000 - Memory Crystal #5 [sight/sound]
Axel had never been much of a fidget, but Kagerou had been eaten by the elevator and he had more nervous energy than he really knew what to do with. And so he had dug up a deck of cards with the intent of just shuffling them mindlessly until... well, until what he wasn't sure, but until something. Probably.
He didn't even know how the hell a crystal had fit into that pack of cards, but the next thing Axel knew, there was one tumbling into his palm. He didn't even really have time for it to register before one of the smooth sides of the crystal brushed against his thumb, and the next thing he knew, his room was fading into blue and turquoise and green, and all he could do was mutter, "Aw, hell..." before the memory began.
There was nothing to look at around them--the space within this corridor was infinite and shifting, but filled with emptiness and a silvery, gloomy mist, and no matter how far Axel tried to stare into the infinity, nothing ever really looked any different than anything else. It was like trying to see shapes in a cloudless sky.
Axel glanced around him and spotted Naminé, and for a moment, he couldn't decide if he was relieved or not. He had heard the blue-haired man speak her name before, so he accepted that they really did come from the same place, but seeing her there somehow confirmed it for him. She didn't look too happy to be here, though... They were walking through those corridors he could summon--the mists were the same. So Naminé could move through them as well?
Naminé fidgeted. "Axel," she piped up, her voice echoing in the space.
"Mm?" he asked without stopping. "What's up?"
"Where...are we going?"
Axel hesitated. "...Back to HQ," he replied, and he could almost feel Naminés eyes on him.
"And what are you going to do?" she asked.
Axel paused in his steps and glanced over his shoulder at her. "What am I...going to do?" he echoed, and Naminé looked uncomfortable. He shrugged. "If I hand you over to the boss, they'll take back their 'traitor' verdict," he said finally, a sly grin smeared into his voice.
--Wait, what?
Naminé furrowed her brow at him. "I wonder about that," she said, more to herself than to him. "What is it you're trying to accomplish, Axel?" she prodded, and he chortled.
"I just don't wanna get erased," he replied. "You understand."
"And so you'll turn me over to the Organization?"
He sighed and rubbed his chin with one hand. "Ha~ I wonder what's best...?" he said with exaggerated indecision in his tone.
Axel wished that he could have smacked his memory-self upside the head. Traitor, that boy had said--traitor! And now he was having it confirmed!? But... what would handing Naminé over accomplish? She was his friend, wasn't she? Had the boy been right, then? Was he a traitor? Had he turned his own friend over to this shadowy Organization in the hopes of raising his own standing?
It seemed he had had a similar moment of pause in the memory, because as the quiet stretched between them, Naminé piped up, "I have a request." Her tone was determined and her eyes were fierce, and Axel tilted his head at her. "I want to meet Kairi," she said, and he seemed surprised.
"What, really?" he asked, and Naminé scrunched up one side of her face.
"I guess that was kind of out of the blue, wasn't it?" she asked, lowering her eyes.
"So then... what'd you come with me for?" Axel asked, lifting his arms in the air and then letting them fall irritatedly down at his sides.
Well that seemed a logical question, anyway. Axel was really glad this memory had deigned to allow him sight and sound, or he would have been horribly confused as to what was going on.
Naminé shook her head. "Because...because you seemed lonesome," she replied quietly, and Axel's brows inched toward his hairline.
"Hah?"
Naminé lifted her head. "You looked lonesome," she repeated, and Axel shook his head.
"Lonesome?" he echoed, and snorted a derisive laugh. "A Nobody like me--lonesome?"
Nobody?
"Is that so?" he asked.
What the hell was a Nobody?
"Axel, do you really believe we don't have hearts?"
--Wait, what?
"That--!" His voice was an angry snarl, his nose crinkled up as he jabbed a finger toward her accusingly. "That...can't possibly..." He shook his head, his hands clenched into fists, and turned his back to her.
Watching this through his own eyes, Axel could practically feel his stomach sink to his feet. No hearts? What the hell? How could a creature exist without a heart?? He had a pulse, he had blood, how the hell didn't he have a heart?
"...Axel..." came Naminé's voice from behind him, and Axel winced, in tandem in the memory and in his own mind.
"I do hope I'm not interrupting something terribly important," came a voice then, and Axel snapped his head up, whirling.
Well that sure hadn't been Naminé's voice. It wasn't an unfamiliar one, though. Axel's eyes widened at the figure standing before them now, and he didn't need a crystal that allowed touch to know he was feeling pretty panicked right then.
"Saïx--!"
Wait, who? Why did these memories always seem to provide more questions than answers?
As his name tore from the redhead's lips, the cloaked figure reached up and slowly tugged his hood back, smiling casually as he surveyed the setting.
The man with the blue hair... The one who had tried to kill him, who had conspired with him in that audio memory... The man with the blue hair now stood before him, the great red scar rent across his face and his golden eyes narrow. His name was Saïx.
