The Underworld, First Visit:
In Which the Dead Speak
He found Hercules in a truly pathetic heap: crumpled on the floor in the middle of the damned hallway, some distance from the door he'd chosen, unconscious and covered in bruises.
"Well," Axel said to the body, almost amused enough not to be irritated, "that's what comes of fighting Lexaeus. Not that you really had much choice."
The body did not, of course, reply. Axel studied it for a moment, wondering how you went about making sure someone wasn't dead. He nudged the toe of one boot under the muscle man's head so that it flopped to the other side. Hercules made a huffing sound, slightly smothered, and Axel decided that he was, in fact, still alive.
Maybe he should've been relieved, or something.
Roxas probably would have.
Axel worked his way down onto his knees, and started to get an arm under Hercules's armpit. He wasn't sure he would be able to lift the other man. There was just no way that a man that muscular was going to weigh less than two hundred pounds. But there was no one else here, and he couldn't exactly just--
The air rippled, so subtly that he almost didn't feel it, and Axel went very still.
"Poor guy's still alive, if that's what you came to check on," he said to the presence behind him.
"Yes," the smooth voice agreed. "He is, for now. That makes one of us."
It was Xigbar's surprise visit in the kitchen all over again, and Axel turned around slowly, just as he had then. Funny, how Marluxia -- how Vexen -- didn't look dead. They still reeked of the dark, still left the taste of nothing in his mouth. If anything, maybe the scent and taste were fainter.
"'Us'?" he asked. "I think you're a tiny bit more dead than me."
The other man lowered his scythe, but Axel didn't relax. He had learned once, painfully, that the blade hovering just above the ground was one of Marluxia's ready positions. "Better to be a ghost than a spirit? Is that what you're saying?" His mouth twisted, smile and sneer and neither.
"How about we leave it at... better to be a ghost with a passport?"
"Ah, yes. Case in point." Marluxia's eyes narrowed with dark, dangerous amusement. He only had half a second to brace himself. "That sounds like something he would say."
It felt like a physical blow, that delicate emphasis, that sinuous statement. Axel lifted his eyebrows, cool. Controlled. So fucking calm. "Oh yeah?"
Marluxia made a sweeping gesture with his free hand. "Always running away, wasn't he? But just like with him, death has come to you. All of this is for you, Axel."
"Awww, that's sweet of you, Marluxia," he heard himself retorting swiftly. The words were distant, meaningless, but it was important to keep talking. "I didn't know you cared."
He remembered the stairs beneath his feet, not knowing whether the pounding was shoes slamming into concrete or his heart trying to crack his ribcage; he remembered the creatures everywhere, people screaming, people dying all around him; he remembered breaking out onto the rooftop and the sky, purple-black and broken and uglier than he had ever seen it even during the spats of acid rain.
But Marluxia shouldn't have known. He was still alive, and as long as he was still alive, surely that stupid freak bastard kid couldn't have--
(unless someone had found his Heartless, would he have even known, would he have felt it somehow)
Marluxia laughed, low and silken. "Oh, you have no idea. Yours was the first name I thought when I became conscious here, and when I learned that there was no escape." His grip on the scythe shifted, fingers stroking the shaft. He was enjoying this, reveling in it, that fucker.
"Really?" Axel tilted his head to one side, aware that his palms were getting hot and not totally sure he was going to be able to keep them from bursting into flame. "You want me here with you, twenty-four/seven? Because if it were me, I think I'd wish the other guy a long, full life."
More laughter. Marluxia shook his head. "I'm not that patient a man. Bad enough that I'll have to share... since all of the others have also expressed interest in showing you how they feel."
"Really, I'm touched." Was he repeating himself? Maybe not quite, but almost. It didn't matter, he just needed more time. Keep talking, say anything to stall. "I've never been so popular before."
"I wonder why," the other man said, and now his scythe was fully in the air, could be brought down at any moment without warning.
"Although."
