tampered | [Incomplete] A Challenge

[Incomplete] A Challenge

When; Today
Rating; PG
Characters; Marluxia [

withinfire]
Summary; On discovering Axel has returned, Marluxia and Larxene decide to pay him a little visit. However, Axel is not too happy at the uninvited entrance..

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Ah, the victory of torment. Marluxia dismissed the laptop which he had been using to communicate Axel with, a smirk appearing on his face. This dingy, dank apartment was truly pathetic, but learning of it wasn't too hard. Considering the way the Nobodies knew of the others' presences the moment they were within the vicinity, it was easy to track down where his dear traitor had re-appeared in. And so, he had followed.

Larxene, outside.

Axel hadn't been too pleased and he was certain the fool was trying to chase him off. No matter, a bigger playing ground was well-liked than the trap that would be that apartment. Of course, he'd made sure to leave a few 'presents' for it's inhabitants in the form of poisonous 'snap-dragons'-- flowers with snapping mouths, his own little design-- and now, as the darkness receded behind hm through his portal, he chuckled aloud as he stepped onto the large empty ground Axel had decided to retreat away into. He wasn't afraid, he had no capability to be even if he wanted to, and oh, it wasn't him who would be afraid within the next few moments.

Oh, no. That privelige was to be held for his dear little traitor.

"Poor,dear Axel. Running away already? And I was just getting comfortable." he cooed silkily, stretching his hand to a side, darkness swirling in his hand as he focused his dark blue gaze onto his red-haired adversary. His grin widened. "It's been a while."

[Leaving it vague, so, um, yes. X3]

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Larxene stepped out of the darkness at Axel's other side, grinning wickedly. "What were you thinking, trying to escape? There's nowhere in this city we can't find you, you know that."

She cast a jolt of lightning at Axel's feet, leaving a small scorched pit in the ground. "I do hope you'll give us a good time," she purred. "You haven't become weak enough that you actually needed to run, have you, Axel?"

His chakrams came to him quickly, at first nothing more than waves of fire spreading in his hands until they solidified into a pair of deadly weapons. Axel decided to focus on defending himself rather than attacking the two of them, since he knew that going after one would mean leaving himself open to the other. Staying defensive meant that he could tire them out for a bit while still keeping his own energy relatively high. Plus, a little fire could take out anything Marluxia had planned for him.

"Do I look like I'm going to run?" the redhead asked, not even flinching at the lightning. It hardly scared him, and neither did she. "And if you really want to see how 'weak' I've gotten, why don't you come over here yourself, huh? Or is it really you who is too afraid?"

He turned his eyes to Marluxia and grinned. "And I find it interesting that you can't even come alone... you had to rely on this guy to take you. Who's the weakling now?"

"This guy?"

The darkness was swirling around the ground, commanded forth by Marluxia's summons, but he wasn't attacking. Oh no, he had the patience right now, to possibly compete with any diety that may have claimed that virtue. After all, he'd waited this long- he could wait a little more and draw out his victory.

A smirk crossing his lips, he cast a glance at Larxene before focusing his attention onto Axel. Ah yes, cocky and arrogant as ever, but hardly with substance. He supposed he could go easy on him, but knowing the mongrel, he may just find a way to escape and leave their victory unmet. No, he decided. If this was to be done, it would be done with tact.

And tact, was what Marluxia did best.

"Poor, dear Axel..." he shook his head, raising his hand as petals began to circle around his wrists and arm. As a warning shot,he blasted them forth in a powerful wave, intended to be blocked, but it would be the scatter that would be most damaging.

"I was going to come alone, but Larxene insisted on following." he was grinning, his eyes dark. "And now that we are.. it would be bad manners to leave us waiting, wouldn't it..?"

His chuckle became a scoff as he moved his other hand out, the famed assasin's scythe summoned and materialising in his grip. His eyes held ahint of insanity, excitement, or some semblance of it. He had not looked forward to a battle as much as he had with this fool.

And he was going to pay him back. Bit.. by.. bit.

".. we simply must continue where we left off, that time.." Oblivion.. ".. where you ran away, and continue to run.. like the little whimpering mongrel that you are."

