Truth is hard to swallow [Vertigo Visions Week 2]
WHO: ANYONE! -- Add your own entry tags!
WHAT: Vertigo Visions Responses
WHERE: Specific Threads identify your location
WHEN: Night of Day 249 (Monday 12/1) and Day 250 (12/2) through the night of Day 256 (Monday 12/8)
( So you pray to God // To justify the way you // Live a lie, live a lie, live a lie ---- Reply here with vision responses as your character sees the Mysterious Haze. )
WHAT: Vertigo Visions Responses
WHERE: Specific Threads identify your location
WHEN: Night of Day 249 (Monday 12/1) and Day 250 (12/2) through the night of Day 256 (Monday 12/8)
( So you pray to God // To justify the way you // Live a lie, live a lie, live a lie ---- Reply here with vision responses as your character sees the Mysterious Haze. )
He was there to let Riku in on the secret of the Resonance Crystals - part of Axel liked being the chaotic party, it kept the Organization on its toes, and yet, if Zexion or Xemnas found out, oh would he be in some seriously deep shit.
Somehow, the conversation (which was civil and almost like they were friends again!) had turned to movies and Pokemon. When was Riku going to get here, anyway? Axel leaned his elbow on the table, and looked out the window at the night sky.
The haze was still there, but...
... the hell WAS that? And before he knew it, he had blacked out a second time, collapsing onto the floor of the ramen shop.
---
It’s just like old times. Fighting, banter, more fighting.
Except the enemies were never Dusks before, and the voice he’s bantering with isn’t Roxas.
It’s Sora.
“Feeling a little… regret?”
Of course he is, dumbass. He’s out of time - he was out of time months ago, before you woke up, when you woke up. He’s been chasing you for months, trying to figure out what it WAS about you keybearers that made him…
“Nah. I can handle these punks.” He chuckles. “Watch this.”
Mentally, his logic is screaming at him, ”What are you DOING, you moron?!” And he knows that what he’s about to do could very well kill him.
He doesn’t mind - after all this time, he’s finally accepted that Roxas and Sora are the same.
And yet…
He pushes his powers to their very limits, beyond their limits. Flames flicker along his body, hotter and hotter, and the air around him shines from the heat. Just a little more…
And then it all explodes outward in a near super-nova, eliminating the thousands upon thousands of dusks in an instant.
And then he collapses, the last vestiges of his attack burning along his body.
“Whoa!” he hears Sora gasp in surprise, and footsteps as he runs over.
And yet…
Sora’s voice again. “You’re… you’re fading away.”
Axel opens his eyes and looks up at Sora’s concerned face (for him? … really?). “Well, that’s what you get when you put your whole being into an attack. Not that Nobodies actually HAVE being, right?”
“Anyway, I digress. Go, find Kairi.” He pauses, regretting that he tried to kidnap Kairi, that he tried to force Sora to become a heartless, all for his own selfish whims. “Oh, almost forgot… Sorry for what I did to her.”
“When we find her, you can tell her that yourself!” Sora insists, still crouched next to him, his eyebrows still knit together in what appears to be genuine concern.
Jeez, this kid just can’t stop making friends with everyone, can he? Just like Roxas…
“Think I’ll pass. My heart just wouldn’t be in it, you know? Haven’t got one.”
He laughs again, knowing full well that his joke isn’t that funny, wishing that this wasn’t the end. And yet…
Sora pauses, looking at the ground, before turning back to him. “Axel, what were you trying to do?”
Axel’s blurting out the truth before he can stop himself. What’s the use, he reasons. He’s already on his deathbed. “I wanted to see Roxas. He… he was the only one I liked. He made me feel…”
He made me feel ALIVE, he made me feel happy, sad, angry, guilty. He made me laugh, he made me cry. He still makes me laugh and cry. He makes me feel lonely, because dammit I miss him. He was my best friend, and I would gladly throw my life down just to see him one more time, Axel thinks in an instant, and it finally hits him.
“… like I had a heart. It’s kinda funny… you make me feel the same…”
Oh shit, did he really just say that?
And yet...
He recovers. “Kairi’s in the Castle dungeon. Now go.”
With the last of his power and existence, Axel summons a portal for Sora to enter into Never Was, and then lets go, fading into nothing. The last thing he sees is Sora’s heartbroken face, and hears Sora’s voice mumbling his name.
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Roxas appears suddenly, and Axel plays it cool. “You’re finally awake?”
Roxas jumps, and looks up at Axel. “Axel!”
“Heh, or maybe you’re falling asleep.” He sighs and sits down. “Soon, I won’t even be able to talk to you like this.”
“I… I’m going back to how I was,” Roxas says with assertion, and Axel looks away.
“I’ve thought about it a lot,” he muses. “Namine said the same thing.”
… Maybe that’s it. “Roxas, you have a heart, don’t you? But me and Namine, we… really don’t, do we?”
“I don’t really know…”
“Guess not.” Axel sighs. Even if that is the harsh reality of the situation - that he truly has no heart - it’s so good to see Roxas again, to talk to him, that Axel doesn’t care.
“But the heart’s not something you can see,” Roxas says, smiling. “I’ve started wondering if it’s something you can’t quite feel, either. If that’s the case, then…”
Axel raises an eyebrow, looking at the blond boy with curiosity.
“Nah, never mind.”
Oh, don’t stop now, Roxas. You know how much Axel hates it when you withhold your thoughts like that. “So wait, what are you trying to say?”
Roxas smiles. “I’m sure Sora will find the answer. After all… he’s me.”
Doesn’t Axel know it. “Sure is.”
Talking like this, watching the sunset… they both sit there quietly, for a bit, and then, somehow, there is ice cream. Just like old times. Axel hands Roxas a bar of the blue ice cream, before taking a small bite.
And yet…
“This really takes me back… remember? We met on that first day, when you got your new name. And then we came here to watch the sunset.”
“Yeah. This is where I’m from. Everyone … Hayner, Pence and Olette… I hope they’re okay.”
Axel bristles at the mention of those three, but he understands that somewhere, in the depths of Sora’s - Roxas’s - heart, there’s enough room for him and other people.
“You should go and see them again, while you’re out looking for your answers.”
Roxas looks down. “Yeah… Um, I have to go. Sora’s waiting for me.”
Don’t leave, Roxas. Stay.
Please.
“Yeah, I guess he is…”
Don’t leave me alone in oblivion. Axel turns and takes a huge bite of his ice cream. “Whoa, jeez, this ice cream is really salty!”
In a flash of light, Roxas is fading. “Goodbye, Axel.”
Axel’s fading too. Fading, and trying his hardest not to cry. He’s crying anyway. “Bye… buddy.”
--
It ends as suddenly as its begun, and Axel woke up, laying on the floor. He jerked up into a sitting position with a gasp, and gave himself a thorough pat-down, just to make sure he was still there, and still alive. His breathing was rapid and shallow, and when he spoke, his voice was quiet and... sad.
"I... I have to go," he stammered, standing up quickly, and making a bee-line for the door.
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But then Axel had gotten right back up and walked out, seeming shocked.
It was still a big whatever. With Axel gone, Sho went back to his real job - busboy, janitor, and manager.
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