his free hand with both hands. "I'm here, Cloud!" he urgently said, voice low but clear. "Can you… hear me?"

"I can hear you," Cloud answered, an amazed ripple passing through the group. Roxas could wake a god like few others, but this? This was true messenger shit. "I don't know where I am, though."

"You're somewhere safe," Leon told him, Cloud's head jerking as if being emphatically shaken.

"You're not safe. They can still find you with Naminé."

"We're going to rescue her," Riku firmly told him. "Cloud, what information can you share with us that might help?"

"No, wait," Leon argued, but he was tugged back by Cid, who clapped him comfortingly on the shoulder.

"Where's Leon?" Cloud sharply asked.

"I'm still here," Leon promised him, achingly.

"…Riku. I don't know if I can trust you," Cloud then warily said, after a moment's pause.

"Riku's told us all about Ansem's blackmail," Tifa said, Cloud's eyebrows twitching.

"Tifa?"

"I'm here, too. Everyone's here, Cloud," she said, voice thick with tears she was holding steadfastly back. "So just… help us help that girl. Please."

"…You're really going to find Naminé?" Cloud sounded doubtful.

"We think she's in danger," Riku confirmed.

"Riku, she is the danger," Cloud replied, eyes shifting behind their lids. "She can find you. You have to scatter, all of you."

Speaking up from a shadowy corner Vincent had managed to locate in the workshop, he said, "It's not terrible advice. They may already be en route to us."

"Then why didn't they find us already?" Riku asked. "This is one of Sora's points, by the way." He glanced worriedly at Sora's slumped form. "It's what he asked me. He asked me, 'if Naminé's so great, how come they're not already on the doorstep?'. His theory is that she's – stalling."

"Stalling?" Leon echoed, disbelievingly.

"Stalling…" Cloud sounded uncertain, but didn't reject it outright.

"Naminé knows where we all are, all the time," Riku explained, both to Cloud and the keenly listening group. "She can sense us, which is even better than Roxas's ability to see us. So why aren't they on the doorstep? We've been here for almost a week, totally exposed, totally unprepared, believing in our own invisibility."

"…Sora's telling me he spoke with her," Cloud commented. "He says she's… a prisoner." He went quiet for a moment, then nodded slightly. "He's telling the truth." Leon covered his mouth, as Aerith and Tifa clutched one another. Cloud using his ability had shaken them deeply, apparently extremely at odds with his usual recovery rate. "…All right," he eventually said, as if he had spent a moment conversing with Sora in whatever space they currently inhabited. "I'll help."

With Cloud convinced, the others now looked at Leon, who stared back, then lifted his shoulders roughly and glanced away. "If Cloud's in, I'm in."

With his blessing confirmed, Riku forged ahead. "Naminé said that she's 'nowhere at all'. Do you know where that is?"

Cloud hesitated, then answered, "I've never been." Before anyone could get too disappointed, he added, "But I've seen Ansem go there. Through a dark corridor. Like Xehanort uses."

"I've seen it, too," Cid told him. "Any idea where it goes?"

Cloud was silent for a while, either considering the question, or perhaps in conversation with Sora again. "…I can touch the memory," he said, at last. "But it might sever Sora's connection. All the bad things… they're behind a wall."

All the bad things. That was where the catatonia had gone: behind the wall. Sora had drawn him forward enough that he could speak with them, but it was like speaking with a ghost. He wasn't complete. Everything that had reduced him to a shell of himself… it was all still in there, waiting to crash back down and resume crushing the person who was currently speaking. It was… almost unspeakably awful. Axel understood the necessity of it, as had Riku when Sora had first presented it, but it was a sharp concept to wrap your head around.

"Don't do it, then," Leon gently begged, stroking his face with a raw expression. "Stay away from the memory."

"…I can't," Cloud answered, sounding… resigned. "I'm the god of truth, Leon. What the fuck am I meant to do. Look away?" For a moment, he sounded so much like his natural self it made Leon's breath visibly hitch. Then he was laughing slightly, lowering his head to Cloud's forearm, where he fell silent.

"Do what you have to," Leon eventually huskily said.

