Midgar Continued...

[gotitmemorised]

Continued from here.

Axel didn't think that the self-given mission was going too badly, all things considered. Nobody in Midgar suspected a thing, that much was clear, not even Aerith. He listened to her, the apprehension and questioning near-disbelief in her voice and actions clear. Despite his desperation to get her and them out of there, he found it to be a fairly understandable response to such a suggestion. It wasn't exactly an easy story to believe. He had to wonder what he would have done or said in her position. Laughed, probably.

As for her question... that was a little more difficult to answer. He glanced at Saix, a disturbingly disguised Saix, at that, and scratched the back of his head.

"Not a lot," he sighed. Way to sound convincing, idiot. "Whatever they're going to do, they intend on blowing all of the reactors. When one went, it destroyed the residential area in the immediate vicinity, right?"

Of course, that wasn't the worst of it. Not this time.

"If they blow all of them ... the support pillars don't stand a chance and neither does anything below the plate."

Comments

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith looked aghast, covering her mouth with her hand for a moment before pulling it away to ask, "Who would do such a thing?" After a tiny moment she added the further, horrified question, "And why? All these people," she trailed off, feeling just a little sick.

Midgar was big, heavily populated city. The thought that someone would come along and just decide to snuff all of those lives out, as though they meant nothing, turned her stomach.

[gotitmemorised]

Axel shook his head and turned his hands palms upwards, rather unhelpfully. Their lack of information wasn't exactly helping the case he was trying to make, but there was no reason for him to lie about something like this. To him, it didn't make sense to go back to a city where he was captured and hunted and, for all he knew, still wanted, just to deliver a false message.

"That ... I don't know," his expression didn't turn any less grave. Damn Xigbar for not giving him all the information he needed. "But there's definitely something going on. I wasn't given the 'who', just the 'when'."

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith frowned, and glanced over towards Axel's unintroduced companion, still guarding the door. She trusted Axel, and she did believe him, but it was a lot to take in.

"So when is it happening?" She asked, turning back to Axel.

He'd come back to Midgar, even though they both knew how much of a bad idea that was, to warn her about this. It was almost sweet, but at the same time, it spoke to how serious it all was.

[gotitmemorised]

Axel glanced around, eyes searching the walls for a clock. Given the lack of one, he looked back at her, serious expression still firmly in place.

"During the celebrations."

Midgar's completion was call for a lot of those. It had been in the works for a years and was -- finally -- going to be finished. That invited mass media coverage both for and from inside and outside the city and tempted foreign people there to witness it first hand. Security in the immediate vicinity of the designated celebration areas was set to be tight, something that took away from the usual security in places that actually needed it.

Reactors, for instance.

"You need to come with us. We haven't got long, got it memorized?"

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith looked thoughtful, and then surprised when Axel said to come with them. During the celebrations meant it was so close, but it was still long enough away for her to do something. She wasn't sure, yet, what she could do, but....

"I can't leave," she told him, as though that should have been obvious from the start.

[innatelunacy]

Outside the church, Saix turned to Axel, the expression on his, still feminine, face being one of extreme grumpiness. "We're wasting time we should be using to get as far away from here as possible."

It was worse because he was sure that Axel was well aware of this fact, and still Axel was indulging the girl at personal risk.

Then there was what she'd said to him, which resonated uncomfortably up the proverbial rod up his backside and only served to make him grumpier.

[gotitmemorised]

"Yeah," Axel said, distracted. He sighed, harshly and sharply, and turned to look at him. He felt the need to try and rationalise what she was doing and a desire to stand up for what she was trying to achieve. "She's a good person, Saix. She's not just going to leave everyone else to die and get herself out. Time was, you wouldn't have either."

They wouldn't have done that. Didn't do that. They would have saved each other. Tried to, at the very least.

"Even just a few... there are so many people in this city."

[innatelunacy]

"The last time either of us acted like heroes," Saix pointed out, coldly, "it didn't end well." For anyone.

