Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Burn ❯ Chapter 18 Axel ( Chapter 18 )

Burn

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy nor am I making any money by writing this.

A/N: I'm going to be taking a bit of artistic license with this chapter. I'm warning you now so you won't complain about it later. If everything isn't a hundred percent, please don't get angry with me, okay? I wouldn't even bother doing this, but after I got some reviews for Identity that made me want to curl up in the fetal position, I decided to write this warning. It's fiction, okay? Not everything will be based off fact. While I try to make things as realistic as possible, I don't make sure every single little detail is a hundred percent correct. So let me know if something is unrealistic. Otherwise, I don't really care.

Chapter 18 Axel

The next morning, I started hypnotherapy with Ansem. It was probably the strangest thing I had ever been through. The first couple of sessions were just practice to see if I could be put into a trance-like state that was necessary for this whole thing to work. By the third session, Ansem was able to put me in a trance and take me out of it with ease.

Ansem explained to me that we wouldn't be doing hypnotherapy in each session; we'd probably do it every couple of sessions. I was going to need time between each session of hypnotherapy to recover and there were probably things we would want to discuss, and also other things that we needed to work on.

It was slow at first, but we finally were able to make some progress. Ansem did this weird age regression thing that is really hard for me to explain. All I really knew was that Ansem made me reminisce back to my childhood and helped me dig up memories from the past that I thought I had forgotten.

When Ansem was sure I had regressed to my childhood and wasn't faking it, he started working with me to uncover the buried memories. We started when I was two years old. I mentioned Reno a lot.

Then, one day, everything changed. While I was in my trance, I said, “Reno, you're the best brother ever!”

“What did you just say, Axel?” Ansem asked sharply.

I repeated my statement. Ansem quickly brought me out of my trance. When I opened my eyes, I felt tears running down my face.

“Brother,” I murmured. “Brother.” I looked up at Ansem. “Reno is my brother.”

“Are you sure?” Ansem asked.

“I'm sure.” I nodded. My voice trembled. “I remember now. Reno is my brother. He…went away. I don't know why. That's all I can remember right now.”

Ansem looked completely surprised. “Well, I think this is a good place to end our session for the day. I don't want to do too much too soon. Now that we've made a real breakthrough, the memories might start coming back on their own, but there's no guarantee.”

I was disappointed that we weren't going to go any farther. Now that I was starting to remember things, I wanted to remember more. I wanted to know what the hell was going on. Why hadn't I remembered Reno? Did my parents make me forget him? Didn't he care about me at all? Maybe he left by himself. I had so many unanswered questions.

I left Ansem's office feeling unfulfilled. I wanted to know more, but I would just have to wait.

Hannah was waiting for me outside Ansem's office as she normally did.

“You're out early,” she said in surprise. “Is everything all right?”

“It's fine,” I replied heavily. “Ansem just wanted to end the session early today.”

Hannah put her hands on her hips. “You are a lousy liar, Axel. It's okay if you don't want to tell me though. It's a private thing. Now come on, it's time for lunch.”

I nodded and followed Hannah through the hallways I had become so accustomed to. I got my lunch and went to sit in my normal corner with my friends.

“Axel?” Roxas asked as soon as I set my tray down on the table. “What's wrong? You look kind of…off.”

“I had a breakthrough in my sessions with Ansem,” I said, sliding into the seat next to Roxas. “Zexion's godfather Reno is my older brother.” I was amazed at how calm I sounded when I said this.

To my utter shock, Zexion nodded.

“We know,” Roxas said softly.

I stared at him. Anger welled up inside me, as well as anger.

“You knew?!” I yelled, getting to my feet. “You knew all this time and you didn't tell me?! How could you do this to me?”

“I didn't know,” Demyx said timidly from the other side of the table. “I really didn't know. I swear!”

“Axel, please listen to me,” Roxas pleaded. “I didn't know until Zexion was hospitalized and I met him. That's when I was told.”

I turned to Zexion. He had started to cry a little. He took a deep shuddering breath.

“I'm so sorry Axel. I couldn't. I wanted to, but I couldn't.” He shook his head and started weeping softly.

I walked over to the other side of the table and put my hand on Zexion's bony shoulder at me. He looked up at me, tears streaking his cheeks. His eyes were really watery. I wrapped my arms around his thin body.

“It's all right,” I said quietly.

I went back to my spot and sat down. After lunch, Demyx and I were accompanied back to our room by Aerith and Hannah for a bit of down time before the afternoon activities began. I laid down on my bunk and stared at the ceiling, trying to remember something about Reno, anything.

I conjured up an image of Reno as I remembered him. He was kind, funny, and a troublemaker. I always looked up to him. I closed my eyes and concentrated. He didn't seem to like me at first; he tried to keep his distance from me, which seemed to make my parents happy. But when my parents went out somewhere together, he would always watch me. After a while, he warmed up to me. He was really nice to me. We got into trouble together. He was always defying our parents.

“Axel!” a voice cried out.

I opened my eyes. “Huh?”

“We were starting to worry,” Demyx explained. “Hannah has been calling your name for a while and you weren't answering.”

“Oh. Sorry,” I apologized at once. “I was just trying to remember some things about my brother.”

“Oh, I see.” Demyx smiled.

I could only remember a few things about Reno. It was driving me crazy because I wanted to remember. There was still a huge gap in my memory that I wanted to be filled in. I wanted to fill in the blanks and remember my older brother and the reason why he wasn't in my life anymore.

 

The next morning, I went back to see Ansem again.

“So how are you doing this morning, Axel?” He asked right off the bat.

“I'm doing fine,” I replied truthfully.

“You aren't having any negative effects from yesterday's incident?” Ansem asked curiously.

“Nope.” I shook his head. “I've remembered a little more about Reno.”

“Oh?” Ansem prodded.

“It's not really that much,” I said. “I just remember that he and I didn't get along at first—he didn't seem to like me, but then after a while, he opened up to me. We would get in trouble all the time together. It was a lot of fun.”

“What sort of trouble?” Ansem asked.

“I don't remember,” I answered sadly.

“Don't worry Axel,” He reassured me. “The memories will come back in time. It may be a slow process, but they will return. That's all you remember?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Hey Ansem, you really didn't know that Reno was my brother, right?”

“That's correct.” Ansem nodded. “I assure you I had no idea you had an elder brother. Your records indicate that you were an only child. Why do you ask?”

“It's just that Roxas and Zexion both knew already that Reno was my brother so I thought maybe you knew as well and just weren't saying anything,” I said.

“Hmm…” Ansem looked thoughtful. “I wonder why this could be. Perhaps you should try talking to them.”

“Okay,” I replied.

At the end of the session, I left, as usual, still frustrated that I couldn't remember anything more about my brother. I was glad that I could remember him now, though. I would find the answer one day. I just knew it.

To be continued…

A/N: Sorry the chapter was short this time around. I was having a lot of trouble writing it. It just did not go like I wanted it to. And being stuck out in the middle of nowhere doesn't help either.

Axel: Oh come on, it can't be that bad.

Me: I have been without Internet for three days straight and I was stuck for two days in the middle of a freaking forest. Not only was I bored out of my skull, I was having trouble writing. I'm getting pretty close to the end of my sanity.

Demyx: Don't worry. I understand. It sucks.

Me: Thank you Demyx. At least SOMEONE understands. -glares at Axel—So the next chapter should be a lot longer than this one was.