"Leon, you need to know," Cloud softly told him, "that this last year, it was still me. Sephiroth was embedded, but the control was mostly mine. I couldn't tell you, or warn you, but it was… it was still you and me. We were us."

Leon's sigh sounded a lot like a choked sob. "I just wish I could look into your eyes again and have it be you," he managed to gasp, and everyone turned away, just their heads, but every single head twisted to the side, granting bitterly little privacy to their bitterly little time.

"Don't give up on me yet," Cloud whispered, and Leon gripped his hand tightly.

"Never," he muttered back. Axel closed his eyes as Leon leaned in to kiss him, as they all did. There was a short period of dead silence, then Leon huffed four rapid breaths, audibly composing himself. "I'm with you," he grated, squeezing Cloud's fingers. "So just… do what you need to do."

"I'll see you on the other side, I guess." Cloud tried to go out on a light note, but he just sounded sad. Into the new silence, Axel blinked, focusing back on Cloud. At some point, he and Roxas had joined hands. Tifa and Aerith were silently weeping into each other's shoulders, while everyone else just… stood there. Unable to do anything to help, hoping only that Cloud could somehow help them.

Cloud was still for several long, quiet minutes. Axel had no idea if this was Sora time, or it was just taking that much courage to touch the required memories. Then, Vincent flinched as if he'd witnessed something extremely unpleasant, and a moment later, Cloud started whimpering. It was faint at first, but gradually increased in volume and intensity. Sora's grip on his hand tightened slightly. Cloud's eyes had stopped fluttering and now darted, first one way, then the other, like a creature hunted. "Under… under Sephiroth's control… we stepped through the dark portal a couple of times," he said, in a low, hollow voice, like he was communicating from the end of a long tunnel. "During that time… we were in a dark place. Everywhere was darkness. And – pressure. A terrible pressure, and cold. God, how is it so cold? Why are we in such a horrible place? Where's Leon?" Axel was slowly realising that he recognised Cloud's experience, when the man started gasping, then gagging, as if the memory was overwhelming him entirely. Sora struggled to hang onto him, but as Cloud starting frantically chanting with increasing volume, "Where's Leon? Where's Leon?" Sora mercifully lost his grasp and tumbled abruptly back as though physically expelled from Cloud's presence.

He hit the ground roughly, real momentum there, and skidded a few inches before coming to a halt. Riku quickly went to help him up, Sora groggy and slightly dazed, but otherwise in fine condition. Cloud… had returned to his earlier state. He wasn't screaming anymore, but this empty state wasn't what Axel would ever call an improvement.

As Leon settled mournfully beside him, Axel directed his gaze to where Riku was fussing over Sora. Other than looking a little dusty and with maybe a scraped elbow, however, the kid seemed all right, and was successful in batting off Riku's attempts to smother him.

"So," he said, after a long pause, sounding tired as hell, "was that helpful at all?"

Axel looked at Roxas, whose expression had turned distant. Squeezing carefully, he said, "You know what it reminds you of, don't you?"

Roxas nodded, hesitantly. "We've all been there at least once." He looked around. "When I brought you all here. Or when I've woken you and taken you to see Ansem," he looked at Riku now, who did indeed appear to recall it, just like the rest of them. Who could honestly ever forget such a place?

"That dark space between the zipping and unzipping," Axel murmured. The non-space through which Roxas was capable of crossing endless spans in a heartbeat, but which also felt like… the worst possible place to have to exist for even that long. "And Naminé is there?"

"She said Ansem took her 'elsewhere' and 'nowhere'," Sora wearily remarked, wiping some sweat off his brow, wiped after the effort of granting Cloud his voice. "It doesn't get much more 'elsewhere' or 'nowhere' than that fucking place."

"I never even considered it to be an actual… plane of existence," Roxas said, stunned, like the universe had just turned itself inside-out right in front of him. "I figured it was just, I don't know. Nothing? That that's what nothing felt like?"

