The Second Match

[realitymods]

Characters: Roxas, Axel, Spectators
Location: The Coliseum.
Time: Two days after Weber's announcement.
Summary: The second of the death matches.
Warnings: Character death warning.


When the arena cleared, the man rose from his seat to again address the Coliseum. His smile was untouched, undisturbed by what it had seen. He made no apologies. "For a fairer fight, friendship. Axel," a twist of irony in the smile at the name, "in the red corner. Roxas in, oh, the yellow? Or it will all be fire, and this will be red and gold."

The sand drained up through the hourglass as he spoke. When it had all slipped through to the top, it held its place, waiting patiently for the start, still defying gravity.

"Good luck."

But gravity won out, and the sand began its descent.

Comments

[smolderingdark.livejournal.com]

Axel was there right on time, though he wished he wasn't. He was completely unreadable. Even his usual smirk was gone, replaced by an absolute blank. He was icy and cold and dead, the rage within tempered by the sickening realization that there was nothing he could do to escape such a horrible decision.

He was going to regret it, he knew. He was going to regret it for the rest of his bad luck life.

He dressed sharply as always, and this time for a fight; the glasses, the flip flops, the plain black shirt were all gone— replaced by the dark, windswept lines of his jacket and a pair of heavy boots that had seen better days. The chains hanging from his pockets jingled slightly as he shuffled into the Coliseum, hands hidden in his coat.

"Roxas, if you don't give me your all, I'm gonna be disappointed." Worse than that, even. He looked up at all the spectators as a belated wry smile crossed his face. "I had some big speech planned out before I got here, but it comes down to this:

"I've been lying to you this whole time."

[sunkenlight.livejournal.com]

Likewise, Roxas didn't try to run; he was on time, entered the arena with a concerned frown on his face. In the two days he had to prepare for this, he had come to a conclusion. His mind still worked furiously, gears grinding ineffectually at the problem at hand, but he could still see only one way out if the easier options provided unusable.

(The first thing he tried to do was leave the Plane. It didn't work. He figured it wouldn't.)

He matched Axel's stride, entering the arena unflinchingly. This was so stupid, and whose place was it to say they had to do this, anyway? His eyes flickered to the man in the Emperor's box, then to whatever crowd they may have gathered, then back to Axel. His blood was running a little cold, and the fiery redhead's words only chilled it further.

"What are you talking about, Axel?"

[smolderingdark.livejournal.com]

"Disappearing for days at a time. And all those things I hid from you with excuses, like 'you'll understand someday' or 'you're not ready yet'. Didn't you ever wonder what I was really up to?" With a definitive snap, he held out his arms and summoned his chakrams, two wheels of black flame.

He took a moment to gather himself, then looked straight across the arena to his best friend. Everything that Axel had done had been to protect Roxas and Naminé, to help them, to save them. He didn't want to fight Roxas back then— even if it meant returning Naminé's heart, because he knew from Ansem that Roxas would have to die.

There was no fear or trepidation visible anywhere on the redhead's face. Axel's frame was solid, ready.

"Of course you didn't. You didn't find the King's brief appearance in Destiny Islands that alarming, either. You put faith in the journey. That we'd find him and resolve this, and go home at the end of the day like good little boys who never stay out too late." A bitter, choked laugh escaped him. "The King and I were really close while you slept. He helped me escape somewhere terrible, but I left him. I was the one to leave him."

A circle of black flames surrounded the edge of the arena, rather superficial considering no one could jump in, but it still gave the place a certain heaviness and heat. Roxas could burn if he touched them, and dark flames scorched the worst.

"The truth is that I'm too dark. The taint that Ansem left on my heart hasn't been completely mastered. It never will be. It'll always eat at me no matter what you do. If I close my eyes even for a second I know it'll consume me— and then I'll destroy you and Naminé, everything."

The flames burned higher.

"If you want to save me— save her, and save yourself— you'll have to kill me."

[sunkenlight.livejournal.com]

Roxas shielded himself from the initial blast of heat, took a step forward to distance himself from the flames. (There went his other plan, he mused, if he couldn't reach the barrier itself through the flames to try and unlock it with the keyblade.) He stood strong, not yet summoning his own weapon. His face was determined, as was his heart. Axel was trying so hard...

