Lie Like You Mean It Chapter 9
Title: Lie like you mean it.
Rating: PG-13 for language
Pairings: AkuRoku (main), Zemyx, Marluxia/Larxene, Sephiroth/Cloud
Summary: AU. Axel is an assassin in Chicago of 1914, with no morals to speak of and aversion to truth in all its many forms. When fate puts him in Roxas's way, he finds that he will do anything - anything - to keep Roxas safe, no matter what the cost. Betrayal is the only choice, and trust the quickest way to die - but every step taken for the ultimate good.
This chapter: Axel's manipulations begin in earnest, and Cloud is hit the hardest. Zexion plans. Larxene fights her way up in the ranks, while Marluxia watches in amusement, and Roxas cannot understand Axel's true motives.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Fuck, was Axel’s first thought upon exiting the room in which a thoroughly bewildered Roxas still remained. We’re all going to fucking die. The thought didn’t leave him even after that, as he went about his sweep of the mansion with that thought forefront in the back of his mind. One step after another, his feet moved without the permission of his mind, surroundings almost surreal as he slid past them, unnoticing.
It was a bit fatalistic, maybe, but close enough to reality to unsettle - the fact was that for the first time in his life, not only did he have a weak point, but he didn’t have his head entirely in the game. Half of his mind was still back in the kids’ room, sitting on the bed with Roxas and waiting for something tangible, something more concrete to happen.
The other half of his mind was admonishing the part that really just wanted to walk back in that bedroom and give the little blonde a good ravishing - because that didn’t make them any safer. Every minute he spent with Roxas was a moment of advantage Zexion might have on them. And that was not acceptable.
Besides, if they lived, there would be plenty of time afterwards.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, the redhead recognized that he was completely and utterly besotted in a way that he hadn’t even thought was possible before. He knew that it was the worst kind of liability, but he couldn’t bring himself to get the fuck away - because he was a selfish guy at heart, and the idea of having to live the rest of his life without ever seeing Roxas again was more than just unappealing.
The assassin shook his head in disbelief as he strode down the hallway, having returned in confusion to the place where the object of his thought still remained. His gaze was vague and unfocused until, suddenly, it centered in on a head of blonde hair as it came into view behind a corner, on the far well. It took a few seconds, but everything was thrown into stark clarity by that sight, like all of his thoughts came together finally. Everything else was forgotten then, morbid, dizzying thoughts put away until such time as they had another outlet. For then, Axel had only one purpose.
“Cloud,” he began with a false pleasantness that he knew the soldier could see through, though he didn’t care. “How are ya? How are things going with the ShinRa?” He said that in the same way that someone else might say “dog vomit” - he had never had much respect for any corporation, and ShinRa had a worse reputation than the rest of that lot put together.
The blonde gave him a deadpan look - he was good at not showing what he was thinking. Years of practice, it could only be assumed.
“One of us at least should be with them,” Cloud said, ignoring the other’s questions as he gave a twist of his head, in the direction of the open door through which Sora was currently walking towards his brother.
Yes, of course, Axel knew that - they shouldn’t be left alone, ever - but he didn’t want Roxas hearing what he had to say just then.
“So you never did tell me why you were here,” the redhead began, avoiding the other’s statement quite as obviously as the blonde had avoided the assassin’s. They were looking at each other, and words were coming out of their mouths, but there was no communication happening.
“That’s because you didn’t ask,” the blonde said. Quite the effective shut-down, Axel noted, though he squirmed around it like he did most things.
“Well, I’m asking now.”
“Why?” The blonde’s words sounded suspicious - damn. He had better get to the point pretty quickly.
“Because I want to know?” Axel stated, then paused after a moment, gaze falling to the ground. “Ah, ok, fine. Look, there’s kind of a reason I want to know. I want to know if I can trust you or not.” The redhead’s eyes gleamed, though his head was at just such an angle that the other man couldn’t see it - which was, of course, the intention.
The first card was in play - make yourself sound like you’re the trustworthy one. Start the conversation out on higher ground than the other. Make him try to compromise with you, instead of the other way around.
Tonelessly, Cloud responded: “I’m not here for your purposes. I’m here because I’m ordered to be.” So trust me or don’t.” The man certainly had a talent for avoiding the actual issue. This had been useful when Axel had needed to use the blonde’s place for a temporary headquarters, but it was much less tolerable now that he needed the soldier to rise to the bait. Carefully, he loaded another worm onto the hook and cast it out, as delicately as he knew how.
“My point was,” Axel continued, gaze sharp with focus, “I need to know if you’re going to stay or not. No matter what happens.” He let that last part drag on, not so much that it sounded deliberate, but enough. The redhead was extremely good at walking fine lines, and this was no different. The look Cloud gave him then was measured, searching - and the assassin gave his best blank face, walls up with little effort.
“No matter what happens,” the blonde began, tone careful and probing - he was tasting the bait. Excellent. “What do you expect to happen?”
“Nothing, nothing,” the redhead responded dismissively. “It’s not a problem now. Just in case.” The lies were warm on his tongue, comfortable - moving through this familiar area was easy, especially after the unknown terrain he’d been trying to traverse that morning. If there was one thing Axel did not do well, it was being open. It was possibly the only thing in the world that would make him uncomfortable.
Cloud’s expression became even more suspicious, though only someone used to reading expressions would have been able to tell. This was, of course, perfect for Axel’s plan - he was going to make the blonde ask, make him search for it.
All of this trouble was quite necessary, because just volunteering the information that Axel was about to give would make the soldier suspicious; the redhead wasn’t known for his generosity with information. When he told something to someone, he did it for a purpose. So, he was purposefully pretending to hide it - ironically because it would make the information seem less suspicious. That way, it might seem more like he was telling the truth - and Axel needed the blonde to believe him.
“You’re not telling me something,” came Cloud’s response.
“There’s nothing not to tell,” the assassin lied.
“Bullshit.” There was an ominous pause, during which the two men avidly avoided looking at each other. The blonde did that - stared at the floor - whenever he was about to start a confrontation: right before he hit that no-nonsense wall after which nobody fucked with him. “So are you going to tell me what it is that could happen, or not.”
“…It wouldn’t be a good idea,” Axel intoned, waving a hand in some kind of vague emphatic gesture. He stood straighter then, and the two men looked each other in the eye for a moment, tense, until the redhead let out a breath in pretended defeat.
“Alright, if you must know.” A pause, carefully chosen for maximum effect. “Look… Cloud,” he muttered, using the man’s name for the first time in - well, a long time. “I think that the guy we’re chasing - now, don‘t get any ideas, but -”
Another silence, this time longer and more dreadful.
“This guy, Zexion - he killed Aerith.”
The look on the blonde’s face was exactly as he planned, and it was all Axel could do to keep the lethal look of victory off of his face.
XXX
There was a long, frozen, hideous silence after Axel’s words, echoing down the length of the hallway like they had no right to do. For Cloud, everything else went blank, like darkness encroaching on the sides of his vision as everything focused on that one moment, those words.
“What did you say?” he asked - but his words sounded distant even in his own head, like they belonged to someone else.
“Aerith’s murderer,” Axel responded, and Cloud noted distantly that he spat the word with a lurid hate that was astonishing, even for him, “is the guy who’s been attacking us. But I thought…” His words drifted off there, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to say - something about that struck the soldier as odd: Axel always knew what to say - but he picked them back up again in moments, and the feeling was gone.
“I guess it’s better that you heard it from me,” he continued, giving an unreadable smile. “Just don’ do anything stupid, right?” He gave a short laugh then, back to the persona that Cloud knew well. “Don’ get -“ The redhead’s words faded out here, painted over by images of blood and ice, snow on those lips and the delicate, fine-boned wrists as they passed lifelessly across the ground -
I thought that maybe there weren’t enough flowers -
Emerald eyes dulled, stagnant, blanketed in a film of death. The days afterwards - interminable, painful, only living because, because -
“ -don’t give a damn if you live or die; so I guess it’s really your business - but having your help around here is pretty damn useful.” The words faded back into the soldier’s hearing, though it hardly mattered. Cloud had entirely stopped listening to the other man now, taking a hesitant step forward, then back, as if his feet weren’t really controlled by his mind but acting under their own mandate. They wanted to move, to run forward until they’d found this man - until I’ve killed this man - and they were trying, though they didn’t know where to begin.