Marluxia paused. Seemed to consider him. Finally raised his eyebrows questioningly.
"Well," Axel said, smiling at him, "you really didn't need to go to this much trouble, did you? Just a lot of needless complications and headaches. If all you were trying to do was lure me here... I mean, what made you think I'd even come?"
A strange, slow change came over Marluxia's face. First his eyes widened and then his lips twitched. Finally he chuckled. "You really thought," he murmured, "that no one would catch sight of your weakness?" Marluxia shook his head again, regretfully. "You'd best be more careful than that, Axel. Pride goeth before a fall, I have been told."
The empty place in his chest tightened, like someone had taken the heart he didn't have and was squeezing it. Slowly: painfully. Axel wet his lips and smiled.
"Really don't know what you're talking about," he said, "and with the air down here making every little thing more difficult, I'm way too tired for dancing. What's say we just skip right to the part where you try to kill me?"
It was smooth, strong. It sounded true.
Marluxia gave a graceful dip of his head in response. "With pleasure," he agreed.
And then he was gone, a burst of rose petals to mark the quick teleport, swirling in his wake and then swirling in something much bigger than his wake, hell, he was doing that cyclone thing. Within seconds, all Axel could see was dashes of pink, and he felt them whip against his face, one slicing into his cheek.
It hurt like a paper cut but he had to ignore it, had to keep himself focused and ready. Axel drew his chakrams then, one coming into each hand, but he was thinking of maybe filling the room with fire to clear it when the scythe sliced through the petals an inch from his face and then he had to dodge backwards before it could cut him in half.
Maybe he should ask Roxas to spar with him when they get out of here. It'd really been way too long since he had fought an opponent with more on its side than blinding hunger. He was rusty, and they couldn't afford rusty.
Marluxia twisted the scythe in his hand, bringing it up quickly to cut a swath through the torrent of fire he offered and then stepping back, filling the void with more petals. Disappearing into the thickening whirlwind of pink.
Axel brought one hand up to shield his face but kept his eyes wide open. Ready and waiting.
He was watching so intently for the black of Marluxia's robes that he almost didn't notice the black on the floor, a spreading pool of darkness, but his skin prickled in warning and he jumped back, away, just before it would have come under the soles of his boots.
Corrosive, he knew without touching it. Like the darkness inside corridors but much worse. It would eat away at his skin, his clothes, and--
--and fuck, Hercules was still on the ground down there, not too far from the edge of the pool.
Axel hesitated for half a second, breathing shallowly. The smart thing was to get up off the floor and stay there -- he could do it, just dig a chakram into the wall up high enough and hold on. But he wasn't the only one in the damned room.
He darted to the strong man's side, getting one enormous arm over his shoulders and then hoisting him. It wasn't easy, but it worked well enough that he could very quickly 'port further away from the spreading dark, if not outside the petal storm. 'Porting blind was something you only did if you were desperate -- he could have easily taken them both through a wall and into solid rock. Axel wasn't desperate just yet.
But as he set Hercules down again, pausing just a few seconds too long (poor idiot was bleeding, not much, in places where the petals had nicked him), Axel felt the blunt end of the scythe slam hard into the small of his back. The pain was blinding.
"How," Marluxia's voice said, very close to his ear, "have you even lasted this long, when you make it so easy?"
Axel brought one chakram behind him and then twisted, using both chakrams to catch and hold the curving blade. Breathing was going to be a bit painful, he could feel his spine bruising, but eventually Roxas would get here, would heal him...
"It's easy, really," he said thickly, smiling at the other man. "Just hafta put on a good show, distract 'em..." His words were slurring, but not too badly. "Then they won't see what's... right in front of their stupid faces..."
Marluxia blinked at him and almost didn't dodge in time; the edge of his sleeve, one side of his coat, were singed by the wall of fire. Tendrils of smoke rose from them.
Close. It had been a good strike. But not good enough, and he was tired.