Still, it struck a nerve he'd been all too ready to ignore before now.

"I'd prefer not fall foul of the mistakes fostered by thinking emotionally in these situations a second time. That's all." He scowled for a moment, and then almost grumbled, "And it would be much easier to knock her unconscious and drag her out."

[gotitmemorised]

Axel shook his head and look at him, not quite able to produce the same cold looks he had been a master of when he was still lacking his heart.

"Acting emotionally didn't exactly affect the outcome last time, Saix. We didn't have any option but to fight." He chose, to his credit, to ignore the knocking-Aerith-unconscious comment. "We did what we had to and if we'd had a shot of saving someone, we would have and you know it."

[innatelunacy]

Saix was silent for a moment, lips pressed together. He remembered that fight, but he held back the reply that they'd fought for their home because that was what Aerith wanted to do now. It wasn't conducive to his argument, and admitting that he might possibly understand her point of view revealed a weakness Saix wasn't prepared to voice. He was sure Axel remembered it well enough for himself, anyway.

"Failing to leave now risks more lives than doing so, unnecessarily," he pointed out, after a moment that had stretched just a fraction too long, "because it also risks ours. She is thinking of her home, and friends, and not herself. I would have expected that if anyone could convince her to think selfishly, it would have been you."

It sounded like a subtle dig, but it was hard to tell, with Saix.

"I have no intention of risking my life here," he added.

[hearstheplanet]

When Axel arrived back the church was... busy with worry. Most of the people they'd accumulated were families, people who knew Aerith, and kids who knew her especially. Now they clustered, and the sound of worried mutter permeated the air.

Aerith stood at the edge of the flowers, hands clasped as though she was praying, but she stopped when Axel returned and dropped her hands to her sides.

"Is this everyone that would come?" She asked, leaving the flowers and approaching him. She'd explained things as best she could to people as they'd arrived. It hadn't been easy, and the numbers seemed so few compared to how many would die.

But she kept a lid on her own anxiety, and smiled at the children as they watched her. She didn't want them to be scared.

[gotitmemorised]

Axel nodded, his expression betraying a little bit of regret for the low numbers that he and Saix had managed to convince. It hadn't been easy to get them to even go. How could it be? He had to try and get untrusting slum-dwellers go to a church on faith without causing mass panic with the reason behind it.

"Yeah," he said, giving her a slightly doleful look. "Sorry. It's not many, but it's something. We need to go now. We're running out of the time we need to get clear of here."

[hearstheplanet]

It wasn't many, true, but it was better than nothing. Better than doing nothing and leaving people to die. She felt guilty that they couldn't convince more people, but no matter how many they did convince, there'd always be more to wouldn't believe them, and would die as a result.

Aerith frowned, knowing that, but she nodded. "Where's your friend?" She asked. "Isa?" That was what Axel had called him, anyway, but she wanted to check she had it right.

[gotitmemorised]

"Saix," he corrected. He wasn't sure that Saix would appreciate a girl he didn't know referring to or calling him by his real name. "He's scoping out an exit route."

He glanced around at those gathered in the church, slightly concerned about how few they had managed to convince. Sceptical slum-folk ... it wasn't such of a surprise. They'd had people feeding them lies and helping them only at a price their whole lives.

"He'd better get a move on," he added in an undertone. "It's going to be tight."

[hearstheplanet]

"Hmm," Aerith murmured. Saix, and Axel, and Saix was Isa with an X. Now wasn't the time, but she caught it, and recognised the significance and what it suggested.

She could ask about it later.

"He'll get here," she said, with quiet confidence.

[innatelunacy]

Saix walked through the door, looking serious, which wasn't particularly informative on account of it being Saix. He cast Aerith, and the assembled ragtag slum dwellers they'd managed to convince, a brief glance as he walked directly up to Axel.

"We have a problem," he said, quietly. "The exits are under guard, and they are not the average guard." His breathing was a little fast, as if he'd hurried but not quite run.

