Dance in the Flames

"Fire breathing, innit?" Spoon says, tugging the hood up. Just because sunburns heal doesn't mean that he enjoys them. Anyway, his scars look like shite if he gets tanned.

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"Yup. And nearly invulnerable to physical attacks, unless you hit him from behind," Axel explains. He hops up a level, and crosses the roof, to look down over the market by the main gates.

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"Yuck." Spoon says, making a face, "Doesn't sit right, but I can do behind. Uh. Pretend that I didn't put it like that." Spoon follows, with rather less hopping and rather more scrambling and stands next to Axel.

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Axel snorts, and grins.

"Said what?" he asks. He scans over the square, but all the merchants are cheerfully hawking their wares.

"No Heartless here today," he comments.

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"Good." Spoon says, also turning and looking around, "Not normal, is it? Is it a good sign, or a bad sign?"

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"Sometimes they're here, sometimes they're not," Axel says with a shrug. "Come on."

He pulls up his hood, and hops down into the square, heading for the gates.

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"Righty." Spoon hops down as well, bending his knees and doing a three-point landing before springing up and following his friend.

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There's some foliage outside the gates, and then a couple of paths, leading off into the trackless desert.

Axel seems to know where he's going, though, as he heads off down one way.

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Spoon trusts Axel. Eventually they're going to need to talk about the confrontation from the other day, but he trusts Axel. So he follows while humming something cheerful.

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They walk across the hot dunes for, in Axel's opinion, far too little time, before they reach an oddly shaped dune. He holds up a hand for Spoon to wait, and it's only moments before the great tiger's head rises out of the sand, maw gaping.

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"Huh." Spoon says, looking at it for a while before shrugging, "Cheetah would have been hotter."

...Right.

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...Right.

"We go inside" Axel says.

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"Righty." Spoon says cheerfully as he heads for the gaping maw of stone, "Inside it is."

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The cave is deep, and echoing; somewhere, something can be heard dripping.

The Heartless appear almost as soon as they enter, boiling up out of the dark.

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Spoon grins at Axel, then bows to him as though they're going to start a dance, and dives into the masses of Heartless with the thoughtless glee he always uses.

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Axel dives right in as well; the walls reflect the light of his fire, making the entire cavern glow.

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Spoon hops from pillar to pillar after Heartless, ignoring the gold. He doesn't need treasure and unless something looks particularly like one of his family will want it he's going to continue to ignore it.

He's all about the fight. "Lead on, Axel."

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Sand and stone and glittering gold...

Axel leads on into the next chamber.

"Before I forget," he says. "Don't take any of the treasure. There's a curse."

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"Don't need any more of those." Spoon agrees, "Hadn't done so, won't." It's easy enough for him to ignore, Annie keeps track of the money for him.

He then looks around at all the monkey statues with a soft snort of bemusement.

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"Yeah, I don't get it either," Axel says, following his gaze.

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"Humans are weird." Spoon says with a shrug, "Now what? Don't seem to be any Heartless in the monkey room."

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"We go back and look for more?" Axel suggests.

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"Works for me." Spoon whistles brightly and turns to head back.

There is a rumble from above.

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Reflexively, Axel leaps back out of the way, head jerking up towards the sound.

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Spoon does much the same...but not nearly as well. The shattering stalactite explodes and sends shards around like a thousand stone bullets. One of them goes in one side of Spoon's neck and out the other in a fucking impressive spray of blood.

Full moon isn't for more than five days.

My, that's a bright light in Spoon's eyes. And flashes of mum/da'/Helen/Ace/Cora/Cooper/Penny/Ace/Ace/Ace/Fr. Anselm/Hektor/Rene ...

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At the other side of the universe, a spanner hits the floor of the TARDIS with a jangling crash.

Moments later, as the deep sound of the cloister bell rings through the ship, Ace falls as well, strength and health draining away for no conceivable reason.

Cookies and glitter and soft blue sand, nights by the fire and days under alien suns and explosions and kissing a woman (Helen) she does not know and running always running AcesareraresolvethepuzzleExterminatedon'tcrydoughnutfireandLondonand

It's light. There's light.

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OH SHIT doesn't even begin to cover it.

