Someone stood outside that same door again, not even twenty minutes later their last visit. Demyx, upon hearing the knock, lifted himself from the bed and opened the door to greet a very flustered Zexion, who was pulling at his sleeves and tapping one foot on the ground softly as he waited. Demyx cocked his head to the side; this was very unlike the superior Reaper he had always known.

"Demyx, I know what you're going through," Zexion said in one, rushed breath. He ducked his head so his hair hid all of his face, "I know what you're going through."

Demyx raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. Instead, he opened the door wider and gestured for Zexion to enter the room. Zexion glanced around, but it was almost exactly what he had imagined it to be: like a teenage boy's room. Sheets of music were scattered all across the dark carpet, his sitar was balanced carefully against the bed, and posters of bands Zexion had never known were stretched across the white walls that otherwise probably would have driven Demyx crazy with the boredom.

Zexion stood in the middle of it all, trying to breathe calmly. He had never told this to anyone before, never had unleashed the inner demons that he held in his chest since he was young. Not even Axel knew, though Zexion supposed that the red-headed leader had probably assumed something was up.

"So, what's up?" Demyx asked as he sat on the unmade bed. He nodded toward a rocking chair that was in the corner of the room, slightly swaying under a pile of thin novels. Zexion instead seated himself in the office chair that was placed near a severely unused desk.

"I know, I understand, I want to help you," Zexion said slowly, "I went through it too, I want to be there for you."

Demyx frowned, "I don't know what you're talking about, you were sexually abused?"

Zexion started to shake his head, paused, then nodded, "Sort of."

The blond fell back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. He had never liked knowing about other cases of sexual abuse and had never wanted other people to know of his own past in the fear of their sympathy, their questions, and their confessions.

"How old were you?"

"A child. It was before the Organization even. Before I left home to become a Nobody," Zexion gave Demyx, who was peering over his chest at the silver-haired companion, a grim smile, "I want from one master to the next, I suppose."

Demyx scoffed, "How can you joke about this?"

"I've been dealing with it for a while."

"Roxas? Is that Alex?" Axel asked, feeling alarmed. Roxas only let out a low chuckle. The dark figure was slowly approaching them, her thick black hair teased in every direction and her hands twitching like dying spiders.

"She doesn't like to be held hostage," Roxas explained calmly as Axel sucked in a breath. Alex had blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, and her pale skin was tinted pink from the stuff. Her eyes widened as she spotted Roxas, then narrowed as her gaze wandered over to Axel. A growl escaped her snarling lips.

Axel's back straightened as he stepped in front of Roxas, "Alex! I'm not here to hurt you," he shuddered as her high pitched laughter shot through his words, "Demyx and Zexion and I, we're here to help. We rescued you from him."

"Rescued?" The young woman asked biting at one of her nails, "Rescued me from what? He already did the damage, yes he did."

Roxas cleared his throat, "Axel, you may not want to call her Alex. That's not who she is right now." His sister shrieked with a deranged glee at these words, doubling over with the laughter and showing off her bare back. Axel could count the knobs in her spine, her already thin, Oriental body was now emaciated by starvation and extreme stress.

In the blink of an eye, Alex had launched herself at Axel's legs. He let out a shout and jumped back, knocking into Roxas. The blond toppled over, hitting the ground with a soft grunt. Axel was torn between helping the young boy up and defending himself against the crazed sister, and decided to take up his fighting stance.

Alex had frozen, was starting at her younger brother slowly getting up and rubbing the elbow he had fallen on. She tilted her head, looking sadly at him as though she were contemplating the severity of his injury.

"Alex, I'm okay, I'm-"

Alex leaped at Axel again, wrapping her bloodied hands around his neck and hissing. Axel stumbled backwards, trying to shove her off of him, feeling the desperate fluttering in his chest that one only gets from suffocation.

His vision began to grow dark when Axel felt the thin hands loosening their grip on him; Alex thought that he was already passing out. Swiftly, Axel swept Alex's feet out from underneath her and shuffled back a few steps before drawing a line of fire between the two males, and her.

