Title: Miserere (Have Mercy) - Chapter 6
Author: DJ aka
_sexorcist_
Rating: PG-13 overall, rating may increase later.
Warnings: Language, violence, explosions, guns, etc.
Pairings: Zexion/Demyx, Xemnas/Saix mentioned, other pairings may develop
Summary: AU. Zexion is finally living his dream, working at a prestigious scientific laboratory right out of college. And when he's given an important position in an upcoming project, he thinks life couldn't get better. But will he change his mind when the subject of his research tests his morals, his beliefs, and his dedication to his trade?
Author's Notes: I'm all certified and done with my summer program! That means I'll probably finish this story pretty fast. It probably has two more chapters, but we'll see.
Link to Chapter One
Link to Chapter Two
Link to Chapter Three
Link to Chapter Four
Link to Chapter Five
When Zexion woke up the next morning, it was to the sounds of people moving around downstairs. He could hear Axel’s loud voice, and Vexen yelling at him that the stove was not a toy.
He tuned all of that out, though, when he opened his eyes and was greeted with the sight of the blonde next to him. Demyx was still asleep, hair tousled by sleep, limbs curled up against him in the blankets. Zexion couldn’t help but smile, reaching out to wrap an arm around the merman’s waist.
Demyx stirred, shifting closer to Zexion with a sleepy whimper. Zexion was content to watch him sleep for now, his thoughts shifted to the day ahead of them.
They had to blow up a building, then make a mad dash for the ocean, then figure out how to avoid falling victim to the same fate as that of the crew of the Dianna Marie. Wonderful.
Then after that, he would probably never see Demyx again. Demyx would go home, Zexion would probably have to move, and whatever this was…it would end.
“You look sad.”
Zexion snapped out of his daze to find that Demyx’s blue eyes were open, and studying his face rather closely.
“I’m not sad. I’m just…worried,” Zexion said, and Demyx was about to reply when somebody knocked on the door.
“Breakfast is ready,” Marluxia called out, and then his footsteps retreated down the stairs as Demyx buried his face against Zexion’s chest. Demyx said something, though the words were muffled beyond recognition.
“Pardon?” Zexion asked, tugging at Demyx’s hair to try and make sense of the jumble.
“I don’t want to leave you,” Demyx whispered, and when he looked up, his eyes were shining with tears. Zexion pulled Demyx into a close hug.
“You have to go home. To get away from Xemnas, and to see your family again.”
“But they won’t understand back home,” Demyx insisted. “They don’t trust humans, and if I tell them…that we…”
Zexion understood completely. But he was quickly realizing that he had to be firm about this; Demyx had to go back. His family had to know he was okay. “It can be a secret, for now. They don’t have to know,” he said, stroking his fingers through Demyx’s hair. “When we’re both safe, when all this is over…then we’ll decide what to do, okay? We’ll find each other.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
More banging on the door, then Axel’s voice. “C’mon, you two! Your food is getting cold!”
Zexion sighed. His red-headed friend often had a way of ruining moments. He sat up, momentarily distracted by the sight of Demyx gracefully stretching. He never thought he’d meet someone who was flawless, but then again, he never thought he’d be meeting a merman, either.
A few minutes later they were both fully clothed (after Demyx complained about how confusing the human ‘leg and foot covers’ could be), and they headed down the stairs. They received a glare from Vexen and a wink from Marluxia. Zexion blushed, but Demyx didn’t seem affected in the least; instead, he decided to help Marluxia feed Sassy scraps of raw meat. The yellow plant grabbed at the meat and swallowed it whole, elated, leaving Zexion to wonder where the chunks of meat were even going in the scrawny plant. Acidic saliva breaking it down in the mouth and throat, then crushing rings of muscle, probably…
“Breakfast. I hope you know I burned myself making it. Maybe because somebody kept me up half the night,” Vexen said, dropping a bowl in front of Zexion, then one beside it for Demyx.
“Who would do that? That’s really mean!” Demyx said with a frown, completely oblivious. Vexen smacked his own forehead.
“Just eat, Demyx.”
“…this is food?”
If looks could kill, Demyx wouldn’t be breathing. But he was busy staring into his bowl, in which was oatmeal.
“Yes, it’s food, Demyx. Here,” Axel said, reaching past Demyx and grabbing the sugar. He tipped it, putting a pile of sugar on top of the oatmeal and pushing a spoon into Demyx’s hand. “Stir and eat.”
