Chapter Text
The holoscreen flickered silently in the corner, the headlines slowly scrolling past in the lower edge of the projection while the newscaster kept explaining who-knew-what. Axel didn’t exactly care. The headlines were all he needed since he was paying only partial attention to the news in the first place. He leaned back in his chair, kicking it dangerously far before stopping the movement just before he fell over. He knew this annoyed Saïx but that was part of the joy – but it seemed like he couldn’t raise a reaction out of the man today. Saïx occasionally glanced his direction but kept his focus on the screen in front of him, flicking his way through endless amounts of text.
It had been a still day. The others had been sent away on their own missions but Axel had been stuck at their base the whole day, waiting for Saïx to finish the plan so that Axel could get to work. It was a warm summer day and the table fans crammed wherever they fit did an adequate job at keeping the temperature down but stuck in a small, shadowy room with too many screens and too many wires was only tolerable for a limited amount of time even under the best of circumstances. They’d already passed the point when Axel got restless and they were now quicky approaching the point when Saïx got snappy.
A breaking news flashcard broke the monotone of the holoscreen and Axel reached forward to toggle the sound on, eager for any distraction. He waved his hand through the projection and the newscaster stopped being mute. “- - an attempted break-in at the headquarters of the Nort Corp. The police assures that no actual breach was made but the culprit is still on the run. Public is requested to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity.” The feed changed away from the newscaster to a clip of security camera footage from a surprisingly awkward angle. Whoever the culprit was wasn’t a total amateur if this was the best picture they’d got. Then again, you wouldn’t be if you wanted to have a chance at breaking through the security that Nort Corporation had. Axel would’ve known – The Organization didn’t hesitate breaking into most places but Nort Corp had always been off limits. They were not foolish enough to try. He silenced the projection again.
“Hey, Saïx, you done soon?” Axel asked and leaned towards the man, pushing now too close to be ignored. Axel really itched for some action. It was unfair that other groups stole the limelight from them.
Saïx gave a noncommittal huff but picked one of the small handheld screens and passed it over to Axel. Axel knew a peace offering when one was handed to him and backed off. He skimmed through what was on the device; faces, summary of habits, even a map of the public security cameras around their target. Axel knew most of the resources Saïx had for getting information – hell, he was the one to do reconnaissance for him most of the times – but the speed at which he gathered it all together still managed to impress. They’d only been focusing on this target for a few days. Axel looked at the data presented to him for a moment. They were making progress but it was still too early for Axel to make sense of it. Most of it could be discarded since it wasn't like they were writing a biography. They were looking for an in – the key to either bribes, blackmail or some good old thievery. Once they had that, their reward would be access to one more network and hopefully a higher security clearance.
Axel allowed the screen to drop to his lap. Peace offering or not, he was not the researcher around here. He turned to look at the newsreel again but it had moved on from the breaking news into more mundane topics. Axel reached out and paused the live feed and rewound back to the security camera picture. The person in the picture had their hood up so that all one saw of their face was a shadowy sliver. They were of a rather lean build, agile looking and the way the figure glanced around themselves in sharp motions gave them a young vibe. “Some eager punk,” Axel muttered and leaned back again, crossing his arms behind his head. Maybe they hadn’t been as smart as Axel had given them credit for at first. The real pros planned everything down to the smallest detail. Axel glanced back at Saïx. Thorough planning was important but sometimes…
“You don’t want me making a mistake,” Saïx said without looking up. Axel sighed and stared at the ceiling. Saïx never kept him in the dark for long and the slight edge in the words could only mean that he was almost done for the day. That was how they worked. Saïx did his politicking and research, Axel got the information and then did whatever needed to be done, went and fetched the data, watched people, took out cameras. On a few memorable occasions when they’d botched up, Axel had done some creative covering up of tracks with a couple of cannisters of oil and matches. Axel smiled at the memory. Fire was crude but it got the work done, no matter how much whining and moaning his improvisation had received from the others.
