Summary: Maybe it was because they shared the same eyes…

Author's Note: I liked Axel so very, very much, I had to write something about him.

The Artificial Heart

He'd heard…or, maybe, his heart had (hard to remember when you're not quite real) heard that, before you die, your entire life flashes before your eyes.

Axel had never died. He'd been divided twice and thrice and four times, from birth to Heartless and Nobody. He'd tried to find his father, searched all over for a man with spring green eyes and red tattoos, and found nothing.

Maybe that was why he was part of Organization XIII. Maybe it was nothing to do with what he was and more to do with what he could never be.

It had been a while since he'd seen one of his brethren eliminated, and he'd forgotten how eerie it looked.

"That's what happens…" he said to Roxas-Whole, Nobody-Sora. He expected to choke out something – blood, or ash, or dust – but there was nothing to choke out, because there was no heart to beat.

He looked up at the blue eyes, and felt something very weird in his chest, and along what made up his skin, and across his face and hands. It was like there was something warm.

He hadn't felt like this since he'd last seen Roxas.

He looked up at Sora-Full, Roxas-Half, and fancied he could see Roxas staring at him through that sweet face and brown-blond bangs.

Maybe it was because they shared the same eyes, but Axel felt as though he had a heart, not just the half-heart of Roxas, but the full heart of Sora, filling his body from top to toe.

There was an artificial heart in him right now, and it was clinging to his half-life with teeth and nails.

Axel smiled weakly, and the artificial heart stopped beating, as Axel died, not eliminated, but died as a man, full and whole, with a heart and roaring blood in his veins.

It's funny…you make me feel…the same…