[He actually snorts a laugh at the polite afterthought. Well, at least he's making an effort to be civil about this; from the way Roxas reacted to the situation, he wasn't quite sure what to expect, but while he's not going to just stand by and let Terra make claims that just plain aren't true, he genuinely doesn't think this is malicious.]
I'll be here.
[And so he waits at the table, a can of some kind of fizzy fruit-flavored drink in one hand and his communicator in the other, perusing the network for anything interesting in the meantime.]
[Terra strides into the mess hall five minutes later. He picks Axel's shock of red hair out immediately and starts toward him... only to veer off course as he draws near.
Keeping Axel in his peripheral vision, Terra takes a moment to scan the large room around them. At one point, he stoops down a bit to check under the tables. He definitely seems to be looking for something.
[Terra isn't exactly subtle. Even without being very tall and strapping and conspicuous, his stopping to look under tables couldn't be more obvious if he'd been trying to draw attention to himself.]
He's not here, Terra. [Axel rests his elbow on the table and props his jaw against his fist, looking a little unimpressed.] I figured it'd be best if he wasn't present for this particular discussion, you understand.
[He shoves the seat across from him out away from the table with one foot.]
Come siddown and talk to me. I feel like there's more to this subject than either one of us is aware of on his own.
[Axel may someday realize that subtlety isn't Terra's strong suit in general.
Terra's head jerks up at Axel's remark. He straightens and turns to face him fully.
So, Ven was here. He went right to Axel, just as Terra had guessed he might. But then Axel sent him away after he got that message over the phone.
I shouldn't have contacted him. If I'd just kept searching... Terra suffers a small twinge of regret. Then again, with as big as Thesa is, he could have been wandering around for days.
... Well, he was wanting to have a little talk with Axel alone, anyway.
After taking one more quick look around, Terra walks stiffly over to Axel's table.
He doesn't sit down. Doesn't even glance at the chair offered.]
What did you do to him?
[He's not quite glaring yet, but his expression is very tight.]
[The hostility isn't unexpected, but it's still somehow surprising. Axel had hoped this could be a civil conversation, but after Roxas had come to him so thoroughly horrified by his experience, he's not about to just sit here and let Terra make things out to be his fault. He sits forward and folds his hands together, resting his chin against them, and looks at the other man with slightly narrowed eyes.]
You sure that's how you wanna begin this conversation, champ?
[It's gonna take a lot more than that to rattle Axel, Terra. He's had razor sharp lances chucked straight at his head and didn't even flinch; you're small potatoes, as far as he's concerned.
Axel's eyes flick down to Terra's hand, then back up, but he doesn't move his head, or his hands, and instead just arches one eyebrow.]
I challenged him to a fight, he kicked my ass, and we became friends. [He lowers his hands then, folding his arms on the table.] Twelve years ago. Look, I dunno what sort of weird time travel nonsense is really going on with this place, but if you knew Ven when he was as old as Roxas looks, you're livin' in the past. Like more than a decade in the past. I never saw Ven again, okay?
I'm sorry that maybe they look alike and it's dredging up some issues for you, but Roxas isn't Ven.
[Terra doesn't budge an inch. In fact, right after getting that answer to his question, he seems to sort of zone out, his gaze sliding off Axel and fixing on some point in the distance.
You can almost see the little wheels turning in his head. Or, you know, trying to turn. Trying very hard to turn.
(One minute, just let him set up a big mental wall here, tape heaps of mental notes to it, mentally connect a lot of those notes with mental red string... Add in the new addition that Axel's from around Sora's time...)
Okay, back to Axel. Who definitely said something else but Terra sure didn't catch it and it probably wasn't too important since Terra didn't hear a 'Ven' in there?]
Having spoken with Terra a few times by now, Axel's used to the way he seems to have selective hearing and only pays attention to what he is directly focused on at any given moment. He guesses that's fine; it's easier to tackle one question at a time than try and actually explain a lot of the things he's become aware of in the past few years. He's having a little trouble processing all of that himself, and he's always been good at... well, receiving more than one thought at a time.]
A world called Radiant Garden. [He hesitates, then decides if he's going to get anywhere with Terra, he's probably going to have to throw him a bone or two.] I grew up there.
[Radiant Garden... and that's Axel's home world? Huh.]
I've been there before.