His entire body felt somewhat like that - halfway between remaining where he was; the logical, rational thing to do, and walking straight out the door until he’d watched his sword pierce the throat of the man who’d killed Aerith, the bastard who’d been cold-hearted enough to stab her through the heart and leave her corpse to freeze in a gutter. He was frozen there, between the relative peace he’d managed to achieve since her death, and the anger, the fury that was beginning to boil, to seethe in his gut almost like a living creature.
It wanted blood. And he knew, somehow, that he was about to let the creature out of its chains.
“Where can I find this man?” he finally asked, breath coming short.
“Whoa, back down, Spike,” came Axel’s response, and he looked maybe a little bit frightened - if Axel was capable of fright. “I’m not about to let you go out and face this guy by yourself. We’re going to wait ‘till he comes to us, and you are going to guard the kids while someone else -”
Cloud stopped listening then, and it was perfect timing - because Sephiroth swept into the entry hall below them, from the direction of the servants’ doorway, like a ready-made distraction.
“Excuse me,” he said curtly, interrupting what was probably one of Axel’s long tirades to walk, stride, wander away, mind anywhere but on the present.
XXX
With Demyx safely tucked away in a new apartment on the south side, Zexion felt comfortable enough with his lover’s safety to continue on with his planning, though “comfortable” was of course a relative term. Only one thing had to go wrong before the assassin would come home to a bloody corpse instead of a vibrant human being. So, the obvious solution - the only solution - was to kill the rogue as quickly as was humanly possible.
So, sitting down at the timeworn table in his own new apartment, he cast around silently for an idea, something - anything, really - with which he could begin. The chief problem with frontal assault was that the police would find out, and would be unnecessarily bothersome - also, assassins of any high caliber specialized in subtlety, not necessarily strength, though the rogue evidently had both.
The other obvious option, however, the subtle approach, would have to contend with the rogue’s mind and planning capabilities - and the man had already proven that his prowess in that regard was extraordinary. He would not be easy to take down by either of those approaches - so, the obvious answer, as it appeared to Zexion in that moment, was to lure him out.
He would be moving strongholds soon, in all likelihood, and the first step would be causing him to think that his stronghold was unsafe. Even better would be causing an ally to turn traitor - he had few enough of those, in all likelihood, and could not defend from all angles at once.
This would be easier than it seemed, because even this rogue, incredible as he may have been, still had to eat - and therefore someone had to leave the stronghold at some point. He would then either turn that person, or he would kill them - either way reducing the man’s defenses. If they would turn traitor, then he would poison them, from the inside.
If they did not, then they would be lost. If he continued that, slowly - a siege of sorts: preventing them from eating or contacting the outside world, and carefully wearing down their defenses and their morale - then eventually he would fall.
Because this man, even considering all he had been able to do, was still not a god.
XXX
It was quite clear, even to Sephiroth’s limited social understanding, that he had interrupted something when he swept up the stairs to the balcony where Cloud and his acquaintance, the redhead, stood together. Though standing might not have been the best description - the blonde had clearly been walking away from the other, face pulled tight with - something. There was a strung tension in the air, humming quietly between the two men - and Sephiroth ignored it with the practiced ease of a general, giving a nod to his subordinate in acknowledgement.
Zack’s earlier words hadn’t bothered him overly much, and he was hardly dwelling on them, but he could hardly help but remember a flicker of the conversation before he caught it and subsequently repressed it. There could have been no conceivable reason to take the man seriously.
“Captain,” Sephiroth began, eyes flickering from Cloud to the other, “There is some business I believe we need to discuss. ShinRa business.” The unspoken implication being that the General preferred the redhead, this Axel, gone during the discussion.
“Oh?” asked the redhead before the soldier could respond, green eyes sharp with interest - evidently he was determined to irritate the people he was working with. “What sort of information?” Cloud turned around again to face them then, but the look on his face was just as tense and distant as it had been before. The look in his eyes was almost frighteningly absent, and Sephiroth couldn’t help but wonder silently what had rattled him so badly. He did not seem to be a man easily shaken.
“None that is any of your concern,” the General cut back dismissively in response to Axel’s words, barely even sparing a glance for the man he was talking to. “Your presence is not needed.”
“If you want,” the man responded, giving an expressive shrug. “But it seems like it’d be in your best interests-” these last words were mocking, like he was mimicking the general’s pattern of speech “-to let your allies know just what in hell is going on. I thought that was something even a ShinRa like you would be able to figure out - but I guess I thought too highly of you. Remind me not to make that mistake again.” The grin that he gave them was hardly pleasant, nor particularly happy - it betrayed a more animal sensibility, a leonine amusement.
Sephiroth did not trust that smile.
But it was true that the two of them would have to work together, as even ShinRa’s General did not have the power to dismiss someone else’s hireling - so, he took a fortifying breath and turned his steady gaze back on his associate.
“Very well.” He was not in the mood to argue it any more - and it really mattered none whether the other man knew or not. “Captain Zack Fair has offered to take a shift at this assignment, and the administration is in agreement. Beginning tomorrow, the three of us will rotate, in shifts of days.” As much as Rufus ShinRa wanted to punish the Organization for defying them, his father was a more cowardly man and did not like his General being out on assignment unless it could not be helped.
Cloud tensed at that, blue eyes narrowing.
“Respectfully, sir,” he began, tentatively. A pause - that was interesting. It took determination for a subordinate to ask their superior officer for something. “I would like to request that Zack take my place for tomorrow.” The redhead tensed then, looking like he was about to say something, but Sephiroth cut him off.
“And your reason?” he asked, watching the other man intently.
“I want to go after the man who is attacking us, personally,” he said - and then, his whole . demeanor changed. He lifted his chin slightly, and his gaze met the General’s, and Sephiroth noticed that he wore the same smooth, determined look that he had borne when facing off with the leader of the Organization. It was not the look of someone who was going to give in, no matter what his superior’s answer was.
“Don’t be an idiot, Strife.” An ugly pause - he wasn‘t about to lose a man who promised to be a challenge, if not possibly one of the army’s greatest assets, to some misguided heroism. “Don’t be a martyr. If you wait, he will be killed.”
The general heard Axel mutter something from where he was standing, and cross his arms as he glared at some undefined spot in between the blonde and himself, but didn’t bother to listen hard enough to hear what it was.
“I want to kill him myself, and I want to kill him now,” Cloud stated tonelessly, rubbing the handle of the sword on his back absently in what was probably a restless habit.
“I can’t agree to that.”
“Damn right you can’t,” the redhead interjected, throwing an arm out as if his emotion just couldn’t be constrained to stillness. “That’s why I didn’t want to tell you -”
“Back out, Axel,” the blonde cut in coolly, barely sparing a glance towards the other man. “This isn’t any of your business.” That was interesting - what was it that the man hadn’t wanted to say? The general’s thoughts were interrupted when Cloud turned back towards Sephiroth, purpose clear in every line of his face. “General, Sir. I will kill this man.” The unspoken undertone was that he would do it with - or without - Sephiroth’s permission, and was willing to face the consequences.
It was a thought-provoking situation - though his choice of mission was perhaps not the wisest, the ability to question a superior officer’s decisions was a necessary one for a leader of men. Strife was veering dangerously close to insubordination - but if he was willing and able, the destruction of one of the Organization’s men quickly and quietly would be an excellent option. Striking before the other’s blow comes is dangerous when one doesn’t know what resources their opponent has, but such risks could also lead to the largest rewards.
