Chapter Text
When Roxas left the Organization, Axel vowed to bring him back.
When Axel realized what the Organization wanted him to do, Axel left the Organization.
When Axel realized Roxas was gone, Axel decided to go after Sora instead.
And when Axel realized that finding Sora didn't mean finding Roxas, Axel figured he may as well do what he could for Sora.
When Sora's life was in danger, Axel thought it was worth it to give it his all.
Sora was Roxas, after all.
All the same, but yet... so, so different.
Roxas had gone away, now it was Axel's time to as well.
He woke up in a confused fog.
"What happened...?" he mumbled, pushing himself to his feet. "Roxas...?"
But Roxas wasn't there, only himself, Even, Aeleus, Ienzo, Dilan... what was going on? He couldn't remember...
He caught sight of himself. And then did a double take as he realized that something was wrong; something was different. The tattoos. His tattoos. His Nobody marks.
Human... Were they... human again?
The weight of the world crashed upon his shoulders before dropping again, replaced with a tightening in his throat that he wasn't recently familiar with.
Human. This was going to take some getting used to.
Lea twisted the Keyblade around, admiring the angles of it. So, he'd been trying and trying and now he finally had a Keyblade... Finally, he had a part of what Roxas had been, what Sora was fighting for. A shield of light against darkness, the darkness that he had been a part of until the light had come into his life and changed everything he'd ever known.
"Would you put that thing away?"
Lea arched his eyebrows, looking around at Donald. "Got a problem?"
"Yes! I don't trust you with it!"
"Gawrsh, Donald, Axel's just learnin' ta use the Keyblade so he can fight the darkness with Sora and Riku."
"And Kairi and His Majesty," Riku said, strolling up from the side of the Tower. "Don't forget that Sora and I aren't the only ones fighting this time. We need all the help we can get."
Lea unclenched his hand from the Keyblade, allowing it to dissipate beneath his fingers. "And even then it's going to be a rough fight," he said, crossing his arms. "And, right now, we only have five wielders of light, if you think I'm even able to help you out here."
"Of course you'll be able to," Riku said. "You can wield the Keyblade just as well as Kairi can, maybe better at this juncture. You both just need to practice."
Lea huffed through his nose. "Practice, practice, practice."
"Practice makes perfect!" Goofy announced.
"Never had to practice in the Organization," Lea muttered.
"That's because your chakrams were natural weapons. You had something like them when you were human, didn't you?"
Something like familiarity flickered through Lea's mind. He looked up at Riku, suspicion settling over the recognition. "... and how do you know that?" he asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Riku shrugged. "I caught glimpses of things when I dove into Sora's heart."
"'Things'?" Lea echoed. "What kind of things? Things like memories inside of Ventus's heart?"
"I guess."
Lea pushed himself to his feet, stepping up next to Riku. "You can see Ventus inside of Sora's heart."
"Axel, don't."
"Is Roxas there?" Lea asked bluntly.
"There are things that are better left unanswered until we know more," Riku replied calmly.
"Well, Roxas is my friend, so I think I have the right to know," Lea retorted.
"Sora's my friend."
"If you're going to pull Ventus out, why can't you pull Roxas out?"
"We don't even know if we can take Ventus out, yet."
"Well, we're going to have to, now aren't we? If Mickey thinks that we can, you believe him. So, what are you keeping from me about Roxas?" Lea was onto something. He knew it. "You know more than you're letting on," he accused. He wasn't wholly sure about this seven wielders of light versus the thirteen darknesses to begin with, but he was willing to go along with it for the sake of a remembered promise. But... keeping secrets, about Roxas, from him... He couldn't- and wouldn't- take that lying down.
"Riku!"
Lea glanced up reflexively as Mickey hurried down the stairs of the Tower.
"I need to talk to you and Kairi. You were training with her, weren't you?" Mickey said, stopping on the doorstep.
"Yes, Your- Mickey," Riku said. "She went up to study. I'll go get her."
"I'll walk with you," Mickey said.
Riku brushed past Lea, briefly clamping his hand onto his shoulder. "Due time, Axel."
"I've done my time," Lea muttered, crossing his arms as the pair walked away.
"Well, gawrsh, Axel. You don't have to look so glum. King Mickey'll figure it out."
"Lea," Lea interrupted. "My name is Lea." He let his arms fall and started for the well-trodden path outside the Tower.
"Hey, where are you going?!"
Lea waved his hand over his shoulder. "Oh, here and there." He waved his hand back in front of him, calling up the corridor of darkness that he shouldn't still be able to control. Those things came with more focus now, not easily like they had in the Organization, but they came nonetheless. Maybe it meant he still had darkness left in his heart. Maybe it was true.
"Surprise attack!!"
Lea barely had time to turn and duck before the familiar whoosh and jangle of the Kingdom Key flew over his head. His own Keyblade jumped to his hand- oh, he was getting good at that- and he twisted around, lashing out with a downwards strike towards the metal careening at him.
"You're getting good at summoning that, Axel!" Sora grinned, pushing his Keyblade against Lea's.
"How many times do I have to tell you-" Lea started, pushing back at Sora.
"Until you can beat me in a fight!" Sora beamed and jumped backwards, swinging his Keyblade in front of him. "Come on!"
"How many times do I have to beat you?" Lea retorted, corridor fizzling out beside him as his attention focused on their impromptu bout of training.
"You haven't beat me once yet!"
