Chapter Text
I had no information to give Axel, so we went back to the castle, because we had to. I ran into Saix, Axel already had hidden in his sanctuary and I asked Saix where Xigbar was, scared that something had gone terribly wrong everywhere.
Saix looked at me surprised with his yellow eyes, tilting his head suspiciously.
“Are you both playing a game of cat and mouse? He asked me the same thing before he left to deal with Sora. He waited a while, walked all over the halls that Xemnas had to scream and left.”
“Wait. Wait. Deal with Sora?” I asked, trying to keep my calm, gesticulating like crazy. “Why Sora?”
Saix shook his head.
“I don’t think it came from Xemnas either… He just said he’d have to take Sora down suddenly. I even told it to Xemnas. He went to look for both. No signs of either, sorry.” He said in his usual cold tone, so it was impossible to see if the man had any emotion whatsoever. Saix seemed to be caught in trying to find the right words. “I honestly don’t know where to go from here…”
We stood there in utter silence.
I excused myself and went hunting for Axel. I had no keyblade. I didn’t know where Luxu was. All I knew that Axel was tormenting time. He was time travelling. But why?
He knew his ending was with Roxas.
I stopped in my step.
He wanted to avoid it.
But… with just Roxas?
What about Xion?
The rest?
He was much more powerful. He surely had to strike down a bunch of people… and darkness had him nearly surrounded. But why?
I felt hollow.
I never did that for Luxu. I just knew the time we would collide and we would spend it, regardless of our bodies, regardless of how clumsy it would be, we would write love on one another. But what was Axel even looking at? Suddenly all my love for Luxu seemed like a small candle, while Axel’s was a forest fire.
Where would Axel go once he’d find Roxas?
I kept walking further and further.
Faster and faster. I opened Axel’s door and he was gone, already. I screamed out his name and eventually I slammed myself against the wall and slid down… I should’ve treasured Luxu more.
Even if we repeated each other for an eternity.
I closed my eyes.
Axel was breaking time.
I summoned a portal, wandering through the darkness corridors as if I was in a game of hide and seek, peeping everywhere, until I found Winnie, the bear from the book talking to a hooded figure. As soon as I stepped in, the hooded figure took off the hood.
Luxu.
He had both eyes.
I ran up to him, knocking the bear off his feet, as I grabbed his arms.
“…Where’s your eye?” Luxu, Xigbar just blinked. He tried to speak, but I interrupted him.
“Axel, he’s… running around! He’s looking for Roxas! He’s tearing down everything, Luxu!” Xigbar blinked. He looked confused and then held my hands tighter as he looked at the river. I tried to follow his gaze, but instead he looked back at me.
“He did tear time.” He nodded. I sighed in relief that maybe Luxu knew nothing. The bear kept asking things, while eating honey, but we ignored him. Impolite, true, but there was much more to tell apparently. “I just went… where time stands still…”
My eyes widened.
“…You don’t have the gazing eye.” Luxu shook his head.
“Saw Axel take me down, an older me… Claiming he knew something else… That things would go his way.” I broke holding hands with Luxu, telling him to stay with the bear, as I entered another portal back to our headquarters.
Everything seemed to be eerier than usual, the lights were barely there, as if they served no purpose anymore. I kept walking, hearing the echoes of this place… The further I went, the hollower I felt. I didn’t want Luxu mixed up in this. My road was the same, but it seemed to stretch longer, as the blackness was diving into the walls, sampling silhouettes I’ve seen before, as if it was some old gimmicky game of calling ghosts when me and Luxu were children, hoping to vanish from our world and rule…
As one.
I wanted us to be plasticine. Inseparable.
I spent years loving Luxu, making sure we would turn into the same mould, but you know that the blue plasticine and the yellow won’t mix unless you force it… I only wondered if the force would be death, since life was with its solid form.
I started running until I crashed into a glass wall, my breath nearly closing on me, as I started banging against it. Soon enough someone blindfolded me with their hands.
I heard a screech.
I jerked and saw another Axel, cutting out Roxas’ blue eye and placing it in the keyblade.
The same thing I had done with Luxu.
Was this the price of love?
I pushed the arms away from me, but instead they settled on my shoulders. Luxu looked at me, without any soft expression, waiting for everything to play out. That’s what I admired about him. He knew when it was over.
His arms slid down and now he was holding my hands, before pulling me into a hug where we could both see an older Axel and now Roxas, sitting against a wall like a doll.
Axel summoned a keyblade and pointed it at us.
Luxu tilted his head closer to me.
Plasticine.
“A love of the century…” Suddenly Luxu jerks me forwards. My eyes widen. My memories rattling without any evidence.
I look at him, dazed.
“Passes onto the next.” Luxu finishes.
Axel nods, aiming at us, as if it were a gun.
I swallow but my throat is dry and Luxu’s fingers are sharp, digging into me, plasticine.
I see a candle in the distance before Luxu presses me against him and into a kiss.
“Passes onto the next.” Axel’s yellow eyes piercing like the candle light.
I close my eyes, as the candle goes out, Roxas screams, life going back into him, my form collapsing into Luxu and Luxu collapsing into me.