He stood there, silent, for a moment, then another - calculating the probability of failure, the probability of success - until he finally took a steady breath and replied.
“Then you have my permission to do so, Captain Strife. See to it that this man provides you with whatever information you require.” The words were met with an almost visible release of tension from the line of Cloud’s shoulders, as he looked like he finally took the breath he’d been waiting for the whole conversation. There was some muttered conversation from the direction of their observer, but that hardly mattered - if he wanted to keep his allies, he would do as told.
For just a moment, the look of gratitude that flashed onto Cloud’s face painted over the indefinable lingering emotion from his earlier encounter, and the sight - of the adoration and the thankfulness, poorly coating a much uglier emotion - disturbed him, strangely. But it was gone again almost as quickly, leaving behind a restless, too-jaded soldier who wouldn’t meet his general’s eyes.
Sephiroth couldn’t help but wonder which person Cloud would be when all the layers were pulled away. But then again, perhaps it was the mystery of the thing that made it fascinating - and he would never want the layers gone.
XXX
Fortunately enough, one of the things that power taught to a person was how to control an unhappy crowd. Marluxia found that he appreciated this ability more than he ever expected to, when the riots began to break out in the hallways of the Organization’s headquarters.
He had been sitting in his office quite comfortably when he received the news, not long before the rioting, eying the intruding messenger unhappily as said boy - he couldn’t have been more than fifteen - shifted unhappily under his leader’s critical gaze. Neither had said anything as the younger had entered, though likely for very different reasons - and now the silence was growing oppressive. Larxene, who had been occupying a corner of the office more to annoy him than anything else, stopped playing with her knives in favor of watching the messenger with a barely-hidden amusement.
“Uh, sir…” he began, voice catching. There was another beat. With each successive moment, Marluxia’s level of frustration was growing - he did not deal well with idiots.
“Yes,” he growled, voice rumbling in an unspoken threat that he was sure the younger didn’t understand. “What is it.”
“News, sir. It seems that -” the boy shifted his weight here, again “- there have been some deaths among the ranks. Last night, I mean.”
This wasn’t a particularly interesting piece of information - men died weekly in their organization. Their job did, after all, deal with death - and it stood to reason that sometimes death was dealt in return.
“So?” The question was why the boy had interrupted him for something so trivial. “They’re dead. Take them off our contact lists, standard procedure.” Even someone so green should know what to do when a member died - it happened enough.
“No, sir…” came the tentative response. “They were killed, purposefully, and the Union Pacific Rail Corporation is taking responsibility. They sent us a notice, after the deaths - they’re taking a stand with the corporation that hired the Rogue. Tarrant Steel. They summoned three of our members, like they were going to hire them, then killed them.” The boy sounded like he couldn’t decide whether he was more angry or terrified - hopefully the anger would win over, or else he wouldn’t make much of an assassin.
Marluxia examined the situation slowly in the cold, detached way he had mastered, eyes never wavering an inch from the messenger’s face. It took a moment, then another, and he heard Larxene shift in her corner as she anticipated his response.
The implications were clear enough - these people were challenging the authority of the Organization with their own might. Before the Rogue had even been a problem for a week, already they were losing their clout in the city. People had begun to see that the Organization was not invincible, and they had begun - whether out of pretended morals or out of the more likely pragmatism - to stand up against it.
That must, at all costs, be stopped.
“Summon the guards,” Marluxia finally said, eyes glinting with a hard light. “I want them to be ready to quell any… discomfort, that the other members may have upon hearing this information. I want them ready now.” The last word was said with a subtle, threatening emphasis that was not quite subtle enough for the messenger to have missed it. With that, the boy turned and fairly ran out of the meeting room, two sets of harsh eyes on him.
It was probably less than ten minutes before his first angry subordinates came rushing to his door, seething around it in waves. Larxene watched between the strokes of her whetstone on a knife, distant amusement showing through every twitch of her face, as they asked Marluxia precisely what was the purpose of belonging to an Organization at all if it just made them better targets.
The man’s answer to that was to subdue them, with as much force as was necessary, and keep them there under threat from his guards. This worked well enough until he no longer had enough guards to keep these subordinates behaving as they needed to - and that was when he decided to hold an official meeting, explaining what had happened and why. More importantly, it would detail what they were going to do about it - the details of which he wasn’t quite clear on, but the concept of which was strong.
The idea, chiefly, was to regain order and his own power in the Organization - but, hidden behind this obvious goal was another, quieter and yet more penetrating. The Organization itself was hardly good enough for him - through subterfuge and intelligence, Marluxia hoped to overthrow Xemnas’s syndicate, and place himself as the leader. But so far, as had been proven by the rioting, he had failed at creating a loyal, solid organization out of the assassins who made up what amounted to their guild. They still saw it as a loose coalition rather than a group to which they owed alliegance, which was a barrier Marluxia still was trying to find a way across.
His first break came, though he didn’t known it at the time, sometime during the chaos; between his announcement of the general meeting and the arrival of even more angry masses. When he was off-guard, focused on something else, Larxene sidled up behind him and - serpentine voice low and melodious - whispered to him.
“I have a proposition,” she murmured, and Marluxia sat up even straighter - her tone did not bode well. “Do you need some assistance with the stupid fucks outside your door?” The noise had been growing louder, and Marluxia could only hope that they would have the presence of mind to listen to his rhetoric. Of course, he wouldn’t admit his tentative uncertainties to the woman by him, continuing to read through another paper blankly.
“No,” he responded, and she knew it was a lie more because she wasn’t an idiot than because he failed in his craft. “Please make your point or make yourself absent. You’ll only get in the way if you can’t make use of yourself.”
“That’s precisely my proposition,” she responded silkily, voice like slivers of glass on his skin. “I want to make myself useful.” She paused then, and Marluxia could barely see her twirl a knife expertly out of the corner of his eye.
“I’ll help you out now, with this -” she gave an indicative nod of her head towards the door, through which loud noises were still audible “- but there is a catch.” Of course there was a catch - he was hardly naïve enough to believe that there wasn’t. “I want to be second in command to you. I’ll help you take down Xemnas to get a slice of his syndicate if you want, or whatever - I’ll be loyal unless you fuck up. And, I don’t want to have to answer to fucking anybody for what I do.” Her eyes gleamed when she said that, in such a way that made Marluxia think that the last sentence might have been the most important part of her statement.
And that fit with his idea of her - she was ruthless, a vicious woman with a sadistic streak; but she had no capability for long-term planning whatsoever, and no desire to. Everything she did was spur of the moment, and it was all with the intent of immediate benefit. She didn’t want power as much as she wanted to remove the stranglehold of her superiors over her life and actions - and she knew that becoming second to Marluxia was about as close as she would ever get without having to deal with responsibilities that she probably couldn’t handle.
If Marluxia had ever had to think of the sort of person he’d promote to the heretofore nonexistent position of second-in-command, she would be it - her lack of planning ability led to a lack of ambition, and so he wouldn’t always have to watch his back. Also, almost as important as her lack of ambition - she was Marluxia’s perfect complement, willing to get her hands dirty like the man hated to do, and without any desire to interchange his orders for her own idea. She would fight him, to be sure - but that made her a challenge, and she wouldn’t have been interesting if she wasn’t.
“Very well then,” he responded after a moment, two, three - and he felt her stiffen behind him, like she was waiting for Marluxia’s catch. It wouldn’t be too much trouble to give her one. “But if you ever displease me, I will kill you. Please don’t have any illusions about that.
He could feel her grin grow even behind him, sadistic excitement cutting across the back of his neck with an almost physical presence.
“I’ll make sure you don’t regret it,” she said slowly, and the suggestion was that she would certainly toe the line. But that was more or less alright.
XXX
The grin on Axel’s face once he was alone was more than just triumphant, it was exultant, reveling in his handiwork as he watched Sephiroth’s retreating back from his position by the railing of the landing-area. Cloud had gone somewhere else, which was all the better, because suppressing his expression of complete victory any longer was almost too much effort. Because the blonde had been completely, totally taken in by his lie - Zexion had never had anything to do with Aerith at all, much less with her untimely death.
