Xehanort was furious when his brothers came back without Axel. He was practically frothing at the mouth as they explained the whole story to him about losing Axel in the forest after they shot him with the gold and silver bullet that he gave them and specifically told them to shoot Axel with.

"I told you to do just one simple task of finding a wounded person, and you lost him?" Xehanort yelled from behind his desk, trying hard not to explode as he sent the chair behind him crashing to the ground. They were in Xehanort's personal tent, some ways away from the main tent where all of their shows are usually held. His tent was rather lavishly furnished, with everything made up of silk or velvet in rich, dark colors. One would think that the instant they walk into the tent, they were swallowed up by a giant animal and was sent to one of the circles of the dreaded Inferno.

"He somehow managed to hide himself in the forest," Ienzo said, trying hard not to show the fear in his voice. "And besides, it was dark out, and it was raining cats and dogs outside, so there was little chance that we could even find him in the first place!"

"Did you even bother to look up at the tree tops to see if he camped out on there?"

Braig's eyes went wide as he realized his mistake. "How could I have forgotten about that? The guy's a natural acrobat, so of course he would climb on the trees easily."

Ienzo glared up at him. "If your memory was at least working on the times when we really need it, then this whole situation wouldn't be as it is now!"

"As if, Shorty!"

"What did you just call me?"

"QUIET!" Xehanort yelled, quieting the two quarreling brothers. He looked at both of the brothers in turn, and at the partially hidden Aeleus who was just standing near a corner, looking like he didn't want to be here at the moment. Finally, Xehanort sighed, a calm expression on his features. "Now, I'm sure you don't want to go out and look for him again because he is very troublesome. I have to agree with that, so I'll let you stop looking for him. Let him come to us instead."

The three brothers looked confused at Xehanort's words. It was Aeleus who spoke next. "Sir? I don't know if you remember correctly, but Ienzo had said that Axel will probably die of hypothermia or blood loss in a few hours or on the very next day. Are you saying that he is still alive?"

Xehanort chuckled slightly, as if it was a joke. "Of course Axel is still alive. He's a tough little boy, and he's suffered worse from us. He has to come back for the thing that matters most to him."

"And what would that be, Xeh?" Braig asked.

Xehanort grinned, making his face look demonic in the low light. He opened one of the drawers of his desk, and brought out a small, black wooden box that was intricately decorated with symmetrical, vine-like patterns, similar to Celtic designs. He lifted the lid of the box, setting it gently down on the smooth surface of his desk. The inside of the box was lined with soft black velvet, with a small piece of folded red velvet in the center, which Xehanort proceeded to pick up. He unfolded the red velvet with great care, making sure to not touch the object inside the cloth. He picked up a long silver chain necklace with a silver pendent connected to it. The pendent was circular, almost resembling the sun in one way, and a tiny weapon in another. It glimmered in the low light, shining like a tiny star as it caught and reflected the light in every which way, catching the attention of the three brothers as they stared at it in awe.

"His memories." Xehanort said finally, grinning even more widely as he stared at the tiny pendant in amusement.

Vanitas was taunting his twin, Sora, to climb higher up to the tree tops, calling him a chocobo when he spotted his sister, Xion, and his younger brother, Ventus, carrying a body wearing only black and a huge mass of red hair on his head, reminding him of a lion's mane.

"Warning! Lame bird watchers are approaching in eleven o'clock!" Vanitas yelled as he pointed at the direction he meant.

"But it's not even ten yet, Vani!" Sora yelled, holding on to the tree branch for all he's worth to prevent himself from becoming a Sora grease spot on the ground below him.

"He meant that Xi and Ven are coming from over there, Sora," Roxas clarified from the tree he was hanging on to.

"Oh…" Sora said, his cheeks getting a bit pink from embarrassment.

"Hey Xi! Ven!" Vanitas called out to them, trying to glimpse at the body to see if it's dead or not. "Did ya get that thing from a grave or something?"

Xion shot her brother a dirty look. "No we didn't, Vanitas. We found him sleeping in a tree, and he was freezing cold and is suffering from major blood loss, which is why he looks pale and slightly blue."

