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

[sunkenlight.livejournal.com]

"I thought you were gonna say I was both!" Roxas shot back. The pillars goaded him into immediate action; mimicking his opponent, Roxas impaled his blades into the ground, then jumped onto their handles. Another jump, and he easily cleared the blast zone with several feet to spare, then he began to fall, coming down on Axel hard.

With the swipe of his empty hand, one keyblade reappeared to make the attack connect; the second blade returned in the followup. His aim for the moment was to catch their weapons together, create a small impasse if he could. "Nice trick," he commented. "Think you could use that on, you know, the Heartless next time?"

[smolderingdark.livejournal.com]

Axel had a word for each keyblade that Roxas swung at him with.

Oh.

Shit.

Sparks exploded before his eyes but he kept his focus, catching the first keyblade with a chakram. The second parry was almost a complete miss, and it made Axel stagger, a mistake that would have cost him a victory were he fighting anyone else.

"I told you not to hold back!" That was the only warning as Axel shot a fireball, point blank, at Roxas' chest.

[sunkenlight.livejournal.com]

Roxas was already shifting his grip on the keyblades, trying to catch them within the many loops of the chakrams. He hadn't been expecting the fireball, but, dimly, he figured he should actually be thankful for it. With the force of the blast, he simply focused on keeping his grip and pulling.

This was his opportunity; his chance to end this game. With a tug on his keyblades, Roxas yanked Axel's weapons from his hands and jumped back, put distance between them, and once again struck them into the ground.

What he did next was something he had never done before, and probably something he would never do again: he summoned another keyblade. Hidden Dragon would work well enough for this. "Freeze!" he called, sending a blast of cold magic at Axel. He followed up with, "Ice!" to continue to combo. One more spell, the finish, the last and strongest in the sequence of three.

"Gather!"

Magnet's energy field quickly manifested over Axel's head, pulling and tugging and claiming him in its whirlwind. The extra keyblades disappeared, freeing the chakrams, and Hidden Dragon replaced itself with Kingdom Key. It seemed only fitting, after all.

Roxas turned the blade inverse, one hand gripping the cylindrical blade while the other took the edge of the hilt. He held it over his own chest and—hesitated. Should he say something here? What was there to say? Probably nothing. Nothing that would make Axel any less angry, any less mournful, any less self-destructive. Simple enough, then. Leave with a smile.

Letting his lips turn into a soft, upward curl, he shoved the blade into his chest and bid hello to the familiar darkness that engulfed him.

And, in a flash of light, the keyblade disappeared before the body hit the ground.

[smolderingdark.livejournal.com]

"Roxas—!" Axel didn't see what he was doing until it was too late. For the first time his strategy had turned inside out and was being thrown against him. Axel didn't care though. At once his barriers were down. A blast of blizzard to the face? He could take it, and he did, even as he felt the icy pain spreading across his exposed skin. But then there was more of a torrent, Roxas' strength of heart granting him more power for at least this last goal, and it threw Axel back. "Roxas! Roxas, stop!"

But his cries fell on deaf ears. He scraped to his feet, made one last break for it. If he could just reach his best friend, if he could, if he could—

—but it wasn't meant to be. The gravity sucked him in and he couldn't move, couldn't do a goddamned thing as he watched his best friend die before his eyes.

"ROXAS!"

Again.

It was just the same as before. That little smile. That all-forgiving, it's-going-to-be-okay smile. How many times had Ansem tortured him with that image? How many times? And how many more had Axel tortured himself with that memory?

The spell faded and dropped Axel in a heap on the ground. He recovered quickly and sped to Roxas' side, even though he knew it was too late. He summoned a Potion out of his pocket and held it to Roxas' lips, but it was no use. He dropped it.

His words were supposed to be venomous, but they were choked, thick with rage and grief. "You idiot. You idiot. You weren't supposed to die here. It was supposed to be me! You could have continued going from world to world without me for a while, as long as you needed, and... I lied again. I want to come home, Roxas. But not without you and Naminé. So this whole thing was—"

His right hand began to glow. Axel stared first in awe, and then utter contempt as a Keyblade formed, bearing the shape and coloration of chakrams. It was the last straw, and he tossed it aside, even though he knew it'd come back.

Axel passed through the dying ring of flames with the blond boy cradled carefully in his arms. The whole exchange hadn't taken more than a few minutes. He had the strength to pick up Roxas' body or hold back his tears, but not both.