Chapter Seven

Chapter VII

"It's hard to admit to something when you don't know what you did."

      "Xaroval," Axel breathes, not taking his green eyes off of me. "I thought you were going to die."

      I smile lopsidedly and shrug, causing yet another jolt of pain to surge through my body. "I'm a big girl. I can handle myself," I force myself to sit up and cross my legs, groaning because of my aching body. "Axel, why do you have to fuss over me so much? I just met you.. well, technically we've met before.. but..." I trail off, frowning.

     Axel's gaze hardens and he just sits there, motionless, his electrifying gaze meeting my weak eyes. "There's something different about you from the other members. Something about you seems.. real," he says after a while. He mumbles something under his breath and sighs. "don't scare me like that again. You shouldn't have let your guard down."

    "Axel," I huff. "as I said. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. But thank you anyways for seeming to care about me." I drop my gaze and sigh. "I'm not sure if I'm cut out for the Organization. Why am I here anyways?"

    He blinks. "I can't tell you," he says, "because I don't know." putting his arms behind his head, he leans back in his chair and looks up at the ceiling.

    I make a face. And it hurts. "Ow," I fumble with the zipper of my coat and unzip it a little, examining my shoulder. It's a light green color. I unzip my coat a little more and pull up my shirt so my stomach is showing, and I flinch. It's an ugly, deep violet. "Roxas is a good fighter," I mumble.

    "He shouldn't have been so rough with you," Axel growls, "You're smaller than him, and also very...fragile. Like a butterfly."

   "Fragile?" I spit, enraged by his comment. "Like a butterfly?"

   Axel shrugs and sighs, "Sorry. I forgot that you're actually pretty tough."

   I frown again. "Axel, just go. Let me rest for a while. I have nowhere to be, anyways. You probably have a mission to cater to."

    "This is my mission."

    "What do you mean?" I ask, narrowing my eyes. Please don't tell me he's--

    "Saix assigned me to watch you. You know," he replies, rising to his feet, "keep Roxas away. Make sure he doesn't try to kill you again."

     I drop my gaze and close my eyes. "Why does he want me dead?"

     "You took Xion's place. She was our friend. The old XIV."

     "What happened to her?"

     Axel is eerily quiet for a moment, and then says with utmost simplicity, "She decided it was time to leave."

     I frown. "Time to leave," I repeat. I look back up at Axel. "Xion and Roxas were close, weren't they?"

     He sighs. "A lot closer than I had hoped."

    "So he wants me gone," I say, "because he doesn't want anyone but her as XIV?"

     Axel slowly nods. "Something like that." He turns away and walks to the window, and looks out of it, at the moon. "Kingdom Hearts," he murmurs, "is what the Organization aims for. But Xion and Roxas.. They wanted to set those hearts free."

     "And I'm in the way of this," I guess. "Because my job.. is to capture hearts,"

     Axel turns back to me, eyes intent. "Yes," he says. "and that's exactly what Roxas is against."

     "I guess I just made a rival, huh?" I ask.

     "I guess so."