Hollow Bastion, Third Visit:
In Which No One Is Safe
It was funny. Axel had never thought of any place as pretty before. He'd never been glad to be anywhere. He'd never stepped out into sunlight, drawn a deep breath, and thought, Boy, it's great to be back here.
But when the corridor faded away, leaving them on the sunny rooftops of Hollow Bastion's residential district, he definitely felt something in response to the familiar scenery -- something that wasn't just recognition.
Funny.
The Assassins swirled lazily in the air above them, and one took a quick dive towards the bailey. Axel heard it announce, Over here! but that was all it said, and none of the others replied. He wondered if they could sense the conversation he and Roxas had had with the other members of the Organization; if they could smell the lingering dark from the Dusks and Dancers and -- Samurai that had threatened Leon.
He wondered if Roxas could hear the voice, the way he had when were in Drive, and glanced back at the younger boy's face, but Roxas seemed much more interested in the sight of the sunlit town, leaping down to the cobblestone below and heading for the house that belonged to Merlin.
The witch was slower to move, hesitant, but he noticed her grip on the shaft of her spear, suddenly tighter. She caught his look, smiled, and passed him to follow Roxas. Where had she gotten that spear, anyway? Had he ever asked?
Axel stayed where he was for another long moment, waiting until the Assassins tired of exploring the town from the air, waiting until they came back to cluster around him like oversized ravens.
There should have been more of them.
He had never had as many soldiers as the others. Hadn't really needed them, because hell, one Assassin was worth ten, maybe twenty, of anyone else's. His were like a tactical force, a surgical strike. Let the others have their armies. He'd had bombs.
There should have been more of them.
One brushed his hand with a bladed wingtip, so carefully. Axel waved it off, grinned fiercely back at their expressionless faces, and told them to follow him, but quietly.
In the corridor, Roxas had broke a long silence to announce quietly that they would come with, maybe stay in Merlin's house. If they kept coming back here, and they kept being welcome. The only wrinkle in the plan was that Leon would probably know what they were when he saw them, and the last group of lesser Nobodies hadn't exactly done much to endear themselves to him. There was every chance that he'd take one look at the Assassins and slam the door shut again, regardless of what he theoretically owed them for saving his poor pathetic life.
They'd need his permission first.
Axel jumped down from the rooftop, and they followed him, going invisible halfway through the drop and swirling around his feet as he headed for the door. They were anxious; eager; curious still about the town and the people in it. They remembered the Hollow Bastion they'd seen for the first time, years after its destruction, swallowed by the dark. But what it had been was so little like what it was becoming.
The door was open by the time he reached it, Yuffie smirking at him like she had somehow expected him to hang back. Like she knew him well enough to expect anything, or at least to expect everything. It made Axel uncomfortable as he smiled back at her.
"Leon here?" he asked, possibly somewhat more blunt than he should have.
Yuffie laughed, and again he felt slightly uncomfortable. Shouldn't she have been offended? "It's good to see you again, too!" she told him cheerfully. "And no. He made lunch, though. Beef stew. It's really good." Her eyes brightened. "I guess you really don't know how lucky you are to have something until you almost lose it, huh?"
She didn't mean anything by it, of course. She couldn't have. Axel stared at her anyway for a moment before saying, "Soup. That sounds great."
"I'm actually on my way out," Yuffie went on obliviously, "but Roxas and Namine are already inside. Go on in, make yourself at home. If you guys need to see Leon, I'm sure he'll be back soon. Aerith went with him on his patrol, to supervise." She grinned. "So I thought I'd grab some groceries. Everything go okay with the Beast?"
It was almost hard to remember what had happened with the Beast, given everything else that had happened the moment they'd set foot in that dark, rainy world. Axel rolled the words around in his mouth for a long moment before saying, "He's better now, I think."
"Oh, good. We didn't know him that well, but he always seemed like..."
She let the sentence trail away into a fond smile, and then ushered him inside, slipping around him as she did so. "I hope you guys are staying for dinner, if nothing else. It'll suck if I don't get to see you before you go." Yuffie made a quick salute with two fingers, and then went out, shutting the door behind her with the sort of unselfconscious slam that only a sixteen-year-old girl could have managed.
Which reminded him of something, but Axel pushed the thought away and turned to survey the living room of Merlin's house. Roxas was leaning against the wall, near the stairwell, but they were alone for the moment. No sign of the old men or the witch.
"They could stay on the roof," the blond boy suggested, without preamble.
His tongue felt slightly thick, but Axel nodded automatically. "Sure."
"It'll just be until Leon gets back," Roxas went on, darting a slightly nervous look at his face. "I don't want him to feel like we're misleading anyone, or putting them at risk."
"Sure," Axel said again.
"You're really okay with that?"
"Sure."
The younger boy gazed at him for several seconds, apparently searching his face for something, but then he sighed, and suddenly he looked -- so tired. He'd been a bit gray around the edges even in the corridor, and Axel wondered if it was because of the effort of the Drive. "Yuffie said he'd be back soon," Roxas said finally. "Just make sure they know to tell us this time," he added, fierce now, and staring into the empty air where one of the Assassins was.
