Cat's Cradle Chapter 1, a kingdom hearts fanfic

Title: Cat's Cradle

Summary: (AU-ish: keeps details from the game but mixes them with FFVII and a healthy dose of my own little mental universe- will have many descriptions, for clarity.) One wouldn't expect Axel to be a Turk. Then again, one wouldn't expect Roxas to be on the run for something he didn't do. But since when has anything been normal?

Rating: M

Warnings: The general shit. No citrus forseen. (Note: 'general shit' entails violence, language, possible mentions of nudity… and a meddling female OC not unlike Sakura.)

BGM: None

Comments: Random idea that smacked me upside the head. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. Which is a fact that I am glad for, because that means I don't have Xemnas trying to find me and force me to give him the rights to it. You can have that one, Nomura-sama, he's all yours. (My brain deserts me when I'm awake at six in the blinking morning.)

Shot I: A Turk without a reason and a Criminal without a crime

Anyone who looked at Axel would not think 'Turk' right off hand.

Pyromaniac, oh yes, especially with the way he kept flicking that lighter. Guy who really needed Hair Gel Addicts Anonymous, of course, though he'd swear up and down that his hair was naturally that spiky (and if you didn't believe him, look at his older brother Reno). Prankster, yes, but you never really believed it until you woke up one morning with chocolate syrup in your shampoo bottle and koolaid in the showerhead. A whole host of names could describe the tattooed, redheaded, green eyed man.

Turk didn't make the list.

But a Turk he was, and a damned good one too, ranking in just below his brother. And when your brother was just about the highest-ranked guy in a group, that was saying something. And right now, he was not a happy camper. A normal day for Axel consisted of waking up, getting breakfast, getting a shower, dressing in that obnoxious blue suit (at least he got to wear his trenchcoat on the walk to work, he liked that much) and doing tedious deskwork for the next eight and a half hours, or more if there had just been a mission and he was filing things (they had such a fucked up system, he never could remember what went where, and bribing the little interns was getting harder and harder), come home, eat dinner, watch a little TV or read something, and go to sleep. Simple, idyllic days that brought home the bacon every week.

Those simple, idyllic days seemed doomed to be thrown off the nearest high cliff, thanks to this little mess… Whoops! Best to start at the beginning, huh? But that necessitates a jump back in time by a few hours and another introduction.

Anyone who looked at Roxas would not think 'criminal' right off hand.

Punk teenager, yes, definitely, he had the style for it, though it wasn't half as bad as his friend Larxene. Another guy in dire need of Hair Gel Addicts Anonymous, of course, though his were absolutely natural (as were his twin brother Sora's, but no one seemed to notice or care). Good student, perhaps, though you wouldn't think it until you saw his report card. Hell, even 'good kid' was on the long list of names that could be used in describing Roxas.

'Criminal', however, did not make the list.

But this further necessitates that little skip back in time, and so I will get to it.

"Larxene, we've gone on this tour a thousand times!" Roxas sighed as the two reached the Shinra Corporation building.

"Then this makes it one thousand and one. Quit bitching, you said you needed to get away from Sora for the day." Larxene huffed, adjusting her black baseball cap. Roxas sighed; this was true, his overly-bubbly twin had been unusually annoying today, and he needed the distance. Let his friend Riku take care of him, he didn't have anything to study today and he intended to have fun. The tour began, and Larxene quietly split off from the group, Roxas following her. He never paid attention to anything on the tours- he just figured Larxene did the same thing and that they had gotten lost. Roxas wandered around, eventually losing Larxene as well, confused as hell… until he ran into someone.

"Sorry, sorry, got separated from the tour group." He apologized. A small chuckle was the response.

"They're down on the ground floor again by now, kid, the tour's probably over. You'd best hop an elevator and get going before they leave you behind." Roxas looked up to see a guy with brilliant red hair, flashing green eyes, and a cocky smile that amazingly didn't seem to move the tiny upside down triangle tattoos on either cheek.

"Thanks, sir," Roxas said, and took off, fighting back the urge to shudder. He knew of the Turks, who didn't in this day and age, but he'd never actually seen one. To have run into one, quite literally, thank you…

Just don't think of how he could have killed you and you'll be okay, Roxas decided, and kept going. Shortly after he reached the ground floor, he found Larxene, looking very angry and very impatient. "Sorry! I got lost…"

"Come on, Roxas, let's leave, this joint's the pits. I thought they'd add more stuff but I was so wrong it wasn't even funny. Let's just get." She seemed to have something in her pocket, but Roxas didn't get a chance to ask what it was before Larxene shuffled him off to the car. As soon as they got to the car, she turned a glare at him. "I would have thought you could stay with the damned group!"

