FicWad

Demyx found himself halfway up a tree. Normally, this would have been unfortunate, but right now, he was blessing his luck, because not three feet below him was a raging, churning torrent of the /nastiest/water he'd ever encountered. The rain was pounding down like knives, and worst of all, a vicious, howling wind threatened to tear his clothes from his body and him from his perch. He clung tighter to the trunk of the tree, hoping all the while it wouldn't simply blow down, and looked around.

"Axel?" His voice was lost in the howl and crash of this horrible storm. If he went into the water...he hates water...and even I don't like this water... "Axel!" he called again, louder this time. He could still barely hear his own voice. He couldn't see much of anything, besides what was lit up by occasional flashes of lightning. Demyx clutched the tree even tighter, reluctant to summon his weapon for fear of losing his grip.

My stomach's tied in a knot, it's like Ican barely breathe...I think I'm going to die, but I really, really don't want to...I wish I was anywhere else but here...I wish I could do anything useful besides hang onto this tree...I wish I knew where Axel was and if he was all right, even if he did say I was crazy and I'd probably fail this mission - no chance we'll succeed now anyway - but I think I'm never going to see him again...

From what I remember...this must be what real fear is like...

And I could just portal back, and say"Sorry, Superior, but we got dropped in the middle of this incredible storm, there's no way we could have succeeded," and at least I'd be safe...but I don't want to see Roxas's face when I tell him Axel's not coming back.

If there are any gods that look after Nobodies...help me?

Demyx slowly slid around to the more sheltered side of the tree, hoping against hope he wouldn't lose his grip and simply be blown away, and found a vaguely secure position, albeit far less secure than he would have liked, facing away from the trunk. Pausing to catch his breath, he summoned his sitar. Now that his precious instrument was in his hands, he 'felt' safer. He plucked a few strings, but couldn't hear the sound over the storm. After a breathless moment in which he thought he'd played the wrong notes without realizing it, the water beneath him slowly rose up into apair of humanoid forms, the same murky brown as the flood they came from.

Demyx looked up at his water clones."Take me somewhere a little safer..."

He flinched as they picked him up and carried him down into the water. He could tell it was incredibly foul and polluted just from touching it, and if he'd had the time, ambition, and powers of concentration, he might have tried to purify it somewhat. For now, he just clung to his sitar as his water clones carried him across the torrent to somewhere 'safer'. He realized a bit late that he wasn't sure what they considered 'safe'. It better not be underwater...

Fortunately, they set him down on the roof of a house, where he could be partly sheltered from the wind by a sturdy brick chimney. Hopefully the wind's not so strong it'll blow the chimney off...Wait. How could they...? He looked over. The disgusting water was nearly up to the roofline. If there was anyone still in that house, they were nothing but a drowned corpse by now.

So that's how they got me up here. Demyx gulped and looked at his water clones, who were standing obediently and waiting for his command. Pressing himself against the chimney to make the most of what shelter it offered, he started playing his sitar again. More and more of the murky clones started rising out of the water, paying no attention to the fact that the water was rushing fast enough to drown an incautious merman. He kept playing for as long as he thought he could get away with - he'd need all the help he could get.

Thirty-eight...forty. I can't wait any longer. This has to be enough. He changed his tune as the water clones started moving away, out into the darkness of the storm, ignoring the wind and strengthening from the rain. Go find him. Find Axel and bring him back.

He had no way of knowing how long he'd been sitting on the roof. Demyx did know that he was shivering and his hands were feeling a bit numb by the time one of his water clones reappeared, hauling a limp, dark bundle topped with glowing red. "Oh...you f-found him..." At least he assumed so, until the clone brought him close enough to check. It was Axel. "Good work..." Demyx murmured as the clone set him down nearby, then moved away. He poked the other Nobody gently."Axel? You st-till alive?"

Well, obviously, otherwise he'd have faded...But Axel wasn't responding, and he felt oddly cool to the touch. This was worrying - the fire wielder's normal body temperature would have been called afever in anyone else. And if he was cooler than a normal person..."Axel? C-come on, wake up. Stop t-trying to scare me - I'm a Nob-body; Ican't be scared." Demyx's words sounded hollow even as he said them.

He took one of Axel's hands. It felt...strange, and not simply because it was cold. "Wake up and m-make afire, will you?" he said, mostly to hear something besides the endless storm and wind.