"Well, maybe it is." Vincent was looking thoughtful. "Maybe it is both nothing, and a plane of existence. Even 'nothing' exists, theoretically, it's just out of reach for most people. But you," he said to Roxas, "are not most people." He gazed at Roxas with a new appreciation that would have had Axel feeling jealous, had it been anyone else. Instead, it just made him uneasy.

Clearly sharing his opinion, Roxas said, "You're creeping me out now, Vincent. This? This is creepy behaviour. You need to hear it. Fix yourself." He shuffled closer to Axel for protection.

"What's going through your head, Vincent?" Axel cautiously asked, taking Roxas under his arm.

"Well, it simply occurred to me," Vincent replied, "that Roxas has the ability to enter negative space, and that that is quite a remarkable thing indeed." His gaze shifting to Sora, who looked slightly revolted at being in his focus, he mumbled, "Remarkable indeed. Perhaps a duo of gods, mixed up and confused in utero." Shifting his gaze to Roxas, he casually added, "Which would naturally mean that Roxas is bearing not one god, but two."

"Excuse the fuck out of me?" Roxas demanded, while everyone else reeled at the possibility, Axel included.

"Would you calm the fuck down?" Cid complained to Vincent. "Haven't we got enough shit without you steering the conversation right off the fucking tracks, like you always do?" To everyone else, he declared, "Ignore this fucker. He dials the melodrama up like you would. Not. Believe. Every chance he gets."

"I don't," Vincent pouted. Straight-up pouted, like Roxas had been pouting not so long ago, Axel gaping at the sight.

"You do, but it's an interesting idea," Cid answered, arms folded, rolling his toothpick. "Not Roxas having two gods. That's stupid. But an in utero shuffle… a little god here, a little messenger there… a curious couple'a twins at the other end, one who can reach through mental space to speak to gods, and even will gods to speak," his eyes flashed slightly at this, as if the god part of him objected to the concept, sliding from one brother to the next, "and one who can enter negative space to leapfrog around existence on a whim. That's awfully powerful for a reincarnation, is all I'm saying, and unusual for a messenger, too."

"It's unheard of."

Kairi spoke up for the first time, Axel having all but forgotten she was even there, so silently had she watched the proceedings. From the moment that Sora initiated his connection with Cloud until now, she hadn't moved, hadn't spoken, hadn't reacted; she'd merely watched. Observed them, like the ancient being she was, and the ants they were by comparison. Axel felt the slightest chill, like he was seeing a raw piece of god gleaming between her seams. Even her tone now was… distant. She was either unmoved by what she'd witnessed, or extremely committed to objectivity, and Axel could only hope it was the latter. His impression of the original gods so far wasn't faring so well already – he needed her to be an example. They all did.

But she kept talking.

"Gods are attracted to one another, and so it was true of myself and the twins," she said, as if 'the twins' weren't two of her closest friends. "I found myself in their company, and they in mine. But I was already old, and they were very young, and though I may not be able to see a god, I can read the signs that gods are present. Just as Axel was moving people with his music long before he was woken," she said, meeting his gaze, and, for just a split-second of time, he felt – so minute, like an atom before a towering giant, "so, too, did the twins affect the world around them, in ways which were small, but noticeable to one such as myself." She lifted her chin slightly. "I can confirm that they are abnormal."

"Kairi, what the fuck are you saying?" Roxas asked, perplexed and hurt, while Sora simply stared at her. "How the fuck are we abnormal?"

"You're an aberration," she said crisply. "Ventus may be a god of space and time, and he is indeed powerful, but he was never able to enter negative space. No one but Xion could do that, and she is not present here. Xehanort is capable of travelling by dark corridor, and opening portals for others, but those corridors are… narrow, one way, and protected from the effects of negative space." Her gaze ticked between them. "Then, through a strange twisting of fate, the twins came along, a god and messenger developing side by side. They don't only share aspects, they have broken convention." She regarded them now not as an almighty being, but as Kairi, frowning. "I didn't like keeping it from you. I just… didn't see any point in pushing it. Why should it matter which one was which? Why does it matter that you're something new?"

"Something new?" Vincent perked right up at that, everything about him brimming with curiosity, and Axel remembered that he had that… longer-than-usual history in his head, a lot of which must have been boring beyond belief.