"I thought you were following them! I zoned out halfway through floor one, we've gone on this tour so many times! And what's in your pocket?!" Roxas glared right back, making Larxene growl in frustration and slam her hands down on the steering wheel.

"Never you mind, Roxas, let's just get you home. And if you don't see me for a while, Dad's trying for custody, so I may try his house for a while."

"But you're 19, Larxene." Roxas pointed out. She was only a year older than him and Sora, and they'd known each other since middle school, but that wasn't the point.

"So? Dad still wants custody." The whole story was shady, but Larxene was the one giving him a ride home, and unless he fancied the idea of walking almost eight miles away to the suburbs he'd keep his mouth shut.

He liked reaching his house in a half hour, not four hours.

"Shit, shit, SHIT!" Reno cursed. Axel knew that if his brother used the same expletive multiple times, it was a really bad day for the Turks. "Axel, take a look at this!" Curiosity got the best of Axel and he came over to look at the security cameras in the main department. "This is at eleven-thirty four. See that case there?"

"Of course, Reno." Axel sighed. "It's got that one materia in it, right? The unknown thing that turned up at that Cetra dig?"

"The very one. See how it's still there? Good. Fast forward to twelve-fifty-five. Last guy leaves for lunch. That would be…"

"Me, yeah, I know. That damn computer froze on me and I had to rewrite half of that damn report, and I promised to have it on old Shinra's desk before I left for any breaks, even a bathroom one. Shit, I was hungry…" Axel sighed, recalling how his body was screaming at him to say 'fuck it' and go to the cafeteria for some dismally sickening attempt at food- Reno just said he wasn't eating on the right days, but free food meant he ate there everyday and it never got any better- or even to go get a drink (which would then necessitate the aforementioned bathroom break that Axel was forbidden to take until he finished that report).

"Not the time, Axel. You were the last person to leave there. Did you lock up?" Reno questioned.

"Fuck yes I did. I locked the case, armed the system, did everything short of tucking that damned materia in for a nap and reading it a bedtime story. And I made sure to lock the office, not just arm the keypad this time." Boy, had that brought on a reprimand… he hadn't forgotten to deadbolt the door since Shinra chewed his hide for that one.

"All right, I believe you." Reno nodded. Hell, why not, the cameras out in the hall even showed him locking the door before walking off in one hell of a hurry… Besides, his brother had no reason to lie. "Fast forward again to one-twenty-eight. See that? Blond kid, messy hair. Somehow got in past the keypad, got past the locks, and see what they're taking?"

"The god-damned materia!" Axel growled. In the camera it was tough to tell what the blond was- androgyny was a bitch on security cameras. And it was the androgyny one could see in just-barely-past-pubescence teens… or those who aged incredibly slowly, like that one Turk girl… never could remember her name.

"Fast forward one last time to one-forty-five. One of the interns comes in, sees the materia gone, raises the alarm. You're shown as one of the first three in the room." Reno was ashamed to admit that he'd dismissed the call for a minute, thinking it a crank call from his younger brother or something until Rude received a text politely requesting him to either beat the living shit out of Reno or convince him that the damn materia had indeed been taken, just to get him back to the office, this message delivered courtesy of one younger brother. "Think, Axel. Did you run into anyone suspicious on your way back to the office?"

"No… wait, yes… there was one. Little blond guy, said he was on the tour and got separated from the group. Messy hair, punk clothes, slight build… though his clothes weren't all black… I distinctly remember a black undershirt, a white over shirt, and khaki pants… and some weird zipper pull thing, like a shuriken almost. I'd think that'd show up on the cams, it was freaking huge as far as zipper pulls go. And he was shorter than the figure on the tape."

"They're called lifts and slight platforms to shoes, I know you have a pair of boots like that, Axel." Reno sighed. "And a change of clothes could be hidden easily… did he have a backpack or something like that?"

"No, no bag on him, I'd remember that. But those pants were pretty big… I'm starting to wonder if that's just the style or something…" Axel said darkly. Just then a breathless intern ran in, taller-than-sensible heels clicking on the tiled floor of the office.