Lea didn't know whether to laugh or grind his teeth. This kid could really get on his nerves sometimes. He was so much like Roxas, but so not him, either. They were both scatterbrained and practically transparent, sometimes, but Sora was so cheerful all the time while Roxas had been... well, a Nobody. How did Lea expect Roxas to act, back then?
"Guard's down!"
Sora came rushing at him and Lea threw his Keyblade up at the last moment to guard, although the force of their blades hitting each other nearly sent his legs buckling.
It wasn't like he was a bad fighter. He'd been made the 'assassin' in Organization XIII for a reason, after all. But...
Lea felt the Keyblade leave his hand a half second before he collapsed to his knees, reaching out to catch himself. He'd rather not be quite so intimate with the ground.
"Go Mickey!"
Lea whipped his head up, a familiar heat buzzing in his palms. His chakrams materialized a moment later, and he sent them blazing at the King before rational thought could remind him that this was only training.
Mickey swatted them away with his Keyblade like they were nothing. "Your form's all wrong, Lea."
"Yeah, you leave yourself completely open for attack in your left," Riku added, holding out his hand to Lea. "And you stand too far away to be able to hit your target."
Lea huffed, letting Riku help him up. He brushed the dust off his coat. "Yeah, well, I'm not used to close-quarter combat, now am I?"
"That's where you're going to have to learn to feel the difference between the chakrams and the Keyblade. You could rely on your chakrams for long-distance targets, but that is no longer a possibility," Mickey said. "On average enemies, feel free to do whatever feels most natural to you. But when we fight the darkness, you're going to have to use your Keyblade."
"Yeah, I know." Lea straightened up, summoning his Keyblade again. "Let's do it again. I won't make the same mistake twice."
Lea threw his weight back and swung his Keyblade out to the left, blocking the incoming attack. He spun his weight back onto the balls of his feet and whirled around in a flash of black and red, lashing out to deliver a solid blow against Sora's back.
There was something akin to satisfaction pulsing through his veins as Sora thumped face-first into the grass at his feet.
"Whaaat!?"
Lea glanced over at Donald. "Thanks for the support!" (It felt like all he did was try to convince the guy that he could actually wield a Keyblade, even if he wasn't Sora-level with it yet. Geez.) He looked back at Sora, who was picking himself up off the ground. "How was that?"
"Good!" Sora beamed, a smudge of dirt along his cheek. "You're really improving. You and Kairi should train together soon."
"If the King allows it." Lea rubbed the back of his neck, trying to work a kink out of it. All these aches and pains since he had started training with these kids. He hated to admit that they wore him out somedays.
"I'll vouch for you," Sora said cheerfully.
Lea sighed heavily, shaking his head. "Great, kid. Are we done for today? I was going back to Radiant Garden."
"What's there that keeps you so busy, anyway?" Sora asked.
Lea shrugged. "Nothing, really." Not that he was really going back to Radiant Garden; he had had no reason to stay there after re-awakening, but it seemed slightly pathetic to explain to Sora what he was really doing: looking for Braig and, more importantly, Isa.
When Lea had gone to Yen Sid, he had explained what he knew. Everything. Even the part about Isa and Braig joining in Radiant Garden, but not returning there when they were re-completed. Yen Sid hadn't had much to say on the subject, but the implication behind his tone was clear: Isa and Braig probably had given in to Xehanort completely throughout their time in Organization XIII. That implied that Isa and Braig were part of the thirteen darknesses and that was something that Lea, on top of everything else that had happened, did not want to consider.
Isa, no, Saïx, might have caused the most trouble for them, not taking their leaders into consideration, but that wasn't Isa. That was somebody jerked along on puppet strings. Lea wanted to get Isa back in somewhat of a lessened degree that he wanted to get Roxas back, but he wanted them both back all the same.
Because Isa and Roxas were his friends. His best friends, both of them, from different lives and different realities, but it didn't change anything.
And, after everything that had happened with Roxas, Lea was sick and tired of having to fight his friends.
"You keep going back," Sora remarked.
Lea twisted a piece of his hair between his fingers. "Well, you know how it is it. I was reborn there and all. Have to have some sort of connection with it."
"Are the others staying there?"
Lea raised his eyebrows.
"The other people that were in the Organization."
"Dilan - uh, well, you guys probably know them as Xaldin, Vexen, and Zexion," he ticked this off on his fingers, "are staying there. Xaldin's getting ready to do something with some guys named Cloud and Leon, actually..." He shrugged, and dropped his hands. "I don't really know what they're doing. But, yeah, the others stay there because they don't have anywhere else to go, now."
"And still no sign of Saïx or Xigbar?"
Sometimes, the kid was just too perceptive, Lea thought. "No. But no worries. I'm sure they'll turn up."
"Maybe they went to Traverse Town and then went somewhere else on their own?" Sora guessed, folding his hands behind his head. "Maybe they're looking for you!"
Lea snorted. "And the last place they'll expect to find me is with the Keyblade wielder who tried or managed to knock them all on their asses," he said wisely. "Gotta get going. See you tomorrow."
Sora nodded. "See ya, Axel," he said cheerfully.
Lea rolled his eyes as he summoned another corridor and strode into it.
That kid was never going to stop calling him Axel. It was just like with Roxas; when Lea resurrected him, he was pretty sure that he wouldn't learn to call him by his real name, either.
Good thing that, out of all of them, Roxas was the only one he wanted to call him that.