"Naminé--run!" Axel barked, and Naminé backpedaled hesitantly. Axel swiped an arm through the air, summoning a portal, and Naminé moved cautiously toward it.
"--Axel?"
"Don't worry about me, just go," he ordered.
... Hadn't he said the exact same thing to Compass?
At Axel's instructions, Naminé nodded, then spun and lunged for the portal, vanishing into black space as the gap in the air closed behind her.
Saïx regarded Axel a moment, then shook his head. "Feeling heroic today, Axel?" he said smoothly, his face calm and emotionless.
Axel summoned his chakrams to both hands, scowling at the other man. He found himself wondering where Naminé had gone, but supposed the memory wasn't going to be polite enough to inform him. Moving slowly, weaving in a circle, Axel eyed Saïx darkly and kept alert for an opening.
"What are you planning to do next?" Saïx asked, watching boredly as the portal closed behind Naminé.
Axel's eyes narrowed dangerously. "It ain't got nothin' to do with an asshole like you," he replied.
Well that kind of spoke volumes about their relationship. Axel could have guessed they weren't buds, based on the fact that this Saïx guy had, you know, tried to kill him and all, but when Axel saw fit to insult someone, he usually did it with more class than standard namecalling. It seemed Saïx wasn't worth that.
Saïx squared his broad shoulders.
"You're not worried we'll call you a traitor for your actions?" he taunted, and Axel grinned sharply.
"You mean you don't already?" he shot back, and Saïx just looked expectant.
"Shouldn't you be worrying about turning the Keyblade Master into a Heartless, Axel?" he asked.
Axel made a face.
"Hah?" he asked, and again there was the strange resonance of memory and reality speaking in tandem, even if it was just in his head. "What are you talking about?"
Who was the Keyblade Master? He knew what a Keyblade was--Xion had summoned one, and he'd had one when he had been turned into that mouse guy, but... there was a master? And what was a Heartless? If he had no heart, did that make him one? How was this even physiologically possible?
Apparently reading Axel's confusion, Saïx added disinterestedly, "The Organization's plans are changing every day."
Axel took a slow step forward, his shoulders hunched and his spine rigid. He was angry now. A wry grin etched into his face, such that it almost seemed like he was grimacing, Axel moved toward Saïx, then lunged forward, moving to attack.
"You don't say," he cried as he dove through the air, swiping at the blue-haired man with his chakrams. "So what are my orders now, Boss? Eh? Please, enlighten me!"
What Saïx apparently didn't see, however, was that this was more than a simple temper tantrum. As Axel moved, he was already silently summoning a portal behind Saïx. Small, faint, silent, it was little more than a thought in the air as Axel moved. He could see it, just barely, a warp in the atmosphere, like heat distortion, flickering behind the other man. He was distracting him, he realized, watching the portal whisper into existence. The swings were wide, his motions were sloppy--he was buying time. But why?
"I'll destroy you!" he howled, and Saïx just looked bored, twisting one arm into the air and summoning his oversized Claymore.
Aw, hell.
Before Axel could react, Saïx snapped the weapon upward, and there was a great clashing sound as the weapons met in the air.
"Fool," the older man breathed, and Axel jumped back, focusing on that little hidden portal behind Saïx. Then before Saïx could regroup and swing his sword, Axel bolted, moving faster than the eye could follow, headed for that little portal as it began to grow and materialize behind the older man. Axel was starting to believe he really couldn't defeat Saïx in a fair fight--the altercation on the beach in that other memory had sort of proven that--but he had always preferred a less honorable approach to battle anyway, and there was nobody who could outrun or outfox him. Of that he was sure. He didn't need memories to tell him that much.
"What the--?"
Saïx whirled as Axel teleported behind him, but it was already too late. The growing distortion in the air swallowed the redhead, and they vanished into the empty air of the corridors to leave Saïx alone in the gloomy mist.
With a gasp, Axel snapped out of the memory, the crystal falling to the floor with a clink, the cards now scattered across the floor of his bedroom, tumbling amid Kagerou's craft supplies. The lanterns... they were only half-done. He didn't know how the hell to finish them, and he sure as hell wasn't interested in adding her to the list of people they were memorializing.
He stared at his hands a moment before realizing something was wrong.
"Oh, what the hell?" he grumbled. Axel had certainly had enough fun poked in his direction about how skinny he was, but this was ridiculous. Or was this a dig at his night job? Well, whatever it was, it wasn't as bad as some of the punishments he'd had before. Unfortunately, with Kagerou missing, it meant he was going to have to go to work dressed like this.
Maybe he would just close the bar until he was back to normal.
Glancing in the mirror across the room, Axel made a face.
Yeah, definitely closing the bar. He had a lot to think about, anyway.