For an instant Marluxia looked stunned. Then he smiled. "I also have a show to put on," he murmured, enunciating the words precisely. "I've gone through so much trouble, and all of it for you. The least you can do is enjoy it..."
Axel closed his eyes, focusing. Ready to 'port again, ready to take Hercules with him if he had to.
He felt more than heard the scythe lift, turn cleanly in Marluxia's hand, and then come down again with vicious force, chipping the stone walls of the corridor, cutting cleanly through them because that was how sharp it was, and he had to move now right now, before Marluxia knew he was moving, before he could try to compensate for it--
"--And die!"
Axel waited until he felt the wind in front of his face and then he slammed a hand back into Hercules's side, grabbing him, pulling them both briefly through darkness and out onto the other side, ten feet or more from where Marluxia stood, still poised lethally.
Something on his chest ached. He hadn't been fast enough. The scythe had cut into him. But it felt shallow: clean. It wouldn't slow him down too much.
"Yeah," he said with a grin that felt manic. "Well, I'm real sorry to disappoint you."
He could have kept going -- he was almost sure he could have -- but Marluxia looked abruptly startled, turning to look behind him, and half a second later Axel heard Roxas's voice.
"Marluxia!"
His first, confused thought was that Roxas hurt to look at. The blond boy was dressed all in white, and glowing in a dimly familiar way. Energy was pouring out of him, so much energy, and Axel could feel it trying to sweep him up, but he was so damned tired.
"Ah, Roxas," Marluxia's voice was saying. "Come to save your faithful friend. I thought Larxene would keep you busy longer, but I see you have a new technique."
Axel waited for a retort that never came. Roxas was ignoring the bait, darting over to him, bringing the energy with him. It was softer than his had been -- much, much softer.
And there, god, a whispered word and cool green light spread over him. Axel took a slow breath and it didn't hurt; nothing hurt any more. He could feel the bruise on his back fading, even his clothing mending where Marluxia had cut a narrow slice through it. The cut on his cheek healing like it had never existed.
Roxas's face came into crisp focus and he had a brief glimpse of a smile before the blond turned away from him, back to Marluxia. His bright white light was flickering, the energy ebbing. The Drive was fading.
Because that's what it was, although it hadn't been with him this time. Axel looked around for the little witch and saw her, pale the way he hoped he hadn't been, a ghost again like in Halloween Town -- only this time, he could tell from the peaceful dreamy expression on her face that she wasn't afraid.
Axel hung back and let Roxas rush Marluxia; let the witch trail behind them, lending her strength. He was faster like this, his magic more powerful, and Roxas used ice followed by thunder to pin Marluxia before he electrocuted him. Swiftly, confidently, dangerously. Even the whirlwind of rose petals that Marluxia brought up to break the attack did him little good: Roxas met his every assault, deflecting him with ease.
It was gorgeous to see, but after a moment Axel found himself looking away. Of course he couldn't share in this moment. It wasn't his. It belonged to the witch: to Roxas. And there was something about that, something almost sort of...
Unpleasant, maybe.
Suddenly the light, the wistful energy in the room, were both gone. He turned back just in time to see Roxas stumble as he fell out of Drive, the witch jerking to her feet, and Marluxia let the whirlwind drop, gazing at them both thoughtfully.
Axel saw him smile.
But if he thought that simply coming out of Drive made any of them weak, he was sorely mistaken.
Roxas recovered first, bringing both keyblades up to bear and charging straight for the other man, but Marluxia was still watching him, waiting for the right moment to dodge, confident in his superior speed, when Axel drove the chakram into his back.
His only regret was that he couldn't see the smug bastard's face as Roxas plied him with more thunder magic.
Maybe you should've worried more about your own weaknesses, Marly.
The door to the hallway opened somewhere behind them and he could hear confused shouts. Turning, Axel saw the other men in their group, all with girls slung over their shoulders or backs. For some reason, Cloud had wound up with Yuffie and Cid was carrying that other woman -- Tifa.