Demyx clumsily stirred it, still learning how to use utensils, and then he took a bite and grimaced. Vexen was eyeing him, though, and obviously merpeople held some of the same social graces as humans- he swallowed it down and smiled.
“It’s good!”
“Good my ass, little liar,” Vexen muttered, and nearly everyone laughed.
“Just eat it, you’ll need your strength today,” Axel said, pulling out his cell phone and dialing a number. As everyone else ate, Zexion simply watched as Demyx stared at Axel curiously.
“Hey, Luxord, buddy! I was wondering-” Axel started, but before he even finished the sentence, Demyx grabbed the phone from him, turning it over in his hands with a look of shock.
“Is there somebody in there?!” he asked in a panic, Luxord’s confused voice cursing on the other end of the line. Axel grabbed the phone back, apologizing to Luxord quickly.
“It’s a phone, Demyx. A phone. This is how we talk to people who are far away,” Zexion explained. “Do you remember all the lines between the buildings outside? The black cords on the wooden poles?”
“Yeah…”
“Those make the phones work,” Zexion continued, avoiding the confusing subject of satellites and cell phone towers for now.
Demyx looked hurt. “You didn’t put those there for birds?”
“…no, Demyx. But birds do use them.”
“Here, Luxord, say hi to a friend of mine from…Sweden. The backcountry of Sweden,” Axel said, handing the phone to Demyx. “Try it out.”
Demyx hesitated, then slowly brought the phone to his ear- upside down. Zexion turned it the right way for him.
“H-Hello?”
“You’re…from Sweden?”
Demyx looked at Axel, and Axel nodded. “Yeah, I’m from Sweden!” Demyx said brightly.
“…You don’t have an accent.”
“How do you know? You can’t see me, you don’t know what I have,” Demyx said with a frown, resulting in Marluxia snorting coffee up his nose.
Axel took the phone back, still snickering. “He’s not all there, Luxord.”
“I am too!” Demyx proclaimed, and Zexion rolled his eyes as Axel asked Luxord to meet them at the pier with the boat ready to go.
“We’re set,” Axel said. “He’ll wait by the boat all day, with what I’m paying him.”
“Good,” Vexen said, setting the two bombs on the counter. “Try not to mess this up. Bombs are not forgiving.”
----------------------------------------
Zexion stared at the bomb sitting in his lap most of the way to the lab. He had one bomb, Axel had the other, and they had a plan- a plan that basically involved him and Demyx planting the basement bomb, Axel and Marluxia planting the main floor bomb, and then meeting at the pier.
“How are we going to get in?” Zexion asked, finally breaking the silence. “They’re probably deactivated our entrance cards. Plus, they’ll probably be there.”
Axel grinned. “Easy! We run the car into the place!”
Marluxia jumped so suddenly that the car swerved. “Run the car into it? I don’t think so! This is my car, and it’s a classic!”
“It’s a piece of crap,” Axel said with a dismissive wave on the hand. “Tell you what, you run this car into that building, and I’ll let you pick any car under one hundred thousand dollars, and I’ll buy it for you after all this.”
Marluxia eyed Axel. The redhead grinned.
“I’m a lawyer, buddy. A damn good lawyer. I can afford it.”
“…Fine. But I’ll hold you to that! I have witnesses!”
The lab came into view, and Axel made sure Demyx was buckled in as they barreled closer.
“Hold onto something!” Marluxia said, slamming his foot down on the gas pedal. Zexion squeezed his eyes shut, grabbing onto whatever he could reach- and just before they hit, he felt a hand grasp his.
Zexion felt his body jerk roughly against the seatbelt as the car slammed through the doors, skidded, and slammed through the next wall, only coming to a smoky stop once it slid into the lab. Everyone took a few moments to recover, checking over each other for injuries.
“Alright, let’s do this. Fast,” Zexion said, unbuckling and getting out of the car, tucking the bomb under one arm. He climbed over the wreckage to the other side, grabbing onto Demyx hand and then guiding him downstairs, into the basement.
Demyx looked quite frightened as Zexion knelt down, placing the bomb in the middle of the floor, then set the timer for five minutes. He stood, grabbing Demyx’s hand again.
“Come on, we need to leave!” he insisted, pulling Demyx along- but their path was blocked.
Saix stood at the foot of the stairs.