"His color is returning slightly, though," Ventus pointed out. "I guess he's kinda quick when it comes to recovery, but he's asleep for now, so just leave him be."

Vanitas slid down the tree easily, landing with a heavy thud on the ground. He walked over to where Xion and Ventus had set down the sleeping person next to a maple tree. He looked at the unnatural pale face, slightly reminding him of a ghost or a zombie. He knelt down next to the person and lifted the face up to see that the person is a male. He had rather stern but relaxed features, with a few drops of blood splattered here and there all across his face. He looked at the purple upside down teardrops beneath the closed eyes in wonder, trying to come up with reasons as to why someone would want such strange tattoos on their faces. He then looked at the large black turtleneck that he was wearing, immediately recognizing it as Xion's overly large sweater.

He turned towards his sister with a weird look on his face. "Seriously, Xi? You had to put your sweater on a guy?"

"He was freezing, Vani," Xion told him, shooting him a glare. "He wasn't wearing a shirt when we found him, so I gave it to him so he can get warm. I don't think he cares much, because even you wouldn't care if you're freezing almost to death."

Vanitas smirked as he poked the guy's face roughly, laughing slightly. "I don't think so, Xi. I wouldn't wear that sweater even if it was the last sweater on the face of the planet. Honestly, I would feel kinda sorry for the guy, if he didn't look so girly and funny in it."

"He has a name, you know." Ventus grumbled, not happy at Vanitas's behavior to the poor man.

"Really, and what would that be, Venny?"

"Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?" Axel muttered suddenly as he glared up at Vanitas, effectively scaring him and his siblings.

"So he's alive?" Vanitas yelled, huddled up against another maple tree.

"No, I'm a zombie, know it all," Axel said sarcastically, rolling his eyes which were still slightly cloudy from sleeping. He looked at Xion, Ventus, Roxas and Vanitas, then he looked up to see Sora still dangling from a tree branch. "Stuck up there, buddy?" he said, then broke out in a violent series of coughing.

"Yeah," Sora said, slightly embarrassed to be in his situation. "Are you okay? You don't sound very healthy."

"Don't worry, I'll live," Axel said as he sneezed a couple times. "It's just a cold."

Sora raised a skeptical eyebrow at Axel, but he decided to say nothing. "I heard that you were sleeping in a tree. Why?"

"To hide from the carny guys, Braig, Ienzo and Aeleus," Axel answered, getting a few confused stares from the kids. "People from the circus," Axel clarified.

"Wait, you're from the circus?" Ventus said as he stared at Axel in disbelief.

"Slash freak show, but technically yes, I am from the circus," Axel said as he leaned up against the tree in a more comfortable position, coughing again. "And I'm glad that I escaped it. I hated it there."

"You hated being in the circus?" Roxas asked next, curious about why Axel would say that. "I've always heard that being part of the circus is actually really fun, and what goes on in there also sounds entertaining. Our parents have actually agreed to take us to the local circus here, which is the best one around, and you're saying that it's terrible?"

"I'm not saying it, I know it. I used to be part of it, as a freak I mean, and I was supposedly their biggest prize because people from all around would come and see me. They might look nice and friendly at first, but beneath that smiling face are people who are more like demons than human. Most of the 'freaks' that they have on display are usually frauds, and believe me, I've seen them. I was not so easy to break in, so they constantly beat me and starve me, but that only made me even more stubborn and filled with anger, which they only used to their advantage. I was called the 'Demonic Angel' or the 'Fallen Angel', and with the anger that I have bottled up inside me, I would release it during the shows, making myself look even more demonic than I really am, and it amazes the crowds."

"You must've had it rough, then." Xion said, feeling sorry about Axel's past.

"Eh, it's not so bad now." Axel wheezed, going into another violent series of sneezes and coughs.

"Why were you called the 'Demonic Angel' if ya don't even have any wings?" Sora asked from up on the tree.