[And, more importantly, he knows Ven's been there before, too. But when exactly did Ven meet Axel? Around the time Terra ran into him and Aqua and they all fought that Unversed together? Or did Ven go back later? Before the Graveyard?
Yeah? [He can't really be surprised. If he's a Keyblade wielder, worldhopping was no big deal, right?] You'd hardly recognize it these days. S'a shame.
[He pauses to think for a moment, a hand on his chin.]
Bear in mind, it was... more than ten years ago, from where I'm standing. I only met him that one time, and it was only for maybe half an hour. [He shakes his head a little.] He seemed bummed, when I found him sitting in the square. He had a... Huh. You know, he had like this... wooden sword thing, but it looked like a Keyblade, now that I think about it. [He'd forgotten about that, actually.] I didn't know what that was, back then, I just thought it was a weird fancy wooden sword.
Anyway. He seemed bummed, so I tried to cheer him up a little. Challenged him to a fight, he whupped me, and then I told him I'd see him around, 'cuz we were friends now. [He looks up at Terra.] That was the first and last time I ever saw him.
[Terra murmurs. He gets what Axel means, though: something happened to Radiant Garden before the Storm tore it apart.
Terra's right hand joins his left on the table top.
All right. So, Ven seemed 'bummed' when Axel met him. That... doesn't really help Terra figure out the timing. Ven could have been feeling down about a lot of different things. Their parting ways on less than great terms after the Unversed fight, Terra refusing to take him along on his mission a while after that. Or he could have been upset about whatever happened in the Graveyard, if Ven somehow got out of there unscathed despite Xehanort and Vanitas' efforts. (Despite Terra seeming to remember the Storm swallowing the world around them after his battle with Xehanort.)
Whenever it was, Ven had the wooden Keyblade Terra gave him with him. That thought keeps the anger still simmering in Terra's heart at bay for a few moments longer, even when Axel has the gall to continue insisting he never saw Ven again after that day.
Terra frowns down at the table.]
He didn't seem like he was injured or anything? Before you two fought?
[He didn't see him again, you walnut. Got it memorized? Sheesh, try and keep up.
Axel resists the urge to roll his eyes at Terra's grumbled comment. Yes, the Storm ruined everything, but since he went back into stasis and got some memories back, and Sora and Roxas are both from a future he hasn't even experienced yet, clearly there are some shenanigans afoot.
He looks a little indignant at Terra's inquiry.]
Putting aside that I resent you think I would have actually injured someone in a friendly spar, no, he was fully intact and perfectly fine both before and after our encounter. [He sighs a little and gives Terra a serious look.] I'm not sure if you're waiting for me to flub my story, or what, but I'm trying to level with you, here: Roxas and Ven are not the same person. In the time period that Roxas and I are here from, Ven would literally be like my age, and time shenanigans aside, I know my best friend, okay? I'd know him if I were blind and deaf--he's Roxas, however much he and Ven may look alike.
[Not that he really remembers Ven's face too clearly, but spiky blond hair and big blue eyes do stand out in his memory, so if it's been a while since Terra's seen him, too, he could understand the mistake, but this is getting a little ridiculous.]
[At first, just as before, Terra tries to tune Axel out after he gets his answer. Except this time Axel's voice keeps needling its way back into his head.
Terra's frown deepens and he inhales slowly through his nose.
He isn't Ven, Axel says over and over, in so many different words, he isn't Ven, he isn't Ven.
He isn't Ven.
Something finally just snaps, a dam crumbling inside Terra's chest, all the dark anger and frustration and desperation spilling over into a yell.]
He looks just like him! [His right hand comes right back up off the table and then he's gesturing fiercely through his argument.] Same face, same hair, same eyes! He even has the same voice!
[Okay, darker eyebrows and jury's still out on personality, but.]
I don't know why he still looks so young! Maybe it's because he lost his heart and that did... something to his body!
