Axel grinned as he slid open the screen door to the house that seemed so similar to the one he had grown up in. He let out a low whistle to call his troop to order. Zexion immediately dropped the tools he had been using to disarm the house alarm, whereas Demyx fell gracefully from the tree at the edge of the property and rolled to the side before padding softly to meet the two other men.

"Who's this one?" Demyx whispered as he leaned against the door, blocking their entrance. Zexion scowled at him, wishing to draw his concealed weapon to strike him aside. Axel glanced at the silver haired companion; silently reminding him of the "no violence" rule between the group. Act like animals and be treated like animals.

"Roxas and Alex Philander," Axel explained, stepping into the cluttered kitchen just inside the door, "Sam is sixteen, Alex is seventeen. Their father, Mr. David Philander, runs the brothel downtown."

Demyx licked his lips in the anticipation of what he knew would come next. He loved the raids like this, the rush and the feeling of accomplishment that followed. Axel smirked at his enthusiasm and waved Zexion and Demyx inside with him. Demyx went to work at locking the sliding door behind them and gathering the tool kit he had left with Axel to unlock it in the first place, and Zexion went to the largest room where, presumably, the father would sleep. Axel crept up the stairs to the attic, where he knew the children were kept.

Locked alone in the attic night and day, doesn't that sound familiar? Axel tried to push the thought out of his mind; relating to the Refugees was always a bad idea, for many of them didn't pass the test in the end. As it was, Axel, Zexion, and Demyx were the only three who were mentally and physically able to complete these missions.

He gently opened the door at the top of the stairs. There was a bed to either side of the small attic, with only about three feet of space between the two. One was simply a yellowed mattress on the peeling floor, and the other, although set upon a wooden bed frame, was only a couple of inches thick with a number of thin blankets stretched under the scrawny body strewn across them. It was a young boy with shaggy blond hair and blotchy skin, wearing nothing but a ratty pair of cotton shorts even though he was shivering with the chill of a New York winter. Axel supposed that the boy had had to choose between comfort and warmth for the night.

On the other bed, a thin girl rolled in her sleep. Her hair was a tangled mess of black and blue, a threadbare t-shirt hanging from her bony shoulders read HOOTERS, and her legs looked as though they would snap if someone so much as brushed them. She was much skinnier than the boy, and the bags under her eyes were nearly as dark as her hair. Like the boy, she had no blanket. She had likely given it to her brother.

Axel approached the boy, Roxas, first. In one swift motion, he drew his index finger across the young boy's forehead and touched his own temple with it. Roxas sat up, his eyes still closed. Axel traced an invisible path toward the door with the same finger, and the sleeping boy stood and followed it until he reached the stairs. Satisfied that it was safe to move on, Axel leaned over Alex and preformed the same ritual on her and led them down the stairs, where he found Demyx sitting on a dirty counter, flipping through a magazine, and Zexion picking his nails with a kitchen knife.

Demyx threw down the magazine with a sigh, "I can't believe he just leaves these lying around," Axel looked down and frowned at the naked woman on the front.

Zexion scoffed from the other side of the counter, "Wait until you see what was in the dad's room," he fanned out five different pictures across the surface, revealing Alex in different sexual poses. She was naked and crying in most of them, her ribs jutting out and her skin looking as though it was barely stretching over her bones. In two, Mr. Philander was featured with her as well.

Demyx stared at Axel, "We can't let him go, Axel-"

"Demyx, you know the rule."

Zexion looked back and forth between the two, "Axel, I agree with him. We've never faced someone like him since..." he glanced at Demyx, "Since him. We can't let this go."

Axel pushed Alex and Roxas toward the door, turning his back on his two partners.

"I need to get these two back, you both are supposed to come with me, but I trust you are just going to clean up in here while I'm gone," Demyx lifted his sitar and started toward the master bedroom, while Zexion flipped open the thick book that had been at his side all night.

Axel never even heard a scream before he slid the door shut.

After the raid, Axel threw himself into the soft chair of the lounge. The room was magnificent, with beautifully carved pillars supporting the high ceiling. A giant chandelier hung from the centre; the glass beads tinkling like solidified raindrops, the golden lights shimmering against the dark red walls.