"I don't believe that," Roxas refuted, calmly. How he could possibly maintain his cool against such a powerful statement was a mystery to him. It cracked a moment later, when he continued with, "I can't believe that!"

Passionately, he swung his arms out, gesturing as sincerely as he could. "Axel, that isn't true! Your heart is good. You don't need to use Ansem's darkness as a crutch anymore; there's enough light to hold yourself up and and I know you don't want to go back to being his puppet." He shifted one hand to hold it over his own heart. "I trust you, Axel. You're my best friend."

However, when Axel got something in his head, it took more than pretty words to convince him otherwise. "I'm not going to kill you," he said, quietly. Two keyblades appeared, Kingdom Key and Star Seeker, and he readied himself. "And you're just going to have to deal with that, okay?!"

[smolderingdark.livejournal.com]

Axel expected this to happen, but seeing how hard Roxas was fighting— even summoning two keyblades to combat the threat— made him hesitate, if only for a second. He couldn't afford to hesitate. If he had to run himself through on one of Roxas' swords, he would.

He tried to grin, but it came out as a grimace. Ah, no matter. "... Heh. You idiot." Without further ceremony, he threw both fiery chakrams at Roxas.

It was one thing to fight for your life, but fighting for your death was just ridiculous.

[sunkenlight.livejournal.com]

Roxas, already prepared to go on the defensive, stepped back and summoned his magic. "Light!" The protective barrier flew around him and reflected Axel's projectiles.

He didn't wait for another attack after that, moving in quickly. Slash, swipe, spell. If nothing else, Blizzard would probably knock Axel back, maybe incapacitate him. Not for the first time, Roxas was grateful he knew how to gauge when someone was on their last legs; he couldn't afford to push this too far.

[breathenothing.livejournal.com]

Naminé didn't know why she was here. Some feeling told her to come, that she should see something here, but she really wanted nothing to do with these deathmatches. She had no desire to see people tearing each other apart, especially for no reason. Still, here she was, though probably not for long. Slowly, she made her way to the front, of sorts - over to one of the railings, overlooking the battleground below. With a sigh, she looked down.

And she immediately regretted it.

With a huge gasp, bordering on a loud cry, she covered her mouth with both hands and recoiled backward several steps. Her heart was pounding and she could barely breathe. Did she really just see them down there? Was this for real, or were her eyes playing tricks on her? Against her better judgment (and along with a wince), she looked again...

Her hands dropped from the railing, limp at her sides, and she stared. She opened her mouth, possibly to yell to one of them, get their attention, something... but the only thing that came out was a haphazard squeak and a cough.

Tears formed in her eyes, blurring her vision and somehow knocking her out of her horror-induced trance. She finally managed to scream, "No!" before she turned and ran away as fast as she possibly could.

[lamb_of_gold]

Mu was on his way out by now, but hearing Namine's cry managed to catch his attention well enough to make him turn around. He wasn't surprised to see her running, nor to see the tears in her eyes.

Quietly, he held an arm out to stop her from running into something.

[breathenothing.livejournal.com]

She'd hardly realized she'd run into anything, let alone that she'd run into Mu's. But when she suddenly came to a stop, she looked up at him, tears still pouring from her eyes. She didn't say a word, just buried her face in his chest and cried.

"I need to leave," She said quietly, choking on her own sobs.

[lamb_of_gold]

Mu was starting to get better at the hugging thing, and so when he let his arms rest around Naminé gently, it didn't feel quite so awkward. He let her cry for awhile, only nodding when she wanted to go, silently letting go of her and leading her out with one arm still around her shoulders.

"I'll get you some water," he said quietly, leading the girl to the relative seclusion of the bar.

[breathenothing.livejournal.com]

She allowed herself to be led away, gladly, and just helplessly nodded at the offer of water. She was too stunned to say anything, and only barely had the presence of mind to slip herself into a chair and sit. This was a nightmare...

[lamb_of_gold]

Once she was seated, Mu left her side briefly to procure the promised glass of water. He was careful to never duck out of sight, making sure he was visible to the girl should she care to look.

It didn't take long until he slid into the seat across from her, having filled up the largest glass he could find, which he set in front of her.