Lightning flashed, and for a brief instant Demyx got a better look at Axel. He looked like a drowned rat, with his hair flattened against his head; he seemed to be hardly breathing, and...Oh, no...bad...is he...fading?

He put one hand on the other Nobody's chest. There wasn't a snowball's chance of finding a heartbeat, but that wasn't what he was looking for. "Heh...I sh-should have known," he whispered. "H-he's all full of water..."

Demyx held his other hand over Axel's face. "This had b-better work..." He concentrated, and fine ribbons of water started curling out of Axel's mouth and nose - more importantly, out of his lungs. Demyx shuddered at the idea of inhaling that...sewage...and wondered vaguely what it might do to Axel besides block his powers and keep him from breathing.

Vexen can worry about that... he thought. His mind started to wander, wondering how the Superior would react to the news that the mission couldn't be completed - and it wasn't Demyx's fault this time -Luxord would think it was funny as hell - Hell wasn't funny at all, was it? Not really, if you thought about it...and Demyx suddenly realized that if he went much further, he'd start pulling out blood, and that really wouldn't help. Lightning flashed again - and Axel still looked like a drowned rat, but he seemed to be breathing easier, and Demyx must have been mistaken when he thought he saw Axel fading before...

But he still wouldn't wake up, and his stomach was all full of water too...Demyx chose to solve this dual problem the first way that came to mind. He dragged Axel closer to the sheltering chimney, as close as he could reasonably get both of them with the sitar in the way, arranged him something like comfortably, muttered an apology, and punched him in the gut as hard as he could.

Axel immediately came to, choking and retching. "Oh...water...help..." he gasped.

"A-Axel?"

His eyes didn't want to focus, and it was too dark to see anyway, but he recognized the voice. "Demyx?...You came after me?..."

"Axel, you j-just threw up on me."

"...Oh...Um, sorry...I...didn't mean to?"

"Forget it, it was m-mostly water..." Axel shuddered and crawled up against the chimney. His saturated robes were already starting to steam slightly - a good sign.

"Demyx...why are we on the roof of a house?" Demyx just pointed at the water. In the lightning, it could be seen rushing over the bottom of the roof and slowly rising towards them. Axel recoiled in horror and clung to Demyx, whimpering something that sounded like"ifthereareanygodsthatlookafterNobodiesplease/getmeoutofhere/..."

"Um, Axel...d-don't take this p-personally - actually, th-this isn't all b-bad since y-you're warm and I'm c-cold, but...p-please get off me." Demyx had to yell to make himself heard.

Axel shook his head and clung tighter."I don't wanna go in the water. I don't wanna."

"Axel...you're not going to g-go in the water, all right? Now, please, let go."

"N-no." He was about to squeeze the breath out of the Nocturne's lungs. "We're gonna die here, aren't we?"

"I will if you don't let me breathe...Axel, you're panicking. Listen to me." Demyx knew he had no business giving orders to a Superior, but he figured that since Axel had apparently lost his mind, he wouldn't object. And Nobodies could panic - it was an instinctive reaction that bypassed the heart. He'd done it himself more than once.

Axel pulled back just enough to give Demyx some breathing room, but still clutched at his robes. "Axel, you should portal back to the Castle. I don't know what sort of garbage is in that water you swallowed, inhaled, and bathed in, but it's nasty. Probably sewage and dead bodies and stuff." Axel's face started turning the same color as his eyes. "You should let Vexen take a look at you. Look, you're already starting to overheat. Maybe it's making you sick." Indeed, the Flurry's cloak was not only steaming, but smoking a little. Demyx was becoming uncomfortably warm from the close contact.

"Vexen hates my guts, got it memorized?"

"But you just puked about a gallon of water, I dragged another gallon out of your lungs, it's probably going to make you sick, and you might be hurt too. Vexen wouldn't let you die just because he doesn't like you. The Superior wouldn't let him." I'm the calm one here? I can't believe it...what gives?

Axel pulled away a little further and looked at him with wide green eyes. "But what about you?"

Demyx was about to say he'd go back too, but something made him pause for a moment. I remember the first time I came to this place; it was all full of music and life and people...the people...how many of them are trapped like us? And if the people die, what'll happen to the world?

What about the music?