Axel was in mid-kick when Saïx unannounced got up and turned off the screens around himself. “Xemnas is back,” he said.
“From where?” Axel asked and jumped up too, barely catching the chair before it tipped.
Saïx nodded towards the screen mounted next to the door, this one showing their own security feeds. As on cue, the familiar figure of their glorious leader Xemnas appeared onto the camera by the door. Walking next to him was a figure that Axel didn’t recognise. The boy looked small and fragile next to Xemnas, made evevn more fragile looking from the way Xemnas had his hand on the boy’s back, guiding him forward. However, something was really off. After watching the pair walk closer until they disappeared from the field of view of the camera, Axel figured it out. Not once did the boy look around to satisfy his curiosity. Even if he was terrified out of his mind, he should’ve glanced up at least once, shouldn’t he?
“Who’s that?”
“Our newest recruit”, Saïx said.
“And when were you going to give me a heads-up on this?” Axel grumbled but fell in step with Saïx as they hurried down the stairs to meet with their leader and this new member.
“There was nothing to tell,” Saïx said simply. How Xemnas had found this new recruit, Saïx didn’t know. All he had done was to picked up on Xemnas leaving and then been able to figure out that he was heading back with someone new. Putting two and two together after that even Axel could do.
xxx
Xemnas introduced their new member – member XIII – without bringing up his origins. He simply called them all together and unceremoniously pushed the new kid forward. Seeing the kid face to face confirmed Axel’s initial suspicion that something was wrong with him. The boy was technically whole but he lacked all reactions. He was not much more than a husk. Even with all the other members of the Organization staring down on him, he didn’t show any emotion. No fear, no curiosity, nothing.
“What’s the point of bringing him here?” Axel asked. “He seems completely useless.” He realised his mistake and the trouble his big mouth was about to get him into when Xemnas only smiled at him. Xemnas wasn’t one to argue – he was above something like that – but he usually allowed Axel’s remarks to go unnoticed. This time would clearly be different.
“It’s true he is not fully functional yet,” Xemnas said. He stepped closer to the boy and placed his hand on his shoulder. It was unnerving to see the boy barely react to the touch. “I’m afraid that his creation process was imperfectly completed. With some time, he should overcome that. I’m sure that you’ll be able to watch him while he recovers, won’t you?”
Axel wished there would’ve been a way to pretend that the words weren’t addressed to him. It was too late, however, and the only thing left to do was to continue with what he did best and keep talking his way deeper into trouble. “He’ll only be in the way with the tasks I’ve already been assigned.”
“I’m sure we can adjust your tasks,” Xemnas replied pleasantly.
And that was how Axel found himself standing on the street right in front of their base with the new kid standing next to him, lifeless like a doll. He followed simple orders easy enough but did nothing on his own initiative.
Well, here went nothing. Axel took a deep breath and turned to the boy.
“Let’s get this ball rolling and start with introductions. My name is Axel,” he said and gave a little bow with a simple flourish, hoping for any reaction. Unsurprisingly, there was none. “Right,” Axel said and gave one last glance back at the buildings that made up their base. It was probably too late to get back in and whine his way out of this.
Basics. Teach him basics. How hard could that be? Axel looked down at the kid and back away. It might be a challenge but he wasn’t one to turn away from them, was he? “Come on then. Let’s get you oriented.”
Axel led them further away from the base and closer to what was the central hub of this district. It was what counted as crowded around these parts, but it wasn’t all that bad compared to the districts closer to the centre of the city. Axel made them pause before they ended on the main shopping street, giving both of them time to get their bearings on a quiet alley leading to it. The boy had stopped when Axel had shot his hand out, but didn’t seem to be even remotely interested in his surroundings now.
There was no other alternative than to find a way to kickstart the boy because Axel sure as hell wasn’t going to spend many days dragging a dead weight like this around. Teaming up with Saïx meant that he knew what was going on before half of the others caught on. With a rookie around, he was stuck with the rookie jobs, killing time and doing glorified peoplewatching. If there really was hope that the kid would readjust after an interrupted creation process, who knew how long that would take? Axel had been spared from remembering how he’d been when he’d become conscious but he was pretty sure he’d not been nearly as bad.