He had only worked with the Agency since he had left the Organization, taking Zexion and Demyx as his only loyal followers. The Agency still used the weapons any Organization members had possessed before their betrayal, and they were all required to learn a quiet spell that allowed them to make the children sleepwalk to wherever they needed to go.

Axel glanced up as footsteps approached him from across the shining hardwood floor. Demyx perched on the armrest of his chair and gave him a small smile.

Demyx hadn't joined Axel immediately after leaving the Organization, but instead had gone home to the family he had been a part of before becoming a Nobody. Upon arriving home, Demyx had been subject to his father's commands. After years of being away from the parents Demyx had known and loved, he never stood against what his father wanted, even when the situations got violent and Demyx began the object of his father's child pornography business. Axel had rescued him soon after things got that bad, but not so soon that Demyx was left mentally unscathed.

Axel smiled back at the blond, "Feeling okay, Dem?" He really did worry about the young man, Axel knew that Demyx hid all of his feelings until he was alone or forced to bring them up during missions, like the one they had just succeeded in.

Demyx tilted his head back to stare at the intricate ceiling and let out a sharp breath, "It was hard, but it's over with now. The guy deserved it. Poor girl."

The red headed leader nodded sympathetically, "The first kill is always the worst. Luckily, we should probably follow the no violence rule from now on, so you won't experience your second." Demyx snapped to attention as Zexion entered the room, leaning against the high doorway that was about ten metres away from the chair.

"Getting cozy, I see."

Axel chuckled and put a casual hand on Demyx's knee, "You could say that, I suppose."

At the touch, Demyx leaped up and backed away from the chair. Without saying a word, he turned and ran towards his bedroom. Axel stared after him, understanding what he had done wrong, yet not exactly feeling bad over it.

Zexion scoffed, "You'll never get anywhere with a kid like that, you know."

"Who says I want to get with him?"

"I didn't say get with him."

Axel shot a sour look toward Zexion and studied his fingernails with a new found interest, "I'm pretty sure that's exactly what you said, Zexion."

Zexion shrugged and moved to sit on the chair across from Axel. "I mean it, Axel. After everything that he's been through, he doesn't need a hound like you pressing your groin against him at every opportunity."

"I take offence to that," the red head said, taken aback, "I don't 'press my groin' against anything, much less my partners."

"Sure, but you never stop trying to."

Axel returned to his own room in a foul mood. Who was Zexion to lecture him about putting the moves on anyone? The asshole probably just wanted Demyx to himself.

A chair clattered against the wall as Axel kicked it out of his way; he didn't care if someone heard him throw a temper tantrum at this point. It wasn't like he wanted Demyx that way, he just wanted someone to touch him back. Someone to love him back for once in his life. The closest thing he had ever had was whatever happened between him and Zexion, which was the partnership of a likable fighting pair. Ever since he had started this Agency, Axel had no one else to support him, no one who cared for him.

Axel drove the palm of his hand through the mirror on the wall beside him without flinching at the pain, and stood in the centre of his room, steaming, trying to cool himself down.

The door let out a soft squeak as a tiny body opened it, his blond head poking around the frame, his blue eyes opened wide in a shocked and scared wonder. Axel whipped around to see the newest Refugee, Roxas, staring at him.

"Did I wake you?" Axel asked softly, crouching down so he could look up at the young boy, hoping that the difference in heights now would help the poor kid feel less nervous. Roxas slowly shook his head, never allowing his eyes to leave Axel's.

Axel straightened and sat down on his bed, "I'm sorry, I'm not usually like that. Someone just... upset me is all."

Roxas stepped over the threshold and nodded in understanding. Axel wondered what the boy's voice would sound like. He imagined it as being just low enough to have gone through puberty, the accents rising and falling like a musical instrument.

"Where am I?"

It was deeper than Axel had expected, full of accusations and confusion. Roxas' brilliant blue eyes were clouded by distrust, but also by something else...

"Where's Alex?"

Axel stood and approached the door, noticing that he was probably over a half foot taller than Roxas. "I can take you to her if you'd like me to," he offered.

Roxas nodded.

