A/N: and back again with a One-Shot! Actually, I've written this one month ago, but I couldn't post it before I got Nijuuni's approval, since I wrote this according to her AkuRoku fanart "Apocalypse Hill". So yeah, since I am posting this ficlet, it means I got her approval~ :D

Who's Nijuuni?: it's a girl on DevianART who draws amazing fanart (I absolutely love her AkuRoku artworks) and she is very skilled—at least for me she is. If you have read the . israel . project107's (without the spaces) One-Shot "Those Who Lie", Nijuuni is the artist of that fanart too. Of course, don't expect my writing to be as good as the . israel . project107's, because she's one amazing and better writer than I am. I'm improving, though :3

All in all, I hope you will like this ficlet. It's different from my other fics, so expect the unexpected with a kind-of-war-theme and blood. Lots of it. Bit of evil Roxas, too.

Nijuuni's account on dA: http: // nijuuni . deviantart . com (remove the spaces)
'Apocalypse Hill' picture: http: // nijuuni . deviantart . com / art / AkuRoku-Apocalypse-Hill-111729484 (remove the spaces)

Warnings: blood, violence, and a tad bit gory. Shounen-ai.

Rating: M

Genres: drama, war/action, romance.

Pairing: AkuRoku

Disclaimer: Don't own Kingdom Hearts II neither the picture Apocalypse Hill.

Thanks to: Seka-Chan, for being my beta, and Nijuuni, for letting me write this ficlet.

Summary: Atop a hill, two young men are standing next to a leafless tree; their eyes roaming over a landscape filled with weaponry and bodies. Smiling, they wait for the next sunrise.

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Apocalypse Hill

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"In war things break, the spirit of the people does not."

- William C. Patterson

Swords clashing against swords. That was the only thing you could hear in the deep, cold moonlit night. Men fell down, wounded and some of them dead; other men marched forwards and took in their places.

Never giving up, bloodied and fighting with all their strength. Warriors kept coming, Mages kept summoning magic spells or healed their comrades, Defenders tried – tried because they were not succeeding – to keep their enemies at bay.

Deep grunts, heavy breathing, beads of sweat rolling down the sides of their scarred faces; they were going to lose any moment now. But the men knew that, if they were going to lose and get killed, then dying while fighting was the only way to die in honour.

Ear-wrenching screams made them shudder when they fast approached their goal—the two demonic persons that had started this bloody war. Fright kicked in, and suddenly they weren't so sure anymore if they wanted to continue this or not. Loud, wicked laughs decided for them, albeit too late. The sound paralyzed the men, too scared, too exhausted to lift their sword and just attack like wild beasts on the loose.

It was silent then. Dark clouds covered the moon, plunging the whole army in total obscurity. Anxious and feeling trapped, a Mage tried to use a lightning spell, but before the words left his mouth a soft breeze caressed his old, wrinkled skin and the words got stuck in his throat. The Warriors, Defenders and other Mages all looked at him—waiting, expecting the amazing thunderstruck that never came.

This was exactly like the calm before the storm; the gentle breeze that seemed to be very innocent while it caused just enough damage to decapitate the Mage whose head fell off and rolled down on the ground, halting at a young Archer's feet and facing the youngster with his dead eyes and mouth agape. It was the only thing needed to know that the ground on which they were standing was going to be their final resting place; their tomb.

The breeze became fiercer, though kept its gentleness when it went through the whole paralyzed army of future dead corpses. The sensation felt nice at first—until the sharpness swiftly and almost invisibly cut into their skin and bones.

And then they saw the glistening of two pairs of eyes before the men averted their gaze on the blades—dirty and dark coloured. The laughs became louder, the appearances of the duo just viewable for mere seconds before their voices rang through the air, smoothly and very human, but for the army it sounded like a death sentence.

"You thought you could take us on? Kill us? All those who dare to fight us will be condemned with our swords," the duo said in perfect sync, moving skilfully around like they were dancing with the moon.

"Now, do us a favour and die by our hands!"

Blood flew everywhere: creating a shower of blood from the thousands and thousands of men that had sacrificed themselves for their own will, for their honour and for their pride. The bodies all fell down at once, soaking the soil crimson red and joining all the other ones that had come to fight before them and had also reached the heavens and hells.

Everything turned quiet, almost peaceful. Even the voices of the two mysterious persons were gone. The dark clouds drifted away to let the moon light the night again, this time on a landscape of corpses. One single man – the young Archer from before – had survived, and he looked around, hazel eyes wide and fearful.

All alone, he started walking. With every step he took he had to watch out not to trip over a limb, or puke at the sight of the deformed faces and missing chunks of flesh. Instead of retreating from the battle that was already lost, he continued forwards, up the high and long hill where a leafless tree was glooming its shadow over his frail self.

The higher he got, the more armour, shields and weapons he came across. It all belonged to the Disney Kingdom Castle. All to be forgotten into nothingness.

When the young Archer finally reached the top, gasping and breathing heavily, he came to stand face to face with the two persons that had wiped out his comrades. The shorter of the two had blonde hair, very spiky in one direction. His eyes were the bluest of all, and held a glint of satisfaction.

The longer one who was sitting down had fiery red hair, emerald eyes that bore through the youngster's skull and his whole existence shone domination that it made the Archer take a step back. The redhead chuckled, holding a hand up and spoke.