Axel chuckled slightly when Sora asked that question. "Ask your sister Xion and your brother Ventus, they will say different. I'll show you how they look like." Axel lifted the hem of the sweater over to his neck and pulling it over his spiky red hair easily, leaving the sleeves of the sweater on his arms. He turned around slightly so they could see his back. Roxas, Sora and Vanitas all gasped as they saw the strange wings tied together by Xion's scarf.

"Were you born with those?" Roxas asked him, getting a slap to the head from Vanitas.

"Of course not, Roxy! There's no way how someone could be born like that!" Vanitas said, not entirely believing what he was seeing.

Axel smirked at Vanitas's response. "Hey Xion? Mind loosening up the scarf so I could stretch my wings out?"

"Sure." Xion said, catching on with what Axel was planning. She gently undid the knot tying the wings down to his back, and stood back as Axel unfurled his wings out as far as he could. Vanitas stumbled back into his brother, causing the two of them to fall back towards the ground as they saw that the wings truly did belong to him. Axel chuckled lightly at their reactions as Xion tied his wings down on his back again, pulling the sweater over his head to cover them.

"That is so cool!" Sora called from above. "I didn't know that people could be born with wings."

"Neither do I, actually," Axel confessed. "You see, I don't know where I came from. All of my memories mostly consist of my time in the circus, and a bit before I was caught by them. That's just it."

"How could you not remember anything before that?" Ventus asked. "Do you have a memory issue or something?"

"No, I don't have any problems with my memories. It just seems like someone just took them all away somehow." Another long series of coughing.

"Are you sure you're not making any excuses about having a terrible memory?" Vanitas said as he raised an eyebrow and folded his arms across his chest.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure. Like I can remember that you haven't told me your name, but I caught your nickname, Vani. Your twin up in the tree didn't tell me his name, and neither did he." Axel said as he fought down a sneeze as he pointed a finger at Roxas, who was at the moment standing next to Ventus.

"This is my older twin, Roxas," Ventus explained. "That there is Vanitas, and his younger twin brother Sora up there on the tree. Vanitas is the oldest of our group."

"Okay," Axel nodded, taking in everything Ventus was saying. "And how old are you guys, anyways?"

"Vani and Sora are ten," Roxas explained this time. "Ven and I are nine, and Xi is the youngest at eight years old."

"So you're all really young?"

"Yeah, but Vani there likes to act older than he actually is."

Axel laughed softly at that. "Really?"

"Yep," Sora said from his tree, dangling around the branches and trying to get higher. "He likes to be the leader of things, to be the boss of us."

"Because I'm older than all of you guys," Vanitas called up to his twin in annoyance.

"But that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be the boss of them," Axel pointed out, sneezing a couple times afterwards.

"Just how old are you, by the way?" Vanitas grumbled.

Axel was about to answer, but stopped, looking unsure about it. "I honestly have no clue. I don't know my birth date, or how old I am."

"Well that must stink."

"How old do you think I am?" Axel asked him, going into a round of loud sneezes, and then snuggling up against the trunk again to try to catch another quick nap.

"I think you're about twenty three." Ventus said.

"No, I'm pretty sure he's twenty five." Roxas told his brother.

"I think he's between twenty four and Dad's age." Sora said.

"I'm pretty sure he's around Dad's age." Vanitas said in a matter of fact tone to his brother.

"No, I think he's in his twenties. He looks like he should be twenty…four maybe?" Xion said.

"What's with the discussion of twenties and my age?" a male voice called out, followed closely by the sounds of footsteps trotting through the grass.

Xion smacked her hand to her head as she remembered the parent issue. "Oh great, we're so going to get it! What are we going to do, what are we going to do?" she whispered under her breath.

"What's going on in here?" the voice called out again, only this time the speaker came into view. He had spiky platinum blond hair and blue eyes similar to the kids'. He barely even finished his sentence when his eyes spotted Axel sleeping against the trunk of a tree.

"Dad, we can explain." Xion started, getting in between Axel and Cloud. Xion didn't even get the chance to speak when her mother, Tifa, walked up to the scene behind Cloud. She gasped as she spotted Axel just sleeping there next to a tree, a complete stranger with her children.