Zexion hesitated before lifting his delicate hand to knock on the door in front of him. He had never gone out of his way to make friends with anyone but Axel in the Agency, though he had always convinced himself that that was because they were the only ones who even cared about the tasks the Agency set out to do. All the other members, the Non-Reapers, the ones who had not passed the test to become Reapers like Axel, Demyx, and himself had, none of them mattered to Zexion.

"Hello?" Demyx called out, before Zexion laid a hand on the door.

It opened, showing the blond with red-rimmed eyes and a distraught expression. Zexion stood in silence, looking up at the Reaper who was so much taller than him. Making friends, or even being socially acceptable, had always been a difficulty for him, Zexion was starting to regret this attempt at both.

"Demyx, I just wanted to see if you were okay."

Demyx tilted his head to the side; his confused expression mixing comically with his obvious disarray. Slowly, he shook his head from side to side, "I'm never really okay, some days are just more bearable than others."

Zexion felt himself nod in understanding, though he supposed that he would never truly understand what someone like Demyx had gone through. Demyx stepped back, leaving it up to the shorter Reaper to decide whether this was an act of inviting him into the room or proposing that the conversation was over.

With a conclusive bob of his head, Zexion backed away from the bedroom. This had been a good start.

Axel led Roxas to the opposite end of the Agency Headquarters. There had not yet been a female Refugee to survive any tests or even the shock of being removed from her horrid situation, but there were two separate dorms installed, just in case.

Roxas stared at the blank walls and the red carpets with an idle expression. Axel couldn't read the younger boy, couldn't even tell if there was anything more to him than sadness and gloom.

"Cheer up, Sunshine!" Axel joked, rubbing Roxas' shoulder lightly. Roxas stared up at Axel with a petulant look. The red-headed man wiped the smile from his face and cleared his throat, turning his head to face in front of them but leaving his hand where it was.

"How can you tell me to cheer up when Alex could be dead for all I know?" Roxas showed his first expression since arriving at the Headquarters: an irritated scowl. "When three strangers kidnap us from our beds and split us up?"

Axel let his hand drop as he shrugged lightly, "Well, I'm taking you to see her now. And you're probably better off here than you ever were there."

Roxas grunted and returned to his stoic state. Axel gave him a sidelong stare until the blue-eyed adolescent met his gaze and raised his eyebrows, asking about the stare.

"Why would you have stayed there?" Axel pried, partly out of genuine interest but also out of the desperate need for conversation, not just echoing footsteps.

"You wouldn't understand."

Axel let out an indignant huff of air, "Why don't you try me, kid?"

Roxas glared at Axel for the 'kid' comment and shook his head slightly, "You can't just leave family like that. Sometimes you just have to trust that he'd get better one day," Roxas chewed the side of his mouth for a moment and then continued on, "You know, he wasn't always like that. With the pictures and stuff. He was a good father before."

"Yeah, and kidnappers sometimes have the best intentions."

"Would you shut up and let me speak? I don't forgive him or anything, I hate him more than anyone in the world. I was just concerned for her." Roxas looked away from Axel, at the wall furthest from the strange man.

"It's my turn to ask a question."

Axel smirked, "I suppose it probably is."

"What's your name?"

"Axel."

"Isn't that a car part or something? What a stupid name." The red head started to get offended, but they were at the end of the hall, and Axel gently pushed open the double doors to lead them into the female dorm.

The hall beyond the door was littered with shattered glass and splintered wood, the carpet torn up where it had once met the wall. The walls had holes halfway up them, as though someone had been trying to kick them in- and probably someone had. Across one wall, four red lines made childish waves up and down the hall; the artwork of broken fingernails being dragged across the surface.

A low chuckle escaped Roxas' throat, "Alex isn't the greatest house guest you could have asked for."

Axel stared at the wreckage, "She did this? She shouldn't have even been awake until twenty minutes ago!"

A high laugh echoed through the dorm, bouncing off the fouled walls to lift the corners of Roxas' lips. Axel felt thoroughly creeped out by the laugh, and even more so by the smile on the younger boy's face.

"You haven't met the full Philander family yet," Roxas stated calmly, as a dark figure began to slink down the hall toward them.