Besides any of that, if the assassin had actually known who had killed Aerith - assuming that it wasn’t completely contrary to his interests, of course - he would have killed them in exchange. There were few enough people in the world that he liked, and she had been one of them - he’d been sorry to hear of hear death. Sorry for Cloud a bit, too.
Not sorry enough to not use that information against the other man. Not sorry enough not to manipulate him, shamelessly, and to take advantage of the blonde’s weaknesses for his own purpose.
Because not only was the soldier simply useful - which was enough of a reason for him to be fucked over - but his assistance would also help to keep Roxas alive, which justified anything. Any fucking thing in the whole damn world, so that Roxas would stay alive, one more day. So Axel could hear his laugh, make him laugh, and make everything alright for him.
If that took betrayal - well, that was alright by him.
There was a creak, then, interrupting his thoughts - and it was familiar; the sound of feet on old hardwood, likely. Sweeping forward, he pushed the door to Roxas’s room open, only to find Sora behind it, his little mouth open almost as wide as his eyes in something like astonishment.
Fuck. He’d heard it. Everything about the way he stood said that he heard it, and then - Roxas watched critically from his position on the bed, like he was waiting for an explanation. For something.
“Who was it who died?” the brunette asked, tone deliberate with the effort of keeping itself from trembling. “Why was Cloud so upset?”
Axel did not feel like fielding questions from a fifteen-year-old, much less one like Sora. The kid wasn’t too bad, but when he had the choice between the younger and the older, Roxas won by a lifetime. There weren’t many people in the world who could face down the General Sephiroth - even with a hangover and a pissy, scowling attitude problem - without blinking.
Yeah. He’d much rather deal with Roxas.
“Go ask him yourself, kid. It’s nothing that I could tell you about,” he lied, and Roxas knew it, stiffening across the room. “I just know the basics. If you wanna know, Spike’s the one to ask.”
The brunette nodded then, like he understood - though clearly he didn’t.
“I’m going to go find him, then. Thank you,” he said to Axel, then gave a nod to his older brother, who nodded in return. “Be safe, Roxas, ok?” he continued, and the redhead wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or not. He settled for the latter as the brunette brushed past him with an apologetic expression - apologizing for what, he wondered? - and disappearing through the door.
“Now I want to know what’s going on, Axel,” Roxas stated, looking like he was feeling doubly better from his earlier, hung-over state. The way he said the assassin’s name made the redhead’s stomach warm, but he didn’t comment. “Sora hates to believe the worst in anybody, but you’re lying to him. You know more about this than anybody, probably.”
Axel tensed a little - he didn’t like to think it, but he probably was going to have to keep the hell away from anybody he needed to use while Roxas was around; because apparently, being with the little blonde had this terrible tendency to make him tell the truth. He opened his mouth to try and come up with some lie, but the words caught in his throat, like he could feel the blonde’s disapproval.
Maybe that had something to do with the fact that he felt comfortable with Roxas, or with the fact that he didn’t feel judged - it wasn’t so much that the blonde wanted him to be open, as that Axel didn’t feel like he had to protect himself around the boy. Maybe that was what made his mouth open and spill out truth - and that alone was extraordinary, because nothing and nobody else had ever been able to make him do that.
“Yeah, I guess,” the redhead responded at length, shutting the door just to ensure that they wouldn’t be overheard. “You’re a sharp kid, you know that?”
A shrug.
“I’ve been told so before. Or maybe it’s just that you’re not a very good liar.”
That statement hit him so suddenly and was such a surprise that the redhead actually bust out laughing, leaving the younger looking slightly bewildered - not that Axel minded. He continued that way for at least a minute, until his breaths were coming in gasps and his knuckles were white from gripping the bedpost by which he had been convulsing.
“Roxas,” he finally begin, taking deep breaths to calm himself down, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything funnier in my life. Lying’s my job, kiddo, and I’m really fuckin’ good at it.” There was a pause. “Maybe I’m just not good at lying to you.” Let the blonde make of that what he would.
There was a tense silence for a moment, as Roxas digested this new information, and probably was making quite a bit of it - though he probably wasn’t comprehending exactly what it actually meant. He soon, apparently, decided to forego asking about it in favor of following the earlier thread of conversation.
“In any case,” he began easily, pretending nothing had confused him at all, “what’s the deal with the soldier? He’s going to go off and kill the guy who’s trying to k ill us?” There was a pause, during which the blonde’s gaze flickered between the other man and the floor. “Won’t that get him killed?” He probably didn’t want his guard to bite it any more than Axel himself did - but there were further plans.
“Probably not,” came Axel’s honest answer. Unless something went terribly wrong, Cloud could take Zexion one-handed in a straight-up fight - which is what the redhead was hoping it would be. If all went well, there would be no problem. “Cloud Strife has always been a tough son of a bitch to kill.” He realized with a wince that he was, again, giving himself away - but he didn’t move or otherwise indicate his misstep, half-hoping that the blonde wouldn’t notice.
“So you’ve known him for a while?” he asked, picking up what the assassin hadn’t said, though he might have known it earlier, during the scene in the entryway, if he hadn’t had a world-class hangover. “Did you know the person who was killed also?” The question that followed the last was more suspicious than questioning. “How, exactly, do you know that this guy was the murderer?” Roxas was probably suspicious for the wrong reasons, but Axel was nonetheless impressed by his powers of perception.
“Yeah, I knew Aerith,” he responded, trying to speak slowly so he didn’t fuck himself over even worse. “She was… Well, I liked her. And to be honest,” he continued, words spilling out of his mouth with enthusiasm as the boy’s expression of curiosity grew , “I don’t know who killed her.” He realized with consternation as the words left his mouth that he was baring all of his fucking secrets - he never did that. Shit.
Ah well. He’d already done the worst he could do by now, what was the harm in a little bit more truth? Anyway, he’d probably just fail again if he tried to lie.
“If I’d known,” he continued, running a hand through his burning-red hair, “I would have killed the fucker myself.” If it hadn’t been too inconvenient, of course, or counter to his goals - but he successfully neglected to mention that part.
Roxas blinked as if in response, gears in his head accelerating visibly.
“So… You were lying then.” There was another pause - Axel didn’t feel that it needed a response. “Why?” the blonde finally asked, as if it weren’t obvious. With anyone else, the redhead might have shot out some kind of disparaging remark, but the moment he opened his mouth, he felt himself change his mind without any kind of permission.
“Because. I want Cloud to fight him. Because I want Cloud to kill him, now, with no mess - before he has the time to lay complicated plans. Because he’s dangerous - anything could go wrong, and I am going to keep you fucking safe.” His words were vehement, and unnecessarily honest - the other, recognizing this, reacted with widened eyes and a sharp intake of breath. Their gazes met for only a moment before Roxas’s slid away.
“So you’re manipulating - using - an old friend -”
“Not exactly a friend,“ Axel interjected.
“- in order to keep me slightly safer?” he asked, looking bewildered. Like he wasn’t asking the question he really wanted to ask. The redhead knew what it would be, and he didn’t have an answer for it himself - Why me, he’d ask in that tenuous baritone. What did I do to get this kind of devotion from you? It was just as well, because Axel wouldn’t have been able to respond.
Instead, the blonde asked; “Are you crazy?”
That was almost as funny as the “You’re not a very good liar” comment, though the redhead didn’t break down into laughter this time.
“‘Course I am,” he responded with a paper-sharp grin. “What in fuck were you expecting?”
XXX
XXX
Merry Christmas! If any of you are reading today.
Sorry for the terribly late update. I will be gone for two weeks, so the next update won’t be soon either.
Also, sorry for two chapters in a row without much happening. Next chapter everything should start to heat up and finally get complicated. No, it hasn’t been complicated up until this point. Just wait.
Thank you all so much for reading.