[This memory is in the novels only, so I can't link you to anything but my own translation of the scene... which is basically here anyway. Timeline is about a third of the way into KHII. Ish.]
He didn't even know how the hell a crystal had fit into that pack of cards, but the next thing Axel knew, there was one tumbling into his palm. He didn't even really have time for it to register before one of the smooth sides of the crystal brushed against his thumb, and the next thing he knew, his room was fading into blue and turquoise and green, and all he could do was mutter, "Aw, hell..." before the memory began.
There was nothing to look at around them--the space within this corridor was infinite and shifting, but filled with emptiness and a silvery, gloomy mist, and no matter how far Axel tried to stare into the infinity, nothing ever really looked any different than anything else. It was like trying to see shapes in a cloudless sky.
Axel glanced around him and spotted Naminé, and for a moment, he couldn't decide if he was relieved or not. He had heard the blue-haired man speak her name before, so he accepted that they really did come from the same place, but seeing her there somehow confirmed it for him. She didn't look too happy to be here, though... They were walking through those corridors he could summon--the mists were the same. So Naminé could move through them as well?
Naminé fidgeted. "Axel," she piped up, her voice echoing in the space.
"Mm?" he asked without stopping. "What's up?"
"Where...are we going?"
Axel hesitated. "...Back to HQ," he replied, and he could almost feel Naminés eyes on him.
"And what are you going to do?" she asked.
Axel paused in his steps and glanced over his shoulder at her. "What am I...going to do?" he echoed, and Naminé looked uncomfortable. He shrugged. "If I hand you over to the boss, they'll take back their 'traitor' verdict," he said finally, a sly grin smeared into his voice.
--Wait, what?
Naminé furrowed her brow at him. "I wonder about that," she said, more to herself than to him. "What is it you're trying to accomplish, Axel?" she prodded, and he chortled.
"I just don't wanna get erased," he replied. "You understand."
"And so you'll turn me over to the Organization?"
He sighed and rubbed his chin with one hand. "Ha~ I wonder what's best...?" he said with exaggerated indecision in his tone.
Axel wished that he could have smacked his memory-self upside the head. Traitor, that boy had said--traitor! And now he was having it confirmed!? But... what would handing Naminé over accomplish? She was his friend, wasn't she? Had the boy been right, then? Was he a traitor? Had he turned his own friend over to this shadowy Organization in the hopes of raising his own standing?
It seemed he had had a similar moment of pause in the memory, because as the quiet stretched between them, Naminé piped up, "I have a request." Her tone was determined and her eyes were fierce, and Axel tilted his head at her. "I want to meet Kairi," she said, and he seemed surprised.
"What, really?" he asked, and Naminé scrunched up one side of her face.
"I guess that was kind of out of the blue, wasn't it?" she asked, lowering her eyes.
"So then... what'd you come with me for?" Axel asked, lifting his arms in the air and then letting them fall irritatedly down at his sides.
Well that seemed a logical question, anyway. Axel was really glad this memory had deigned to allow him sight and sound, or he would have been horribly confused as to what was going on.
Naminé shook her head. "Because...because you seemed lonesome," she replied quietly, and Axel's brows inched toward his hairline.
"Hah?"
Naminé lifted her head. "You looked lonesome," she repeated, and Axel shook his head.
"Lonesome?" he echoed, and snorted a derisive laugh. "A Nobody like me--lonesome?"
Nobody?
"Is that so?" he asked.
What the hell was a Nobody?
"Axel, do you really believe we don't have hearts?"
--Wait, what?
"That--!" His voice was an angry snarl, his nose crinkled up as he jabbed a finger toward her accusingly. "That...can't possibly..." He shook his head, his hands clenched into fists, and turned his back to her.
Watching this through his own eyes, Axel could practically feel his stomach sink to his feet. No hearts? What the hell? How could a creature exist without a heart?? He had a pulse, he had blood, how the hell didn't he have a heart?
"...Axel..." came Naminé's voice from behind him, and Axel winced, in tandem in the memory and in his own mind.
"I do hope I'm not interrupting something terribly important," came a voice then, and Axel snapped his head up, whirling.
Well that sure hadn't been Naminé's voice. It wasn't an unfamiliar one, though. Axel's eyes widened at the figure standing before them now, and he didn't need a crystal that allowed touch to know he was feeling pretty panicked right then.
"Saïx--!"
Wait, who? Why did these memories always seem to provide more questions than answers?
As his name tore from the redhead's lips, the cloaked figure reached up and slowly tugged his hood back, smiling casually as he surveyed the setting.
The man with the blue hair... The one who had tried to kill him, who had conspired with him in that audio memory... The man with the blue hair now stood before him, the great red scar rent across his face and his golden eyes narrow. His name was Saïx.
