Beast's Castle, First Visit:
In Which Refuge is Sought
It seemed to take hours. Axel found he didn't know what to do with himself, with all the energy in his body. He would pace back and forth, in front of the door, and occasionally he'd glance up at the capsules -- the sleeping figures in them, Sora's friends -- but he couldn't look at them for long. Somehow, their slack innocent faces made him feel--
Guilty?
No, nothing like that. Nothing quite that intense. Just a little unsettled. It was weird, to look at them. He had... not liked Sora, exactly. There was too much familiar and too much alien for him to actually like the kid. But he'd never had anything against him, never would've wished him ill, and now...
Now he was hoping, hoping in this desperate way he'd never done anything before, that Sora was somewhere in the other room, dying.
And these were his friends. Only two of a million the kid must've made. Only two out of all the people that were going to miss him, if everything went according to plan.
It was... icky. All of it.
Of course he still wanted his best friend back -- of course this sacrifice of someone he'd barely known was worth it. Even the little witch knew that, somehow. There was no hesitation in him. Just... a little less raw pleasure than he had been expecting.
Then the door opened, and Roxas was there, crooked little smile on his face, standing straight and tall and proud, just the way he was supposed to, and something cold in Axel's chest flared to life.
Hey, he thought numbly, there's the pleasure.
Fuck, his hands were twitching, he wanted to hug the blond and he wasn't sure he was going to be able to stop himself, no-touching policy be damned. Axel forced his hands deep into his pockets and took a slow hissing breath. "You okay?" A little strained, but better than spontaneous physical contact.
Roxas didn't answer right away, which was nerve-wracking. Then he grinned a bit more, and nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine."
The twitch was still there -- if anything, it seemed to have gotten worse. It didn't even have to be an embrace. Just a touch. Something that would let him confirm what his eyes were telling him. "Then... it worked," he said breathlessly.
"Seems like," Roxas agreed, still with the grin, but then his expression -- softened around the edges, and he lowered his eyes. "...sorry."
The word didn't actually mean anything. Axel blinked, slower to react than he should have been. "Sorry?"
"For what I did, when I didn't remember. What I said. You know." His lips twisted, bemused or something more. "I think you're owed at least a little gratitude, after all this."
Axel smirked. Part of him wanted to say, Sorry doesn't really cover it. He shrugged his shoulders, the roll of movement slightly awkward. "Whatever. Heh, you're just lucky I didn't decide you were too much trouble to bother with." He took the opportunity to punch Roxas in the arm, light, but real. The firm pressure of the blond's shoulder was...
Yeah, a relief.
That earned him eye contact, and even a small smirk in return. Roxas rubbed his arm, and retorted, "I don't remember asking you for any favors. But as long as you're here..."
"Oh, ouch."
Roxas grinned a little more, but then something subtle in his face shifted, and he took a step back, surveying their surroundings. "I think... I've probably upset a few people," he murmured. "We should get moving."
He meant DiZ, of course. And he had a point. The old man was pretty good at these things -- he'd have noticed the block immediately, and he was probably close to fixing it by now. Axel could have kicked himself. What was wrong with him, he'd almost forgotten the danger they were in. Enjoy your reunion, idiot. The rate you're going, it won't last long. "Right," he said. "Of course."
Then he opened a portal -- a real portal this time, ripping through the programmed air around them and leaving a hole of static that flickered. It was pretty dramatic looking, and Roxas made a startled noise from beside him, but in reality it wasn't much; just a little backdoor.
There were the standard interfaces, of course -- the pod that connected Sora's brainwaves to the town, the chairs that DiZ and Riku strapped themselves into when they entered it more remotely, and the tube they'd used to change Roxas from flesh to data -- but all good programmers liked to leave themselves a backdoor, in case they got into trouble. Clever though he was, DiZ probably didn't even know it was there. Only the original programmer would ever have found it.
Axel hadn't meant to think it, and shoved the thought out of his head. Not right now. They really couldn't afford the distraction. "Well? Don't stare, Roxas. You want out of here, right?"
The smaller boy was still eyeing the portal a bit mistrustfully, but at that he straightened, gaze resting instead on Axel's face. "What about Namine? She helped me."
More than you know. "She's fine, don't worry. The little witch can take care of herself." It felt strange coming out of his mouth, but he had to admit... he'd been wrong about her on the hill. He still wasn't sure she'd changed -- maybe she'd always had this hidden reserve of strength, just no motivation before -- but Axel really, really wasn't worried.
Roxas gave him a hard-eyed stare, and it felt good. Reassuringly normal. "I can't just leave her," he said.
"You're not," Axel told him, slightly exasperated now. "Promise. She knows he won't be happy with her. She's long gone by now."
