Chapter Three.
Dull sunlight striped grimy gray carpet and highlighted the dust motes that filled the air. After spending five nights in the public hospital though, Axel was relieved to be lying on a real mattress instead of a foam pad. Currently alone in the room the redhead ran his slitted eyes over the other three beds and tried to remember the names of his new roommates.
He had only actually only met one of the other guys meant to be sharing the room with him, a fine-boned blonde with fathomless blue eyes called Roxas. The other two were both out a work placement and were due to be back after dinner. Biting his lip Axel searched his fuzzy brain for their names, something like Sora and Rika? No Riku, that was it.
Turning his mind back to Roxas who had drifted in and out of the room silently almost an hour ago Axel tried to fight through the remaining numbing morphine in his system and figure out what he was going to do. Roxas was a little younger than himself being 16 and had been in the house for four years. He was an ex-gang orphan in his fourth attempt at leaving the street gang and no one knew much more about him than that. Axel knew that the house he was now in was for troubled teens and drug addicted kids, but not really who all was there and what he would need to do. He barely remembered his first meeting with Sephiroth the administrator of the house.
That morning Axel had been taken to the front room of the house named Kojo by Sephiroth and he was sat in a chair facing Sephiroth's desk. Next to him stood Aerith from the Deliverance organization, a hand on his shoulder to keep him upright. Axel was only a couple of hours out of the hospital and was fighting against the instinct to pass out. The conversation between Aerith and Sephiroth drifted around him but he could only focus on a couple of words at a time - 'beaten by his father', 'almost killed', 'indefinite stay'. Something he did pick up on was an intense air of dislike underlying everything Aerith said. Strange really, he thought these two would have to work together a lot.
Now on a bed allocated to him in the safe walls of Kojo, Axel let a little of the tension inside him ease away. He ran his hands down his ribs wincing at the stabs of pain that still pierced him and let out a dry chuckle. 'I got away.' he whispered to himself. 'It nearly killed me... Oh god he nearly killed me.' Rolling onto his stomach, ignoring the aches all over his body, Axel finally let tears fall for the father he loved and the hate he had received in return.
Sprawled on the one couch to grace the many rooms of Kojo Roxas let his thoughts be taken away by the rush of alcohol in his blood. He did try to stay away from the gang each time he was dragged back to Kojo by Sephiroth's employees but there was something missing inside him that only the camaraderie of the gang life seemed to fill. Languidly raising his hand so he could see his arm Roxas stared at the mottled bruises and handmade tattoos that marked him, tears trickling unnoticed down his thin cheeks.
It could have minutes but was more likely hours later when Roxas ran his hand through his wild dirty-blonde hair and propped himself up on one bony elbow. Glancing at the clock he could see it was only five o'clock but it felt much later even though the other residents of Kojo were still out. Attempting to focus his aching brain Roxas finally noticed what had caught his attention. Somewhere else in the house that should be empty, someone was crying.
88888
Axel was so lost in the world of his own sorrows and pain that he completely failed to hear the dormitory door open to admit Roxas. He only became aware that he was not alone when a tentative hand rested on his back. Breath catching in his throat he bolted upright and hurled himself back against the wall, head still caught in the horrendous memories of his father.
Shocked at the overreaction to his simple comfort Roxas lurched backwards and lost his balance. Letting out a startled shout he pitched backwards and slammed his head against the doorframe. Axel moved faster than he thought was possible in his weakened and painful state and launched off the bed to catch the blonde as he crumpled to the floor. Cradling Roxas in his arms Axel couldn't believe how light the younger boy was. It felt like he was holding feathers. Gently using his free hand he smoothed Roxas' hair and tried to get a response from the unconscious boy.
Roxas had entered the room full of irritation at someone disrupting the usually inviolate routine of Kojo House. He had not expected to see a boy on the bed weeping as though his heart could break. A snatch of memory floated into his head and he remember meeting this boy earlier, Axel that was it, and being told afterward about his background. Although Roxas knew that Axel had been beaten nearly to death by his own father he had not expected the extreme reaction when he touched the other teen's back. The look of sheer terror and revulsion in Axel's eyes had made him recoil more than the suddenness of the boy's movement.
As he fell backward and a split second before he hit the doorjamb Roxas caught a full view of Axel's face before it all went black. Leonine eyes the color of precious emeralds in a pale porcelain face marred only by blotchy bruises and two tearlike tattoos. Hair surrounded everything, the color of unchecked flame. The impression Roxas took with him as he passed out was that of a beautiful angel caught in the fires of hell.
88888
Sephiroth adjusted the television screen to lighten the image. A slight smirk pulled on his perfect lips as his gaze travelled over the angular body of Axel wrapped around the slumped form of Roxas. He hadn't actively planned to get the red haired boy to Kojo this soon or quite this way but he had found that when he was working for his current employer things tended to fall into place with almost disturbing accuracy.
Flipping open his cellphone with one hand Sephiroth ran the other hand through his silky silver hair before dialing the prearranged number. He kept his eyes on the image on the screen as the phone rang twice in his ear and was then picked up. All that could be heard on Sephiroth's end was, 'The pieces are on the board.' before he hung up and propped his chin between his slender hands. The smirk now widened enough to expose the ivory point of a tooth.
Sephiroth gently placed his phone where it belonged back on his desk and reflected on the orders he had been given by the person who now controlled his strings. He had never actually met the man who commanded him but he had done a little bit of research in his spare time and found one blurry photo of an ephemeral criminal named Xemnas. He could find next to nothing actually informative about this man, only that he had ties to the town of Shardsvale and strands of a criminal web that stretched the length and breadth of Fallenstar. When he asked for a name by which to refer to him Sephiroth was only given the name Ansem, but he easily rearranged the letters plus an 'X' to read Xemnas.
A strange and dangerous man in his own right, Sephiroth did not bother to look further for clues about Xemnas. He knew that he was constructing a plan involving a number of special teens and that the plan was to be kept from the gaze of the organization Deliverance at all costs. The one thing that kept his allegiance firmly with Xemnas however was the man's deep understanding of his own personal darkness. For a long time he had focused his unholy obsession on a young man called Cloud Strife who now worked for Deliverance, but now he had found a new object of desire. Working with Xemnas gave him both the access to his target and permission to do what he would, as Xemnas was not fussy on the condition of the pieces in his game.
Licking his lips and moving his slightly manic gaze back to the monitors Sephiroth abruptly shoved himself back from the desk and stood to his full intimidating height. In the black and white image on the monitor Axel was trying to pick Roxas up. Sephiroth was not sure what he planned to do once he stood straight with the other boy in his arms, but he did not plan to let them leave the room.
Grabbing two shimmering green healing materia he turned but paused. A malevolent smile growing on his face Sephiroth snatched up two more materia colored a sickly yellow, and in a swirl of winglike leather and teleported to just outside of the dorm room. Stashing all the materia in his voluminous cloak he strode into the room and looked down at the two boys on the floor.