Axel watched them approach, some in more of a hurry than others. All of the girls were unconscious, but none of the guys looked like they had been hurt in their rescue attempts.
Did he owe them an apology?
"I... really don't like this place," Leon said quietly as he caught up to them. Aerith shifted on his back but then went still again.
Roxas said, "Me neither," but he seemed to relax slightly as he looked them over and saw that they were all in one piece. "The girls are fine?"
"Yeah, yeah," Cid said. "They're fine." He was eyeing Cloud's back. Maybe he wanted to switch girls. Yuffie probably would've been easier for him to carry. "No problems. We all got back at around the same time and found your version of breadcrumbs."
Axel glanced at Roxas, then the witch. "...Breadcrumbs," he repeated. "What'd you do, chop off some of the, uh, charming stalagmites?"
The witch held up a worn crayon in answer. "Arrows, of course," she said. "On the walls."
Axel squinted at it. "Tell me you didn't use the red crayon," he implored her. "How will you draw my hair now?"
Somewhere to his left, Cloud was moving, setting Yuffie down and then walking past them, over to the unconscious muscle man. "...Hercules was defeated?" he asked, almost expressionlessly. "What happened to his opponent?"
Lexaeus. It was a good question.
"Well," Roxas said, frowning, "did any of you encounter him?"
"...There wasn't anyone in my room," Leon said. "Aerith was alone, asleep."
Cloud only shook his head and Cid pursed his lips. "Nobody but Tifa down the path that ice freak came out of."
Which meant nobody had fought Lexaeus -- or Zexion, for that matter. Axel glanced at Roxas; the younger boy looked disturbed. But...
"Well," he said reluctantly. "I mean, that kind of makes sense..."
Roxas turned to face him. "...Why?"
Axel took a deep breath. "Because of what Marluxia said to me."
To his surprise, Roxas gave the group a quick, furtive look. As if he were considering whether or not to ask in front of them. Finally he nodded. "...What did he say?"
"Oh, you know." Axel grinned at him, at Leon and the others. "Nothing too special. Just that he'd arranged this whole thing to get me here where they can all -- kill me repeatedly in my afterlife, I guess."
Roxas scowled but no one else really reacted. "Well," he said dryly, "that worked out well for them. Lexaeus supposedly destroyed himself, so he doesn't have a reason to play along. But... Zexion?" He looked vaguely skeptical.
And Axel knew why. "Haven't seen him," he replied. "And yeah, I don't think that's a good thing either."
Roxas sighed, pushing a hand restlessly through his hair, but then turned back to the others, waving his arm expectantly. "Come on, we have to keep moving."
Again, no argument. Axel had expected someone to stare at him accusingly. If Marluxia had been telling the truth, they were all here because of him. They had left their home defenseless because of him.
Cloud was the first to move, returning to where he had left Yuffie and picking her up again, oblivious to Cid's eyes boring into him from behind. After a beat, the older man sighed, adjusting the girl on his own back and following him.
Roxas headed over to Hercules. He cast another cure spell, but while the small cuts on the man's arms quickly healed, Hercules didn't stir. Roxas gave Axel an expectant look over his shoulder.
Axel shrugged his shoulders, bemused. "Are you kidding me? That guy must weigh at least two hundred pounds."
Roxas rolled his eyes and stepped over to Hercules. It took him several seconds, but he managed to get the big man up onto his back in a fireman's carry. Roxas turned back to face him with a grunt and then said sweetly, "He doesn't feel a pound over one-fifty. Wuss."
"Hey, do you see these arms?" Axel smiled at him. "Does it look like I can lift like a hundred and fifty pounds?"
Leon came up beside them, then past them. "As long as someone's carrying him," he said. Pointedly.
Roxas scowled.
