ok, this might seem familiar to some people, so lets get some things straight.

1. this is a story i have on my first account (Formerly Fortexine, now Yazoo1218), put here because i dont want my dad reading this.

2. it's still a joint project with Akamori-Chan, and as we speak she's writing up the fourth chapter.

names were changed, and things were changed

enjoy!

Chapter 1

A small girl cried silently on the front stoop of the old run-down apartment, a bloody nose and a large red hand mark across her cheek. The poor dear looked to be about six years old and was of small build, a bit on the skinny side from being deprived of food so often. She had red cat-like eyes and short red hair, which was cut in a slant by her left ear. A black bandage covered where her right eye was supposed to be; it was mauled in an accident with a rabid dog, and her parents didn't bother getting it properly fixed. She was dressed in dreadful rags, for her abusive parents did not feel the need to get her anything better to wear.

Across the street from a small window, a little boy about the same age as the girl watched her sadly, feeling a sense of overwhelming pity on her fill his mind. He had a shock of red hair similar to the color of the girl's and brilliant green eyes like emeralds. He knew he had to do something; he couldn't stand to watch this poor girl suffer. He ran out of his small brownstone apartment to the little girl and said in a small breathless voice, "Hi…I've come…to get you outta…here….m'kay?" The little girl looked up at him with miserable eyes and silently stood up and hurried across the street before her father came for her daily beat down. She looked up breathlessly at her six year old knight in shining armor and said in German, "Vielen Dank."

"Huh? Is that girl talk or somethin'? 'Cause I don't usually talk to girls. I hear the have cooties. But you seemed nice and really really sad, so I figured I should help ya! My name's Axel! What's you're name?"

The little girl looked at the chatty red head and gave him a small smile. In her best English, she managed to whisper, "My… name is Tzeitle."

Ten Years Later

"Epsilon, get up! You're supposed to help out at the shooting range today, remember?"

Epsilon stirred in her four poster bed, crying hysterically in her head because of her having to leave the comfort of her nice, fluffy bed to go to a cold shooting range with her foster father.

About ten years ago, after the bold six year old martyr saved her from an abusive home, she was taken to the local orphanage, where she was adopted by a very caring man named Saïx Tunstall and his boyfriend, Xigbar Ferdinand, who was the owner of the most popular shooting range this side of Midgar. Yes, they were a gay couple, but they were the best candidates for Epsilon, who was named Tzeitle at the time. Saïx had chosen to rename Tzeitle when the couple adopted her, to try and leave behind that sad and abusive memory of her former life. This idea started a whole disagreement between Saïx and Xigbar; Saïx had wanted to name her Forte, because of her fiery red hair and her loud personality, while Xigbar had wanted to name her Epsilon, because of her tomboyish-ness and her punk style. Each compensated by calling her the name they both wanted, since she opted for both. Epsilon stayed best friends with Axel and became great friends with his year older brother, Reno. Over the years, the friendship with Reno had grown into a bit of a crush, but only Axel Blauvelt, and her other friends from her high school, Demyx Botoph, Zexion Clauson, Godwin, Ivy, Roxas Channing, and Vexen Emerson, the owner of her favorite local coffee shop who she had become very friendly with.

About half an hour later, Epsilon ran down the stairs of her marble and large mansion into their high-tech kitchen; having a criminal defense attorney and a successful business owner certainly had its perks. And being in a caring household had changed Epsilon's appearance significantly; her once awkwardly cut hair, the result of a violent scissor attack by her mother for no reason at all, had been cut into somewhat of a Mohawk similar to that of Naima Mora's, but it was dyed black at the tips. Her mauled eye had been replaced by a robotic one, capable of becoming a pair of infrared goggles and a computer at the mere thought of it. Today, she had thrown together a pair of patched jeans, a pair of combat boots, and her favorite bones shirt that Saïx had bought for her earlier that week. "Ok, I'm ready, Xiggy!" Epsilon had been allowed to call her fathers by their first names, and she treated them more like best friends most of the time than parents.

"Geez, what the bloody hell took you so long? I woke you up a half hour ago!" Xigbar yelled, pretending to be annoyed.

"Yeah, well, unlike you, I like to shower in the mornings."

"Ooh, burn!" Saïx commented jokingly, entering the kitchen wearing a black robe over a pair of pajama pants.

"Lookin' sexy, Saïx." Epsilon said teasingly at her scantly dressed foster father.

"Damn straight, biotch."

"Ok, enough of the chit-chat," Xigbar interrupted, "We gotta head out. We'll grab a coffee on the way, Epsilon," Xigbar added, seeing the scandalized face of his daughter; it was a known fact that Epsilon could not live through a day without her favorite caffeinated drink at some point in the day.

"Yay!"

"You wanna invite some friends to come too?" Saïx asked his daughter, knowing full-well what the answer would be.

"Hells yeah! I'll call Godwin and Ivy, be right back!" And with that, Epsilon took off at high speed to the nearest phone and dialed the number for Godwin…

Godwin Cajes sat silently in a leather armchair by the fireplace, reading a book for a report for his Language Arts class. His father, Xemnas, sat across from him, reading through stacks of bills and bank reports. Godwin's father worked as a Quality Assurance manager at the Bank of America in the town of Niebleheim, and made a fair amount of money doing so. Godwin got along fairly well with his father since his mother, Marguerite, died, but Xemnas often worked late, sometimes not coming home for days at a time. Other than that, Godwin loved his father, as a father and son should.