“Where are you going, Zexy?” Saix asked, his voice tense. “And with the little experiment, too…”
“Get out of here, Saix,” Zexion said, placing himself between Saix and Demyx. “This place is about to blow sky high. We all need to get out.”
“Correction…I need to get out. You two may stay,” Saix said, and then he pulled out a gun. Zexion froze, but unfortunately, the time had come for Zexion to regret not explaining to Demyx exactly what happened to Axel.
Demyx hadn’t been conscious when Axel got shot. He didn’t even know what a gun was.
Without the proper fear and respect for the weapon, Demyx dove at Saix, tackling the man to the floor. The gun went off, the bullet whizzing past Zexion’s head and ricocheting off the ceiling, rebounding through the shelves. Saix flipped Demyx over, slamming the merman into a set of shelves, making the whole thing wobble.
Only four minutes left to get out.
Zexion tried to pry Saix off Demyx, grabbing at the gun, and the weapon went off a second time. Demyx let out a shriek of terror as the bullet grazed the side of his head, slamming into the metal behind him with a dizzying noise. Zexion fell back, and Demyx managed to scramble away from Saix, stumbling to his feet beside Zexion.
Saix’s smirk widened. He started toward the pair, and Zexion pulled Demyx back between two of the towering shelves, wondering why Saix didn’t just shoot them.
“Perfect. I'll do the same to you that I did to those fools from the Dianna Marie,” Saix said. "And then, all the loose ends will be tied up. After all...horrible accidents happen in dangerous labs." Before the realization hit Zexion, Saix had already given the shelving a hard hit with his shoulder. Zexion tried to make a break for open floor, dragging Demyx along, but they didn’t make it- the shelving came down on both of them, and Zexion blacked out for a few moments as the metal knocked the air out of him.
“Fitting, that you should die like this,” Saix said, watching as Zexion struggled to get out from under the heavy metal pieces. He turned and walked out, and Zexion twisted his head to see the bomb.
Three minutes.
“Demyx, we have to get out of here! Try to lift this, on the count…of…Demyx?”
Zexion tried to look behind him, but he was pinned too tightly. He couldn’t see the blonde.
“Demyx? Demyx, say something!”
No answer. Zexion swallowed hard, fighting to push the metal off him, to no avail. It was too heavy, his shoulders were bleeding and aching already from the impact, and he was shaking like a leaf. He couldn’t do it.
He forced himself to try again, managed to lift it a few inches, but not for long enough to wiggle out. He collapsed under the weight of it.
“Demyx…”
Two minutes. It was all over. He lowered his head, in utter disbelief that he’d die like this, that he wouldn’t even have a chance to make things work with Demyx, that Demyx would never see his family again…
Suddenly, the metal creaked and lifted. Zexion looked up as the weight came off him, blinking at the sight of Axel, Marluxia, and Xigbar holding the shelving off him.
“Move! Get out and pull Demyx out, little dude!” Xigbar snapped, the three of them straining to hold up the shelves. Zexion wiggled out, then turned around and tugged an unconscious Demyx out of the wreckage.
“Give him to me. Come on, let’s go,” Xigbar said, grabbing Demyx and easily lifting the blonde into his arms. Zexion could only follow as they led the way to the stairs.
He glanced back at the bomb; 45 seconds. They’d never make it.
It seemed to take forever to work their way through the wreckage of the car crash, then they made a sprint for the door, Zexion bringing up the rear as they reached the door. The warm outdoor air hit them, they were three steps outside the door, then the world seemed to shiver around them.
A massive rumble, then a blast, and Zexion was thrown forward onto the pavement by a sheer wall of something that hit his back. His ears were ringing, his back was stinging, and he curled up with a pained moan as debris showered down on him.
A hand was grabbing at him, then two, pulling him to his feet. He couldn’t hear, his whole body felt hot, and his legs felt like jelly. He stumbled a few steps and fell again, and those hands were back on him, yanking him up.
A blur of red and black was beside him, and an arm wrapped around his waist, pulling him forward. He followed the lead without question, dazed, confused, all his senses sent into a state of shock.
It wasn’t until they reached the pier that reality began to reach Zexion again. He could feel warm blood on his face and back, and he looked around for his blonde merman as Axel pushed him onto a rather large boat and into a seat at the back.
“D-Dem…”
“He’s here, he’s right here, Zexy,” Xigbar said, leading a quite-conscious Demyx to the seat beside Zexion.