[Despite the associations with both his hair color and his element of choice, Axel is a very easygoing person. He rarely loses his temper, and shouts more rarely still, but one surefire way to get under his skin is to not listen. He can appreciate that Terra isn't prepared to just swallow this pill whole. He can accept that he's not ready to just take the word of a mostly passing acquaintance at full face value and be satisfied with the idea that he's wrong. But Axel really detests repeating himself, and when there's a bloom of dark energy around Terra's aura as he lowers his head and raises his voice, it sets Axel's teeth on edge. This man doesn't feel like a bad person, and he can understand that he's frustrated, but after spending so much time steeped in Darkness himself, Axel can't help but feel threatened by it now that he's finally free. Terra isn't a Heartless, isn't a Nobody, but there's a wildness to the shadows of his soul, an untamed and dangerous presence about that underlying dark energy within him. It isn't hard to tell that Terra could utilize Darkness easily, the way Riku does, but he has power without skill, and strong Darkness wielded without proper technique is far more dangerous than an errant spell or physical weapons held with clumsy hands.
Heart or no heart, Axel's sympathies only go so far, however, and the last thing he wants anywhere near his best friend is an angry man with an artless grasp on his own Darkness. When Terra shouts, Axel gets to his feet slowly--he doesn't want Terra to think he's being aggressive--and rests his palms on the table.]
That isn't what happens when you lose your heart. It can cause physical changes, sure, but it doesn't make you regress, or freeze you at the age at which it was lost. [His voice is low, level, calm but cold, and he fixes Terra with a withering look.] If that were the case, I'd have the same problem.
[He's not sure Terra is in a position to connect dots right now, but while it might be easier to just explain that Roxas is Sora's Nobody, it rubs Axel the wrong way to do so. Those aren't his beans to spill, and more than that, Roxas is his own person, even if he was born of the darker corners of Sora's heart. He refuses to just paint him as nothing more than the rejected pieces of someone else, no matter how dense Terra is being, and if that means making a confession of his own lack of heart, then so be it. Roxas had been little more than a tool in others' aspirations for far too long, and Axel refuses to use him, even for the sake of explanation.]
[Shoot, another perfectly logical theory cut down in its prime. So Nobodies age... Terra turns his head away, aiming his scowl at the nearest wall.]
Then it must have been something else. Whatever Xehanort was trying to do in the Graveyard... [Something about some weapon, some war.] That light I saw...
[He moves around the table, his attention shifting to the door he just came through a short while ago.]
Or something else happened to him after that night.
Axel is a very laid back person, and it takes a lot to really get on his nerves, but you have accomplished it in record time.]
Terra. I know you're not deaf. Which means you're just ignoring what I'm saying. Which is really annoying, and honestly it's just plain rude. I get that you don't get it. And frankly, you don't have to get it. And at this point, I don't care if you don't get it. You don't have to understand, but you need to accept what I'm telling you: Roxas. Is. Not. Ven. He never was, and he never will be. Roxas didn't even exist twelve years ago, okay?
[He presses his thumb against the ridge of his eyebrow, feeling a headache coming on. He had hoped it wouldn't come to an actual argument, or threats being exchanged, but Axel failed to protect Roxas once already, and he's not going to do it again.]
You can go on thinking whatever deluded nonsense you want, it's really no skin off my nose, but if you keep harassing my friend, I'm not just going to stand idly by. Do I make myself clear?
[Terra comes to an abrupt stop, though he goes on staring at the door, at the exit and the way back to his search for Ven, for a minute longer.]
Which means I'm ignoring you... Or that I don't believe what you're saying. A lot of people have said a lot of things to me before. And a lot of what they said turned out to be lies. Lies that hurt people. Lies that hurt my friends.
[His fingernails dig into the meat of his palms at the memory of Xehanort's words in particular. The old man had sounded so... so sincere. Like he really understood and he really cared and he...]
Why should I believe anything you say? Why should I just... accept it? What if you're just trying to trick me, too? You're part of that Organization. You said yourself there's... What was it? Dirty work... involved? Riku told me your leader has caused chaos throughout the worlds, as well. Which doesn't really make sense. From the way that Demyx guy explained things, it sounded like all your group was doing was destroying dangerous monsters and freeing the hearts inside them. What's dirty about that? Ven told me he left the group, too. I wish I'd asked him why.
[A pause and he glares over at Axel.]
You ignored me, too, by the way. You had nothing to say when I told you this boy looks exactly like Ven. Looks and sounds exactly like Ven. And he does! Maybe you forgot after twelve years or maybe you know more than you let on, but I'm telling you now: he's identical to Ven.
[Except for the eyebrows.]
That doesn't just happen. People don't just... have the same face and the same hair and the same voice. And wield the Keyblade, on top of all that!
