Seasalt (AkuSai)

Nightmares, Part II

Even though it was dark, Lea could see perfectly.

Here he was again in his own personal hell, Castle Oblivion. The white, pristine hallways of the building were one thing, of course, but he was in a back room. It was clouded by the lack of light and it reeked of the scent of chemicals, metal, and death.

He was back, but he wouldn't understand exactly what that meant until his body would decide to jerk him awake. All of this was fresh- new to him despite reliving it what felt like hundreds of times before. Lea couldn't control himself or his words, he found, watching the situation through his own cold eyes. Axel's eyes.

Zexion was there, back against a wall, not more than a few feet away. He was young- younger than most of the organization by a fair bit. And in times like these, it wasn't hard for Axel to notice how youthful he looked despite the bags under his eyes and the mature look he held. Fear and confusion was obvious in the young man's face, and despite not being able to see one of his eyes, his gaze proved to be just as innocent as the rest of him.

He looked like a tired, scared child.

Axel stood there, feet planted firmly on the ground behind one of Vexen's most recent experiments, the Riku Replica. He had gathered him up earlier for a task that he hadn't specified so that they could appear in the room he heard Zexion stumble into. The Cloaked Schemer had just finished a battle with the real Riku, who had, from the looks of it, totally beaten his ass. He had been leaning against the wall with an arm, frustrated and obviously injured. When Zexion had noticed the two of them enter the room, he had been frightened by the sight of the Replica. A panicked gasp made that rather obvious.

And despite all of that, Axel felt nothing but emptiness and the smallest bits of amusement. His plan was coming together rather nicely, and the next step was getting rid of this traitor. Even the fear in Zexion's eyes did nothing to persuade Axel to stop himself from what he was about to do.

But Lea? Despite watching through Axel's eyes, he wasn't bound to the emotionless chains that came with a chest void of a beating heart. He wasn't bogged down by contempt like his nobody had been. He wanted to stop himself. Stop what he knew was about to happen.

Lea felt just as scared as the young man in front of him.

Riku Replica hadn't said a word to Zexion, face blank. And yet, somehow, the schemer was able to fabricate some sort of positive idea from Axel and the replica's appearance. He visibly relaxed, leaning forward slightly while he spoke. His voice was cautious, riddled with the lingering panic from the earlier scare they had given the poor man.

"Oh.. Oh, yes. The replica, of course.."

A type of uncertain relief broke out across his face. He had no clue that the two of them were not there to aid him. It made Lea's chest ache. He wanted nothing more than to scream out at Zexion to run.

"We can use this Riku to defeat the real one." He pushed himself off of the wall to stand now. Lea couldn't help but to think that it must have hurt, with how many injuries he had sustained from his earlier fight. Blood had even dripped on to the floor beneath the boy. Axel still said nothing. Zexion noticed his silence. He had been looking for a response. "Axel?"

Lea finally felt himself speak.. No, it was Axel speaking. Not Lea.

"Wouldn't you like to be real?"