“You’re hurt,” Demyx said shakily, and Zexion touched Demyx’s face where blood was dripping down the side of it.
“You are too.”
There was a pause, then they both laughed weakly, though the situation was far from funny. It was more of a relieved laugh, a laugh that proved to them that they could still laugh.
“Let’s go,” Axel said to the blonde main at the front of the boat, and then he moved back to where Zexion sat. For once, the redhead actually looked concerned.
“Are you okay?” he asked, and Zexion nodded as the boat lurched and pulled away from the dock.
“Y-Yeah. I think so. My ears hurt.”
“Yeah, with good reason. You were closest to that fucker when it went off.”
“Boys, we have a problem,” Marluxia said, pointing off to the west.
Xaldin’s boat was pulling away from the dock as well. And on it stood Xaldin, Xemnas, Larxene, and Saix.
Axel made a sound quite similar to a growl, straightening up. “I’ve just about had it with them,” he snapped. “Luxord! We got any weapons on this boat?”
“Inside the seats,” Luxord said, eyeing the other boat. “I’m gonna charge you extra for hazard pay, you know.”
Axel opened up a seat, pulling out a shotgun. “Note taken,” he said, loading the shotgun and getting it ready to fire. “These bitches are going down. And after I shoot them, I’m taking them to court for annoying the fuck out of me.”
Zexion shakily stood, and Demyx grabbed onto his hand, giving him a nervous look. Zexion smiled weakly.
“Don’t worry, Demyx. Everything’s going to work out. You’ll be home soon.”
“And we’ll find each other, right?”
“I promise.”
“Good,” Demyx said, and then he got a determined look on his face. He stood up, giving Axel that ‘I’m going to do something and you can’t stop me’ look.
“Give me one of those things. A big one.”
Axel’s eyebrows rose. “You? Give you a gun? But you-”
“I want to fight. Give me a gun.”
Xaldin’s boat was pulling closer. They weren’t getting to the exit of the bay fast enough; they would have to fight.
Axel gave Demyx a gun, showed him how to use it, and within moments everyone had a gun in hand except Luxord. Zexion took a deep breath, steeling his will as the smoke plume from the decimated lab rose in the distance.
He had to keep his promise. No matter what.
Author: DJ aka
_sexorcist_Rating: PG-13 overall, rating may increase later.
Warnings: Language, violence, explosions, guns, etc.
Pairings: Zexion/Demyx, Xemnas/Saix mentioned, other pairings may develop
Summary: AU. Zexion is finally living his dream, working at a prestigious scientific laboratory right out of college. And when he's given an important position in an upcoming project, he thinks life couldn't get better. But will he change his mind when the subject of his research tests his morals, his beliefs, and his dedication to his trade?
Author's Notes: I'm all certified and done with my summer program! That means I'll probably finish this story pretty fast. It probably has two more chapters, but we'll see.
Link to Chapter One
Link to Chapter Two
Link to Chapter Three
Link to Chapter Four
Link to Chapter Five
When Zexion woke up the next morning, it was to the sounds of people moving around downstairs. He could hear Axel’s loud voice, and Vexen yelling at him that the stove was not a toy.
He tuned all of that out, though, when he opened his eyes and was greeted with the sight of the blonde next to him. Demyx was still asleep, hair tousled by sleep, limbs curled up against him in the blankets. Zexion couldn’t help but smile, reaching out to wrap an arm around the merman’s waist.
Demyx stirred, shifting closer to Zexion with a sleepy whimper. Zexion was content to watch him sleep for now, his thoughts shifted to the day ahead of them.
They had to blow up a building, then make a mad dash for the ocean, then figure out how to avoid falling victim to the same fate as that of the crew of the Dianna Marie. Wonderful.
Then after that, he would probably never see Demyx again. Demyx would go home, Zexion would probably have to move, and whatever this was…it would end.
“You look sad.”
Zexion snapped out of his daze to find that Demyx’s blue eyes were open, and studying his face rather closely.
“I’m not sad. I’m just…worried,” Zexion said, and Demyx was about to reply when somebody knocked on the door.
“Breakfast is ready,” Marluxia called out, and then his footsteps retreated down the stairs as Demyx buried his face against Zexion’s chest. Demyx said something, though the words were muffled beyond recognition.
“Pardon?” Zexion asked, tugging at Demyx’s hair to try and make sense of the jumble.