"I'm so sorry, but the security task force finished weeding out every blond who was on the tour today." She gently set the stack of papers down on the table, straightening the perhaps forty or fifty papers as she straightened up herself. "This was as narrow as they could get at the time…"

"This is fine. Thanks, darlin'." Reno smiled, and the intern practically floated out of the room. Axel sighed.

"Seriously, bro, you have to teach me that smile someday. It'd make filing a hell of a lot easier."

"Hush your yap and get to work. Start looking for a face you recognize." Reno laughed indulgently, knowing that this would be a task and a half and completely not pitying his brother.

"This one's too old… female… too young… bleach blond, this kid's hair was natural, I'm willing to bet… straight hair, too long…" And so it went until the thirty-sixth or thirty-seventh entry. "Found him!"

Shinra Corporation, in an effort to protect against thefts like the one suffered today, registered each tour member as a temp file into a special computer, keeping a photographic record of each tourist and their name. Falsification was damn near impossible- they had to have ID or an adult present to verify they were who they said they were. It was an incredibly interesting tour, though, or so Axel had heard, and that made getting in worth it. As it said here, the kid was named Roxas Hikaru, so the rest was a quick search away. He didn't even have to boot up the Shinra network to do it either; his cell phone had net access and it was a hell of a lot more confidential.

"Well, I'm off. I'm going to offer the kid the chance to give it back before we press charges. Probably some bored teenager looking for kicks."

"You'd know all about that, huh, Axel?" Reno laughed. At 24, he was only three years older than his brother, and when he had been recruited into the Turks at 17 (fresh out of high school), he'd been taking care of his 14 year old, damn-near-delinquent brother when a call had come for him to hightail it to Shinra. Not feeling comfortable leaving Axel alone at home, he'd taken him with him… where Axel had promptly lifted a pair of chakaram, duped a secretary into letting him have a peek at Reno's files, and promptly left a note therein that said something to the effect of 'this is pathetic, I'm going to party, see you in the morning'. Luckily building security had caught him before he got out the door- he'd forgotten about the chakaram, and that the Turks had a specific uniform to wear while on duty, and weapons were not taken on the street unless you were on official business. The Turks had started grooming him for recruitment immediately after, and he had joined just after his graduation at 18 (he turned 18 only a few days before graduation).

"Sure would." Axel laughed, always in good humor about the circumstances that had foreshadowed his recruitment. Suddenly he had a thought. "Reno, do me a favor. Check to see if there are any people in that list who have gone on this tour more than three times, cross-ref that with the dates this Roxas kid has gone, and tell me if any Turk agents have either quit or taken leave recently or if any are scheduled in the near future."

"Sure thing. You want a chicken sandwich while I'm at it?" Reno sighed, rolling his eyes- that list would take forever.

"…Sure, I'm gonna want that sandwich when I get back from talking to that Roxas kid." Axel said absently as he left. The red motorcycle was in it's normal spot, and Axel smiled, glad that the Turks had special parking privileges. It would have been a bitch trying to find the modded racing cycle today; he wanted this situation over and done with as soon as humanly possible. Besides… that Roxas kid had been cute. And Axel was not above liking another guy- being bi, he had every right.

He kinda wanted to ask him out to dinner after this whole thing was taken care of. After all, his tour info had shown that he showed a driver's license, and the date of birth put him down at 18. "Roxy… I'm coming for you." He laughed, low and dark as he pushed headphones into his ears and pushed the helmet down over his head. The player started in with something almost Eurobeat, and he smiled.

Great way to start the conclusion of an already too-hectic day.

While Axel was sorting through photos to find the one golden-haired kid he suspected of this crazy stuff, said golden-haired kid was currently at home, reading over some magazine he'd bought at a grocery store on his way home. Larxene hadn't been happy about the stop, but she'd promised his cousin she'd do it. Cloud was currently downstairs, working on making something edible out of the groceries.

The twins were living with their cousin after an accident had taken their parents when they were in middle school. Neither one had been overjoyed at having to move from Destiny Islands, a warm, tropical paradise, to this cold, chemical-smelling suburb called Twilight Town, just outside of Midgar, but Cloud owned his own highly-successful delivery service and was their only relative. They just thanked their stars that their younger sister Namine (only younger by about a year, really)had gotten into a very prosperous art school on scholarship, and was currently living there. They didn't want to expose her to this hell.