[gotitmemorised]

Axel did not like the look on Saix's face, and even before he spoke he knew it was bad news. He was not, however, expecting that kind of problem.

"What do you mean?"

He cast his mind back to his time in Midgar and went through what he knew about it. Specially trained soldiers with an extremely unimaginative name came to mind, but there was that other not-average-guard group he didn't much want to think about.

[innatelunacy]

Saix appeared less pleased than usual to be delivering the news. He'd had to keep a low profile to avoid drawing attention, and while he was competent at it, he'd come to prefer smashing through obstacles when sidling around them wasn't viable.

Right now, he was concerned with how he and Axel were going to get out; everybody else they'd gathered could die in this pit provided they escaped.

"The previous guards were in military uniform," Saix pointed out, the ones they'd passed had been, at least, "these new ones are in suits. They seem somewhat overdressed for a simple perimeter guard duty, and much more alert than I'd like."

He'd been seen. Fortunately, he'd maintained the embarrassing but useful disguise, even though he had a strong desire to drop it and fight something.

[gotitmemorised]

"Suits?"

Oh boy. That wasn't what Axel wanted to hear. He glanced at Aerith to communicate his discomfort at the idea of them being in the vicinity with somebody who knew exactly why.

"You didn't engage them, ...right?" He doubted it, but knowing Saix ... well, he had to make sure. He was out of breath. "

[innatelunacy]

"We're trying to be low profile," Saix pointed out. "My fighting style does not qualify." He sounded ever so faintly miffed that Axel held so low an opinion of him and his impulse control.

Even though they both knew such an opinion wasn't unfounded.

"I was seen," he admitted, although he was still disguised which was a mitigating factor, "so I took the long route back, as a precaution. Are you familiar with their type?" Axel seemed more concerned than he'd voiced, judging by his glance at the girl.

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith smiled, brightly. "Thank you," she told them both, before she turned and headed towards the flowers. The small crowd gathered as if drawn by a magnet. Aerith was the one they knew, her name was probably why most of them were there.

She put her hands together and started to pray.

[gotitmemorised]

Axel looked at Saix and shrugged at his comment. Of all the times to grow a sense of humour. At least he hoped it was humour. The idea of seeing Vexen in some kind of afterlife was unpleasant.

He felt an odd sense of calm considering he was potentially facing his last moments. It didn't feel like last time ... hah. Last time. He shook his head, wondering how many people get to feel their last moments more than once.

"If this works," he murmured to Saix, sounding sceptical himself, "you have no excuse for not trusting my judgement in future, got it memorised?"

[innatelunacy]

"That depends on the circumstances," Saix replied. There was a pregnant pause as he watched Aerith, casting his eyes back towards the exit, and frowned.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, endeavouring to sound grumpy even while giving a sincere apology, "for the way I treated you, and Roxas, back then. I'd forgotten too much of who I used to be," he grunted, "and now when I try to remind myself, it goes badly."

If they weren't about to, in all likelihood, die, then Saix wouldn't have said anything, but Axel, or Lea, was at least owed this much.

He straightened, though it was barely perceptible, and swiftly changed the subject. "If we're about to die, I would prefer to do so in something other than a dress."

[gotitmemorised]

Axel, even on the brink of disaster, wasn't sure whether to accept his apology. He tended to be at his best before a would-be tragedy and, instead of forgiving him, he simply nodded. He understood what he was trying to get across -- but that didn't mean he had to accept it without a period of consideration. Consideration he would give it if they got through this alive.

Instead, he addressed his change of subject and found himself unable to disagree. "Yeah, ditto. At this point, y'think it'll matter if we drop the disguise?" He looked down at his clothing and shape halfway between unhappiness and amusement. He shrugged and let the jutsu drop before getting Saix's answer.

[innatelunacy]

Saix responded in kind, dropping the jutsu with silent relief and as much dignity as could be mustered when he'd just spent the last few hours parading as a girl. It was not a few hours he wished to remember.

Although it would be nice to get the chance.