Axel turned to the boy again. “There are a couple of things that you need to know. One, we are not like normal people,” he counted with his fingers, “Two, that means we have to follow different rules and we have to follow them at all times. Anything that asks for an ID is off limits. Do not even try your luck. Keep your head down and don’t cause a scene because if someone gets curious, you’ll get caught. Got that?”
The boy reacted with a momentarily delay – turned his head and nodded solemnly.
“The rules don’t mean that we won’t get up to mischief, okay? You just have to know exactly what you are doing and most importantly, never get caught. But leave anything like that for the adults for now,” Axel continued with. He tilted his head towards the sun, closing his eyes. The sunlight was warm against his skin; This was not a day one wanted to waste. Axel opened his eyes again with an idea. “I think a demonstration might be in order. I’m going to get us some ice cream and you might learn something in the process too. So watch closely, alright?”
Axel had done this plenty of times, especially if he was out in the town with someone with a sense of adventure. Saïx was out of the picture – there was no tempting him to be reckless – but Larxene or Demyx, even Xigbar had been amused enough to watch Axel work the crowd and swipe himself a credit card and then use it to buy ice cream before he just as quickly disposed of the card. Axel might’ve been foolhardy but he was not an idiot. Leaving trails was what got you caught. Holding onto money that was part of the system was tempting but not tempting enough to be the worth the risk. No matter how careful one would be, how unpredictable, someone would be able to piece the data together and catch them.
“Did you get that?” Axel asked as he handed the ice cream bar to the kid. There was no answer. The boy did pick the ice cream up and hold it in his hand but there were no comments about Axel’s style, no questioning his sanity, no applause. Simply put, the kid was no fun.
Bored by the mission, bored by the kid, Axel decided there and then that he'd already done his part for the day. They were not due back for several more hours so he might as well get as much out of the day as he could. They already had the ice creams. Now they might as well get the view too.
Not far away from the shopping street, there was a tall bell tower that had stood there before the district had grown around it. A simple elevator access was freely available to anyone interested. Most people didn’t bother with this tower because other places nearby offered proper rooftop bars, but where the Bell Tower excelled was standing taller than all the neighbouring buildings, and as Axel had once by accident found out, the lookout ledges were practically abandoned most of the time. It was there that he now led the kid. The place was first and foremost an escape from the crowds in a place where there was little risk of standing out. Axel hadn’t found any cameras beyond the one by the elevator and even that one was easy to bypass by keeping just a bit closer to the wall on the way in. The place was quiet, and the view was nothing to complain about. From here, he could see past the limits of their district all the way to the world of shining skyscrapers of the corporate headquarters.
It wasn’t that Axel longed to belong there – it was simply a reminder why he spent his days scrapping for pieces of data, security codes and unsecure access point that brought them closer and closer to their goal: Access to the heart of the system, or the heart of the kingdom as Xemnas liked to call it. Once they got their break and access to the registry, they could add themselves there and become real. They could stop struggling and living this half-life.
Axel leaned onto the railing and watched the world spread below him into the far horizon. The city was truly never-ending and they were so insignificant in scale within it. That was what brought them anonymity and made it possible for them to be even this insolent. However, it was impossible not forget that all it would take was for someone to figure out that they weren’t what they seemed to be and it all would come crumbling down.
“What’s that?” the boy asked, pointing towards Axel.
The question came out of the blue. It must’ve been the first time that Axel even heard the kid talk, he realised with a startle. This question – it showed initiative! Axel found himself grinning at the breakthrough where he’d most likely had no part in but that he was so going to take all the credit for. The boy even looked uncertain which too was progress. Talking and emotions, in one day!
Then he realised he had no clue what the boy was talking about. “What is what?” Axel challenged and turned around to lean to the railing with his back.