He wanted to ask what had upset her so, since he hadn't bothered to watch the second pair of combatants enter, but he knew better - if she wanted to, she'd speak.

[charmandsmiles.livejournal.com]

The Doctor waited impatiently outside the Emperor's box for Weber to announce the second match. When he heard Roxas was in the fight, he clenched his fists, trying to keep the Oncoming Storm in check. Losing his temper wouldn't help anyone, and it wouldn't make him feel better. Neither would a cup of coffee, but he hoped the conversation would prove more effective than it had before.

[realitymods]

Seated once more beside the throne of royalty, Weber opened up the barriers briefly. "You are a glutton for punishment, aren't you? You should stop attending these. They'll only make you feel worse."

[charmandsmiles.livejournal.com]

"Dunno, I can't remember," the Doctor replied as he stepped inside, with only a tiny bit of sarcasm. "You ought to stop them. It'll make you feel better."

[realitymods]

"Not really." Weber looked out over the battle, his head shaking just a little. What pointless cruelty. He put his hands together, pushed back the jacket sleeve and the white shirt beneath it, rubbed at his wrist under gold bracelets. A trick of memory and he smelt cinnamon in the air. "If your method is to appeal to me to seek revolution, it will have very little effect."

[charmandsmiles.livejournal.com]

"Very little effect's better than no effect at all," the Doctor murmured, glancing at the gold bracelets curiously. "Any reason for those?" He gestured at the bracelets, ignoring the battle. Or trying to, anyway.

[realitymods]

"They're good fighters," Weber said. It was half under his breath, impressed but not willing to shout about it, not in this context. Not for a battle to the death. He offered the Doctor a careless smile. "Oh, I love gold. I never wear any other metal." It was true enough. The plain gold rings, the gold cuff links hidden under his jacket, the single gold parallelogram of an earring hanging from his left earlobe. His neck was too much shielded by the collar of his shirt to tell if a gold necklace completed the picture. "And a traveller must have his emergency supplies. Not a concern of yours, I know, dear, but you travel with everything you need. If you remember that much."

[theguv.livejournal.com]

By the time Gene reached the arena, the first fight had all ready ended. It wasn't like the Guv knew any of the contestants, but that wasn't the point. He'd said he'd put a stop to this and bloody hell, he was going to.

No one else could die on the Gene Genie's watch. No one.

"Oi, you poof!" he yelled, spotting Weber sitting beside the throne. "I said you can't do this!"

[realitymods]

Unfortunately for DCI Hunt, Weber wasn't in the mood to bring down the barrier for a loud and, in his opinion, unattractive Mancunian from the 1970s. Indeed, he didn't even look Hunt's way.

[theguv.livejournal.com]

The narration would like to note that Gene really, really hated Weber. The Guv had less than stellar feelings for most of those on the Plane but this fruity bastard ruffled him the wrong way. So when Weber didn't bother opening the barrier, Gene tried knocking it down with all the bravado he had, slamming his foot against it. It was as much to get the other man's attention as it was to gain entrance.

The unpleasant sound of bone giving way was probably great for the former, but not so much the latter as Gene snarled in pain, his ankle more than likely broken from the impact.

[realitymods]

Idly, Weber drew a card from his pocket and lightly tapped on the back of it. He didn't bother looking at Gene, but the injury in Gene's foot began to stitch itself together and, painfully, heal.

No one was going to break their bones on Weber's barriers, thank you kindly.

[theguv.livejournal.com]

Gene briefly wondered if the wanker's little card could have healed him without the pain, but the thought was cut off prematurely by a wave of excruciating fire wrapping around his ankle. It didn't last long and he was scrambling to his feet a moment later, glaring through the barrier. The bastard still wasn't looking at him.

"Oi! Open up!"

[realitymods]

"No."

Though he still didn't give Gene his attention, that unshakeable smile was quickly transforming into something a little bit more smug than it really ought to be.

[pactum.livejournal.com]

Emil had heard something about letters and death matches, and despite his trepidation, he managed to show up to at least... yell something. He hoped he could do more than that. His courage wasn't completely back after the "oopsie" that lead to him being killed by the Master.

He saw some oddly-dressed man heralding the match, but before he could think of something to say, the names of the fighters hit his ears.

"Roxas?!"

Oh, hell.