"Who is that?" Cloud said as he pointed at the sleeping Axel.

"Uh, Dad, meet Axel," Ventus spoke next. "Axel, if you're still awake, this is our dad, Cloud."

"Hi there," Axel muttered, opening one brilliant green eye just a crack to see Cloud.

"And that is our mom, Tifa, behind Dad," Ventus continued, gesturing to his mother behind Cloud. "And Mom, that's Axel."

"Why is he with you and your siblings?" Tifa asked, not taking her eyes off of the stranger.

"Ven and Xi said that they found him sleeping in a tree, Mom," Sora explained, hanging himself upside down from a branch. "Xi said that he was freezing cold and didn't have a shirt on, so she gave him her sweater. And I think he was probably in a fight because his face is all bloody, and he has—"

"Sora!" Ventus and Xion yelled in unison to their bigmouthed brother.

"What?" Sora asked them, not entirely getting the point at first, and then finally remembering. "Oh, right! Sorry 'bout that," he mouthed to them, but Ventus and Xion didn't understand him because he was mouthing the words upside down.

"Mom, Dad," Xion said as she took over the conversation. "He was freezing to the touch, and he was suffering major blood loss. If we left him on the tree, he would've died."

"He looks much better now," Cloud pointed out, seeing the light tints of color that was starting to return to Axel's face.

"He's still pale, Dad," Xion continued.

"Are you sure that's not his normal skin tone?" Vanitas pointed out.

"Vanitas don't talk. You're not helping me here." Xion snapped to her brother. He's so much more manageable in the mornings when he doesn't have the energy to be annoying, but he gets so irritating when he does have the energy to.

"Oh, I'm sorry, was I supposed to help?" Vanitas said sarcastically. His response was a glare from Xion.

"Mom, Dad, please? We have to help him!" Xion begged. "He's covered in blood, he's freezing, he's sick, he's—"

A very long and loud growl interrupted Xion. Axel opened his eyes and sluggishly looked up at everyone, feeling rather sheepish and embarrassed. "Uh, sorry, that was me. I've hardly eaten anything for, um… a week or two or so? Maybe longer? I don't know. I don't really keep track of time." Axel tried to let out a laugh to lighten up the mood, but instead broke out coughing. After his coughing fit ended, he curled up in a fetal position and used his arms as a pillow as he tried to sleep some more.

"Dad, Mom, we have to help him," Xion went on, being persistent about helping out the runaway circus freak. "We can take him with us and let him stay with us until he gets all better and is able to take of himself."

Cloud looked at his daughter, his expression soft and full of worry. "No, sweetheart. I'm pretty sure that he could probably handle it himself. You know that I care for you, and I don't want anything bad to happen to you, so taking him in with us isn't really something that I would consider safe, especially since he's a complete stranger that you and Ventus found sleeping in a tree."

"But Dad!" Xion continued. "That's not fair to him! He can barely even move an inch, and if we leave him out here, he might die or get captured by those guys he was running from."

Cloud tensed up. "He ran away from a bunch of guys? Did he tell you who those guys were?"

"Dad, he's not part of a gang or something like that. He ran away from a bunch of guys who were mistreating him." Xion said, careful not to mention that Axel was from the carnival or else Cloud will definitely say no.

Cloud was about to say something when he heard Sora begging for his attention by shaking one of the tree branches and causing racket.

"Hey Mom! Dad! Look how high up I am!" Sora yelled from the top of his tree.

Tifa gasped at how high up the tree her son was. "Sora! Get down now before you get hurt or accidentally fall off!"

"But Mom! This is so much fun!" Sora said as he tried to climb higher up the tree.

"Sora! Listen to your mother and get down here!" Cloud yelled up to his son.

Xion was about to join in with trying to convince Sora to get down when she noticed a flash of movement from the corner of her eye. She instinctively turned around to where she saw the movement, to see that Axel had suddenly sat up, completely alert and eyes wide open. He looked panicked, and he was staring out into space, muttering something in some unknown language while digging his fingers into the ground, the skin around his knuckles turning completely bone white from the strain.