The boy jabbed his finger towards Axel again. “Those... lines,” the boy said, taking his time with each word.
Axel laughed at that. “You mean the tattoos?” he asked, pointing at the twin lines he had, one on each cheek. “I got them to confuse facial recognition. A safeguard, kind of.” Truth to be told, he didn’t think they actually did anything, but he liked them nevertheless.
“Why?” the boy asked. He paused and looked like he was thinking hard, frowning, and Axel gave him the time. Finally, he asked, “Because… we need to hide?”
“Man, you were listening!”, Axel replied and grinned. “And yeah. We need to hide. You and me, we are nothing but glitches in the system. When normal people are born, they are added to the registry. We weren't. And since the system doesn’t know about us, we are nothing but nobodies. We don’t exist. We were never supposed to, and if someone figures out we do, well, that’ll be the end of you. A clean-up crew will come and get you.” Axel poked the boy in the chest to drive the point home. “So it never hurst to be extra careful,” he added.
The kid stared at Axel without showing a reaction throughout the explanation. Not even the personalized threat seemed to be a concern for him. He looked down at the finger that was still connected to his chest. Axel waited, and then finally, the kid looked up and wrinkled his brow. “Why?” he asked with more feeling than anything before. He looked like he was asking Axel to explain how the whole world worked.
Axel didn’t have all the answers, but he did know why they were so hated and hunted. “We are proof that the system is imperfect. We are not real enough for them. We are just copies of someone else, and that makes our existence a crime. They think that our original is the only one who has a right to exist and that’s why they’ll try to hunt us down if they find out about us. But we won’t let them. That’s why the Organization exists. We are going to make it so that we do exist. That we can become real.”
The kid smiled suddenly. “I think I would like that.”
For a moment Axel was unsure if he’d lost his mind. Without a warning, he felt happy. Uncomfortably happy. Obviously, the boy would want to live like the rest of them did, and yet his will to live was so genuine that Axel didn’t know what to do with it. It was the smallest of steps forward. It didn’t mean anything and yet that smile had for a second there meant the world to him.
Xxx
“I think there has been some progress,” Axel said that evening when he had a quiet moment to catch up with Saïx. While Axel’s life seemed to have slowed down to such a creeping pace that time and days seemed irrelevant, Saïx had been busy as usual. He always worked long hours and only returned to his rooms late at night, and was an early riser and often gone before Axel could be bothered to get up.
Now that they weren’t actively working together it was easier than ever for Axel to just miss him. It was easy enough to move around the base without being seen – the base was actually nothing but a series of flats where some walls had been felled and new connections built wherever people had felt the need for remodelling. Saïx and Axel’s room were on adjacent levels and Axel had made it into a habit to spend his evenings on the fire-escape stairs that connected their windows. It was a nice place with a decent view of the glowing lights of shops and restaurants far below. He could also hear when Saïx got back in and get all the fresh gossip straight away.
Axel turned to look at Saïx who hadn’t given him any reply. Something in the view seemed to have caught his attention this time and he seemed startled when he realised that Axel was waiting for him. “Progress? What kind?”
“The kid seems more like a real person now. Kind of,” Axel said. “Not that he is going to win any personality awards any time soon, but I got him to ask a question today.”
“So Xemnas might be right and he’ll actually recover,” Saïx mused.
“I sure hope so,” Axel replied. “I can’t wait until I get back to doing something more useful than babysitting. Why did he even pick me for this task?”
The look Saïx gave Axel told him to answer it himself. Then he grew serious again. “I do get the feeling that Xemnas wasn’t all too happy with us two working quite so independently. I’ve been asked to coordinate more with Vexen and his team now.”
“Can’t escape the politics wherever you go,” Axel said and grinned. There was enough trouble to go around. Vexen was a creepy bastard, and his team was made of mostly people who enjoyed research of the scientific kind. Maybe getting stuck with some babysitting wasn’t the worst of faiths.