An angered cry called across the flames, the sister in anguish all over again.

Roxas looked up at Axel and noted the hand-shaped bruises necklacing his throat. Axel stared down in shock at the younger boy, "What in the actual hell was that?"

"That was my sister."

"It wasn't like you and those kids we picked up, it wasn't pictures or anything," Zexion explained carefully, crossing his legs, "I mean, I got paid and I guess I had options, the others would have been foolish to take though."

Demyx stretched out his legs, "What do you mean?" Zexion wasn't making a lot of sense. He seemed to be exhausted with himself, like he was doing this out of duty, not as a personal choice.

Zexion thought for a moment, "It was like a job. A job that was horrid and disgusting and violating, but it put food on the table."

Zexion sat in bed and glanced around. He was alone, the man must have left during the night. He breathed a sigh of relief and settled back down, barely even closing his eyes before there was a knock at his door. Before he could answer it, a woman pushed it open and stormed into the strange room.

"Sleeping on the job, kid?" Her drawn-on eyebrows arched far too high on her forehead as she tapped her foot on the dirty floor. The fat purple lips under her crooked nose were pursed and cracked, and her stained fingers held a lit cigarette, which she took an extended drag of before continuing.

"You know he's the best customer we have, right? And you fall asleep while he's here?"

Zexion hung his head, "Madame, I'm sorry, I haven't slept in days-"

Clenching the smoke between her yellow teeth, Madame stepped forward and hit Zexion across the face with the back of her hand. A line of blood appeared where her emerald ring had sliced open his skin, but Zexion did not wipe it away. He froze where the slap had directed his head and stayed that way, knowing that any movement would only result in another streak across the other side of his face.

"You don't disappoint, you got that, kid?" Ashes fell from her cigarette to the floor as Zexion nodded slowly. With a heavy breath, Madame reached out, ignoring Zexion's initial flinch, and clutched his chin. Her cracked, dirty fingernails dug into his skin like talons and she forced him to look her in the eye.

"Yes, Madame," Zexion replied in a whisper. The woman chucked and kissed him on the mouth, breathing the smoke between his lips that brought tears to his eyes, but he could not pull away.

After she had left, Zexion pulled back the sheets on his bed to reveal a bruised, naked body. It was time to go down to the motel lobby and receive another customer; usually after one he was allowed to go home, but since he had failed such an important appointment, Zexion knew that Madame would never allow him to go home until he had paid back that debt. It would take him about three appointments.

Slowly, he pulled on a tattered bathrobe and padded softly to the door. He didn't know what time it was, probably around three in the morning. As he entered the hallway, a child about his age tore past him, causing Zexion to press himself against the wall.

The kid skidded to a halt and turned back with a happy grin on his face, "Would you like to play?" He asked, holding up a bouncy ball.

Zexion shook his head, "I can't play."

"Can't play?" The kid looked confused, "Everyone can play, you just need to try."

With a pause, Zexion pondered the confusion of the other child, "I don't have the time. How old are you?"

The boy looked delighted with the question, "I just turned nine, my parents and I are on our way to my grandma's house, that's our room down there," He pointed to the end of the hall, the side with the nicer rooms, Zexion knew, "What's your name?"

So they were the same age. Zexion opened his mouth to answer, "Zex-"

"Zexion!" The familiar voice snapped as a sharp pain went up the side of Zexion's head. Madame pinched his ear even tighter, "Who's your little friend, Zexion?"

The boy looked terrified, and stared back and forth between Zexion and the older woman before racing toward his room. Madame laughed lowly and pulled Zexion toward the stairs to lead him down to the lobby.

Demyx looked as confused as that boy had when Zexion had said he couldn't play, "I don't understand, what were you up to?"

Zexion smirked, "You haven't figured it out yet? Child prostitution. I was one of the most wanted products, I worked nearly every night."

"How did you get into that!" Demyx exclaimed, shocked.