“I don’t want to leave you,” Demyx whispered, and when he looked up, his eyes were shining with tears. Zexion pulled Demyx into a close hug.
“You have to go home. To get away from Xemnas, and to see your family again.”
“But they won’t understand back home,” Demyx insisted. “They don’t trust humans, and if I tell them…that we…”
Zexion understood completely. But he was quickly realizing that he had to be firm about this; Demyx had to go back. His family had to know he was okay. “It can be a secret, for now. They don’t have to know,” he said, stroking his fingers through Demyx’s hair. “When we’re both safe, when all this is over…then we’ll decide what to do, okay? We’ll find each other.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
More banging on the door, then Axel’s voice. “C’mon, you two! Your food is getting cold!”
Zexion sighed. His red-headed friend often had a way of ruining moments. He sat up, momentarily distracted by the sight of Demyx gracefully stretching. He never thought he’d meet someone who was flawless, but then again, he never thought he’d be meeting a merman, either.
A few minutes later they were both fully clothed (after Demyx complained about how confusing the human ‘leg and foot covers’ could be), and they headed down the stairs. They received a glare from Vexen and a wink from Marluxia. Zexion blushed, but Demyx didn’t seem affected in the least; instead, he decided to help Marluxia feed Sassy scraps of raw meat. The yellow plant grabbed at the meat and swallowed it whole, elated, leaving Zexion to wonder where the chunks of meat were even going in the scrawny plant. Acidic saliva breaking it down in the mouth and throat, then crushing rings of muscle, probably…
“Breakfast. I hope you know I burned myself making it. Maybe because somebody kept me up half the night,” Vexen said, dropping a bowl in front of Zexion, then one beside it for Demyx.
“Who would do that? That’s really mean!” Demyx said with a frown, completely oblivious. Vexen smacked his own forehead.
“Just eat, Demyx.”
“…this is food?”
If looks could kill, Demyx wouldn’t be breathing. But he was busy staring into his bowl, in which was oatmeal.
“Yes, it’s food, Demyx. Here,” Axel said, reaching past Demyx and grabbing the sugar. He tipped it, putting a pile of sugar on top of the oatmeal and pushing a spoon into Demyx’s hand. “Stir and eat.”
Demyx clumsily stirred it, still learning how to use utensils, and then he took a bite and grimaced. Vexen was eyeing him, though, and obviously merpeople held some of the same social graces as humans- he swallowed it down and smiled.
“It’s good!”
“Good my ass, little liar,” Vexen muttered, and nearly everyone laughed.
“Just eat it, you’ll need your strength today,” Axel said, pulling out his cell phone and dialing a number. As everyone else ate, Zexion simply watched as Demyx stared at Axel curiously.
“Hey, Luxord, buddy! I was wondering-” Axel started, but before he even finished the sentence, Demyx grabbed the phone from him, turning it over in his hands with a look of shock.
“Is there somebody in there?!” he asked in a panic, Luxord’s confused voice cursing on the other end of the line. Axel grabbed the phone back, apologizing to Luxord quickly.
“It’s a phone, Demyx. A phone. This is how we talk to people who are far away,” Zexion explained. “Do you remember all the lines between the buildings outside? The black cords on the wooden poles?”
“Yeah…”
“Those make the phones work,” Zexion continued, avoiding the confusing subject of satellites and cell phone towers for now.
Demyx looked hurt. “You didn’t put those there for birds?”
“…no, Demyx. But birds do use them.”
“Here, Luxord, say hi to a friend of mine from…Sweden. The backcountry of Sweden,” Axel said, handing the phone to Demyx. “Try it out.”
Demyx hesitated, then slowly brought the phone to his ear- upside down. Zexion turned it the right way for him.
“H-Hello?”
“You’re…from Sweden?”
Demyx looked at Axel, and Axel nodded. “Yeah, I’m from Sweden!” Demyx said brightly.
“…You don’t have an accent.”
“How do you know? You can’t see me, you don’t know what I have,” Demyx said with a frown, resulting in Marluxia snorting coffee up his nose.
Axel took the phone back, still snickering. “He’s not all there, Luxord.”
“I am too!” Demyx proclaimed, and Zexion rolled his eyes as Axel asked Luxord to meet them at the pier with the boat ready to go.
“We’re set,” Axel said. “He’ll wait by the boat all day, with what I’m paying him.”
