middleofsomewhere | The Will to Fight: Conclusion

The Will to Fight: Conclusion

The battles rage loud and ferocious at the gates of the city and off in the ruined wastelands of Erda, and on the walls a struggle of a different kind occurs. The team who stayed behind at the towers are small but determined as they move stoically across the walls to right the stones that have become misaligned, even as their friends battle not too far away.

The city begins to hum. It's a quiet hum, not loud enough to be heard out where the others are fighting but it vibrates even through stone. The recovering monks assure them that it is done, the wards are back up and no demon will be able to enter the city.

Eventually the battle is won, all three battles. The demons fought back and killed, a major blow to their gate system that will keep them back for hopefully a long time. Those waiting in the caverns return to the city and by the time they get there the illusions are gone. Everyone can see the world for what it really is.

But despite the ruins of their world the people are relieved, the adrenaline of the fight coursing through their veins and the mood is one of hope. They will build again, their people will survive.

All Voidtreckers please return to the Voidtrecker Express. Departure will be in a few hours

It has landed not too far from the city, cloaked to make it unnoticeable to the citizens, for all the good that does. No one has been particularly subtle this last week. People can begin regrouping, packing up the camp and getting any wounded not already healed to the train.

However roughly half an hour later another message appears on their SCA.

Passenger Persephone has requested we remain on system System #86525656412355 for an additional day to further assist the people of Erda. The Voidtrecker Express will depart on the morning of Day Fifteen of the month of Kazoo.

The train remains where it is, so the voidtreckers can use its facilities. There is definitely a lot that can be done to assist those of this world and the citizens will welcome any helping hands.

After an extra day they finally depart, returning to the void once more.

(OOC Note: Once the wards are up any characters who are demonic in nature will not be able to enter the city either!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He just frowned at the refusal, not lowering the offered sandwich.

"Eat. After everything you've been through today, you need the energy. Don't think I didn't notice you using your Limit Break, you must be exhausted even with your immediate supply of magic restored."

"Yeah, but after some rest I'll probably be fine." He didn't think Vexen was watching him that closely. "So if you want that, keep it."

"I have plenty more. They keep finding their way into my inventory somehow."

He shakes his head and holds up the one he kept for himself.

"You'll recover faster and more thoroughly if you eat."

"Okay okay." Demyx rolled his eyes a little and took the sandwich from him at last, stopping the music to unwrap it. "Were you always this annoying?"

At that, he snorts and shakes his head. Satisfied that Demyx is eating, he unwraps his own sandwich.

"Others would consider this a vast improvement. Truthfully, it is for the best that you never had much to do with me in the old Organization."

"Yeah, well, no offense but that's probably true." Demyx agreed. "That's okay, didn't have much to do with anyone." He took a bite of his sandwich.

"During my original time as a Nobody, I wouldn't quite say I forgot myself, as...by then, I had become so corrupt as to see the removal of my conscience as a freedom. Given the opportunity, I'd have had any of my fellow Nobodies on my operating table."

He sighed and started in on his own sandwich. A bit messy for his liking, but it wasn't as though he had anything to be working on at the moment.

"I would most certainly not have been concerned for your health, even with the assistance you gave me."

"I know that." Demyx answered with a bit of a sigh, but he was going to focus on the sandwich. "No one's concerned about my health." Which meant he'd have to take care of himself.

"That was just a reflex. I didn't really do anything."

"There is a reason I was speaking in past tense, Demyx. I was callous even to Zexion, despite Ienzo being incredibly precious to me. But I am very much a different Nobody now, one who is far closer to my human self. My emotions may be...quite dulled, but I care for those around me. And you have given me no reason to believe you aren't deserving of concern..."

He emphatically points at Demyx with the remainder of his sandwich.

"Particularly if your reflex was to come to the aid of someone in danger."

"That's not-" Demyx looked briefly stunned before he flushed lightly and tried to wave it off with his hand. "No, no, that's just, it was battle stuff, not like I'm that kind of guy at all or anything."