He couldn't really have seen it there, of course, but the Assassin shrank back anyway, slinking to hide behind Axel's legs.
"They know," Axel told him.
"Good." Roxas scrubbed his face with his palms, and then took a step towards the stairs. "I'm going to take a quick nap. Namine's in the kitchen, getting soup. You should get some too. Wake me up when Leon gets back."
He found the witch at the stove, letting Cid ladle soup into a small bowl for her, but she quirked a fleeting smile at him when their eyes met. They both knew she wasn't really hungry, and certainly didn't need the amount of soup he was pouring into her bowl.
"There you are," Cid said gruffly, apparently to him. "Been wondering where the hell you'd gotten to, since the girl didn't seem to know."
Axel smirked at him. "Yeah, well, sorry to worry you."
"Who the hell said anything about worrying?" Cid gave him a slightly sharp look, and put the ladle back in the pot, letting the witch move away from him, somewhat awkward with her extremely-full bowl. "I was worried you'd be defacing public property, punk."
The smirk seemed to be widening. Axel made an attempt to control it, stepping aside to let Namine slip past him. She was probably going to eat at the small table in the living room. "That's me," he admitted. "Setting fires, harassing grandmothers, wrecking havoc."
"Figured as much. Eat some damned soup, and don't steal anything. The silver's not real anyway."
"If I wanted to steal something," Axel assured him, "I promise I'd start with the computer equipment in the living room. It's like a million years old, but I bet I could still get something for it."
Cid barked out a startled laugh, fixing the unlit cigarette that always seemed to be there in the corner of his mouth, and opened his mouth to reply -- but as he did so, he seemed to really see Axel, maybe for the first time, and paused. "There's some beer on the bottom shelf at the back," he said finally. "Help yourself."
It was harder to think of a quick retort for that. Axel blinked, tried twice to respond, and finally let him leave the kitchen without saying anything at all.
He hadn't done a lot of drinking in this life.
He hadn't really done a lot of anything.
The Assassins would be safe where they were now, curled up lazily on the tile roof, enjoying the sun like fat happy cats. Saix wouldn't find them here. Wouldn't dare come here. Hollow Bastion belonged to the original six, and they all knew it.
If he followed Roxas upstairs and tried to get some sleep himself, he wouldn't wake up to their agonized screaming.
Axel opened the 'fridge and pulled out a beer.
"Nice place you've got here," said a voice almost into his ear.
Not Saix. In a way, it was almost worse.
He kept himself very, very still and slowly raised his palms, turning around to face the Organization's number two. Xigbar.
"Thanks," he said, somewhat mechanically. "They let me pick the curtains."
The old man grinned at him, wide and wild and dangerous and upside-down. He seemed to be coming out of the ceiling, but from what little Axel understood of his element, it was ever-so-slightly more complicated than that. There would be Snipers here somewhere, too. "Yeah, right. But somehow, you totally weren't expecting this. Started to think you were safe here, huh? Don't go getting soft on me, Axel."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Axel told him. His voice was smoother now. Calmer, maybe. He listened to the sound of it, the way he would have listened to someone else. "No point in a dull blade, and all. Think I'm mostly just surprised you came after me in the kitchen, instead of, say -- the shower. Blood swirls pretty dramatically down a drain. Looks better on camera."
He still had the beer in his hand. He'd have to drop it before he could go for his chakrams. Xigbar probably knew that.
"No cameras here, man." Xigbar did an abrupt turn in midair, a somersault only upside-down, and dropped out of the ceiling to land on the table so lightly that the dishes didn't even rattle. He smirked. "Of course, there's not going to be any attacking, either. Not if you're a good boy and keep your toys to yourself."
Yeah, definitely knew that.
Axel shrugged, still keeping his hands in the air. "You know me," he said lightly. "I'm not all that well-trained. We're working on it, though. Apparently there are schools you can go to. Teach you nice manners and what fork to use when you eat salad on the King's birthday."
That got him a laugh. It sounded kind of like Cid's. "I hope these aren't your nice manners, dude, because they are significantly lacking in polish." He tilted his head, scratching a thoughtful line beneath his eye patch, and then said decisively, "Let's not smokescreen. What have you and Roxas decided about your plans?"
It was as close as he would get to permission to relax, so Axel dropped his hands an inch or two. The chill of the beer in his palm was soothing. "Far as I know, he's going to keep killing Heartless. But I don't think I'd really ask him right now." Should he say it? Could he not say it? Axel stretched his grin a little wider. "Saix's stunt didn't really sit well with any of us."
No reaction. Xigbar rolled his shoulders, popped his neck loudly. "Well," he said, "there's a reason I didn't go find Roxas. Our boy, he's a bit jumpy." He turned his one eye on Axel's face, bemused or curious or both. "But if he's still that upset over a spoiled kid's hissy fit, maybe you should give him the beer, instead of letting him sleep it off."
Axel stared at him, and felt his jaw lock.