Of course, they had friends here- there was Hayner, Pence and Olette, who hung out with Roxas… and there was the enigmatic Larxene. Riku, a friend from Sora's childhood who had moved to Twilight Town just a year and a half before the fateful accident, still hung around with Sora, and the brunet boy still wrote to their old friend Kairi on the islands- she, Sora, and Riku were all planning a get-together later that summer, when Sora could take time off work at the shop and use his wages to pay for his ticket. Riku had offered, but the Hikaru brothers were very independent. It came from the Strife side, their mother's side, as their father had once said.

"Rox! Hey, Roxas!" came the call up the stairs. Cloud Strife did not sound like a happy guy, and the thundering steps up the stairs didn't help his case any. "Any good reason why a Turk would be here asking about that tour you and Larxene took today?"

"Huh?" Roxas asked, the first thing that came to his mind, really a compilation of 'A Turk?', 'What about the tour?', and 'What the hell?'.

"Roxas… just go down there and handle it." Cloud sighed. "If I leave the kitchen much longer, dinner will burn. And kid… take your Struggle club. Say you have a game you were going to if need be." Cloud did not trust the Turks as far as he could throw one- and considering he hefted packages most of the day and even found time to help out in a local bar a friend of his ran, that would be a considerable distance. Roxas did as he was told, and headed downstairs to see…

"You're the guy I ran into earlier!" he noted in shock. Axel laughed once.

"You betcha, Roxas. Name's Axel, I'm just here to ask some quick questions… see, I've very interested in what you were doing on that floor today, especially considering it's restricted access."

"Huh? Restricted? Then how were Larxene and I able to get on it? They told us all about the special keycard for the elevator floors on the tour." Roxas said in confusion. He was really glad Sora was out at that movie with Riku now- he did not need to deal with this shit around his twin, who'd only tease and make it worse. Axel stalked over to the blond, a predatory look in his green, green eyes.

"That's what I'd like to know," Axel smiled, but this time it didn't seem to really reach his eyes. "So you and Larxene, huh? Got separated from the tour group? What were you doing, looking for bathrooms or a nice quiet spot to make out?"

"Ugh, no. Larxene is a friend, nothing more, thank God for that." Roxas shuddered, and Axel bit back a laugh. The make out thing had been a joke, but it was well worth it for that reaction of disgust. "And seriously, I thought Larxene was following the tour guide, we've been on the tour at least twenty times…"

"Thirty nine, forty today." Axel laughed. "Congratulations on taking the most tours of Shinra. Were you casing it or what?"

"Casing it? What the fuck?" the boy asked, starting to get indignant about this. "Are you saying something got stolen?"

"Please. Like you don't know what it was."

"No, o wise one. Care to enlighten me?" Roxas asked, copping his defensive attitude he got when something was going shit for him.

"Something old and valuable, that's all you need to know. Now think long and hard about it, kid- maybe you're the kind that blacks out when you steal something, safeguard against your conscience."

"Mister… Axel, was it? Dude, I have no idea what you're talking about. All I know is that I got lost from the group because Larxene and I had lingered to look at this one diagram or something, then I got lost from Larxene, ran into you- which I am very sorry about, in case I didn't say it this afternoon…"

"You did," Axel broke in, "but the repeat helps considerably."

"…I followed your advice and went back to the ground floor, found Larxene since the tour was over, went back to her car… she railed at me for a few minutes, but that's her style, she's really short tempered and impatient, so I just figure she forgot about a date tonight or something… but her jacket pocket looked sort of heavy…"

"Jacket? Style, color, give me info!"

"Just a plain black sweat jacket, long sleeved, no hood, but she had a baseball cap on. Plain black on that too, but that's her style- punk all the way." Suddenly Axel had an idea that this kid wasn't fooling with him, and maybe he had the wrong idea all along. It would take a check with Reno to know, but that could all be accomplished… and if he could borrow Roxas and get more info… like his favorite restaurant and type of movie… all the better.

"Great! Kid, come with me…" He started towards Roxas, hands outstretched.