She sighed. "You all just took it for granted, didn't you? When he pulled you through negative space?" She shook her head. "The second that Roxas pulled me through, I realised what had seemed so off about them all these years."

"Are you saying," Sora asked, voice devoid of emotion, "that you only hung out with us for all that time because you knew what we were all along, and because we 'seemed off'?"

Kairi blinked, then said, "Are you crazy? Of course not! Sora! You idiot!" She searched for something to throw at him, but everything around them was heavy or pointy, a la Cid's workshop. Giving up, she instead tossed her hands up. "I didn't even notice at first, it was a suspicion that developed over years. How could you think…? Oh. I see how it sounds." She shook her head emphatically. "Sora, I love you because you're you," she told him, smiling kindly, and there she was, there was the usual Kairi, like a breath of fresh air in the stuffiness that seemed to be filling the room. "And Roxas, too," she added, nodding towards him. He nodded back, numbly. She sobered up, going on, "But you are aberrations, and that is a pretty big deal. Sorry. You're not really Ventus, Roxas, not all the way; and Sora, you're not 'just' a messenger."

"I know that," he scoffed, unable to stop himself, wiping away a tear.

"You guys are just kind of… Roxas and Sora," Kairi said, with a shrug.

"So, wait, I'm part-Ventus?" Sora asked, pointing at himself.

"No," Kairi sighed, "and yes, sort of. Almost." She shook her head, unable to make it clearer just yet. "But the point remains that what Cloud mentioned… he was definitely talking about negative space. So, that's definitely where they're keeping Naminé." She met Sora's gaze with a rueful smile. "'It doesn't get much more 'elsewhere' or 'nowhere' than that fucking place.'. Right?"

Shaking his head slowly, Roxas said, "But… I've only ever passed through it. You can't just – stop partway."

"Have you ever tried?" Kairi asked him, immediately stumping him, because no, it was looking a lot like he never had.

"And you want me to take… all of us… there?" Roxas asked, looking at her like she was out of her mind. "You want me to just stop. Halfway." She might as well have been advising a fish to breathe fresh air.

"You're the only one who has access to it, Roxas. I don't know what else to tell you, except to try it out yourself, if you're so unsure."

"I don't think I want to," he shot back, bristling.

"Not even to save Naminé?" Kairi asked, and Axel had to hand it to her; she was exceptional at handling the brothers. She had definitely grown up with them, god or not. "Listen, guys, everything about this cycle is off," she told them, laying her cards on the table. "Absolutely everything. I do not understand it. I don't know why this is happening, all I know is that it is. This is our chance, at long last, to start kicking Xehanort's ass, because for once, for reasons far beyond his control, things occurred to make this specific cycle a special one. Our shot in the dark."

"Why this cycle?" Riku demanded, holding Sora protectively. "Why them?"

"Why anything, Riku?" Kairi met his gaze with a sympathetic shrug. "I'm not all-knowing."

"And you don't know what's waiting in the negative space, either, I suppose?" Axel cynically supposed.

"What do you think is in there, after your brief impressions of it?" she countered, to which he had no real response. Damn. She even had him dancing to her tune. She was good.

"…You really think Naminé could be in… there?" Roxas asked, with trepidation.

"We won't know unless you take us there," Kairi replied.

"And I won't know if anyone even can go there… unless I go first and find out." He sighed, and went to unhook from Axel, stopping short when Axel refused to let go. He blinked up at him without comprehension. "Axel, you have to let me go. I'm the only one who can do it, and Naminé's in trouble."

As much as Axel wanted, in that moment, to say 'fuck Naminé', he'd never admit it to Roxas's face. So instead, he said what he could: "Yeah, I know. So take me with you." He spoke matter-of-factly, but the truth was that he was scared. He was scared of that place, for any extended period of time. He was more scared, however, of sending Roxas into it alone. In a low aside, he muttered, "If you try to shake me off, I will make a scene, and it will be embarrassing."

Rather than risk such a dour outcome, Roxas smiled at him, the love in that expression leaving a momentary outward blast of heat in Axel's wake as they vanished from the room.