"My, you're the first one to reach the top of this hill. I didn't expect that a midget like you would be able to survive Roxas's blade attack." It was said in a playful voice, but the youngster could tell that the man was in fact irritated. The blonde approached the Archer, dangerously close to his face and he felt his hairs stand on end.

"You are not like the others, you have something those idiots could never obtain. It's a real pity, though, that you'll never be able to benefit from it," he said while inspecting the young man. Then the Archer felt a hand wrap his way around his tattered shirt, armour long lost in the roughness of the fight.

"Do you know how this cursed hill is called, kid?" the blonde asked, keeping a good grip on the clothing. When the Archer shook his head, a smirk appeared on the young man's face and he was so preoccupied with the changing of emotions that he could read in those clear blue eyes that he almost didn't feel the sharp point of a sword entering his abdomen and appearing on the other side, droplets of life fluid dropping down on the brown grass.

The young Archer coughed, red liquid escaping his mouth, and his hazel orbs were so wide, feeling betrayed although he never had trusted these people in the first place. It took all of his willpower to concentrate on the cruel words whispered in his thumping ears and not on the pain that burned through his veins.

"It's called…" the blonde slowly, and all the more painfully, withdrew his weapon out of the shaking Archer, enjoying this situation so much that his orbs darkened with intense wickedness, his smirk widening.

"…the Apocalypse Hill."

Before the youngster could blink, he was crudely thrown away from the hill, falling down on a spear that pierced his heart, deciding that this was how the life of the young Archer should end, who will never have the chance to see more of this damned world—doomed to rot in this godforsaken place.

"Was that really necessary, Roxas? The poor kid was going to be the first one to return to the Kingdom, yanno."

The redhead stood up and dusted his pants off, adjusting his goggles on his forehead and sighing deeply. He took a glimpse at the blonde, Roxas, who was staring down the hill.

"If you didn't want to kill the kid, you shouldn't have done it. You're regretting it now, aren't you?" It was a rhetorical question, so he wasn't expecting an answer. Instead he walked until he was next to Roxas, and sat back down again, his back leaning against the tree trunk.

Roxas lifted his arm and gripped a branch, holding his hand there. A wind came up and Roxas's scarf fluttered with the motion, while the redhead made sure the rolls of paper in his bag weren't going to fly away.

The wind became a breeze, and both gazed at the horizon—the sun that was starting to rise and fill the sky up with orange and pink colours. The blonde adjusted his bags around his shoulders. "Hey, Axel?"

The redhead looked up and cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"What are we going to do from now on? We annihilated all the troops of the Kingdom, so I doubt they'll send any more armies to fight us. Unless they're really stupid and send the women and children." A somewhat annoyed expression surfaced on the blonde's face and he dropped his gaze to glare at his shoes. He heard Axel sigh before he spoke.

"Well I don't think they'll do that. They may be brainless as shit, but they ain't heartless. The King knows that he cannot always be the conqueror and even he has to forfeit sometimes. So I guess that we should move on, never look back, and just go with the flow," he said, smiling.

"Like we always do, huh?"

"Yeah..." Axel turned his head around and winked at Roxas, pointing at the sun, its warm rays greeting them, as if the gigantic star told them that everything was going to be all right as long as she was there to shine down on them with her warmth.

"Next sunrise," was what Axel said, grinning. Roxas didn't quite understand what the redhead meant by 'next sunrise', until he saw him staring longingly at the sun and then the sky, before he looked back at the blonde, his emerald eyes shining brightly.

"When the sun sets, we'll find the next sunrise together."

Axel smiled when he tugged down at Roxas's wrist, bringing the blonde down into his lap. He gave him a gentle kiss on the soft lips he liked so much while holding him tightly, not really afraid of letting him go but rather afraid of losing him. It took the blonde only a moment until he deepened the kiss, sneaking his arms around the redhead's neck and humming contently.

When their lips parted, it was Roxas who smiled, silently thanking this peaceful moment since both knew that looking ahead was the only thing they could do, because behind them the pile of corpses would grow and grow in the eternal darkness of the night with the cold moon glaring down on the many evidences of lost battles.

This was the only time that they could cuddle with each other at ease, enjoy their – in their eyes – romantic moment before the next sunrise and the grisly, ensanguined fights that would come along with it.

The End

A/N: I hope I didn't screw up the awesomeness of Nijuuni's picture with this ficlet D: but damn, I'm not used writing war and bloody things. It's a nice change, though.

And I have honestly no idea who this Archer is. I just chose a teen between 16-17, brown hair and hazel eyes. Heck, if you want me to give him a name, I'll call him Kainé or something like that. Or, you know, you could just let your imagination work :p

For those who didn't understand this story so good, here's a short explanation: I think my intention was to write something about war, that the army of DKC (Disney Kingdom Castle) wanted to fight Roxas and Axel to reach the other end towards freedom. But since Axel & Roxas are pretty strong, the men cannot defeat them, thus never reach this 'freedom'. On the other hand, Axel and Roxas just want to be able to see every sunrise together? I don't know, that's just how my thoughts worked while writing this. You could always ask Nijuuni what she really means with the picture and such :)

Sooooo, definitely check Nijuuni's dA, subscribe to her and fangasm all over her drawings. :D I can't thank her enough for letting me write and post it, hopefully she kind of liked it...?

Please review (constructive criticism always welcome), THANK YOU~ :3