For half a second he thought Roxas was going to protest again -- wouldn't believe him -- and it actually stung a little, even though in large part he approved. (You could never really trust anyone, and especially not someone like him.) But then the blond relented, nodding shortly, and took a step forward. "Let's go."
It was a short jump, and the room on the other side of the portal looked exactly the same, but he felt the difference; the real world was emptier. No subtle press of eager data on his skin, no interface there to be manipulated. He could have flown in the data town, or fallen from a tall tower and survived, if the program knew he wanted to. Here, there was nothing like that.
"Is this...?"
He glanced over at Roxas's face, and saw the doubt laced through his features. He couldn't feel it, but then, that made sense. "Yeah," Axel told him. "This is the real deal." He grinned. "Hey, if you wanna be totally sure, feel free to skewer me with a keyblade. I promise I'd really bleed." Black more than red, but he'd bleed.
At the very least, the idea of his keyblade seemed to reassure the blond; he stretched out a hand, fingers splayed, and after a second the white keyblade appeared there. Some of the tension left Roxas's shoulders, and he let the keyblade dissipate. "I think at least one of your servants owes me an apology."
Axel barked out a laugh. "Good luck getting them. No permanent damage, right?" He ran his tongue over the inside of his teeth, tasting the air, and murmured, "She's gone, all right, and him... he's gone, too."
"Him... You mean that man," Roxas said. "DiZ."
His tone was cold, colder than ice. Which was -- pretty easy to understand. "Yeah. But we're not alone. We need to keep moving."
The other Nobody -- but he wasn't a Nobody anymore -- didn't answer for a long moment. Brooding.
"It doesn't matter," Axel offered, and felt his lips twist in a pretty nasty way. "That bastard's not done with Nobodies yet. He'll turn up sooner or later. And then..."
And then, they'd do something. Something... really, really horrible.
"...Fine." Roxas sounded tired now, and that was understandable, too. "Let's go home."
That... was easier said than done. Axel wet his lips, and tried to remember the careful explanation the little witch had suggested to him. He couldn't.
"It'd probably be better to go somewhere else first," he said finally, and was pretty pleased with his blithe tone. "The guy who's still here... He can use corridors, like we can. We'll head somewhere else first, maybe a couple different places. Throw him off the scent."
It seemed to work. Roxas said, "You mean Riku." He nodded, thoughtful.
"That'd be him, yeah." Axel considered for another minute, and then brought up a corridor, gesturing for the smaller boy to go on ahead of him. He didn't mean to, but he felt his eyes darting back involuntarily at the white hallway -- Sora's friends (Donald, Goofy) still sleeping peacefully -- before he followed Roxas out of the world.
The portal opened on a darkened courtyard. The sky overhead was thick with clouds, and the threat of distant thunder. It was the kind of night where you could almost feel the rain in the air, even though it hadn't started yet.
A totally normal world, really. One of many that had been lost a year ago, devoured by the Heartless, and with it one of Axel's few personal possessions. He remembered flinching a little at the news, and then fiercely not caring, because it was stupid to waste an almost-feeling on something he should never have needed again. And when the world had suddenly reappeared, as if nothing had happened, he hadn't let himself be relieved either.
But the idea of retrieving what he'd left here -- which he never would have done, if not for this mess --
Yeah, his motives for coming here weren't completely pure. So sue him. It still wasn't a bad choice, or anything. As far as he knew, there hadn't been any interest in this place from the rest of the Organization -- no missions, no nothing -- so it might make a half-decent hideout for the time being.
He really should have known immediately, the instant they stepped out onto the uneven cobblestones. He should have smelled it, the taint of their darkness in the air. But he was tired, and he didn't smell anything.
Roxas said, "Nice place."
Not exactly sarcastic, but not a hundred percent sincere, either. Axel looked over at him, and realized with some amusement that he was probably cold. Those clothes of his had short sleeves. And he had never seemed able to get warm enough, back when--
But then, he'd been a Nobody at the time.
"What did they do with your coat?"
The smaller boy shrugged, frowning. "I wasn't exactly awake to see. Maybe they trashed it." He didn't seem to like that idea. "I'll need a new one."
Why had he gotten them started on this train of thought. Axel said, "Who knows? Maybe you'll start a trend."
"Mmm." He shivered, and cast his eyes around the courtyard; they settled on the castle, naturally, and he suggested, "We can at least get in out of the rain. Come on. Maybe it's abandoned. And if not... Well, it's no more ominous than the Castle That Never Was, right?"
Axel nodded, but didn't really reply. From what he remembered, the world had never had much in the way of population -- it was one of the reasons there'd been so little interest in taking it over. Why bother, when there were so many other worlds with hundreds, even thousands of hearts to take? But if anyone lived here at all, it'd be in the giant castle.
