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

[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.

[gotitmemorised]

It sounded like an unsubtle dig, as far as Axel was concerned. He scowled, but the unexpectedly long delay before Saix's response was testament to his hesitation. It gave Axel just enough room to wonder whether he was still battling the force of a heart and trying to approach the situation logically while everything in him screamed to the contrary. It had been so easy when they had been able to act so callously, with no conscience to give them pause and no care for the ramifications or loss of life, even of allies. Axel struggled with it now and, for the first time, he wondered if Saix did the same.

All the same, he shook his head.

"Yeah, well we got some people to where she wanted them. You want to scope out a route out of this dump while I go and tell Aerith her time's up?" He canted his head, his expression serious.

[innatelunacy]

Saix grunted rather than spoke, drawing into his excessively grumpy outer persona with practised ease.

"Hit her if you have to," he said, and in another time and another place, that might have been a joke, or as close as he ever got.

These days, it might not be a joke, and left to his own devices, Saix would probably do exactly as he said, so Axel being the one to return to Aerith was probably the wisest option.

[gotitmemorised]

Axel shook his head and headed back to the church.

"I'm not hitting her, Saix," he called back, not gracing him with a look.

He didn't dawdle. In fact, he rather rushed to get there quickly. Time was of the essence and he didn't want to keep Aerith or anybody else they had managed to corral at the Church waiting any longer than absolutely necessary.