It was a credit to Cloud's teachings, it seemed, that Roxas knew how to wield that Struggle bat hard enough to knock someone out, and that was how Axel ended up: crumpled on the floor between two blonds, Cloud having come in from behind when he heard the words 'come with me' and smacked Axel upside the back of the head with the ladle hard enough to contribute to the TKO that was now drooling on the beige carpet beneath their feet.

"Oh my god, we killed him…" Roxas said in shock. Cloud ducked down to check for a pulse.

"No, just knock out. But I don't want you going anywhere with that Turk… get your keyblades." Cloud said, blue eyes boring into Roxas's own. "Grab a bag, grab some stuff, hit the road for a while. You always said you wanted to see Gold Saucer or Wutai, check them out. I've got some favors I can call in… get this cleared up… I heard the story, I'll bet Larxene did it, and that's why she practically pitched you out of the car without stopping…"

"Cloud, do you think they think I stole this… whatever it is?"

"They did, but it seems Axel here is convinced you didn't. Maybe he can talk some sense into them. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Larxene always asked you to go on the tours with her. Always."

"Because we're both blond, even if she's a little taller than me… and we're both really slight." Roxas said, beginning to get miffed. "That also explains the weight in her pocket… I'm going to talk to her." Roxas glared at the unconscious form of Axel on the floor. "When sleeping beauty here wakes up, give him Larx's address, I think I may take your advice and hit the road for a while. Should I call or anything?"

"Cell phones are easy to trace- the towers." Cloud said, and that explained it all. He'd taught them all about that when they entered high school, knowing a teenage boy's penchant for trouble. "I can call friends along the way and have them look out for you. I've been meaning to call Zack and Aerith for a while now anyhow, see how they're doing in Radiant Garden."

Roxas grabbed the keyblades he and his brother had learned to wield as children, some clothing, and a few electronics (he was a teen still, leaving the mp3 player would have been like ripping his lungs out and leaving them, and the cell phone never left his pocket, so it was easy to forget about it, and what if he needed it?) and grabbed the car key from the rack by the door. Axel's frame was no longer in the living room, and Cloud was busy getting his Buster Sword out of the display case by the fireplace (he would have set it on the mantle, he said, but the last time he'd tried that the whole damn thing had just snapped off like a twig, which explained the new mantle in an old house).

"Be careful." Cloud said, receiving a quick hug from Roxas. "I'll give Sora some BS to live by. Besides, his trip should be coming soon, he'll be too busy enjoying himself."

"Good… I don't want Sora to be disappointed." Roxas nodded. "Hey, Cloud, do me one favor, though."

"What's that?"

"Remove Axel from the driveway. I'd rather not be gotten on murder charges. As is, I'm facing deep shit unless Larxene is home and he wakes up ASAP."

"Roxas! Darling, how are you!" The tall, beautiful blonde that was Larxene's mother smiled from the doorway, hugging the smaller boy.

"I'm fine, I just have to talk to Larxene." Now the woman looked distressed. "Has she already left for her dad's?"

"Left for her dad's? Darling… her father is in prison." Larxene's mother said, confused. "He's there for at least another year before he can even think of making parole. And Larxene herself… she vanished off somewhere this afternoon, I haven't heard from her since. She just said something about going on a road trip and left."

Axel woke up with a bitch of a headache in what smelled like grass… and upon further inspection, turned out to be so. He was lying on the front lawn of the Strife-Hikaru household, and dusk was starting to set in. The front door opened, casting a shadow across the lawn, and Axel forced himself to look up through the nausea. There, in the doorway, stood Cloud Strife, former member of the Shinra SOLDIER troops- Axel couldn't believe he'd missed the taint of Mako in those brilliant blues earlier. Maybe he was getting soft in the Turks. And he sure as hell hadn't noticed that Buster Sword the man had slung across his back either.

"Shit… I fucked up somewhere, didn't I?" Axel tried to laugh it off.

"4430 Soleil Lane." Cloud said.

"Say what?"

"Larxene's address. Roxas told me to tell you he was going to talk to her. He called from her house and said she wasn't there, though. You may want to talk to her mother, though, see who she knew." And with that, Cloud Strife returned to his house, closed the door, and thought no more of the Turk on his front lawn.

Axel, meanwhile, pulled out his cell phone and thumbed in the speed dial for his brother. "The name is Axel, and you better commit it to memory, Roxas, because I am going to find you." He muttered bitterly as he held the phone up to his ear to relay this new info to Reno and get an update.