"Naminé--run!" Axel barked, and Naminé backpedaled hesitantly. Axel swiped an arm through the air, summoning a portal, and Naminé moved cautiously toward it.
"--Axel?"
"Don't worry about me, just go," he ordered.
... Hadn't he said the exact same thing to Compass?
At Axel's instructions, Naminé nodded, then spun and lunged for the portal, vanishing into black space as the gap in the air closed behind her.
Saïx regarded Axel a moment, then shook his head. "Feeling heroic today, Axel?" he said smoothly, his face calm and emotionless.
Axel summoned his chakrams to both hands, scowling at the other man. He found himself wondering where Naminé had gone, but supposed the memory wasn't going to be polite enough to inform him. Moving slowly, weaving in a circle, Axel eyed Saïx darkly and kept alert for an opening.
"What are you planning to do next?" Saïx asked, watching boredly as the portal closed behind Naminé.
Axel's eyes narrowed dangerously. "It ain't got nothin' to do with an asshole like you," he replied.
Well that kind of spoke volumes about their relationship. Axel could have guessed they weren't buds, based on the fact that this Saïx guy had, you know, tried to kill him and all, but when Axel saw fit to insult someone, he usually did it with more class than standard namecalling. It seemed Saïx wasn't worth that.
Saïx squared his broad shoulders.
"You're not worried we'll call you a traitor for your actions?" he taunted, and Axel grinned sharply.
"You mean you don't already?" he shot back, and Saïx just looked expectant.
"Shouldn't you be worrying about turning the Keyblade Master into a Heartless, Axel?" he asked.
Axel made a face.
"Hah?" he asked, and again there was the strange resonance of memory and reality speaking in tandem, even if it was just in his head. "What are you talking about?"
Who was the Keyblade Master? He knew what a Keyblade was--Xion had summoned one, and he'd had one when he had been turned into that mouse guy, but... there was a master? And what was a Heartless? If he had no heart, did that make him one? How was this even physiologically possible?
Apparently reading Axel's confusion, Saïx added disinterestedly, "The Organization's plans are changing every day."
Axel took a slow step forward, his shoulders hunched and his spine rigid. He was angry now. A wry grin etched into his face, such that it almost seemed like he was grimacing, Axel moved toward Saïx, then lunged forward, moving to attack.
"You don't say," he cried as he dove through the air, swiping at the blue-haired man with his chakrams. "So what are my orders now, Boss? Eh? Please, enlighten me!"
What Saïx apparently didn't see, however, was that this was more than a simple temper tantrum. As Axel moved, he was already silently summoning a portal behind Saïx. Small, faint, silent, it was little more than a thought in the air as Axel moved. He could see it, just barely, a warp in the atmosphere, like heat distortion, flickering behind the other man. He was distracting him, he realized, watching the portal whisper into existence. The swings were wide, his motions were sloppy--he was buying time. But why?
"I'll destroy you!" he howled, and Saïx just looked bored, twisting one arm into the air and summoning his oversized Claymore.
Aw, hell.
Before Axel could react, Saïx snapped the weapon upward, and there was a great clashing sound as the weapons met in the air.
"Fool," the older man breathed, and Axel jumped back, focusing on that little hidden portal behind Saïx. Then before Saïx could regroup and swing his sword, Axel bolted, moving faster than the eye could follow, headed for that little portal as it began to grow and materialize behind the older man. Axel was starting to believe he really couldn't defeat Saïx in a fair fight--the altercation on the beach in that other memory had sort of proven that--but he had always preferred a less honorable approach to battle anyway, and there was nobody who could outrun or outfox him. Of that he was sure. He didn't need memories to tell him that much.
"What the--?"
Saïx whirled as Axel teleported behind him, but it was already too late. The growing distortion in the air swallowed the redhead, and they vanished into the empty air of the corridors to leave Saïx alone in the gloomy mist.
With a gasp, Axel snapped out of the memory, the crystal falling to the floor with a clink, the cards now scattered across the floor of his bedroom, tumbling amid Kagerou's craft supplies. The lanterns... they were only half-done. He didn't know how the hell to finish them, and he sure as hell wasn't interested in adding her to the list of people they were memorializing.
He stared at his hands a moment before realizing something was wrong.
"Oh, what the hell?" he grumbled. Axel had certainly had enough fun poked in his direction about how skinny he was, but this was ridiculous. Or was this a dig at his night job? Well, whatever it was, it wasn't as bad as some of the punishments he'd had before. Unfortunately, with Kagerou missing, it meant he was going to have to go to work dressed like this.
Maybe he would just close the bar until he was back to normal.
Glancing in the mirror across the room, Axel made a face.
Yeah, definitely closing the bar. He had a lot to think about, anyway.
[This memory is in the novels only, so I can't link you to anything but my own translation of the scene... which is basically here anyway. Timeline is about a third of the way into KHII. Ish.]