"Axel what's wrong?" Xion asked him cautiously, worried that he might've lost his mind. He did nothing to show that he heard her, he was just continuously muttering in the strange language faster and faster, often times muttering some words in Latin.

Xion was about to call his name once more when he stopped muttering random words and gibberish, and looked up to where Sora was on the tree, staring hard at the branch he was on. He then got up and sprinted up the tree before Xion was even able to process what he doing. He clambered up the tree like an acrobat, reaching to where Sora was. Sora himself was holding onto a branch when he heard the loud snap of the tree branch breaking beneath his weight. He felt himself hurtling towards the ground, screaming, with the strange thrill feeling of falling making his stomach feel weird. The world around him was a confusing mixture of blurred colors, with the ground being the only clear thing he can focus on. Sora thought that he was going to surely become a Sora grease spot on the ground when he felt a pair of thin, long arms being wrapped around his sides and held him close to a warm, yet slightly cold form, making him seem like he was flying away from the tree he was on. The body turned around in midair, making Sora look up at the sky before he felt the impact of the figure hitting a thick cluster of bushes, causing the branches of the bushes to snap loudly, similar to the sound of bones breaking. The impact left him breathless, and the arms that held on to him lost their grip on his body. He heard it go crashing through the undergrowth as he tried to sit up. He felt okay, save for a few cuts and scratches caused from the bushes. He tried to shake off a couple of the twigs and leaves from his hair when he heard someone crash through the undergrowth. He looked up to see Xion looking for him some ways away. When she turned around and spotted him, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Sora!" she yelled to her brother, partially hidden from her view from the thick undergrowth. "Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, Xi. Don't worry about me," Sora said once Xion caught up to him, trying to catch her breath. "But, the thing that I wonder about the most is how I got pushed in midair, got sent rollin' into some bushes, and didn't even break any bones."

Xion looked into her brother's eyes, concern still in them. "Did you feel anyone grab you when you were falling, Sora?"

Sora became slightly confused how Xion knew that. "Well, yeah, I did, but I didn't see anyone. Why? Did someone grab me?"

"Yes! How could've you not seen him?"

"Seen who?"

"Axel. He's the one who grabbed you. He had climbed up your tree like an acrobat, which is surprising because of his major blood loss. But before he did that, he was literally tearing up the ground, muttering something weird in a funny language, but I recognized some of the words as Latin. It was strange, though, he had jumped out of the tree and grabbed you, sending the both of you into the bushes, but he made sure that you were facing up, using his body as a shield to protect you from breaking anything." Xion paused, renewed panic creeping into her eyes. "Sora, where is he?"

Sora widened his eyes, realizing that he didn't even know where Axel is. "I don't know! He let go of me once we hit the ground. The last thing that I can remember was that I heard him rolling through the bushes, away from me."

"Well, get up! We have to find him to make sure he's okay!" Xion said as she grabbed her brother's hand and helped him up.

"How are we going to find him? These bushes are super thick! There's no way we can find a guy in here unless we had some of those bush trimmer things. What were they called again? I can't remember."

"Hedge cutters? Or shears?" came Roxas's voice from behind them. Sora and Xion turned around to see their older brother standing there with Ventus.

"Hey, Roxy, hey Ven," Xion greeted them both. "Where's Mom, Dad and Vani?"

"They're coming, don't worry," Ventus said. "Roxy and I ran ahead because we wanted to catch up with you. How'd you run that fast, Xi?"

"Ven, that's not really important right now at the moment. Right now, Sora and I are trying to find Axel cuz we lost him!"

"How'd you lose a grown up guy like him?" Roxas questioned.

"I don't know! Are you gonna help us find him or are you just gonna stand there all day and talk?" Xion said as she looked around the undergrowth with Sora. Roxas said nothing as he and Ventus started to look too. They didn't get too far with searching when they heard Vanitas and their parents running through the undergrowth.

Tifa let out a sigh of relief as she saw that Sora was okay. She ran over to him and crushed him in an embrace. "I'm glad you're safe!"