Godwin stopped reading momentarily and stared into the fire, his dark brown eyes reflecting the merrily crackling flames. He had short messy black hair, which he was thankful for, since his father had long, spiky gray hair despite his age of 41, had a heavyset build on him, and was about five foot seven. The only thing he inherited from his father was his dark skin tone.

The pair jumped at the sudden loud ring of the phone from the other room. "Uh, I'll get it," Godwin said shakily, trying to get over the shock of the sudden sharp sound. Xemnas nodded to show approval, not even looking up from his work.

"Hello?"

"Goodwin Cajones! It's Epsilon!"

"After that intro, I kinda figured."

"Ha! I'm only screwin' with you, dude! Say, are you free today?"

"Uh, I've got a book to finish…"

"They all die the way the little Indian boys die in the nursery rhyme. Now you're done."

"Uh…ok…I guess I'm free now, huh?"

"You guess? You GUESS?! Well, yeah you pretty much are!"

"Ok then…so, why did you call?"

"Xigbar is taking me to the shooting range to help out, and Saïx said I could bring two friends."

"Uhuh…"

"Axel and Reno are in Edge with their parents for the weekend for some crappy convention that they wanted to get out of but couldn't, Roxas isn't allowed to come because his parents feel that it is unsafe…"

"Gee, I wonder why? I mean, it's only a SHOOTING RANGE!"

"Shut up! It makes us a mucho amount of money, as you see! And don't interrupt me!"

"Fine…"

"Anyways, Demyx has guitar practice and is grounded anyway for swimming in his pool too long and forgetting to do his chores, and Zexion and Lexaus freak out at loud noises so, that a give in." Lexaus was Zexion's older exercise obsessed brother, and they both get nervous at constant loud sound in fear of getting shot themselves.

"So let me guess, you want me to come with you?"

"Yesh! You and Ivy"

"Hm, ok, let me ask…"

Godwin placed the phone gently on the table and went back into the living room to find his dad still doing paperwork.

"Dad?"

"Yes?" Xemnas replied in a deep voice, not even bothering to look up from his work.

"Epsilon Tunstall is on the phone, she wants to know if I could go help out at the shooting range with her, her dad, and Ivy. Can I go?"

Xemnas finally looked up from his papers at his son, thinking about whether or not to let him go.

"Did you finish your book?"

"Yeah."

"It's fine with me. While your there, tell Epsilon and her fathers I said hi."

"Ok" Godwin made sure to mask his excitement as he went back to the phone.

"Epsilon?"

"Yasashii dake no kotoba nara ima no bokuha iyase nai hateshi naku tsuduku tatakai ni kono mi wo subete sasageru dake!"

"What the he-…"

"REDEMPTION!!!"

"Epsi-…?"

"REDEMPTION!!!!"

"EPSILON!"

"Meep! Sorry!"

"My dad said I could go."

"Great! Now get ready in about 10 minutes, got it?"

"Mmhmm."

"Good! See ya in a bit! Byezeez!"

"Bye."

Godwin placed the phone down gently back on to the receiver and thought momentarily about the other person accompanying them. Having Epsilon and Ivy in one place together never turned out good. He sighed wearily at the thought and ran his fingers through his hair. This was gonna be one hell of a long day.

Ivy Nagato ran hurriedly up the stairs of her large apartment to get dressed. Her best friend, Epsilon, had just invited her and Godwin to help her and her father out at their shooting range. As she quickly brushed her teeth, she took a long stare at herself in the mirror. Ivy was about 14 years old, the youngest out of Epsilon's friends and by far the most hyper. She had messy shoulder-length black hair streaked with light blue, brown eyes, and was of average build, about five foot two, the shortest between Epsilon, who was about five foot 6 and Godwin, but still able to be taller than Roxas. She had hastily thrown on a pair of light jeans, a black shirt, and a sweater-like trench coat. Ivy finished up quickly in the bathroom and bolted down the stairs towards the door, figuring that she could get a coffee on the way to Epsilon's place. But before she could turn the knob, she heard the stern voice of her father, Marluxia, calling her.

"And where are you going?"

Goddammit! Busted…Ivy thought dejectedly, turning to face her father.

"Epsilon asked me if I wanted to help her and her dad at their shooting range today. Godwin's gonna go too, and I want just about to head over to her place." Ivy explained very quickly, eager to leave her home and spend a day in a place where she could have tons of fun with her best friends and Epsilon's totally awesome foster father, Xigbar.

"And you didn't bother asking me first?"

"Well, I kinda figured that you would have said yes anyway, since you like Epsilon so much and you're best friends with Xigbar and Saïx since high school and college, so I kinda didn't bother."

"Well, you could at least eat something first!" Marluxia said with a playful smirk. It amused him to no end how hyper and single minded his daughter was, a reason why he loved her so. He walked into the kitchen to grab a small container of yogurt for Ivy, because he knew too damn well that she would forget to hit the coffee shop on her way to Epsilon's. As he came back from the kitchen, he found his daughter sitting on the suede couch reading some manga that he had bought her for her 14'th birthday, what was it…Full Metal Chemist? Whatever, she was reading it and that was all that mattered. "Here's a yogurt, you'll be eating with Epsilon I assume?"

"Yeah, dad, and seriously, I gotta run. See ya!" And with that, she gave her father a quick peck on the cheek and darted out the front door.

"Be careful! and tell Epsilon and her fathers I said hello!"

"Got it, dad! See you this evening!"

Marluxia watched Ivy with amusement as she sprinted down the stairs and out the window saw her sprint towards Epsilon's mansion, and turned back into the apartment to make his morning breakfast.