"My father ran off when I was born and my mother was a drunk. I had a younger sister to take care of, and so I needed to earn money to feed us, plus buy mom's booze. I took to begging, and that's where Madame found me." Zexion shrugged as though it was a reasonable explanation. Which, to him, it was.

"What happened to your sister when you joined the Organization?" Demyx asked, running both of his hands through his fine hair. He had never expected a story like this, not from Zexion at least.

Zexion shook his head, "I have no idea, I never spoke to my family after Xemnas picked me up.

` Demyx felt sad for the girl that had been left behind. He had been an only child, and the new kids had both been rescued. He couldn't imagine having to leave a sibling behind in the nightmare that you yourself had just barely survived.

Axel and Roxas left the female dorms in silence. Axel was still trying to breathe normally again, whereas Roxas was only wondering curiously whether or not the fire would burn down the entire building.

"Excuse me if this sounds rude," Axel croaked, "But what the hell is wrong with your sister?"

Roxas shrugged, "I've always assumed it was a split-personality disorder or something. We didn't exactly have the means to get her tested," he ran his hand against the wall nearest to him, "She calls herself Sarah when she's like that."

Axel looked perplexed, "That's insane. How long has she been like this?"

"I don't know, since the pictures started. I guess it was her way of dealing with it. Ever read My Sweet Audrina?" The blond grinned to himself as Axel shook his head, "I didn't think you would have."

"I have better things to do than read." Axel shot back. He had never liked reading. Before becoming a Nobody, he had never been a good student. He rarely did assignments, failed tests, and spent most of his classes starting fires in the woods with the stoner friends that he had had back then.

Roxas rolled his eyes, "Yeah, well when you're in the position that I was in, reading is the one thing that gets you away from it all," with a low chuckle he added; "Although, I think him buying me all V.C. Andrews books and then locking me in the attic with them is kind of an ironic form of reassurance."

Axel had never been much of a reader, but he had certainly enjoyed movies, "Flowers in the Attic, right?"

Roxas laughed, but didn't look happy, "Yeah, she wrote My Sweet Audrina as well, though." Axel tried to sneak a glance at the blond, to see the exact expression he wore as he laughed. There had been a great change in him since he shyly entered Axel's room and now, when they had just experienced his sister's psychopathic tendencies.

"You two don't look alike," Axel said casually, stating the obvious. Roxas was entirely Caucasian, when Alex looked as though she was Japanese.

The other male snorted, "She's adopted. Mom adopted her right before she died," he froze suddenly, as though he had accidentally let a piece of information slip that he shouldn't have. Axel remained silent; he didn't know much about comforting people who had been in abusive homes or mentally scarring situations, but he knew a lot about losing parents.

"Alex was adopted when I was twelve. A year later our mother went missing. She's dead now, I'm sure, but he always made us say she was just missing," Roxas spoke quietly, as though his father could hear him speaking of his mother's death.

Axel nodded, "Thank you for sharing that with me," he said politely.

Roxas shook his head violently, as though he had zoned out while confessing this personal information, "Don't talk to me like that! Just take me back to my room!" Axel pointed lazily down the hall; the kid was obviously acting out of anger about his father, and was taking that out on Axel.

The boy took off running, and nearly collided when the door to Demyx's bedroom flew opened and Zexion hurried out, looking flustered and flushed. Demyx stepped out after him, reaching for his shirt until he saw that Axel and Roxas had joined them.

"Getting cozy?" Axel chided, reminding Zexion of his accusations about Axel only wanting to 'get with' Demyx. Zexion looked as though he was trying to throw a comeback at Axel, but instead let out an exasperated huff of breath and stormed away.

Roxas stared at all three of them, obviously confused about who these two new men were. Demyx stared after Zexion, then turned to Axel and shook his head slowly, as though he was disappointed in him.

Axel ran a hand through his spiky red hair and decided that he just wanted to go back to his room and continue throwing the temper tantrum he had been in the middle of before Roxas had interrupted him. He needed to set something on fire.