The door at the end of the tunnel opened into a medium-sized cavern. The lighting inside was much better than anything else the Underworld had offered so far and Axel blinked slowly as his eyes adjusted. He was still working on it when the group ahead of him came to an abrupt stop.
"Holy--"
Cid's voice was strangled. Disbelieving. Like he had just seen a... ghost.
Slowly Axel worked his way around the small crowd, to see what they were all staring at. Someone's lab, from the looks of it -- rows of long tables and chairs, beakers and burners and microscopes everywhere. Strangely-colored liquids bubbling and steaming. And seated in no particular order around the tables were men in long white coats.
One of them, a tall thin man with short blond hair, stuck his nose in the air and said, "Please go around the laboratory area, thank you."
It would have been a familiar voice even if they hadn't just met Vexen back in the main room. Of all the men seated around the tables, he had probably changed the least.
Not far from the blond, another man with dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and his feet propped up on the table looked over to them curiously. "You'd think this place was on the walking tour of Hell for all the interruptions we get."
"How do you know it isn't?" a high, irritable voice demanded, and Axel turned to see a boy with silver hair. He couldn't have been much older than Roxas. "Hades would charge tickets, if he thought we were more interesting."
Vexen, Xigbar, and Zexion -- only they weren't. They were... Even. Braig. And Ienzo.
Axel stared at them all and felt panic rising in his chest.
Suddenly he was very aware that he didn't really know anything about how this worked. Xemnas, the other seniors -- they had never really talked much about what happened to the Somebody when the Nobody was born. He'd always sort of assumed...
He wasn't sure what he'd assumed.
He just knew it hadn't been this.
Distantly Axel was aware of a soft shuffling noise and then a thud -- Roxas setting Hercules down and coming up beside him to get a better look at what was going on. And somewhere he could hear Cid actually saying, "You guys... you're Ansem's fucking disciples. I thought you guys turned into -- into Nobodies."
Important things were probably happening, but none of it touched him. Somewhere, here, he was walking around. Talking. Thinking, if the bastard had ever been fucking capable of it.
Not gone completely forever, the way he should have been--
Axel shook his head, forced himself back to the present. Ienzo was saying, exasperated, "Oh, please. At least think before you open your mouth."
Even snorted. "That term gets under my skin," he said. "Xehanort's biggest flaw was always his terminology; why did we let him name anything? 'No body' is such a misnomer."
"As is 'heartless'," another man agreed in a low rumble. Xaldin. Dilan, now. "But they serve their purpose."
Braig ignored them both, looking straight at Cid. "Those guys are our reanimated bodies, but they're not us. You didn't know us that well, Cid -- it was Cid, right? -- but take my word for it. Xigbar doesn't have half my winning personality." He grinned.
Liar, Axel thought, but it was familiar and sort of comforting. Exactly what he would have expected from Xigbar's Somebody, if he'd ever tried to expect anything.
Beside that, Roxas said, "You know Xigbar? How?"
And that was a question Axel thought he knew the answer to. "Because he's been by. Hasn't he?"
Even sighed. "All the time." He turned to Braig, scowling disapprovingly. "You should stop encouraging him."
Braig only laughed.
His skin itched, Axel realized. He wanted to get the hell out of here. "Is he here now?" he demanded.
"Does he look like he's here?" Braig asked, gesturing around the room bemusedly. "He only comes here. He sends his servants to go fetch Zexion or the others if he feels like talking to them and they're not already here."
"Not that they've been around as much lately," Aeleus said softly. He seemed to be talking mostly to Ienzo, who was sitting directly on his right.
Cid started to cross the room to meet them. He had left Tifa in the entryway. "Are all of you here?" he asked, through what sounded like gritted teeth.
"Oh, yeah," Braig said, nodding. "Well, except for Xehanort."
The name wasn't familiar. Axel blinked but Roxas was already saying, "What... does Xigbar talk to you about?"
Dilan said darkly, "Far too many things."
