The forest clearing had gone quiet. The Dusk's grotesque body swayed in the moonlight, zipper-mouth twitching faintly. The Assassins surrounded them in a loose circle, blade-arms gleaming with menace, waiting for a single command from their master.
But neither moved first.
Skuld's keyblade hung ready at her side, though her eyes were not on the Nobodies. They were locked on the man before her—the man she once knew, the boy she had laughed with in the streets of Radiant Garden.
"Lea…"
Her voice cracked on his name, trembling between anger and heartbreak. She said it again, louder this time, as if daring him to deny it. "Lea."
Axel's smirk wavered. Just for a second, his mask slipped. Then his green eyes narrowed and he let out a long, measured breath. A smile tugged back at his lips, but it was thinner now, less convincing.
"…Been a while, hasn't it, X?" he said, using the old nickname.
Behind them, leaning against a boulder with his stomach wound still covered with blood, Helios chuckled softly. He looked for all the world as though he were watching a stage play rather than sitting in the middle of a death trap. He had known Skuld was trailing him from the mansion—that knowledge was why none of Axel's earlier threats had rattled him.
He tilted his head, smirk cutting sharp across his face. "And the show begins."
Skuld ignored him. She stepped forward, past the Assassins' blades. Their segmented arms twitched at the movement, but she didn't falter. She grabbed Axel's hand.
Her grip was firm, unyielding. "Why?" Her voice broke into a demand. "Why would you join them—the Organization? You know who founded it. Xehanort. The same man who caged me, who experimented on me like I was nothing. Why stand with him?"
Axel's smile thinned further. He tried to dodge, voice dripping sarcasm. "Wow. Straight for the heart, huh? Guess you've gotten dramatic since the last time I saw you."
But the sarcasm didn't stick. His eyes hardened. Bitterness slipped through.
"You want to know why?" His voice dropped, sharpened. "Because when Radiant Garden fell, I didn't escape with Leon. Neither did Isa. We were caught. Dragged into Xehanort's little experiments. Turned inside out until we weren't even people anymore." He leaned closer, lips curling in mock amusement that didn't reach his eyes. "And you two? You didn't look for us. You ran. You left."
Skuld shook her head fiercely, her grip on his hand tightening. "That's not true. We thought you and Isa made it out with Leon and the others. We believed it—we had to believe it. When we learned you didn't… we searched. Every world, every path we could. But Radiant Garden was taken over by the Heartless. Swallowed by darkness. We couldn't find you."
Her voice cracked as memories spilled out. "Do you remember the market streets? Going around shopping while you played pranks on Isa, laughing until we got caught? Do you remember Yuffie, how she teased you until you blushed redder than your hair? Lea, those were our days. That's who you were."
Her eyes glistened. "Xehanort took that from you. Don't you see? He's the one who did this. He's the reason you lost everything."
Axel pulled his hand back, eyes narrowing, voice icy. "Doesn't matter anymore. As a Nobody, you don't get many choices. You serve Xemnas, or you get erased. Survival, X. That's all it's ever been since the moment I woke up like this."
From the boulder, Helios' dry voice drifted lazily over. "Touching. Really. Mutual trauma, a tragic fall, heartfelt speeches. It's almost romantic." He smirked. "Carry on. I'm enjoying this."
Skuld shot him a glare, but Axel didn't look away from her.
"You can say whatever you want about the past," he continued. "But I see it clearly. You're standing with him now." His gaze flicked toward Helios, then back to Skuld. "And if you're protecting him, that means one thing only: you're against me."
His smile sharpened, cold as a blade. "So tell me, X. Who's the Nobody in your group?"
The air grew colder. Even the Assassins seemed to lean in, blades glinting in anticipation.
Skuld's breath caught, but she stood firm. "No. I won't tell you anything. Because the Lea I knew—my friend—wouldn't even ask. He wouldn't threaten me. He wouldn't stand with a monster like Xehanort."
For the first time, the sarcasm drained from Axel's face. His eyes burned with something raw, something almost human. His voice cracked as he whispered, "You have no idea what I've had to do to keep existing. No idea what it means to claw through every day, empty feeling nothing, just to keep on going."
His gaze flicked toward Helios. "And him? He's using you. Just like he does to everyone else, he used me and Isa and then discarded us. I wonder when he'll do the same to you?"
Skuld's anger flared white-hot. "You don't know what you're talking about! Helios saved me when no one else could. When no one else even tried. You wouldn't understand that—because you're too busy hiding behind excuses."
The words struck him. For a fleeting second, the name Lea seemed to hang between them, visible in the flicker of pain across his features.
The Assassins hissed, their segmented bodies arching as if ready to strike. The Dusk writhed, zipper-mouth opening wider.
But Axel lifted his hand sharply. "Stand down."
They froze, silent, waiting.
He exhaled slowly, eyes still locked on Skuld. The grin crept back, but it was weaker, tinged with weariness. "You've changed, X. Maybe too much. Then again…" He shrugged faintly, almost bitterly. "…so have I."
He turned to Helios, leaning closer, his voice low enough that only the wounded man could hear. "Keep her safe, for now. But one day, she'll see you for what you really are. And when she does…" His grin turned razor-sharp. "…I'll be there to watch. Got it memorized?"
Helios tilted his head back against the boulder, smirk faint but unbroken. "I never forget."
Axel's smile lingered for a beat. Then he snapped his fingers.
In an instant, the Assassins dissolved into spirals of darkness, the Dusk vanishing with them. Axel followed, his form swallowed by a corridor of shadows, leaving only silence in his wake.
Skuld lowered her keyblade slowly, her arms trembling. She stared at the empty space where her friend—no, where Axel—had stood. Her heart ached with the weight of the contradiction: the boy she remembered, and the Nobody he had become.
Helios exhaled, running a bloodied hand down his side. His voice was quiet, almost casual. "Seems he hasn't told the others about this little meeting. And thanks to you, he probably won't. Maybe Isa, at most. That means, for now, we don't have to worry about the Organization breathing down our necks."
He closed his eyes briefly, smirk still etched into his lips despite the pain. "Small victories."
Skuld didn't hear his words. She only kept staring at the spot where Axel had vanished, torn between memory and reality, the past and the present.