Larxene bristled at the suggestion that she wouldn't have come alone. Nonsense! This was simply the best opportunity to present itself so far. Double the pain for their dearest traitor- beautiful.

"I have as much right to his blood as you, Marluxia," she scoffed. "Anyway. Yes- let's begin."
Three slender knives materialized in one of her hands, a globe of lightning forming over the palm of the other. Smirking, eyes alight with anticipation, she took a battle stance. This moment had taken far too long to arrive.
"We'll put you out of your misery soon enough."

Axel hardly moved, nor did the smirk on his face change in any way. Marluxia accused him of running? "Yo, Marly... if you recall, I was all ready to fight you man to man, but you were the one who brought Naminé into the line of fire. Bringing a defenseless little girl in to be your shield? Now that's cowardice~" He laughed a little and straightened, making more bold his stance. "Also, once Sora arrived, you fleed. That's cowardice number two, my good old friend."

Now then... Larxene was the one with the weapons freely in view, so Axel knew to avert his attention to her instead of the flower prince. He sent ribbon-like trails of fire down from the points of his chakrams and upon touching the ground, spread until it was as though the embers had minds of their own. Snakelike in nature, some slithered out to Larxene while others stayed near Axel, circling around him like a small barrier.

Axel smirked. "Don't anger my little flame buddies," he practically cooed. "They can get pretty deadly when aggitated." It was true; the flames were made to grow if anything dangerous grew close to them or to Axel. The unfortunate thing with them is that after being used once, they disappeared. Granted, more could be made, but it was somewhat time consuming...

And Axel knew that this would probably be the last bit of downtime he would have until the fight was over.

Oh? Now this was a part of the saga she hadn't been around to hear. Using Naminé as a human shield... heh, like the witch had proven herself much good for anything else.
Still, Marluxia should have been perfectly capable of taking on Axel himself.

Larxene eyed the flames skeptically. "Yeah, like that's really gonna do any good." The advantage of her style of fighting was that she could perform most attacks from a distance. She wouldn't have to get close to Axel or step on his "little buddies" at all.
To demonstrate, she sent the lightning ball spinning into the air. With a wave of her gloved hand, the sphere rocketed towards Axel.

And he had had a very good reason for doing what he had at that time. Knowing, having learned of the Superior's suspicion, of what he had done at the time and what he had done to 'rectify' it-- had mad Marluxia all the more adamant to bring them down. Axel, on the other hand-- had been an enigma to a certain point. He'd never really cared whether who he fought was weaker or stronger. He'd gone so far as to dispose of Vexen on his command. Vexen who wasn't even worthy of being spit on, so weak was he.

It made Marluxia wonder whatever happened to that wonderfully horrendous character. He did miss him and wondered if it was possible to knock Axel's head enough times to get him back instead of what he was now.

Oh well. Wishful thinking.

Smirking then Marluxia spun the scythe in one hand, the pull of his own summon keeping it from flying out and creating a blade of wind, enough to send the flames lapping backwards-though not putting them out. His focus on Axel and not on Larxene- even though he was quite attentive as to what she was doing, the darkness he summoned began to channel around his blace.

"Axel, Axel, Axel." he cooed. "Yet again you misunderstand everything I did." he was aware of the flames heading towards Larxene, but she could watch herself. He pretended to yawn, patting his mouth with a hand, before sliding his fingers along the spine of his scythe, gripping it yet again at ready, eyes flashing.

"A pawn in the larger game would need to be disposed ofnd I assure you she will be taken care of just as well as you will be. And of course.. why would *I* dirty my hands with the blood of a traitor like you when the keyblade master could have done it..?"

He went for the kill, verbally now.

".. and he did it so well in the end. Until YOU, dear Axel.. ran like the mongrel you were.. and are. At least I stood my ground until the very end to my belief. You betrayed what gave you that ground.. didn't you." Even now, it was clear Axel would have betrayed The Organization. There was no question of him not having done so.

Marluxia may have been defeated then. But one thing had remained clear in his mind. He had lived until what he had wanted was achievable.. and in that alone, he'd had his victory.

He hadn't walked away from it like the deserter or the traitor had. No, he had more sense than that. And pride.