[He punctuates his shout by snapping his right hand out. Light explodes in a whirl of gears around his hand and wrist, and then there's Ends of the Earth, the hilt grasped tight between his fingers.]
So let me make myself clear: if I find out you hurt him... that it was you or the Organization who stole his heart, or did... whatever that kept him young, that made him lose his memory again... if I find out you hurt him in any way, I will find you and I will put an end to you.
I know my best friend, too. And that boy... is him!
[Axel takes a deep breath, but manages to refrain from getting to his feet like he really wants to. Getting angry about this won't fix anything, as Terra has already proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. He's angry, and it's obvious in the way Darkness swirls around his aura that despite his apparent confidence when it comes to battle, he's got no self control, and he's quick to misjudge his opponent.]
Oh? So I guess you just know all about me, then, don't'cha? [His hands are folded again, his chin resting on them, and if Terra thinks he's going to rile him up, he's sorely mistaken.] Tell me this, then: if you already know so much about me, and you came here expecting me to lie to you, why did you contact me at all? Did you think, 'golly, I'll sure show him and that Organization, I'll just rebut every single thing he says, like a big idiot who has no idea what he's talking about. That'll teach 'em'? Because that's literally all you've done. [His eyes narrow, but he still doesn't move.] If the Organization is so bad, then why would your bestest best buddy have joined up in the first place? Sounds to me like maybe you don't know him as well as you think you do.
[Because he doesn't know Roxas. Regardless of any resemblance to Ven, Roxas isn't Ven, and that's the end of it, but if Terra won't be moved, then it isn't Axel's job to change his mind. He shakes his head.]
I listened. I heard every word you said. And I told you, I don't know why he might look the same, but I can tell you that it is literally physically impossible for them to be the same person.
[When Terra summons a Keyblade, though, instead of looking surprised or alarmed, Axel just rolls his eyes.]
Oh please. Put that away, Captain Trigger Happy. You're a hundred years too early to try and take me on, trust me. What kind of idiot tips his hand before there's even a fight? [Now he gets to his feet, reveling in the small degree of altitude he does have on Terra in that moment, even if Terra out-bulks him a good bit. He's taller, so nyah. He rolls one shoulder back and tilts his head to one side with an audible crack before leaning forward and resting his hands on the table, giving Terra a level look.]
Whatever you think you know, whatever you think I don't remember, you're wrong. That boy is Roxas, and nobody else, and if you so much as take a single step toward him that he doesn't invite, you will regret it. [He straightens again, just in case Terra forgot that he's taller--nyah--and his lip curls slightly in distaste.]
You know who else looks a lot like Roxas? [A beat, for dramatic effect, probably.] Sora. Maybe you should go talk to him about this, since you won't listen to a big bad Organization villain like me. [He makes a sound halfway between a scoff and a snort of laughter.] Just keep in mind that I didn't have to talk to you in the first place. I told you where I was, I waited here for you. I extended you an alliance long before this nonsense. I wanted to try and be allies, but if that counts for nothing, then I guess so be it.
[He steps back from the table and turns to head toward the exit, but not before shooting Terra one last piercing look.]
Roxas defected from the Organization, but what I guess he didn't tell you is that I did, too. And I died so we could both stay that way. So don't think for one second I'm scared of you and your hot temper and your big fat stupid Keyblade, kid. [He doesn't care if Terra probably isn't that much younger than him, he's making a point.] I'd die again before I let someone tell Roxas he's anyone but himself, but not before I made sure they couldn't repeat it.
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I'll be here.
[And so he waits at the table, a can of some kind of fizzy fruit-flavored drink in one hand and his communicator in the other, perusing the network for anything interesting in the meantime.]
action
Keeping Axel in his peripheral vision, Terra takes a moment to scan the large room around them. At one point, he stoops down a bit to check under the tables. He definitely seems to be looking for something.
Or somebody.
Or a Nobody.]
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He's not here, Terra. [Axel rests his elbow on the table and props his jaw against his fist, looking a little unimpressed.] I figured it'd be best if he wasn't present for this particular discussion, you understand.
[He shoves the seat across from him out away from the table with one foot.]
Come siddown and talk to me. I feel like there's more to this subject than either one of us is aware of on his own.
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Terra's head jerks up at Axel's remark. He straightens and turns to face him fully.