"Mom!" Sora complained as he tried to get out of his mother's hug, embarrassed about the situation he was in. "Mom! Let me go! I can't breathe!"

"I'm sorry, sweetie," Tifa said as she let her son go and patted him gently on his head. "Your father and I were just really worried that the worst might've happened. At least it didn't."

"Yeah, because Axel saved me. Did you see it happen, cuz I didn't, but Xi told me about it."

"Yes, I saw it happen. We all did, actually."

"But why did he save you is what I wonder," Cloud said out loud to Sora. "He doesn't even know you very well, so why did he do it?"

"I dunno, Dad," Sora answered as he shrugged. "I guess he wanted to?"

"I found him!" Roxas cried out from a thick cluster of bushes. Instantly Xion, Sora and Ventus raced over to see him.

Axel was lying on the ground unconscious, slightly curled up in a fetal position. The sweater that Xion let him wear was torn, exposing some of his wings and pale skin. He had a few cuts and scratches, and he was bleeding some, but it was nothing too major. What Xion was really concerned about was how Axel's arm was bent in an unnatural way. He was still breathing, but his chest was shaking slightly from every breath he took.

"Mom, Dad," Sora called out to them. "I think we might need your help over here."

Tifa and Cloud raced over to where their children were. Vanitas, not wanting to feel left out, followed them half heartedly to where they were gathered.

"Mom, I think Axel's arm is broken," Xion said as soon as her parents came over.

"Really, which one?" Tifa asked as she stood her distance away from Axel. Even though he might've saved her son's life, she still views him as a stranger.

"His right arm. See how's its bent weirdly?" Xion said as she gently lifted up the thin arm for her mother to inspect. "Right here, on this bone."

"It's his humerus, honey," Tifa answered. "And yes, you're right, it is broken pretty badly. I think he snapped it completely in half."

"That's gotta hurt a lot." Sora piped up.

"Yes it does, but I'm sure he'll be fine," Tifa said as she looked at Axel's scratches and cuts and the torn sweater he was wearing. She then spotted something strange through the holes on the back of the sweater. It appeared to look almost like red feathers.

Tifa reached over and grabbed the hem of the torn sweater to see what it was. Xion noticed it and panicked. "Uh, Mom, I wouldn't do that if I were you—!"

Tifa gasped at what she saw. Xion was about to serve an explanation about the wings when she saw a bit of Axel's belly. It was scarred horribly; the skin forming hideous lumps that looked like huge worms had borrowed into his skin. Most of the scars were centered on the middle of his belly, where all of his guts would be in, and it was a huge mass of knotted skin. The dark, knotted skin was rough and partially infected, with some of the fresher scars oozing scarlet blood from being opened by the bushes. The sight was so horrific to even describe in words for Xion, so she quickly shut her eyes tightly and looked away, holding a hand to her stomach and the other to cover her mouth, as if she was going to be sick at any moment. Tifa, however, was used to seeing things like this, so she continued on to remove the torn sweater, only this time even gentler than before. As she moved her hands quickly around to remove the sweater, she felt the softness of feathers underneath her fingertips. Pretty soon, she uncovered Axel's torso from the sweater, but still leaving it on his arms and neck, revealing to her his demonic looking feathery wings. She wasn't sure what to think at first about the wings until she noticed that the long, slender appendages holding the wings together were connected to his back, just a bit above his shoulder blades.