“Good,” Vexen said, setting the two bombs on the counter. “Try not to mess this up. Bombs are not forgiving.”
Zexion stared at the bomb sitting in his lap most of the way to the lab. He had one bomb, Axel had the other, and they had a plan- a plan that basically involved him and Demyx planting the basement bomb, Axel and Marluxia planting the main floor bomb, and then meeting at the pier.
“How are we going to get in?” Zexion asked, finally breaking the silence. “They’re probably deactivated our entrance cards. Plus, they’ll probably be there.”
Axel grinned. “Easy! We run the car into the place!”
Marluxia jumped so suddenly that the car swerved. “Run the car into it? I don’t think so! This is my car, and it’s a classic!”
“It’s a piece of crap,” Axel said with a dismissive wave on the hand. “Tell you what, you run this car into that building, and I’ll let you pick any car under one hundred thousand dollars, and I’ll buy it for you after all this.”
Marluxia eyed Axel. The redhead grinned.
“I’m a lawyer, buddy. A damn good lawyer. I can afford it.”
“…Fine. But I’ll hold you to that! I have witnesses!”
The lab came into view, and Axel made sure Demyx was buckled in as they barreled closer.
“Hold onto something!” Marluxia said, slamming his foot down on the gas pedal. Zexion squeezed his eyes shut, grabbing onto whatever he could reach- and just before they hit, he felt a hand grasp his.
Zexion felt his body jerk roughly against the seatbelt as the car slammed through the doors, skidded, and slammed through the next wall, only coming to a smoky stop once it slid into the lab. Everyone took a few moments to recover, checking over each other for injuries.
“Alright, let’s do this. Fast,” Zexion said, unbuckling and getting out of the car, tucking the bomb under one arm. He climbed over the wreckage to the other side, grabbing onto Demyx hand and then guiding him downstairs, into the basement.
Demyx looked quite frightened as Zexion knelt down, placing the bomb in the middle of the floor, then set the timer for five minutes. He stood, grabbing Demyx’s hand again.
“Come on, we need to leave!” he insisted, pulling Demyx along- but their path was blocked.
Saix stood at the foot of the stairs.
“Where are you going, Zexy?” Saix asked, his voice tense. “And with the little experiment, too…”
“Get out of here, Saix,” Zexion said, placing himself between Saix and Demyx. “This place is about to blow sky high. We all need to get out.”
“Correction…I need to get out. You two may stay,” Saix said, and then he pulled out a gun. Zexion froze, but unfortunately, the time had come for Zexion to regret not explaining to Demyx exactly what happened to Axel.
Demyx hadn’t been conscious when Axel got shot. He didn’t even know what a gun was.
Without the proper fear and respect for the weapon, Demyx dove at Saix, tackling the man to the floor. The gun went off, the bullet whizzing past Zexion’s head and ricocheting off the ceiling, rebounding through the shelves. Saix flipped Demyx over, slamming the merman into a set of shelves, making the whole thing wobble.
Only four minutes left to get out.
Zexion tried to pry Saix off Demyx, grabbing at the gun, and the weapon went off a second time. Demyx let out a shriek of terror as the bullet grazed the side of his head, slamming into the metal behind him with a dizzying noise. Zexion fell back, and Demyx managed to scramble away from Saix, stumbling to his feet beside Zexion.
Saix’s smirk widened. He started toward the pair, and Zexion pulled Demyx back between two of the towering shelves, wondering why Saix didn’t just shoot them.
“Perfect. I'll do the same to you that I did to those fools from the Dianna Marie,” Saix said. "And then, all the loose ends will be tied up. After all...horrible accidents happen in dangerous labs." Before the realization hit Zexion, Saix had already given the shelving a hard hit with his shoulder. Zexion tried to make a break for open floor, dragging Demyx along, but they didn’t make it- the shelving came down on both of them, and Zexion blacked out for a few moments as the metal knocked the air out of him.
“Fitting, that you should die like this,” Saix said, watching as Zexion struggled to get out from under the heavy metal pieces. He turned and walked out, and Zexion twisted his head to see the bomb.
Three minutes.
“Demyx, we have to get out of here! Try to lift this, on the count…of…Demyx?”
Zexion tried to look behind him, but he was pinned too tightly. He couldn’t see the blonde.
“Demyx? Demyx, say something!”