So, Ven was here. He went right to Axel, just as Terra had guessed he might. But then Axel sent him away after he got that message over the phone.
I shouldn't have contacted him. If I'd just kept searching... Terra suffers a small twinge of regret. Then again, with as big as Thesa is, he could have been wandering around for days.
... Well, he was wanting to have a little talk with Axel alone, anyway.
After taking one more quick look around, Terra walks stiffly over to Axel's table.
He doesn't sit down. Doesn't even glance at the chair offered.]
What did you do to him?
[He's not quite glaring yet, but his expression is very tight.]
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You sure that's how you wanna begin this conversation, champ?
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His left hand drops onto the table with a solid 'thunk'.]
What did you do to my friend?
[He pronounces each word with extra emphasis. Yep, that's apparently his preferred starting point for this conversation.]
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Axel's eyes flick down to Terra's hand, then back up, but he doesn't move his head, or his hands, and instead just arches one eyebrow.]
I challenged him to a fight, he kicked my ass, and we became friends. [He lowers his hands then, folding his arms on the table.] Twelve years ago. Look, I dunno what sort of weird time travel nonsense is really going on with this place, but if you knew Ven when he was as old as Roxas looks, you're livin' in the past. Like more than a decade in the past. I never saw Ven again, okay?
I'm sorry that maybe they look alike and it's dredging up some issues for you, but Roxas isn't Ven.
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What? [He shakes his head and leans more of his weight against the table. Maybe if he just... breaks this down into pieces first...]
You're from Sora and Riku's time?
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Time is pretty meaningless here, apparently. I'm a little behind Sora, but it seems like you got left way back in the dust, my friend.
[He gestures to the chair again.]
Now are ya gonna siddown so we can talk about this like civilized-type people, or are you gonna keep bein' mad at me when I'm tryin' to help.
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You can almost see the little wheels turning in his head. Or, you know, trying to turn. Trying very hard to turn.
(One minute, just let him set up a big mental wall here, tape heaps of mental notes to it, mentally connect a lot of those notes with mental red string... Add in the new addition that Axel's from around Sora's time...)
Okay, back to Axel. Who definitely said something else but Terra sure didn't catch it and it probably wasn't too important since Terra didn't hear a 'Ven' in there?]
Where did you first meet Ven?
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Having spoken with Terra a few times by now, Axel's used to the way he seems to have selective hearing and only pays attention to what he is directly focused on at any given moment. He guesses that's fine; it's easier to tackle one question at a time than try and actually explain a lot of the things he's become aware of in the past few years. He's having a little trouble processing all of that himself, and he's always been good at... well, receiving more than one thought at a time.]
A world called Radiant Garden. [He hesitates, then decides if he's going to get anywhere with Terra, he's probably going to have to throw him a bone or two.] I grew up there.
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I've been there before.
[And, more importantly, he knows Ven's been there before, too. But when exactly did Ven meet Axel? Around the time Terra ran into him and Aqua and they all fought that Unversed together? Or did Ven go back later? Before the Graveyard?
... After it?]
What was he like, when you met him?
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[He pauses to think for a moment, a hand on his chin.]
Bear in mind, it was... more than ten years ago, from where I'm standing. I only met him that one time, and it was only for maybe half an hour. [He shakes his head a little.] He seemed bummed, when I found him sitting in the square. He had a... Huh. You know, he had like this... wooden sword thing, but it looked like a Keyblade, now that I think about it. [He'd forgotten about that, actually.] I didn't know what that was, back then, I just thought it was a weird fancy wooden sword.
Anyway. He seemed bummed, so I tried to cheer him up a little. Challenged him to a fight, he whupped me, and then I told him I'd see him around, 'cuz we were friends now. [He looks up at Terra.] That was the first and last time I ever saw him.
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[Terra murmurs. He gets what Axel means, though: something happened to Radiant Garden before the Storm tore it apart.
Terra's right hand joins his left on the table top.
All right. So, Ven seemed 'bummed' when Axel met him. That... doesn't really help Terra figure out the timing. Ven could have been feeling down about a lot of different things. Their parting ways on less than great terms after the Unversed fight, Terra refusing to take him along on his mission a while after that. Or he could have been upset about whatever happened in the Graveyard, if Ven somehow got out of there unscathed despite Xehanort and Vanitas' efforts. (Despite Terra seeming to remember the Storm swallowing the world around them after his battle with Xehanort.)