He hadn't expected sympathy. Not really. He and Xigbar had always gotten on well enough, and the old man was one of the few Organization members he might not have just as soon thrown under a bus, but he'd never thought of them as friends. And now? He was twice a traitor. Expecting sympathy -- would have been stupid.
And there were other things to react to, better things, like the implication that he'd been watching them since Roxas had gone upstairs, and maybe even longer.
but to say it like that
"You'd." He had to swallow, to control his voice. "You'd call it a hissy fit, then?"
Xigbar raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, a couple of tugs on his leash and we got him to sit and stay, didn't we? What else would you call it?"
He didn't know.
He didn't know.
"Heh," Axel heard himself saying, and there was really nothing like control in this. "I thought at least you would know."
"I don't think I do," Xigbar agreed, much more measured now. "Why don't you try to enlighten me?"
It was so hard to talk suddenly. He hitched his smile up another notch, and felt it twitch. "Heh," he said again. "Well. Saix, he. I guess the leash broke or something. Maybe the boss just thought it sounded like fun, let's see if lesser Nobodies taste like chicken, but." His words were shaking, almost unintelligible.
Xigbar just gazed at him expressionlessly for a moment, probably piecing what he'd said together with what he hadn't -- what he couldn't make himself say. Then he turned, and a Sniper dropped down out of the ceiling. "Where are the Assassins?" he asked it.
"Dead, mostly," Axel told him. Xigbar wasn't looking at him, was watching the Sniper as it made a series of rapid-fire hand gestures that ended with it pointing in the general direction of the roof, but he couldn't stop himself from talking. "Four left, up there. That's what it's saying, right?"
The old man was still and silent a few seconds longer, but when he turned back to look at Axel, his lips were twisted. "Gotta assume he wouldn't have done something like this without authorization. He must've gone to Xemnas directly."
"Heh." There it was again, like a verbal tic. "Yeah, I thought so. I'm 'off limits' for the moment, so. Next best thing, right?" The smile was hurting his face, but Axel kept it there determinedly. "You ever worry that you're kinda out of the loop, for being the second-in-command?"
The shaking was in his hands, too, now -- maybe even deeper than that -- and he didn't like shaking. It would have been nice to make someone else do a little of it.
But Xigbar only grinned back at him, no trace of discomfort. Bastard. "Nope, I sleep with a clear head. Now that you're gone, especially." The Sniper blurred, and disappeared. "But I'm telling you this because it'd be a stupid way to go. Don't get comfortable here, dude. This? This is the calm before the storm."
There was none of the usual levity in his voice, and the look in his one eye was flat. Dead.
"This place is going down. And the fact that we used to call it 'home' won't save it."
Axel wet his lips, and slowly, hating the words but thinking of Xaldin, he had to confess: "I think he'd try to stop you."
"See, now. That's a shame." Xigbar stretched his arms out idly, and his fingers curled into the shape of the gun he wasn't holding. "This isn't a good place to get attached to, Axel. It was ours first. It was the first into darkness, and it'll be back. It's only a matter of time, whether there's a keyblade master here or not."
Yuffie.
Aerith.
Leon.
Cid.
Even Merlin.
"I'll try and explain that," Axel told him. But he had a sinking feeling in his gut, a feeling that told him Roxas wasn't going to listen.
The old man's grin was back, but rueful now. "If you can't make him give up on this place, keep him off-world as long and as much as you can. But you know, man." He heaved a sigh, short but not irritable. Rueful, like the grin on his face. "I'd rather have us all be laughing when we kill each other."
"Only you would talk about dying like it's fun."
Xigbar just smirked at him. He probably figured that Axel didn't completely mean that. It was something they almost had in common.
But his eye moved away and his voice was softer when he spoke next. "Lexaeus and Zexion -- they were good people. I won't make a case for Vexen," Xigbar added. "I know how you all felt about him. But I'm not like Saix. I don't think you can really get angry at an animal for doing what it does best." The grin stretched across his scarred face like a jack-o-lantern's smile. "And you're good people, too. So, hey. Do me a favor, Axel."
He hadn't said yet not to mention any of this to anyone, but Axel didn't think he was building up to that now, either. "It depends on the favor," he said, without hesitation. "But hey, you can go ahead and ask."
Xigbar didn't laugh, and his smile was very thin. "Kill Saix, when you kids have the chance."
Not what he'd been expecting.
"Well, hey," Axel replied, trying not to sound too startled. "Now you make me wish I hadn't been so reserved."
No laugh this time, either. Xigbar just smirked even more, and waved at him. "Good luck. Enjoy your retirement."
Then he was gone, in a sudden well of darkness.
Axel didn't move at all for a long while. He was too focused on breathing, and slowly forcing the tension out of his muscles. There was no real question in his mind over whether or not he was going to tell Roxas. Xigbar probably expected him to do it, maybe even wanted him to. But he didn't want to do it just yet. Let the younger boy get some sleep first.
Let the Assassins get some sleep.
In the meantime, he'd open his beer, and drink until he stopped shaking completely.
NEXT >>> Hollow Bastion, Third Visit (Part 2)