No answer. Zexion swallowed hard, fighting to push the metal off him, to no avail. It was too heavy, his shoulders were bleeding and aching already from the impact, and he was shaking like a leaf. He couldn’t do it.
He forced himself to try again, managed to lift it a few inches, but not for long enough to wiggle out. He collapsed under the weight of it.
“Demyx…”
Two minutes. It was all over. He lowered his head, in utter disbelief that he’d die like this, that he wouldn’t even have a chance to make things work with Demyx, that Demyx would never see his family again…
Suddenly, the metal creaked and lifted. Zexion looked up as the weight came off him, blinking at the sight of Axel, Marluxia, and Xigbar holding the shelving off him.
“Move! Get out and pull Demyx out, little dude!” Xigbar snapped, the three of them straining to hold up the shelves. Zexion wiggled out, then turned around and tugged an unconscious Demyx out of the wreckage.
“Give him to me. Come on, let’s go,” Xigbar said, grabbing Demyx and easily lifting the blonde into his arms. Zexion could only follow as they led the way to the stairs.
He glanced back at the bomb; 45 seconds. They’d never make it.
It seemed to take forever to work their way through the wreckage of the car crash, then they made a sprint for the door, Zexion bringing up the rear as they reached the door. The warm outdoor air hit them, they were three steps outside the door, then the world seemed to shiver around them.
A massive rumble, then a blast, and Zexion was thrown forward onto the pavement by a sheer wall of something that hit his back. His ears were ringing, his back was stinging, and he curled up with a pained moan as debris showered down on him.
A hand was grabbing at him, then two, pulling him to his feet. He couldn’t hear, his whole body felt hot, and his legs felt like jelly. He stumbled a few steps and fell again, and those hands were back on him, yanking him up.
A blur of red and black was beside him, and an arm wrapped around his waist, pulling him forward. He followed the lead without question, dazed, confused, all his senses sent into a state of shock.
It wasn’t until they reached the pier that reality began to reach Zexion again. He could feel warm blood on his face and back, and he looked around for his blonde merman as Axel pushed him onto a rather large boat and into a seat at the back.
“D-Dem…”
“He’s here, he’s right here, Zexy,” Xigbar said, leading a quite-conscious Demyx to the seat beside Zexion.
“You’re hurt,” Demyx said shakily, and Zexion touched Demyx’s face where blood was dripping down the side of it.
“You are too.”
There was a pause, then they both laughed weakly, though the situation was far from funny. It was more of a relieved laugh, a laugh that proved to them that they could still laugh.
“Let’s go,” Axel said to the blonde main at the front of the boat, and then he moved back to where Zexion sat. For once, the redhead actually looked concerned.
“Are you okay?” he asked, and Zexion nodded as the boat lurched and pulled away from the dock.
“Y-Yeah. I think so. My ears hurt.”
“Yeah, with good reason. You were closest to that fucker when it went off.”
“Boys, we have a problem,” Marluxia said, pointing off to the west.
Xaldin’s boat was pulling away from the dock as well. And on it stood Xaldin, Xemnas, Larxene, and Saix.
Axel made a sound quite similar to a growl, straightening up. “I’ve just about had it with them,” he snapped. “Luxord! We got any weapons on this boat?”
“Inside the seats,” Luxord said, eyeing the other boat. “I’m gonna charge you extra for hazard pay, you know.”
Axel opened up a seat, pulling out a shotgun. “Note taken,” he said, loading the shotgun and getting it ready to fire. “These bitches are going down. And after I shoot them, I’m taking them to court for annoying the fuck out of me.”
Zexion shakily stood, and Demyx grabbed onto his hand, giving him a nervous look. Zexion smiled weakly.
“Don’t worry, Demyx. Everything’s going to work out. You’ll be home soon.”
“And we’ll find each other, right?”
“I promise.”
“Good,” Demyx said, and then he got a determined look on his face. He stood up, giving Axel that ‘I’m going to do something and you can’t stop me’ look.
“Give me one of those things. A big one.”
Axel’s eyebrows rose. “You? Give you a gun? But you-”
“I want to fight. Give me a gun.”
Xaldin’s boat was pulling closer. They weren’t getting to the exit of the bay fast enough; they would have to fight.
Axel gave Demyx a gun, showed him how to use it, and within moments everyone had a gun in hand except Luxord. Zexion took a deep breath, steeling his will as the smoke plume from the decimated lab rose in the distance.
He had to keep his promise. No matter what.
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