Whenever it was, Ven had the wooden Keyblade Terra gave him with him. That thought keeps the anger still simmering in Terra's heart at bay for a few moments longer, even when Axel has the gall to continue insisting he never saw Ven again after that day.
Terra frowns down at the table.]
He didn't seem like he was injured or anything? Before you two fought?
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Axel resists the urge to roll his eyes at Terra's grumbled comment. Yes, the Storm ruined everything, but since he went back into stasis and got some memories back, and Sora and Roxas are both from a future he hasn't even experienced yet, clearly there are some shenanigans afoot.
He looks a little indignant at Terra's inquiry.]
Putting aside that I resent you think I would have actually injured someone in a friendly spar, no, he was fully intact and perfectly fine both before and after our encounter. [He sighs a little and gives Terra a serious look.] I'm not sure if you're waiting for me to flub my story, or what, but I'm trying to level with you, here: Roxas and Ven are not the same person. In the time period that Roxas and I are here from, Ven would literally be like my age, and time shenanigans aside, I know my best friend, okay? I'd know him if I were blind and deaf--he's Roxas, however much he and Ven may look alike.
[Not that he really remembers Ven's face too clearly, but spiky blond hair and big blue eyes do stand out in his memory, so if it's been a while since Terra's seen him, too, he could understand the mistake, but this is getting a little ridiculous.]
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Terra's frown deepens and he inhales slowly through his nose.
He isn't Ven, Axel says over and over, in so many different words, he isn't Ven, he isn't Ven.
He isn't Ven.
Something finally just snaps, a dam crumbling inside Terra's chest, all the dark anger and frustration and desperation spilling over into a yell.]
He looks just like him! [His right hand comes right back up off the table and then he's gesturing fiercely through his argument.] Same face, same hair, same eyes! He even has the same voice!
[Okay, darker eyebrows and jury's still out on personality, but.]
I don't know why he still looks so young! Maybe it's because he lost his heart and that did... something to his body!
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Heart or no heart, Axel's sympathies only go so far, however, and the last thing he wants anywhere near his best friend is an angry man with an artless grasp on his own Darkness. When Terra shouts, Axel gets to his feet slowly--he doesn't want Terra to think he's being aggressive--and rests his palms on the table.]
That isn't what happens when you lose your heart. It can cause physical changes, sure, but it doesn't make you regress, or freeze you at the age at which it was lost. [His voice is low, level, calm but cold, and he fixes Terra with a withering look.] If that were the case, I'd have the same problem.
[He's not sure Terra is in a position to connect dots right now, but while it might be easier to just explain that Roxas is Sora's Nobody, it rubs Axel the wrong way to do so. Those aren't his beans to spill, and more than that, Roxas is his own person, even if he was born of the darker corners of Sora's heart. He refuses to just paint him as nothing more than the rejected pieces of someone else, no matter how dense Terra is being, and if that means making a confession of his own lack of heart, then so be it. Roxas had been little more than a tool in others' aspirations for far too long, and Axel refuses to use him, even for the sake of explanation.]
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Then it must have been something else. Whatever Xehanort was trying to do in the Graveyard... [Something about some weapon, some war.] That light I saw...
[He moves around the table, his attention shifting to the door he just came through a short while ago.]
Or something else happened to him after that night.
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Axel is a very laid back person, and it takes a lot to really get on his nerves, but you have accomplished it in record time.]
Terra. I know you're not deaf. Which means you're just ignoring what I'm saying. Which is really annoying, and honestly it's just plain rude. I get that you don't get it. And frankly, you don't have to get it. And at this point, I don't care if you don't get it. You don't have to understand, but you need to accept what I'm telling you: Roxas. Is. Not. Ven. He never was, and he never will be. Roxas didn't even exist twelve years ago, okay?
[He presses his thumb against the ridge of his eyebrow, feeling a headache coming on. He had hoped it wouldn't come to an actual argument, or threats being exchanged, but Axel failed to protect Roxas once already, and he's not going to do it again.]
You can go on thinking whatever deluded nonsense you want, it's really no skin off my nose, but if you keep harassing my friend, I'm not just going to stand idly by. Do I make myself clear?
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Which means I'm ignoring you... Or that I don't believe what you're saying. A lot of people have said a lot of things to me before. And a lot of what they said turned out to be lies. Lies that hurt people. Lies that hurt my friends.