Without warning, he dashed forward, Scythe cutting though the air in a blaze of light and swinging forward to aim towards Axel's chest, a laugh escaping him.

"A pot calling the kettle black, dear Axel. When in truth.." he leapt up, just as the first swing completed, not caring if it hit or not and summoning forth the bladed petals yet again as his scythe spun in the other, now aimed blade-down to strike down on the other's head when he'd fly downwards--

"The real coward has always been YOU!!"

[There is way too much to respond to WTF XD]

The flame 'shield' took care of the sphere Larxene sent towards him, nulling it out with the destruction of both powers. In retaliation, the remaining flames surrounding the female Nobody jumped up with hopes of absolutely engulfing her from head to toe. However, Axel's attention had already hopped back to Marluxia, who seemed finally ready to attack as well, so whether or not his fire succeeded was unknown to him.

The redhead ignored most of the words, watching the other's movements carefully. Axel moved back a little, taking him further away from Larxene, at least, since he knew now that he could no longer be bothered with her. Anything that came at him from her could easily be deflected or avoided--little knives hardly worried him.

However, green eyes narrowed upon hearing the first bits of Marluxia's verbal abuse. The taller Nobody knew it would be useless to try to cut in when Marluxia was speaking (he still loved to hear himself talk, it seemed), but he knew that the words were wrong. What cause did he have to form? What belief? Marluxia had his own belief, but Axel never took part in that, not really. He killed Vexen for his own reasons as well, not only because of Marluxia's orders. In Axel's opinion, the flower boy was just angry that he had not been able to catch the flame in his own hands. It proved to be far to hot for him to handle, and Axel figured that Marluxia could not stand to be outdone.

Axel's knees bent in readiness when Marluxia dashed forward--and he was coming much quicker than Axel had anticipated. Grunting, Axel held up both chakrams in front of him, guarding his chest against the first attack. He had little time to think about how to attack back, since almost immediately, the other man propelled upwards.

But the scythe would hit nothing but empty air. Axel warped out of the danger zone to some space behind Marluxia, both chakrams pulled back and ready to throw. So much for not attacking.

"You realize that all I hear is 'blahblahblah,' right?" He threw the chakrams and warped out of place again, this time reappearing far to the left of where he had first been. Fire was at his empty hands now, as well as a sinful grin on his face as he spoke again. "You're punishing me for tricking you? This looks more to me like you're trying to make up for not being the big scary bad guys you meant to be back in Oblivion."

The fire grew until it was finally released from his hand in the form of a thick wall, protecting Axel from view and moving forward at a fast pace. His voice came from beyond the wall, traced with throaty laughter. "Guess what, guys? I'm not exactly afraid~" And with that, he pounced out of the flames unexpectedly, a chakram re-formed in both hands and ready to slice through Marluxia like he had done to Vexen long ago.

Larxene warped out from the ring of flames, sustaining nary a singed eyebrow (singed boots, on the other hand, she did get. Pity. She liked those boots.)
She stood back and watched for a minute, waiting for an opening to strike- and she found it. As Axel went in for the kill, she warped behind him, aiming the knives in her hand to stab him in the back.

((Sorry my posts are so short, guys. ^^;;; ))

[Sorry, I really can't wait for this log any longer, since it sort of decides Axel's situation from now on. If y'all don't mind, I'm just gonna speed things up a bit.]

One after the other, sharp spikes of pain ignited along Axel's back, causing him to flinch and yelp a little, his concentration that he needed so desperately to pull off his attack broken completely. Knowing that heading in like that might prove fatal, the redhead decided to warp out of his position again, leaving Larxene and Marluxia alone.

He reappeared out of side behind their positions and grunted. "That was a perfect opportunity... damn that bitch," he angrily whispered to himself as he reached for the knives impaled in his back. He pulled them out one by one, feeling the wounds over. Not very deep, but not very good either. He needed a plan... something that would keep him out of the line of fire; at least from back-attacks like that.

Axel looked around the 'battlefield' and got an idea. He prepared to warp again, but stayed in his position a little longer to say, "You know, you two..."