Please comment if you liked? It would be the best Christmas gift ever.
Rating: PG-13 for language
Pairings: AkuRoku (main), Zemyx, Marluxia/Larxene, Sephiroth/Cloud
Summary: AU. Axel is an assassin in Chicago of 1914, with no morals to speak of and aversion to truth in all its many forms. When fate puts him in Roxas's way, he finds that he will do anything - anything - to keep Roxas safe, no matter what the cost. Betrayal is the only choice, and trust the quickest way to die - but every step taken for the ultimate good.
This chapter: Axel's manipulations begin in earnest, and Cloud is hit the hardest. Zexion plans. Larxene fights her way up in the ranks, while Marluxia watches in amusement, and Roxas cannot understand Axel's true motives.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Fuck, was Axel’s first thought upon exiting the room in which a thoroughly bewildered Roxas still remained. We’re all going to fucking die. The thought didn’t leave him even after that, as he went about his sweep of the mansion with that thought forefront in the back of his mind. One step after another, his feet moved without the permission of his mind, surroundings almost surreal as he slid past them, unnoticing.
It was a bit fatalistic, maybe, but close enough to reality to unsettle - the fact was that for the first time in his life, not only did he have a weak point, but he didn’t have his head entirely in the game. Half of his mind was still back in the kids’ room, sitting on the bed with Roxas and waiting for something tangible, something more concrete to happen.
The other half of his mind was admonishing the part that really just wanted to walk back in that bedroom and give the little blonde a good ravishing - because that didn’t make them any safer. Every minute he spent with Roxas was a moment of advantage Zexion might have on them. And that was not acceptable.
Besides, if they lived, there would be plenty of time afterwards.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, the redhead recognized that he was completely and utterly besotted in a way that he hadn’t even thought was possible before. He knew that it was the worst kind of liability, but he couldn’t bring himself to get the fuck away - because he was a selfish guy at heart, and the idea of having to live the rest of his life without ever seeing Roxas again was more than just unappealing.
The assassin shook his head in disbelief as he strode down the hallway, having returned in confusion to the place where the object of his thought still remained. His gaze was vague and unfocused until, suddenly, it centered in on a head of blonde hair as it came into view behind a corner, on the far well. It took a few seconds, but everything was thrown into stark clarity by that sight, like all of his thoughts came together finally. Everything else was forgotten then, morbid, dizzying thoughts put away until such time as they had another outlet. For then, Axel had only one purpose.
“Cloud,” he began with a false pleasantness that he knew the soldier could see through, though he didn’t care. “How are ya? How are things going with the ShinRa?” He said that in the same way that someone else might say “dog vomit” - he had never had much respect for any corporation, and ShinRa had a worse reputation than the rest of that lot put together.
The blonde gave him a deadpan look - he was good at not showing what he was thinking. Years of practice, it could only be assumed.
“One of us at least should be with them,” Cloud said, ignoring the other’s questions as he gave a twist of his head, in the direction of the open door through which Sora was currently walking towards his brother.
Yes, of course, Axel knew that - they shouldn’t be left alone, ever - but he didn’t want Roxas hearing what he had to say just then.
“So you never did tell me why you were here,” the redhead began, avoiding the other’s statement quite as obviously as the blonde had avoided the assassin’s. They were looking at each other, and words were coming out of their mouths, but there was no communication happening.
“That’s because you didn’t ask,” the blonde said. Quite the effective shut-down, Axel noted, though he squirmed around it like he did most things.
“Well, I’m asking now.”
“Why?” The blonde’s words sounded suspicious - damn. He had better get to the point pretty quickly.
“Because I want to know?” Axel stated, then paused after a moment, gaze falling to the ground. “Ah, ok, fine. Look, there’s kind of a reason I want to know. I want to know if I can trust you or not.” The redhead’s eyes gleamed, though his head was at just such an angle that the other man couldn’t see it - which was, of course, the intention.
The first card was in play - make yourself sound like you’re the trustworthy one. Start the conversation out on higher ground than the other. Make him try to compromise with you, instead of the other way around.
Tonelessly, Cloud responded: “I’m not here for your purposes. I’m here because I’m ordered to be.” So trust me or don’t.” The man certainly had a talent for avoiding the actual issue. This had been useful when Axel had needed to use the blonde’s place for a temporary headquarters, but it was much less tolerable now that he needed the soldier to rise to the bait. Carefully, he loaded another worm onto the hook and cast it out, as delicately as he knew how.
“My point was,” Axel continued, gaze sharp with focus, “I need to know if you’re going to stay or not. No matter what happens.” He let that last part drag on, not so much that it sounded deliberate, but enough. The redhead was extremely good at walking fine lines, and this was no different. The look Cloud gave him then was measured, searching - and the assassin gave his best blank face, walls up with little effort.
“No matter what happens,” the blonde began, tone careful and probing - he was tasting the bait. Excellent. “What do you expect to happen?”
“Nothing, nothing,” the redhead responded dismissively. “It’s not a problem now. Just in case.” The lies were warm on his tongue, comfortable - moving through this familiar area was easy, especially after the unknown terrain he’d been trying to traverse that morning. If there was one thing Axel did not do well, it was being open. It was possibly the only thing in the world that would make him uncomfortable.
Cloud’s expression became even more suspicious, though only someone used to reading expressions would have been able to tell. This was, of course, perfect for Axel’s plan - he was going to make the blonde ask, make him search for it.
All of this trouble was quite necessary, because just volunteering the information that Axel was about to give would make the soldier suspicious; the redhead wasn’t known for his generosity with information. When he told something to someone, he did it for a purpose. So, he was purposefully pretending to hide it - ironically because it would make the information seem less suspicious. That way, it might seem more like he was telling the truth - and Axel needed the blonde to believe him.
“You’re not telling me something,” came Cloud’s response.
“There’s nothing not to tell,” the assassin lied.
“Bullshit.” There was an ominous pause, during which the two men avidly avoided looking at each other. The blonde did that - stared at the floor - whenever he was about to start a confrontation: right before he hit that no-nonsense wall after which nobody fucked with him. “So are you going to tell me what it is that could happen, or not.”
“…It wouldn’t be a good idea,” Axel intoned, waving a hand in some kind of vague emphatic gesture. He stood straighter then, and the two men looked each other in the eye for a moment, tense, until the redhead let out a breath in pretended defeat.
“Alright, if you must know.” A pause, carefully chosen for maximum effect. “Look… Cloud,” he muttered, using the man’s name for the first time in - well, a long time. “I think that the guy we’re chasing - now, don‘t get any ideas, but -”
Another silence, this time longer and more dreadful.
“This guy, Zexion - he killed Aerith.”
The look on the blonde’s face was exactly as he planned, and it was all Axel could do to keep the lethal look of victory off of his face.
XXX
There was a long, frozen, hideous silence after Axel’s words, echoing down the length of the hallway like they had no right to do. For Cloud, everything else went blank, like darkness encroaching on the sides of his vision as everything focused on that one moment, those words.
“What did you say?” he asked - but his words sounded distant even in his own head, like they belonged to someone else.
“Aerith’s murderer,” Axel responded, and Cloud noted distantly that he spat the word with a lurid hate that was astonishing, even for him, “is the guy who’s been attacking us. But I thought…” His words drifted off there, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to say - something about that struck the soldier as odd: Axel always knew what to say - but he picked them back up again in moments, and the feeling was gone.
“I guess it’s better that you heard it from me,” he continued, giving an unreadable smile. “Just don’ do anything stupid, right?” He gave a short laugh then, back to the persona that Cloud knew well. “Don’ get -“ The redhead’s words faded out here, painted over by images of blood and ice, snow on those lips and the delicate, fine-boned wrists as they passed lifelessly across the ground -
I thought that maybe there weren’t enough flowers -
Emerald eyes dulled, stagnant, blanketed in a film of death. The days afterwards - interminable, painful, only living because, because -
“ -don’t give a damn if you live or die; so I guess it’s really your business - but having your help around here is pretty damn useful.” The words faded back into the soldier’s hearing, though it hardly mattered. Cloud had entirely stopped listening to the other man now, taking a hesitant step forward, then back, as if his feet weren’t really controlled by his mind but acting under their own mandate. They wanted to move, to run forward until they’d found this man - until I’ve killed this man - and they were trying, though they didn’t know where to begin.