Cloud was watching the whole thing in silence, his face a mask of indifference, the complete opposite of how he was feeling in his head. He knew what those wings meant; he saw them before on a flyer. For the circus and freak show. The flyer he saw was about the same circus that his kids were pleading him and their mother about endlessly to go. It showed promises of being unbelievably entertaining with all of their different sights that they have to offer. From what Cloud can remember about the flyer, it showed different people with various deformities on it. There was a two headed person, one head being a female with dark, emerald green eyes and yellow blonde hair, the other being a male with sky blue eyes, a pale goatee, some piercings and platinum blonde hair. There was another person that looked more like a wolf than human, and he had a curious amber-gold eye color, and unnatural powder blue hair. There was even a pink haired person with goat legs, a merman with a sitar, and the six brothers that started the whole circus. Axel was part of the background, his demonic looking wings spread out, his back facing the viewers. His head was turned to appear that he was looking over his left shoulder, the bottom half of his face being the only thing that you can see of his face while the top half was covered in shadow. His mouth was twisted in a grin, revealing his teeth and unnaturally long canines that looked eerily a lot like fangs from a vampire. Cloud was pretty sure that the picture was doctored to look like that, but now that he's actually seeing the freak in person, he's not so sure anymore.

"So that's what he meant." Xion muttered quietly, bringing her father back to earth.

"Excuse me?" Cloud asked his daughter.

"Axel said that he hated being in the circus, which is why he ran away. He didn't tell us that he got whipped like that; he only told us that the people working there are mean and cruel, and that they beat him and starve him."

"What about the others that worked alongside him?"

"Well, he said that they would break them in, so I guess they beat them, too. But they mostly hurt Axel because he was stubborn and didn't listen to them, so they hurt him constantly, and he would get anger from the pain he was getting, and he would release it when they were doing the shows."

"It's a wonder," Tifa muttered under her breath as she inspected Axel's scars and counting his ribs that stuck out hideously. "Normally, a person would've died right about now, with the blood loss and hunger, and with some infections to top it all off. It's really a miracle that he's still living and breathing."

"Is he gonna be okay, Mom?" Xion asked her.

"I don't know, sweetheart. He probably won't live, and anyone in their right minds would've given up on saving him from dying."

Xion looked at her mother with wide eyes, then back at Axel's sleeping form, concern written on her face. She then closed her eyes, and her facial features grew stern and serious as she opened her eyes once more. "Well, I'm not in my right mind right now," Xion declared finally. "I want to help him."

"Are you sure? Cuz Mom just said that he's probably gonna die—" Sora said, but was interrupted when Xion gave him a glare.

"Don't you want to help him? He saved your life, now we have to save his. That way, you guys are even." Xion told him.

"So you're basically saying that we have to take him home with us?" Sora said as he pondered on that for a moment. "Eh, okay. I'm okay with that."

"I don't think so, you two," Cloud intervened in their conversation. "I don't think it's a very good idea to bring him into our household. You might not know whether or not he's still working for the circus."

"But he's a nice person, Dad!" Xion pleaded. "You just need to give him a chance and get to know him. Please?"

Cloud sighed, not liking the situation he's stuck in. "No, and that's final. He can take care of himself, so just leave him be."

"I dunno, Dad," Ventus said. "We have to take him with us, because he saved Sora's life."

"Yeah, and you have to thank him in some way," Roxas added. "So why not help him out? We'll be saving a life!"

"A freak, nonetheless," Cloud muttered.

"Yeah, but he's still a person! Just like all of us!" Xion said stubbornly.

"How about we do a vote?" Vanitas suggested. "Those in favor in helping him out, raise your hand." Immediately, Xion's, Sora's, Ventus's, and Roxas's hands shot up in the air. "Okay, looks like the opposing side is outvoted."

"Okay, now you have to carry him, Dad." Xion said to Cloud. He was about to oppose, but one look at Xion's face meant that she was serious about it.

He sighed, knowing fully that nothing is going to change her mind. "You are a very persistent girl, Xion. I can never win in an argument against you."

"So are you saying yes, and that we can help him?"

Cloud kneeled down on the ground, picked up Axel and slung him over his right shoulder, slightly surprised at the lightness of the body. "Yes. Now let's go home."

"Yay! I love you, Daddy!" Xion said as she hugged her dad tightly and ran off with her brothers following her.

Tifa walked up to Cloud, laughing softly at him. "You certainly are prone to giving them what they want, aren't you?"

"Am not," Cloud objected. "That's you, not me."

Tifa laughed some more as she walked off to gather her children and take them home. Cloud followed her, with Axel still slung over his shoulder and sleeping peacefully.