At least it didn't look all that well-maintained. The cobblestone pathway under their feet was broken in places, overgrown with weeds, and some of the intricate gargoyles were cracked or even crumbling...
"I like the architecture," he commented.
"You're probably the only one," the blond retorted, sounding amused, but he was already moving for the doors, and Axel had to run to catch up. "If it's not abandoned... You'd think a castle this size would be busier, even at night."
It took both of them working together to get the doors opened -- they were enormous, and incredibly heavy -- but despite the disconcertingly loud creeeeak, there were no cries from inside, no sound of agitated servants rushing to intercept them, nothing.
But everything was much nicer inside.
Candles were lit, if down low. The floor shone, visibly spotless. All the furniture they could see was intact, almost new-looking.
There were servants here. There had to be. Just, none that had come to answer the door.
"...Okay," Roxas said, very softly. "This is a little weird."
By mutual silent agreement, they approached a door on the right; it was cracked an inch, spilling warm light out into the hallway, and the most obvious sign of real, current life. Roxas summoned the white keyblade again, and Axel brought a chakram into each hand. Glancing at him significantly, the blond put a hand on the door, and pushed it gently open.
It was hard to see the room at first. A crackling fire, to be sure. Cozy, probably. Not all that big, and doubtlessly not the most impressive room in this monstrous place. Axel had the feeling it wouldn't really have been worth a second look, but he couldn't be sure.
The creature just sort of drew your eyes.
For less than a second, he thought it hadn't noticed them -- massive furry body turned away from the door, all of its attention seemingly on a corner of the room they couldn't see, it was entirely possible. But then there was a ripple of tension, muscles moving beneath its cloak, and the thing turned to face them, teeth bared in a ferocious snarl.
Not a Heartless, Axel knew at once. But if anything, he got the feeling this thing was even more dangerous. He was already drawing his arm back to attack when Roxas said, "Wait!"
It was enough to make a guy trip over himself. And the smaller boy didn't stop there -- he was stepping around Axel, past him, approaching the creature with his hands up and empty. What.
"Um... Hey," Roxas was saying, now apparently talking to it. "Is this your castle?"
The monster stared back at him, no reaction. After a moment, it made a rumble of a noise, like a grunt. You could've called it acknowledgement, maybe -- if you were being generous.
And Roxas was being way more than generous. "Sorry," he said. "We didn't mean to intrude. There's a storm coming outside, we just wanted a place to wait it out."
Another noise. To Axel's complete and utter disbelief, the creature turned away from them, gathering up something from the corner it had been so fixated on (a glass case?), and then heading for the door -- which meant coming back towards the two of them. There was a tense moment as it swept dark and startlingly-human eyes over Roxas, pausing so long that Axel could feel the warmth of its rancid breath on his skin -- but then the moment passed, and the creature continued, out the door and gone in a swirl of ragged cloak.
Oh god, he could breathe again. "That," he told Roxas softly, "was really stupid."
"Maybe." Axel wasn't sure whether to be relieved or further unsettled by the easy agreement, and Roxas looked troubled by it, too. "But he's... I don't know. I think I -- Sora met him before. He's a little gruff... but not a bad guy."
He had no idea what to say to that. "Gruff," Axel repeated. "Kind of an understatement."
"At least we have the sitting room to ourselves now."
The smaller boy seemed to slump, and again he looked tired. Incredibly tired. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and then moved to one of the ornate pieces of furniture in the room, a sofa. It wasn't all that big, but he spread out on it and seemed comfortable enough.
Axel watched him for a long moment, feeling that itch in his hands. He wandered over to sit beside the sofa, stretching his legs out, eyes on the fire. "It's good to see you, Roxas," he said, and knew it sounded more than a little strange.
There was a short pause, tense, and then Roxas replied, "I left you behind, you know. I didn't care."
Fuck, that kind of stung. Axel licked his lips. "Yeah. I know."
"It doesn't bother you?"
He felt a smirk catch his mouth, and didn't try to fight it. "It's still good to see you."
Roxas didn't say anything to that, but he could sense movement behind him, a shift in position that brought one leg to the blond's chest. "Axel," he began, still tired but slower now and more cautious, "we're not going back to Never Was, are we?"
There were a thousand things he could've said -- he could have reminded Roxas of their supposed pursuit, or claimed they were stretching their legs, or even just avoided answering all together. He could have been snide, pointing out that he didn't owe Roxas an explanation because he'd already done so much more for him than any Nobody should ever have been able to expect of another.
"No," he murmured, "we're not."
It came as something of a relief when Roxas didn't elect to respond to that at all, and some time later he turned his head curiously to find the former Nobody -- newly Somebody -- fast asleep.
NEXT >>> Beast's Castle, First Visit (Part 2)