Really. He wasn't. He was sure he wasn't.

"But, uh, yeah, thanks for the sandwich? And the ether. It's not like um, that you didn't help me. Just. It was just battle stuff. We were on the same team for that so if we weren't anymore that's- that's cool!"

He raises his eyebrow at Demyx, then shakes his head with a huff.

"I didn't just give you the ether so you could keep being helpful, I wanted to make sure you had the best chance of getting out of there intact as possible. I was worried when I arrived...it looked as if you might well have died if there hadn't been healers immediately available."

Demyx was not sure about that. In his experience, teamwork wasn't exactly the kind of thing they did. It would take some time to learn something new.

"Oh that, yeah." Demyx said with a frown at the memory. He offered a sheepish nod.

"I just..uh...mistimed a defense move, really." He was such a liar.

"Why it happened isn't the point. The point is that I was worried about you."

He pauses to rub at his shoulder, wincing as he feels how tense it is. He can already tell he's going to be incredibly stiff once he gets some proper rest.

"Why do you think I yell at you for being careless?"

Why it happened didn't matter to Vexen, but why it happened was tearing him up. It was awful. He didn't know why he did that. He didn't know why he felt so awful at the thought of Reno getting struck instead.

He sucked in a slow breath. "You don't have to worry." He told him easily.

"That's easy. I'm annoying." He grinned and winked, but his heart wasn't really in it.

"Demyx." His tone is flat, but not quite angry. If anything, he sounds as though he's stating the obvious. "You would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't annoy me in some way or another. That does not actually mean I dislike you."

"Isn't that exactly what it means?" Demyx asked, tilting his head a little bit.

"For some people, perhaps. But if I didn't have a tolerance for behaviors I consider annoying, I would have had much more difficulty as Lord Ansem's apprentice. The man is a brilliant teacher and a wonderful leader, but the number of times we've argued about him spoiling Ienzo with ice cream..." Despite the complaint, his tone does indeed sound fond, if somewhat wistful. He misses Ansem and those simple days of childcare arguments both. There's also his complicated relationship with Braig, but...he doesn't want to talk about Braig.

"Oh, uh, I guess?" Demyx didn't really know. He didn't have that kind of frame of reference. His frame of reference for how things worked was the Organization.

"I don't really know about that."

"Then you've clearly never had a sibling-like relationship with someone." His mouth quirks into a bit of a wry smirk, but he doesn't intend to go into specifics. "People often have mixed feelings toward one another. You annoy me at times, yes. So do all the people I consider family, and I care for them regardless."

"I don't think so." Then again, Demyx couldn't really tell him if he had or not, he just didn't remember enough. What he remembered from his past was fragmented and fleeting. He'd remembered enough to know he didn't know any of them.

"Mixed, huh." He sighed. "That...I get. I mean..." He frowned. "Xiggy used to talk to me, before."

At that, he winced. The exact person he'd been trying to avoid talking about.

"Xigbar...he fooled us both, I suppose. He was among Lord Ansem's apprentices, himself, and yet...evidently, he knew of things Xehanort was hiding from us. He may well have betrayed us from the beginning."

"I don't think he thought enough about me to betray me." Demyx said, finishing his sandwich and licking jam off his fingers.

"He is more astute than he seems. But he certainly did seem...different, during the Keyblade War. As long as I'd known him, he'd never been one to take much of anything seriously. And yet..."

Xigbar hadn't once pestered any of them for entertainment, or made any of his usual jokes. All he'd seemed to care about was that black box they were supposed to be looking for.

"Oh I didn't mean then. I mean the part where he told me to go get killed." He said with a nervous little chuckle, waving it off.

Nothing much was lost, right?

"You were long gone by then Vexy."

"He...what?" He frowns at that, seemingly turning something over in his mind. "He gave you a task he knew you would not survive, during the time when Xemnas was still thinking to use the Organization to create his false Kingdom Hearts?"

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