His entire body felt somewhat like that - halfway between remaining where he was; the logical, rational thing to do, and walking straight out the door until he’d watched his sword pierce the throat of the man who’d killed Aerith, the bastard who’d been cold-hearted enough to stab her through the heart and leave her corpse to freeze in a gutter. He was frozen there, between the relative peace he’d managed to achieve since her death, and the anger, the fury that was beginning to boil, to seethe in his gut almost like a living creature.
It wanted blood. And he knew, somehow, that he was about to let the creature out of its chains.
“Where can I find this man?” he finally asked, breath coming short.
“Whoa, back down, Spike,” came Axel’s response, and he looked maybe a little bit frightened - if Axel was capable of fright. “I’m not about to let you go out and face this guy by yourself. We’re going to wait ‘till he comes to us, and you are going to guard the kids while someone else -”
Cloud stopped listening then, and it was perfect timing - because Sephiroth swept into the entry hall below them, from the direction of the servants’ doorway, like a ready-made distraction.
“Excuse me,” he said curtly, interrupting what was probably one of Axel’s long tirades to walk, stride, wander away, mind anywhere but on the present.
XXX
With Demyx safely tucked away in a new apartment on the south side, Zexion felt comfortable enough with his lover’s safety to continue on with his planning, though “comfortable” was of course a relative term. Only one thing had to go wrong before the assassin would come home to a bloody corpse instead of a vibrant human being. So, the obvious solution - the only solution - was to kill the rogue as quickly as was humanly possible.
So, sitting down at the timeworn table in his own new apartment, he cast around silently for an idea, something - anything, really - with which he could begin. The chief problem with frontal assault was that the police would find out, and would be unnecessarily bothersome - also, assassins of any high caliber specialized in subtlety, not necessarily strength, though the rogue evidently had both.
The other obvious option, however, the subtle approach, would have to contend with the rogue’s mind and planning capabilities - and the man had already proven that his prowess in that regard was extraordinary. He would not be easy to take down by either of those approaches - so, the obvious answer, as it appeared to Zexion in that moment, was to lure him out.
He would be moving strongholds soon, in all likelihood, and the first step would be causing him to think that his stronghold was unsafe. Even better would be causing an ally to turn traitor - he had few enough of those, in all likelihood, and could not defend from all angles at once.
This would be easier than it seemed, because even this rogue, incredible as he may have been, still had to eat - and therefore someone had to leave the stronghold at some point. He would then either turn that person, or he would kill them - either way reducing the man’s defenses. If they would turn traitor, then he would poison them, from the inside.
If they did not, then they would be lost. If he continued that, slowly - a siege of sorts: preventing them from eating or contacting the outside world, and carefully wearing down their defenses and their morale - then eventually he would fall.
Because this man, even considering all he had been able to do, was still not a god.
XXX
It was quite clear, even to Sephiroth’s limited social understanding, that he had interrupted something when he swept up the stairs to the balcony where Cloud and his acquaintance, the redhead, stood together. Though standing might not have been the best description - the blonde had clearly been walking away from the other, face pulled tight with - something. There was a strung tension in the air, humming quietly between the two men - and Sephiroth ignored it with the practiced ease of a general, giving a nod to his subordinate in acknowledgement.
Zack’s earlier words hadn’t bothered him overly much, and he was hardly dwelling on them, but he could hardly help but remember a flicker of the conversation before he caught it and subsequently repressed it. There could have been no conceivable reason to take the man seriously.
“Captain,” Sephiroth began, eyes flickering from Cloud to the other, “There is some business I believe we need to discuss. ShinRa business.” The unspoken implication being that the General preferred the redhead, this Axel, gone during the discussion.
“Oh?” asked the redhead before the soldier could respond, green eyes sharp with interest - evidently he was determined to irritate the people he was working with. “What sort of information?” Cloud turned around again to face them then, but the look on his face was just as tense and distant as it had been before. The look in his eyes was almost frighteningly absent, and Sephiroth couldn’t help but wonder silently what had rattled him so badly. He did not seem to be a man easily shaken.
“None that is any of your concern,” the General cut back dismissively in response to Axel’s words, barely even sparing a glance for the man he was talking to. “Your presence is not needed.”
“If you want,” the man responded, giving an expressive shrug. “But it seems like it’d be in your best interests-” these last words were mocking, like he was mimicking the general’s pattern of speech “-to let your allies know just what in hell is going on. I thought that was something even a ShinRa like you would be able to figure out - but I guess I thought too highly of you. Remind me not to make that mistake again.” The grin that he gave them was hardly pleasant, nor particularly happy - it betrayed a more animal sensibility, a leonine amusement.
Sephiroth did not trust that smile.
But it was true that the two of them would have to work together, as even ShinRa’s General did not have the power to dismiss someone else’s hireling - so, he took a fortifying breath and turned his steady gaze back on his associate.
“Very well.” He was not in the mood to argue it any more - and it really mattered none whether the other man knew or not. “Captain Zack Fair has offered to take a shift at this assignment, and the administration is in agreement. Beginning tomorrow, the three of us will rotate, in shifts of days.” As much as Rufus ShinRa wanted to punish the Organization for defying them, his father was a more cowardly man and did not like his General being out on assignment unless it could not be helped.
Cloud tensed at that, blue eyes narrowing.
“Respectfully, sir,” he began, tentatively. A pause - that was interesting. It took determination for a subordinate to ask their superior officer for something. “I would like to request that Zack take my place for tomorrow.” The redhead tensed then, looking like he was about to say something, but Sephiroth cut him off.
“And your reason?” he asked, watching the other man intently.
“I want to go after the man who is attacking us, personally,” he said - and then, his whole . demeanor changed. He lifted his chin slightly, and his gaze met the General’s, and Sephiroth noticed that he wore the same smooth, determined look that he had borne when facing off with the leader of the Organization. It was not the look of someone who was going to give in, no matter what his superior’s answer was.
“Don’t be an idiot, Strife.” An ugly pause - he wasn‘t about to lose a man who promised to be a challenge, if not possibly one of the army’s greatest assets, to some misguided heroism. “Don’t be a martyr. If you wait, he will be killed.”
The general heard Axel mutter something from where he was standing, and cross his arms as he glared at some undefined spot in between the blonde and himself, but didn’t bother to listen hard enough to hear what it was.
“I want to kill him myself, and I want to kill him now,” Cloud stated tonelessly, rubbing the handle of the sword on his back absently in what was probably a restless habit.
“I can’t agree to that.”
“Damn right you can’t,” the redhead interjected, throwing an arm out as if his emotion just couldn’t be constrained to stillness. “That’s why I didn’t want to tell you -”
“Back out, Axel,” the blonde cut in coolly, barely sparing a glance towards the other man. “This isn’t any of your business.” That was interesting - what was it that the man hadn’t wanted to say? The general’s thoughts were interrupted when Cloud turned back towards Sephiroth, purpose clear in every line of his face. “General, Sir. I will kill this man.” The unspoken undertone was that he would do it with - or without - Sephiroth’s permission, and was willing to face the consequences.
It was a thought-provoking situation - though his choice of mission was perhaps not the wisest, the ability to question a superior officer’s decisions was a necessary one for a leader of men. Strife was veering dangerously close to insubordination - but if he was willing and able, the destruction of one of the Organization’s men quickly and quietly would be an excellent option. Striking before the other’s blow comes is dangerous when one doesn’t know what resources their opponent has, but such risks could also lead to the largest rewards.
He stood there, silent, for a moment, then another - calculating the probability of failure, the probability of success - until he finally took a steady breath and replied.