[His fingernails dig into the meat of his palms at the memory of Xehanort's words in particular. The old man had sounded so... so sincere. Like he really understood and he really cared and he...]
Why should I believe anything you say? Why should I just... accept it? What if you're just trying to trick me, too? You're part of that Organization. You said yourself there's... What was it? Dirty work... involved? Riku told me your leader has caused chaos throughout the worlds, as well. Which doesn't really make sense. From the way that Demyx guy explained things, it sounded like all your group was doing was destroying dangerous monsters and freeing the hearts inside them. What's dirty about that? Ven told me he left the group, too. I wish I'd asked him why.
[A pause and he glares over at Axel.]
You ignored me, too, by the way. You had nothing to say when I told you this boy looks exactly like Ven. Looks and sounds exactly like Ven. And he does! Maybe you forgot after twelve years or maybe you know more than you let on, but I'm telling you now: he's identical to Ven.
[Except for the eyebrows.]
That doesn't just happen. People don't just... have the same face and the same hair and the same voice. And wield the Keyblade, on top of all that!
[He punctuates his shout by snapping his right hand out. Light explodes in a whirl of gears around his hand and wrist, and then there's Ends of the Earth, the hilt grasped tight between his fingers.]
So let me make myself clear: if I find out you hurt him... that it was you or the Organization who stole his heart, or did... whatever that kept him young, that made him lose his memory again... if I find out you hurt him in any way, I will find you and I will put an end to you.
I know my best friend, too. And that boy... is him!
[(Citation needed.)]
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Oh? So I guess you just know all about me, then, don't'cha? [His hands are folded again, his chin resting on them, and if Terra thinks he's going to rile him up, he's sorely mistaken.] Tell me this, then: if you already know so much about me, and you came here expecting me to lie to you, why did you contact me at all? Did you think, 'golly, I'll sure show him and that Organization, I'll just rebut every single thing he says, like a big idiot who has no idea what he's talking about. That'll teach 'em'? Because that's literally all you've done. [His eyes narrow, but he still doesn't move.] If the Organization is so bad, then why would your bestest best buddy have joined up in the first place? Sounds to me like maybe you don't know him as well as you think you do.
[Because he doesn't know Roxas. Regardless of any resemblance to Ven, Roxas isn't Ven, and that's the end of it, but if Terra won't be moved, then it isn't Axel's job to change his mind. He shakes his head.]
I listened. I heard every word you said. And I told you, I don't know why he might look the same, but I can tell you that it is literally physically impossible for them to be the same person.
[When Terra summons a Keyblade, though, instead of looking surprised or alarmed, Axel just rolls his eyes.]
Oh please. Put that away, Captain Trigger Happy. You're a hundred years too early to try and take me on, trust me. What kind of idiot tips his hand before there's even a fight? [Now he gets to his feet, reveling in the small degree of altitude he does have on Terra in that moment, even if Terra out-bulks him a good bit. He's taller, so nyah. He rolls one shoulder back and tilts his head to one side with an audible crack before leaning forward and resting his hands on the table, giving Terra a level look.]
Whatever you think you know, whatever you think I don't remember, you're wrong. That boy is Roxas, and nobody else, and if you so much as take a single step toward him that he doesn't invite, you will regret it. [He straightens again, just in case Terra forgot that he's taller--nyah--and his lip curls slightly in distaste.]
You know who else looks a lot like Roxas? [A beat, for dramatic effect, probably.] Sora. Maybe you should go talk to him about this, since you won't listen to a big bad Organization villain like me. [He makes a sound halfway between a scoff and a snort of laughter.] Just keep in mind that I didn't have to talk to you in the first place. I told you where I was, I waited here for you. I extended you an alliance long before this nonsense. I wanted to try and be allies, but if that counts for nothing, then I guess so be it.
[He steps back from the table and turns to head toward the exit, but not before shooting Terra one last piercing look.]
Roxas defected from the Organization, but what I guess he didn't tell you is that I did, too. And I died so we could both stay that way. So don't think for one second I'm scared of you and your hot temper and your big fat stupid Keyblade, kid. [He doesn't care if Terra probably isn't that much younger than him, he's making a point.] I'd die again before I let someone tell Roxas he's anyone but himself, but not before I made sure they couldn't repeat it.