kh_drabble | (no subject)

Theme: [172] Technical Support
Title: Firewalls
Word Count: 507
Spoilers: None, unless you don’t know Roxas’ story in the seven days he was in Twilight Town. Takes place between the Struggle match and the “icky orders” meeting with Axel.
Notes: Me and my grammar jokes. >>

In a dark room, a computer glowed faintly, just barely illuminating a shadowy figure that slowly approached the machine. The man bent over the screen, and the light that shined on the figure’s face revealed two bright green eyes, which seemed to flicker like the lazy flames of a dying fire.
Axel grinned to himself as his hands swept across the keyboard, typing out codes only he knew, as well as ciphers that would hopefully disable the system of the simulation that held his friend captive. DiZ and the other man in the black coat were not there to stop him, due to, as Axel termed it, a “harmless” explosion that had occurred directly outside the mansion. If they returned before Axel could complete what he had intended to do…
But so far, nothing, nothing was working! Axel bit his lip in frustration, typing out every possible order to the computer, but it seemed in vain. DiZ had fortified his system all too well. Axel repressed the urge to punch his fist through the screen; if the system overloaded, who knew that might happen to his partner, who was trapped within that hidden nightmare of a town?

“Axel, stop.” Axel, muttering a curse to himself, turned around and gazed upon at the fair face of Naminé, who meekly stood in the doorway of the room. “It’s no use. He’s got the computer too well protected, inside and out.”
Her words, although he knew they were true, struck him like a bolt of lightning out of the sky. So he couldn’t do anything…not a single thing… Trying to hide his disappointment and disbelief, Axel turned back to the computer and continued typing.
“Axel, you need to go now.” The man ignored her, trying to persuade his broken self that maybe not all was lost, that he could still find that magical code that unlocked everything…

“Please, Axel.”
Her pleading tone made him flinch, and after a brief pause, he walked slowly away from the computer, realizing, bitterly, that there was nothing he could do about the situation. The circumstances, unlike those at Castle Oblivion, were no longer in his favor, and Axel could almost feel the Fates laughing at his sorry shell of a Nobody.
Opening a portal, Axel shot one last glance at the silent girl, and allowed the whispering shadows to envelop him, saying to himself quietly, “Maybe I’ll speak to him one more time…”

When DiZ and the other man came back, they found Naminé sitting in front of the chamber where Sora rested in a seemingly eternal sleep. “So, Naminé, did no one show up inside the mansion? I trust you were looking over the system while we were gone,” said DiZ, addressing the Nobody. A small smile appeared on Naminé’s face, a smile that betrayed the slightest feeling of sadness, as if his words had reminded her of something bittersweet. “Naminé? Did you hear me?”
Naminé turned towards him, looking him in the eye. “Nobody came into the mansion. Nobody…I’m sure of it.”

Extra note: I know that Axel trying to free Roxas using a computer isn’t really an example of technical support, but I kind of took it a little more metaphorically: Axel’s trying to support Roxas (as well as himself) through technical means. Sorry if it was unclear…