“Then you have my permission to do so, Captain Strife. See to it that this man provides you with whatever information you require.” The words were met with an almost visible release of tension from the line of Cloud’s shoulders, as he looked like he finally took the breath he’d been waiting for the whole conversation. There was some muttered conversation from the direction of their observer, but that hardly mattered - if he wanted to keep his allies, he would do as told.
For just a moment, the look of gratitude that flashed onto Cloud’s face painted over the indefinable lingering emotion from his earlier encounter, and the sight - of the adoration and the thankfulness, poorly coating a much uglier emotion - disturbed him, strangely. But it was gone again almost as quickly, leaving behind a restless, too-jaded soldier who wouldn’t meet his general’s eyes.
Sephiroth couldn’t help but wonder which person Cloud would be when all the layers were pulled away. But then again, perhaps it was the mystery of the thing that made it fascinating - and he would never want the layers gone.
XXX
Fortunately enough, one of the things that power taught to a person was how to control an unhappy crowd. Marluxia found that he appreciated this ability more than he ever expected to, when the riots began to break out in the hallways of the Organization’s headquarters.
He had been sitting in his office quite comfortably when he received the news, not long before the rioting, eying the intruding messenger unhappily as said boy - he couldn’t have been more than fifteen - shifted unhappily under his leader’s critical gaze. Neither had said anything as the younger had entered, though likely for very different reasons - and now the silence was growing oppressive. Larxene, who had been occupying a corner of the office more to annoy him than anything else, stopped playing with her knives in favor of watching the messenger with a barely-hidden amusement.
“Uh, sir…” he began, voice catching. There was another beat. With each successive moment, Marluxia’s level of frustration was growing - he did not deal well with idiots.
“Yes,” he growled, voice rumbling in an unspoken threat that he was sure the younger didn’t understand. “What is it.”
“News, sir. It seems that -” the boy shifted his weight here, again “- there have been some deaths among the ranks. Last night, I mean.”
This wasn’t a particularly interesting piece of information - men died weekly in their organization. Their job did, after all, deal with death - and it stood to reason that sometimes death was dealt in return.
“So?” The question was why the boy had interrupted him for something so trivial. “They’re dead. Take them off our contact lists, standard procedure.” Even someone so green should know what to do when a member died - it happened enough.
“No, sir…” came the tentative response. “They were killed, purposefully, and the Union Pacific Rail Corporation is taking responsibility. They sent us a notice, after the deaths - they’re taking a stand with the corporation that hired the Rogue. Tarrant Steel. They summoned three of our members, like they were going to hire them, then killed them.” The boy sounded like he couldn’t decide whether he was more angry or terrified - hopefully the anger would win over, or else he wouldn’t make much of an assassin.
Marluxia examined the situation slowly in the cold, detached way he had mastered, eyes never wavering an inch from the messenger’s face. It took a moment, then another, and he heard Larxene shift in her corner as she anticipated his response.
The implications were clear enough - these people were challenging the authority of the Organization with their own might. Before the Rogue had even been a problem for a week, already they were losing their clout in the city. People had begun to see that the Organization was not invincible, and they had begun - whether out of pretended morals or out of the more likely pragmatism - to stand up against it.
That must, at all costs, be stopped.
“Summon the guards,” Marluxia finally said, eyes glinting with a hard light. “I want them to be ready to quell any… discomfort, that the other members may have upon hearing this information. I want them ready now.” The last word was said with a subtle, threatening emphasis that was not quite subtle enough for the messenger to have missed it. With that, the boy turned and fairly ran out of the meeting room, two sets of harsh eyes on him.
It was probably less than ten minutes before his first angry subordinates came rushing to his door, seething around it in waves. Larxene watched between the strokes of her whetstone on a knife, distant amusement showing through every twitch of her face, as they asked Marluxia precisely what was the purpose of belonging to an Organization at all if it just made them better targets.
The man’s answer to that was to subdue them, with as much force as was necessary, and keep them there under threat from his guards. This worked well enough until he no longer had enough guards to keep these subordinates behaving as they needed to - and that was when he decided to hold an official meeting, explaining what had happened and why. More importantly, it would detail what they were going to do about it - the details of which he wasn’t quite clear on, but the concept of which was strong.
The idea, chiefly, was to regain order and his own power in the Organization - but, hidden behind this obvious goal was another, quieter and yet more penetrating. The Organization itself was hardly good enough for him - through subterfuge and intelligence, Marluxia hoped to overthrow Xemnas’s syndicate, and place himself as the leader. But so far, as had been proven by the rioting, he had failed at creating a loyal, solid organization out of the assassins who made up what amounted to their guild. They still saw it as a loose coalition rather than a group to which they owed alliegance, which was a barrier Marluxia still was trying to find a way across.
His first break came, though he didn’t known it at the time, sometime during the chaos; between his announcement of the general meeting and the arrival of even more angry masses. When he was off-guard, focused on something else, Larxene sidled up behind him and - serpentine voice low and melodious - whispered to him.
“I have a proposition,” she murmured, and Marluxia sat up even straighter - her tone did not bode well. “Do you need some assistance with the stupid fucks outside your door?” The noise had been growing louder, and Marluxia could only hope that they would have the presence of mind to listen to his rhetoric. Of course, he wouldn’t admit his tentative uncertainties to the woman by him, continuing to read through another paper blankly.
“No,” he responded, and she knew it was a lie more because she wasn’t an idiot than because he failed in his craft. “Please make your point or make yourself absent. You’ll only get in the way if you can’t make use of yourself.”
“That’s precisely my proposition,” she responded silkily, voice like slivers of glass on his skin. “I want to make myself useful.” She paused then, and Marluxia could barely see her twirl a knife expertly out of the corner of his eye.
“I’ll help you out now, with this -” she gave an indicative nod of her head towards the door, through which loud noises were still audible “- but there is a catch.” Of course there was a catch - he was hardly naïve enough to believe that there wasn’t. “I want to be second in command to you. I’ll help you take down Xemnas to get a slice of his syndicate if you want, or whatever - I’ll be loyal unless you fuck up. And, I don’t want to have to answer to fucking anybody for what I do.” Her eyes gleamed when she said that, in such a way that made Marluxia think that the last sentence might have been the most important part of her statement.
And that fit with his idea of her - she was ruthless, a vicious woman with a sadistic streak; but she had no capability for long-term planning whatsoever, and no desire to. Everything she did was spur of the moment, and it was all with the intent of immediate benefit. She didn’t want power as much as she wanted to remove the stranglehold of her superiors over her life and actions - and she knew that becoming second to Marluxia was about as close as she would ever get without having to deal with responsibilities that she probably couldn’t handle.
If Marluxia had ever had to think of the sort of person he’d promote to the heretofore nonexistent position of second-in-command, she would be it - her lack of planning ability led to a lack of ambition, and so he wouldn’t always have to watch his back. Also, almost as important as her lack of ambition - she was Marluxia’s perfect complement, willing to get her hands dirty like the man hated to do, and without any desire to interchange his orders for her own idea. She would fight him, to be sure - but that made her a challenge, and she wouldn’t have been interesting if she wasn’t.
“Very well then,” he responded after a moment, two, three - and he felt her stiffen behind him, like she was waiting for Marluxia’s catch. It wouldn’t be too much trouble to give her one. “But if you ever displease me, I will kill you. Please don’t have any illusions about that.
He could feel her grin grow even behind him, sadistic excitement cutting across the back of his neck with an almost physical presence.
“I’ll make sure you don’t regret it,” she said slowly, and the suggestion was that she would certainly toe the line. But that was more or less alright.
XXX
The grin on Axel’s face once he was alone was more than just triumphant, it was exultant, reveling in his handiwork as he watched Sephiroth’s retreating back from his position by the railing of the landing-area. Cloud had gone somewhere else, which was all the better, because suppressing his expression of complete victory any longer was almost too much effort. Because the blonde had been completely, totally taken in by his lie - Zexion had never had anything to do with Aerith at all, much less with her untimely death.
