Yes, my friends. The final installment. And it's sad.
Thanks, InnocentGuilt, for the inspiration. I totally owe you. Hopefully this lived up to your expectations!
Ta-ta, for now!
Edit!
Yes. This too was beta'd. Every inch of DG was edited by Mousewolf in like... three days or something... like oh my god, I'm totally hyperventilating right now... Give props! Bow down and give props because I'm totally incapable! lol.
Hope you all enjoy.
::: No Good Deed :::
"Trust me," He whispers, "You won't take more than ten minutes to kick this kid's ass up between his shoulder blades. Even the superior thinks so!"
"I know," You say softly, "But I just can't get this bad feeling out of my head."
You pull him closer, hide your face in the mess of long, curiously silky hair he finally let down for you. You really do have a bad feeling about all this, but you've always got that bad feeling lately. It's probably just nerves, so you shove the feeling off and grab your lover's chin, press a kiss on his lips.
"Don't worry, little dude," he laughs, pulling you into a more intimate kiss. "I promise we'll party hard when ya get back. We'll break out the good gin, yeah?"
--- ---
You smile, the glittering gold on the horizon before the iron-grey clouds hit the ocean.
Yeah, easy. Xigbar was right. This will be easy as pie. I'll tear him to pieces so itty-bitty that no one will even know what he was before!
And indeed you're convinced that this is exactly what you'll do to him. This key-bearer, so scrawny and pathetic with a duck and what remotely passes for a dog following him around. You think it'll be a snap of your dexterous fingers and then you'll be back banging that far from ordinary "old guy" who captured those decaying little fragments of your heart that stuck into your flesh like so many splinters.
You're powerful, unbridled, more dangerous than the sea herself.
But something is wrong here. Something's fundamentally screwed and you can't quite figure out what exactly it is that's bothering you, whether it's in your head or your mostly hollow chest or elsewhere. You dance about like a fool until cold hard metal bites into your shoulder and you spring back, howling in pain. You regain your composure quickly but you can't help but wonder where the hell that came from.
Just as soon as you've settled back into a smooth rhythm of pummeling the kid into unforgiving positions and soaking his companions, it happens again. Steel bites deep into your side and all you can manage to do is flee blindly. No time to heal the ragged wound. The kid is back and now you're utterly fucking desperate, hitting him with anything you can manage.
For the first time in your relatively short existence, you're scared out of your goddamn mind.
Another strike lands itself firmly in the crook of your neck, and you're suddenly very weak, collapsed to your knees. Your weapon dissolves like a dream and you look to your empty hands in despair. It's all so painfully clear.
X-Xigbar…
"No…No way!"
If only I could have seen your face… just one last time.
--- ---
"You should never have fucking let him go!" you scream, "You're no better than a murderer!"
Xemnas looks on at this spectacle in the most bizarrely calm way, red-amber and emotionless. "I am sorry for your loss, Xigbar. Truly, I am."
"Liar…" you hiss.
This isn't his fault, though - it was me. I killed him. I killed him. I killed my own love just as sure as though I'd shot him through the head. Forgive me, Demyx…
"But you will have your taste of revenge. He comes. And when this key-bearer does, you may kill him." Was that a smile at the edge of the Superior's mouth. Nah, just a trick of the light, slithy bastard that it is.
Revenge?
Your eye sparkles with an unholy glee.
I will avenge you, Demyx… please forgive me…
--- ---
It's so hard to drink alone during these long, endless nights, but you do, even through reports and Luxord trying to get you into a game to pass the time and Saïx passing through with something that could be mistaken for pity in his moon-marked eyes.
Not even when Axel, fugitive, traitor, and long-time friend despite everything, risks one night of contact for you both to get smashed together, do you come out of yourself, not once.
--- ---
You grin like the fan-shaped stocks of your guns, feeling burnt and cold as steel. "Have you been a good boy?"
"Show yourself!" the kid barks. He sounds about as threatening as a mouse.
"Oh, it sounds like you haven't." You know he hasn't, the little sonofabitch. You're going to crush him.
Utterly fucking destroy him.
You spend some time lecturing him and then it starts in earnest.
The battle is quick-paced, unrelenting, and you're doing exactly what you'd intended to do. You're thrashing the kid so badly he's having trouble even standing and you just keep warping and shifting and shooting from afar. You realize there are tears welling up from your good eye, but you just keep shooting, falling back to relying on instinct more than sight, like you did when you first found yourself half-blind. This is your revenge.
But something unexpected happens. You feel one of your own bullets slice deep into your blank side and you wince. Another, and another. You grunt and clutch the freshly bleeding wounds with a gloved hand, forcing youself not to turn your head to inspect the damage. Time to find a new hiding spot, but the kid is too clever. He's on you in a heartbeat and you're forced into the open.
You underestimated one thing, one tiny little detail that's never mentioned in the reports. This kid has healing magics.
Shit.
You fire endless rounds at the kid, but he seems to catch on, deflecting them, sending them right back at you, and you're forced to make a choice between dodging and wasting valuable time or taking the wounds and landing shots that may or may not even strike their intended target.
After a while, you start to realize you're not as young as you used to be. You wish you could muster the strength to pull off one last attempt to save your ass, but you can't find it. It's unbearable to watch that kid getting closer and closer every second. You try something completely desperate, and you succeed in landing a few decent shots… but it's not enough and god you're tired.
He always was a tough one to pick on. I was better off thrashing Axel's skinny ass that one time… at least he doesn't look like you could step on him by accident.
You feel that hard steel one more time, break back gracefully, holding your gun out threateningly. You'd have a perfect shot if only…
Empty… Damn.
You collapse to your knees, wince at the pain this incites in every other wound you've sustained. You grin cockily up at the familiar face.
You were always a little cocksucker, Roxas. I should have smacked you up good when I had the chance. Well, I'm on my way, Dem. Maybe… maybe we'll go to the same place. Yeah, that'd be cool. I'd like that, wouldn't you?
"Why did you call me Roxas?" the kid demands.
You can't help but laugh at him on that one, the sound that last machine-gun rattle you should have had. "Wouldn't you like to know…"
Sorry I couldn't avenge you, Demyx… Will you forgive me?
"Where do Nobodies go when they die?" Demyx asked nervously. He was completely wasted, but he sounded so sincere and afraid.
"I really don't know, little dude," Xigbar replied evenly, "I really don't know. Best not to worry about it right now, though, huh? Plenty of time for all that."
Plenty of time.