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!)

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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?"

"Yeah...you don't know what happened after Castle Oblivion?" Demyx asked him, looking a bit surprised, but honestly, who would've told Vexen?

"Uh, okay, let me think. You guys didn't come back, then Roxas freaked out and bailed. Axel went after him, but after that when he couldn't bring Rox back, he wasn't sticking around really either." Demyx said with a bit of a frown.

"With you know, like everyone dead...you, Zex, Marluxia, Larxene...Rox was gone, Axel too, like there wasn't anyone else? I was doing all kinds of jobs that weren't really to my strengths. And-" He sighed.

"He sent me after that guy you know, Roxas' Somebody. To wake him up. I managed to get out of there the first time, but you know, orders are orders so, next time had to make it count." His back had been against the wall, and he fell in battle as he should've, probably. That kid had taken great pleasure in wiping his existence off the face of the world.

"...You were alone, with those you had expected to rely upon either dead or deserted."

He frowns for a moment then sighs. Though he had been the first to fall in Castle Oblivion, he can understand to an extent. He also has to wonder if Zexion might have felt similarly, left to face a powerful enemy alone, with both his shield and his blade broken...the thought of it is like jagged steel through his developing heart.

"And of those who remained, Xaldin was determined to thoroughly discard his humanity, Saix was little more than Xemnas' puppet, and Luxord was no more suited to direct confrontation than you. Those who ought have been sent to pressure Sora in your stead considered it more appropriate to risk your life than theirs."

"I didn't really rely on them." Demyx admitted. "They ran me all over the place. Steal from Olympus. Make some kind of deal with Hades." None of that was really in the realm of things they left to him. They were more high stakes.

"Bring Roxas back from Sora." He finished.

"I think they just didn't need me anymore." So when he came back around he was ticked off, even more than when he'd gotten benched.

"Well. Seems like a theme." He offered a little smile. No one needed him and he was fine with it.

He straightens up enough to cross his arms, looking at Demyx with a raised eyebrow.

"How so? Have you forgotten how vital you were to saving Roxas, as well as to getting Lord Ansem home? I was not so desperate for your help simply because I didn't feel like delivering them myself."

"I'm just the messenger." Demyx responded. "I don't really think I did all that much."

Messenger, delivery boy, same thing.

"All I did was bring things to Ienzo. Two bodies and Ansem. You guys could've done it if you weren't busy."

He was skeptical at all that they wanted him, they just didn't have options.

"Perhaps, but it would have been a risk. Xehanort's Heartless was already likely to be suspicious of me. He knew someone within the Organization had rescued Lord Ansem from him, and myself and Saix were the only ones with any sort of motivation to do so. We needed someone Xehanort would not suspect."

He gave a faint, but knowing, smirk.

"And you cannot tell me that anyone would ever suspect you and Saix of being part of the same conspiracy."

"Course not." Demyx said, lightly. "He yelled at me the most."

He sighed a little. "Well, I guess, glad to help?" He didn't know what his future held, or if he even had one, but he'd gotten out of being killed so far.

"Survived another day. That's enough, probably."

"It's certainly an accomplishment in its own right, this past week."

He reached over to give Demyx a light, brief pat on the shoulder.

"And your help has been very much appreciated, both here and during the Keyblade War."

Demyx blushed lightly under the praise, not quite sure how to answer it really, he just rested his chin on his sitar in response, a little embarrassed.

Something was probably wrong with him. Maybe he was sick.

"It would also be appreciated, however, if you actually tried to take care of yourself a little bit. You've been worrying me."

Especially with using the dark corridors unprotected, but he's already been thoroughly clear on that point.

His eyes widened like he was surprised and then he laughed a little bit.

"Geeze, way to nag me." He complained lightly.

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