"Yeah," Braig agreed, shrugging. "What he said. Xemnas's mystery visits this, Roxas's rebellion that, Demyx's suicide mission some other thing. He just talks to clear his head, since I don't think he talks to anyone else. Bastard is crazy paranoid. Maybe just crazy," he added thoughtfully.
Axel felt his lips quirk involuntarily. "Demyx's -- sorry, what was that?"
Braig chuckled. "Some newbie in Xigbar's Organization who's supposed to lead their army to take back Hollow Bastion. They expect him to get himself killed, but they're sending a lot of shock troops with him to finish the job even if he does." He pointed at their group -- no, not their whole group: only Leon and Cid. The ones from Hollow Bastion. "So you cowards better step up. This time I expect you to have put up a good fight, if you get offed."
That definitely got a reaction. Leon stiffened and Cid yanked the cigarette from his lips, taking a step forward.
"Wait," Roxas said urgently, and when he had their attention he gestured them over impatiently. "Don't be upset. This is good news. Really good news." He kept his voice low enough that the men at the long table probably couldn't hear just what he was saying.
The little witch nodded, although she didn't look happy about it. "Demyx is... the weak link."
Leon's shoulders seemed to sag: a release of tension. "That's..." Then he frowned, suspicious, and turned to look at Roxas more carefully. "Why would they do that?"
"I... don't know," Roxas said. "Maybe it's to gauge our strength, or maybe they really do think they're sending enough higher-level servants to finish things off." He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "We should see what else he might be willing to tell us."
Axel closed his eyes and took a breath. "So ask him," he said. "And let's get the hell out of here."
Whatever reply Roxas might have had to that was cut off when Leon jerked and twisted around to stare at Aerith on his back. "Are you...?" Apparently she was stirring.
Cid turned his attention to Tifa. "Oh, hey," he said gruffly, "the girls are starting to wake up? That stuff must be wearing off."
And it did seem to be. Tifa was already getting to her feet, stretching out her arms and legs. She straightened fully and gave them all a quick grin. "What did we miss?" Next to her on the floor, Yuffie was yawning and rubbing her eyes.
"We're here with some people who used to be from Hollow Bastion," Roxas told them. "They seem to know something about the attack."
"Who?" Aerith looked up blearily. "...Ienzo?"
The boy bristled at being addressed. "Whoever you are," he said stiffly, "I'll thank you to refer to me as Doctor."
"Oh, really?" Braig asked. "You've forgotten already? But you kids used to play so nice together while the grown-ups chatted with her folks." His smile was full of teeth and he reached up to tap one of his pointed ears.
Aerith flushed and reached for her own ears self-consciously. They were mostly hidden by her hair.
"Ah," Even said, "the Cetra experiments." He glanced up briefly at all of them, interested for the first time, but it faded as quickly as it had come and then he was back to whatever was simmering on his burner. "Not very successful, as I recall..."
From the corner of his eye, Axel watched as Leon shifted subtly between the men and Aerith, who was still obviously unsettled. But closer to him, something else was moving, and when he turned his head, Axel was surprised to see Roxas frozen, staring wide-eyed across the room.
"...Impossible," he muttered.
"Roxas?" the witch asked softly.
The blond glanced furtively at the scientists at their table and then frowned. "No, not impossible. But--"
And then, just like that, no further warning, he took off running for the door on the other side of the room.
"Roxas!" the little witch gasped and then took off after him.
Leaving Axel with no choice but to follow them.
"What the hell," he muttered to the witch as he caught up with her. "What did he see? Did you see it too?"
She shook her head.
They came out on the other side in a larger, darker room than the one they'd left behind. In the center, there was a shaft of dim light coming down from a hole in the ceiling, and a boy standing in the middle of it.
For a heartbeat all Axel could think was: Fuck, don't be him, but it wasn't.
Impossibly, when the boy turned around to smile awkwardly at them all, it was Sora.
NEXT >>> The Underworld, First Visit (Part 6)