Besides any of that, if the assassin had actually known who had killed Aerith - assuming that it wasn’t completely contrary to his interests, of course - he would have killed them in exchange. There were few enough people in the world that he liked, and she had been one of them - he’d been sorry to hear of hear death. Sorry for Cloud a bit, too.
Not sorry enough to not use that information against the other man. Not sorry enough not to manipulate him, shamelessly, and to take advantage of the blonde’s weaknesses for his own purpose.
Because not only was the soldier simply useful - which was enough of a reason for him to be fucked over - but his assistance would also help to keep Roxas alive, which justified anything. Any fucking thing in the whole damn world, so that Roxas would stay alive, one more day. So Axel could hear his laugh, make him laugh, and make everything alright for him.
If that took betrayal - well, that was alright by him.
There was a creak, then, interrupting his thoughts - and it was familiar; the sound of feet on old hardwood, likely. Sweeping forward, he pushed the door to Roxas’s room open, only to find Sora behind it, his little mouth open almost as wide as his eyes in something like astonishment.
Fuck. He’d heard it. Everything about the way he stood said that he heard it, and then - Roxas watched critically from his position on the bed, like he was waiting for an explanation. For something.
“Who was it who died?” the brunette asked, tone deliberate with the effort of keeping itself from trembling. “Why was Cloud so upset?”
Axel did not feel like fielding questions from a fifteen-year-old, much less one like Sora. The kid wasn’t too bad, but when he had the choice between the younger and the older, Roxas won by a lifetime. There weren’t many people in the world who could face down the General Sephiroth - even with a hangover and a pissy, scowling attitude problem - without blinking.
Yeah. He’d much rather deal with Roxas.
“Go ask him yourself, kid. It’s nothing that I could tell you about,” he lied, and Roxas knew it, stiffening across the room. “I just know the basics. If you wanna know, Spike’s the one to ask.”
The brunette nodded then, like he understood - though clearly he didn’t.
“I’m going to go find him, then. Thank you,” he said to Axel, then gave a nod to his older brother, who nodded in return. “Be safe, Roxas, ok?” he continued, and the redhead wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or not. He settled for the latter as the brunette brushed past him with an apologetic expression - apologizing for what, he wondered? - and disappearing through the door.
“Now I want to know what’s going on, Axel,” Roxas stated, looking like he was feeling doubly better from his earlier, hung-over state. The way he said the assassin’s name made the redhead’s stomach warm, but he didn’t comment. “Sora hates to believe the worst in anybody, but you’re lying to him. You know more about this than anybody, probably.”
Axel tensed a little - he didn’t like to think it, but he probably was going to have to keep the hell away from anybody he needed to use while Roxas was around; because apparently, being with the little blonde had this terrible tendency to make him tell the truth. He opened his mouth to try and come up with some lie, but the words caught in his throat, like he could feel the blonde’s disapproval.
Maybe that had something to do with the fact that he felt comfortable with Roxas, or with the fact that he didn’t feel judged - it wasn’t so much that the blonde wanted him to be open, as that Axel didn’t feel like he had to protect himself around the boy. Maybe that was what made his mouth open and spill out truth - and that alone was extraordinary, because nothing and nobody else had ever been able to make him do that.
“Yeah, I guess,” the redhead responded at length, shutting the door just to ensure that they wouldn’t be overheard. “You’re a sharp kid, you know that?”
A shrug.
“I’ve been told so before. Or maybe it’s just that you’re not a very good liar.”
That statement hit him so suddenly and was such a surprise that the redhead actually bust out laughing, leaving the younger looking slightly bewildered - not that Axel minded. He continued that way for at least a minute, until his breaths were coming in gasps and his knuckles were white from gripping the bedpost by which he had been convulsing.
“Roxas,” he finally begin, taking deep breaths to calm himself down, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything funnier in my life. Lying’s my job, kiddo, and I’m really fuckin’ good at it.” There was a pause. “Maybe I’m just not good at lying to you.” Let the blonde make of that what he would.
There was a tense silence for a moment, as Roxas digested this new information, and probably was making quite a bit of it - though he probably wasn’t comprehending exactly what it actually meant. He soon, apparently, decided to forego asking about it in favor of following the earlier thread of conversation.
“In any case,” he began easily, pretending nothing had confused him at all, “what’s the deal with the soldier? He’s going to go off and kill the guy who’s trying to k ill us?” There was a pause, during which the blonde’s gaze flickered between the other man and the floor. “Won’t that get him killed?” He probably didn’t want his guard to bite it any more than Axel himself did - but there were further plans.
“Probably not,” came Axel’s honest answer. Unless something went terribly wrong, Cloud could take Zexion one-handed in a straight-up fight - which is what the redhead was hoping it would be. If all went well, there would be no problem. “Cloud Strife has always been a tough son of a bitch to kill.” He realized with a wince that he was, again, giving himself away - but he didn’t move or otherwise indicate his misstep, half-hoping that the blonde wouldn’t notice.
“So you’ve known him for a while?” he asked, picking up what the assassin hadn’t said, though he might have known it earlier, during the scene in the entryway, if he hadn’t had a world-class hangover. “Did you know the person who was killed also?” The question that followed the last was more suspicious than questioning. “How, exactly, do you know that this guy was the murderer?” Roxas was probably suspicious for the wrong reasons, but Axel was nonetheless impressed by his powers of perception.
“Yeah, I knew Aerith,” he responded, trying to speak slowly so he didn’t fuck himself over even worse. “She was… Well, I liked her. And to be honest,” he continued, words spilling out of his mouth with enthusiasm as the boy’s expression of curiosity grew , “I don’t know who killed her.” He realized with consternation as the words left his mouth that he was baring all of his fucking secrets - he never did that. Shit.
Ah well. He’d already done the worst he could do by now, what was the harm in a little bit more truth? Anyway, he’d probably just fail again if he tried to lie.
“If I’d known,” he continued, running a hand through his burning-red hair, “I would have killed the fucker myself.” If it hadn’t been too inconvenient, of course, or counter to his goals - but he successfully neglected to mention that part.
Roxas blinked as if in response, gears in his head accelerating visibly.
“So… You were lying then.” There was another pause - Axel didn’t feel that it needed a response. “Why?” the blonde finally asked, as if it weren’t obvious. With anyone else, the redhead might have shot out some kind of disparaging remark, but the moment he opened his mouth, he felt himself change his mind without any kind of permission.
“Because. I want Cloud to fight him. Because I want Cloud to kill him, now, with no mess - before he has the time to lay complicated plans. Because he’s dangerous - anything could go wrong, and I am going to keep you fucking safe.” His words were vehement, and unnecessarily honest - the other, recognizing this, reacted with widened eyes and a sharp intake of breath. Their gazes met for only a moment before Roxas’s slid away.
“So you’re manipulating - using - an old friend -”
“Not exactly a friend,“ Axel interjected.
“- in order to keep me slightly safer?” he asked, looking bewildered. Like he wasn’t asking the question he really wanted to ask. The redhead knew what it would be, and he didn’t have an answer for it himself - Why me, he’d ask in that tenuous baritone. What did I do to get this kind of devotion from you? It was just as well, because Axel wouldn’t have been able to respond.
Instead, the blonde asked; “Are you crazy?”
That was almost as funny as the “You’re not a very good liar” comment, though the redhead didn’t break down into laughter this time.
“‘Course I am,” he responded with a paper-sharp grin. “What in fuck were you expecting?”
XXX
XXX
Merry Christmas! If any of you are reading today.
Sorry for the terribly late update. I will be gone for two weeks, so the next update won’t be soon either.
Also, sorry for two chapters in a row without much happening. Next chapter everything should start to heat up and finally get complicated. No, it hasn’t been complicated up until this point. Just wait.
Thank you all so much for reading.
Please comment if you liked? It would be the best Christmas gift ever.