"SPOON! Shit, Spoon, don't die!" The chakrams are dismissed, and he's reaching into his pockets, rummaging for Elixir.

"Elixir Elixir Elixir--"

Shouldn't he be healing? Shouldn't he be healing?

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It's easier to heal when there aren't bits still in! There is healing going on, just not as wicked-fast as it is closer to the moon when he's doing stupid things because he can survive them.

His eyes are slightly glazed as he scrabbles to reach up for the shards of stone still in his neck and he claws them out at about the same time Axel tips the Elixir into his mouth.

"...Ace is gonna kill us." he then informs Axel's shoulder.

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This part is more familiar, as she stares, gasping, up at the ceiling. The sudden reversion back to normal life, as if the last few minutes (or hours, or, on one notable case, days) hadn't happened at all.

But that...

That wasn't like before.

Scared and, honestly, feeling shaky, Ace crawls back until her back's flat against the console and curls up there, waiting for her brain to stop racing.

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Axel is not especially physically strong; this is something he'll freely admit.

Spoon still might end up with crushed ribs.

"You're not dead."

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Bruised ribs?

Not actually a terrible thing to have. It means he's alive for the bruising.

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Axel doesn't let go of Spoon as he opens the way into the dark.

Ace.

He knows Ace.

She's his friend; has stood by him even in bad situations; their hearts should be connected. He should be able to find her, especially with Spoon.

Find Ace. He can do that.

Find Ace.

He lets his feet and his heart and his instincts lead him, and when he opens the way back out, he just somehow knows.

Somewhere, a deep ell is ringing.

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It's a sign of how badly she's been shaken that even with the TARDIS screaming at her about security breaches, Ace doesn't do much more than stare blankly as a swirling black door opens where no door should be.

There was light. Not the ever-present darkness, but light. But it was unprovoked.

And then her racing brain takes in Axel. Axel and...

"Spoon!" It's terrified. Flat out terrified.

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Spoon rushes for her without letting go of Axel and drags her into the hug, nuzzling her hair and saying, "Was an accident, fuckin' thing dropped from the ceiling, didn't all get out of me at first, fuckin' sorry Ace. So fuckin' sorry. Axel had healing...sommat."

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"Elixir," Axel says. "Fixes everything."

And he hugs them both.

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She clings, doing her best to ignore the cloying smell of blood now crammed in her nose. She almost lost him, he almost...

Why yes, Spoon, that smell is shock. Shock and surprise and disbelief.

The pieces of this particular puzzle are beginning to make an interesting picture.

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"Say sommat, luv." Spoon says, suddenly terrified that she didn't come all the way back, "Ace?" Spoon looks over her head at Axel.

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"I have another one," Axel says quickly. "Elixir. Just one more right now..."

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"You almost died." She says, slowly, as if still testing out this theory in her head. "You... almost died. That was... dying."

There was light. She remembers light.

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"Only ever been closer once." Spoon admits, "And that was when I lost me chest. We almost died."

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"Don't do that again," Axel says. "Either of you."

Yeah, they're both getting a pile of Elixirs. Soon.

Just in case.

Just in-fucking case.

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"It worked." She still sounds more than a little stunned. "It really worked. I... didn't think it would work."

And then she smacks him soundly. She's recovering, it seems.

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"Deal, Axel. Oh, good." Spoon says at the smack, "I was so scared part of you stayed dead." And then he kisses her.

A lot.

More than that.

Not that he's let go of Axel, mind, it's just that he's celebrating not being dead with Ace at the same time as clinging.

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Axel's cool with that. As long as they're not dead.

"I'm getting Elixir for both of you."

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Eventually Axel gets an answer.

Very eventually. Spoon scared her badly, if indirectly. (And this is slightly only an excuse)

"I don't need any, Axel. Couldn't fix it on my end, an' if I was the one hurt anyway... I can already take care of it. Ta for thinkin' of it though."

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"I'll carry them." Spoon promises, "All the bloody time. Not planning on dying soon. Can we all just sit on the couch tonight? Don't think anyone wants to sleep."

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"I can do that," Axel says.

Ace is still getting Elixirs. What she does with them is up to her, but she's still getting them.

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