The Dancing Flames continued when he landed in a different spot, saying, "You keep calling me cowardly..." Another warp, and he went on upon reappearing, "... traitor... mongrel... all these not so nice names..." He was by the fountain this time, aimlessly touching the water with a gloved finger. "And yet you guys are the worst cowards, rotten traitors, mongrels... and anything else you may have called me."

This warp took him near a bench, onlooking where the other two Nobodies stood. "The biggest cowards. I wouldn't mind this so much if one of you had come, but the both of you? What..." Another warp. "... you guys can't take me on by yourselves? You have to team up to have any hopes of scratching me?"

And again he was by the fountain, this time sitting on the rim and playfully beckoning them over. He planned to warp again before they could meet up with him, but that could always go wrong. Still, he sat, taunting, "If you want to take me on seriously, to give me a 'message,' or whatever? Do it by yourselves. This two-on-one thing is really tacky."

Had Marluxia known that Axel believed he was in any way upset about him, he would make sure to correct him by -slicing- that into Axel's head. He could have cared less that he'd had Axel or not back at Oblivion. The only reason he wished for any sort of 'lesson' to be taught to the ungrateful dancing flame was because HE was the indirect reason that Marluxia had been KILLED at all.

Not only that, right now, Axel had the audacity to ENJOY himself or flaunt himself the way he did, ignoring the fact that he had been the very root of what had destroyed him in the first place?

Unforgivable, as far as Marluxia could see. Rolling his eyes at the way the other disappeared and re-appeared, a sense of cool calm coming over him and a dark grin appearing on his face as the other began to channel his power, Marluxia's eyes flashed darkly and as soon as Axel finished his speech, Marluxia had turned. The scythe was being charged with full energy and before either of the would be able to see him, he had moved, vanished, moved again, faster than their eyes could catch.

And the next thing Axel would feel would be the cold, bright steel-pink blade of the scythe's tip cutting into his gut, Marluxia now re-appearing in front of him with the blade having swung, grinning like the grim reaper of death himself as he swung it back, swinging it in one hand before gripping it by the length itself.

".. the traitor speaks of cowardice. How amusing." he breathed the words, extending a hand and immediately summoning forth a chain of thorned vines that would come crashing from the ground to latch themselves around Axel's throat and tug him down, hopefully smashing that hideous face into the ground itself, and the smirk with it.

"We don't listen to your orders, Axel." Marluxia's voice was chilly, warning-like. ".. and we never have. To resort to name-calling, my little weed.." he chuckled now, swinging the head of the scythe's blade against Axel's back here Larxene had stabbed him to make the wounds burn.

".. will be a mistake you will do well not to make again." even as he spoke, he smirked as the portals began forming behind him.

"Consider this a warning. For what you did then and what you are doing now.. I. Will pay you back. Bit.. " a harsh kick to his side. "By.." his scythe pulled back, disappearing into the shadows. ".. bit."

A soft chuckle as he nodded his head to Larxene.

"Retreat."

And then, he was gone himself, a black rose dropping where he had been standing, next to Axel, and his laughter echoing from the shadows he vanished into.

He hadn't killed him. Oh, no. But he would.

And he would spend as long as it took in doing that.

Such fun.. ah yes. This city was becoming interesting already.

Be careful what you wish for, Axel..

I will come for you again.

Left on the ground with the blood he should not even have, Axel slowly started to push himself up. His left arm went to cup the wound Marluxia had made in his gut as if to check to see if anything had been... displaced, while his right continued to push him up. He rested his weight on his knees and wiped at stray blood that had gotten to his mouth. After his hand pulled away, he grinned.

Next time, Axel would be ready, and he figured it would be a fairer game next time, just the two of them. Marluxia wanted revenge; fine, but it would make the battle much sweeter if it were to be man-to-man. If anything, Axel would take Larxene out on his own to prevent such an ambush from happening again. But for now, as green eyes trailed to familiar apartment windows, it was time to go back.

He hoped Roxas knew some decent Cure spells...

[&done;]

"Hey, what?" Larxene glared at where Marluxia had been standing. "Retreat? But it was just getting good!"
Axel had disappeared too though, so she might as well go home. For now.
He wanted her to fight him one on one? Oh, she would gladly do that whenever.

((done here too. XD man, I feel so inadequate next to you guys' posts!))

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[Incomplete] A Challenge

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