I'm not just a bad fighter, I'm a soft touch. But I knew that. He worked one arm free and reached for his sitar."I'll be all right. I'm surrounded by water. I can live with that."

Axel suddenly grabbed him tight, forcing him to cling to the pointed end of his instrument to keep it from sliding off the roof and into the flood. The wind, as much as gravity, was pulling the heavy sitar out of his grip. "You're not /coming/?!"

"I'll be fine, I said! The water doesn't scare me! I control it! You're the one in danger! Now get out of here before the water covers the house!" As Axel whimpered in terror, Demyx worked his other hand free and opened a dark portal a few feet away."There's the way out! Go!" Spurred on by the thought of drowning all over again, Axel tore himself away, ignoring the fierce hurricane winds.

"I'll come back! I'll get help!" As Demyx shook his head and pulled his sitar to safety, Axel jumped through the portal, tumbling head over heels as he landed - right in front of Vexen's laboratory. The Chilly Academic suddenly found his path blocked by asoaked, bedraggled, and incoherent Flurry of Dancing Flames.


"Number Eight...what in Kingdom Hearts' name -"

Axel blinked, trying to regain his bearings. Castle...safe...home...person? Oh, Vexen! "Vexen? Oh, thank...whatever...where's Xaldin? I need his help!"

Vexen's gaze was always especially chilly for Axel, particularly when he appeared out of nowhere to land in front of his laboratory - full of important, valuable, flammable experiments -looking like something dogs wouldn't bite. "Number Three has recently left on a mission. He is not scheduled to return for some few days."

Axel, who'd pulled himself to his knees, sank back down to the floor. "Oh, no...that idiot's gonna die there..."

The temperature dropped three degrees, despite Axel's presence. "To what idiot might you be referring, Number Eight?"

"Demyx! He's gonna die in that goddamn storm, I just know it! I don't know what the hell he's thinking - well, knowing him, he probably isn't - the whole world is just flooded! That storm -it's - it's - and he stayed behind! He's gonna drown or blow away or something!Dammit, I'm his Superior, I should have ordered him to come back with me - I wasn't thinking either - I should h-" Axel stopped freaking suddenly as he felt a sharp pain in his upper arm. He looked."Um...V-Four...needle?"

"A sedative." Oh...well, the world was starting to look a bit fuzz-

An hour later, Lexaeus and Roxas left Vexen's lab. Lexaeus was carrying the still-unconscious Flurry of Dancing Flames, and Roxas was trailing after him in disbelief, reading over a likely candidate for the strangest orders he would ever receive.

Due to extreme stress and possible illness, Number VIII's body temperature is dangerously high. This is a greater concern with Number VIII than for another Nobody, because of his elemental powers. Once he regains consciousness, your mission is to ensure he consumes asteady supply of cold foods and beverages until his body temperature returns to a more normal level. This is unlikely to cause any great difficulties, unless Number VIII is unable to tolerate solid food. However, he may be delirious.

"So...my job is to feed Axel ice cream once he wakes up, unless he can't keep anything down, but he may be completely out of it?" Roxas stuck the notecard back into his pocket and shook his head in amazement. "This should be more fun than my last mission..."




He didn't come back.Demyx sighed and flinched as another brick from the chimney blew past him to land on the roof and roll into the water. Guess he was too afraid...of course, we can't feel fear...oh, bull. I'm/ afraid./ He was huddled against the base of the chimney, trying to keep himself out of the wind and away from rising water while still playing his sitar. He was shivering uncontrollably, his feet felt almost as numb as the bricks, and before long, his fingers would be too stiff and cold to play anymore, but right now, he had to keep playing while he still could, didn't dare stop to brush the hair out of his eyes, had to keep the music going...as long as his powers still worked, and he could still do something...

It probably wouldn't be long now. If his hands didn't become so numb he couldn't pluck another string, he'd wear himself out from the effort of controlling so many clones at once - four times as many as he'd ever summoned before - so far away from him and doing something so unfamiliar as search-and-rescue, and still holding back the rain and flood as best he could. That power expenditure alone could destroy him if he wasn't careful, and Demyx wasn't known for being careful.

I wonder if my playing has done any good...I wonder if my water clones have saved anybody else...I wonder how bad it would be now if I'd gone with Axel...

I wonder...if I've done anything at all...except kill myself...