Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: Song Lyrics: "I Need a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler


"Late at night I toss and turn and I dream of what I NEEEEEEEED! I need a Hero! I'm holding out for a Hero 'till the end of the Night! He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast, and he's gotta be fresh from the fight! I need a Hero!"

"OK Dem! Enough with the singing!" The redhead said as he turned down the radio.

"Awww! Come on Axel I was having fun!"

"No, I've been listen to nothing but 80's music and YOUR singing for the last THREE HOURS!"

"But the 80's rock my socks!"

"I don't care if it rocks your… whatever! I said no. I need something heavier, like Disturbed or Three Days Grace."

"But we were both born in the 80's, and my singing isn't that bad!"

"No."

"Please!?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I said so."

-Twenty minutes latter-

"I said NO! I don't know how Zexion puts up with you!"

"He loves me!" The blond giggled. "Please?"

"No what? NO RADIO!"

"Awww, your being poopy Axel." The redhead raised his eyebrows saying nothing, and kept on driving.


"Finally we're here!" Axe said, taking another deep breath. They had driven an hour in Demyx's version of silence, which meant that the blond had been 'quietly' singing in the car, much to the redheads dislike.

The two twenty-five year olds were parked in front of a small decrepit looking apartment complex. As they walked up to the second floor, they began to understand why Roxas might have been suicidal. The long empty halls were dark, all across the walls the wall paper was peeling off, and the floors were so dusty that Axel and Demyx were leaving foot prints in a blanket of gray snow.

"This place really wouldn't of helped someone who was depressed," the tall blond said as he dodge a cobweb. "I just barely missed that one-" Demyx, screaming like a little girl, and jumped into the redhead's arms, who almost didn't catch him.

"WOAW! Dem what's the matter?" Axel looked down to see the blond covered in spider webs, his blue eyes the size of baseballs.

"I ran into a web!"

The redhead just shook his head, mumbled "coward," and dropped him.

"OUCH!"

"Shh!" Axel said as he put his hand over Demyx's mouth, silencing him at once. They stopped right before turning the corner that was supposedly were Roxas' apartment was. They could hear two men talking.

"But I need to get in there!"

"I'm sorry sir, but without Mr. Feardorcha's permission I can't let you in his apartment."

"But its been three months! How could he possibly still own this apartment, when he hasn't been here to pay the rent?"

"As I told you before Saïx, Mr. Feardorcha and I have an arrangement. So he wont loose his apartment for a very long time."

"Excuse me," The red haired man came around the corner, "I'm looking for a Roxas' Feardorcha's apartment."

"Oh no, not another pest," an elderly man with glasses said.

"Why do you need to get into Roxas' apartment?" A man with sliver-blue hair and an X shaped scar on his face said abruptly. He glared at the redhead before him, with a look of utter loathing.

"He set me here." Axel's green eyes did not depart from the man he guessed was Saïx. Demyx however, was standing quietly behind him, he felt that this was not something he should get into.

"How do you know Roxas?" Saïx snapped.

"You tell me first."

"What I am to Roxas is between the two of us, you have no business knowing."

"As his brother, I think I do." Saïx's face became shocked, but he still did not remove his gaze from the emerald eyes of Axel.

"Roxas does not have a brother!"

"Yes, he does you idiot, I'm standing right in front of you!" The redhead chuckled.

"Prove it." The silver-blue haired man said, his eyes narrowing.

"Ever heard of a man named Luxord?" Axel took a step forward, grinning devilishly, his eyes beginning to blaze dangerously.

"He was Roxas' first boyfriend, how does that prove that you're his brother?"

"Did my brother ever tell you what happened to him?" The redhead took another step forwards, he was now only a few feet away from Saïx. Demyx took a few steps backwards, he did not want to be near the flame lover at the moment. He knew all to well what Axel's chuckle meant.

"He messed with my brother, tried to force Roxas to do something he didn't want to do. In other words…" the Pyromaniac laughed evilly, "he pissed me off." The Ifrit took out his lighter, clicked it, and aloud the flames to burn in front of him. "In the end I lit his dick on fire," the arsonist closed the lighter, still glaring at Saïx with burning eyes. The silver-blue haired man looked away, taking a step back, and allowing the elderly man to talk.

The man with glasses coughed, "so what is your name sir?"

"I am Axel Azar" His green eyes had finally calmed down. "And the coward behind me is Demyx Saraswati." The redhead gestured to the tall blond walking up behind him.

"Ah yes, Mr. Feardorcha did say something about the possibility of you showing up. I'm suppose to let you into his apartment. Excuse me Saïx." The elderly man went to open the door behind the silver-blue haired man, but Saïx did not budge.

"Your going to let him in? Just like that? I've been coming here every day for three months, THREE MONTHS! And he just needs to tell you his name to get in!?"

"Well yes, Mr. Feardorcha told me to let Mr. Azar in if he came." Saïx glared at the man for a moment, and then began to storm off, but Axel stood in his way.

"Why do you want to get in there so badly? I mean, three months? That's a long time." The redhead stared at Saïx in an attempt to find the answer that he knew may never come.

"That is none of your business." Saïx walked around him, hitting the redhead in the shoulder on the way.

The elderly gentlemen unlocked the door, then stepped away before talking again. "Well here is Mr. Feardorcha's apartment, I only ask that you lock it up before you leave. I'll be downstairs apartment 001 if you need me." Then he too left.


Axel swallowed his nerves and opened the door, revealing a room that mirrored the halls that led to it. The redhead walked in, feeling as if he was entering a graveyard. He stood in the center of the room, taking in the void, before turning to see the blond still standing in the hall.

"You coming Dem?" The tall blond didn't say a word, but simply shook his head no. Axel walked back over too his frightened friend, and grabbed his hand, in an attempt to pull him into the room. Demyx pulled back.

"No bloody way! I'm not going in there," fear consumed his voice.

"Why not?"

"Because if I go thru that door it'll be like going into the creator of the Roxas who haunts that blood stained room back at the manor."

"Well sometimes you have to go into the belly of the beast to save the ones you love, right?"

"Why can't you just go in there by yourself, and then come back and tell me what you saw?"

"Because you were always better at those 'Where's Waldo' books!" Axel chuckled, smiling at his fearful friend. "I was never able to find him!"

"That's because you were too busy setting things on fire!" The blond waved his arms in the air, as if that would help convince Axel to let him be.

"Dem, what if it wasn't Roxas who need our help?" The redhead stared the blond in the eyes, "What if it was Zexion? Huh? Would you be standing at the door, refusing to go in then?" The blond shifted his weight from side to side, wiggling a bit, then fixed the redhead with a dirty look.

"Fine," he said forcefully, and then walked into the room.

The two men searched the small apartment for a half hour, finding nothing. The only sign of someone living there was a king size bed in a windowless bedroom. They were about to give up hope of finding anything, when Demyx sat on the bed.

"OUCH!" The blond bounced right back off the bed, and began rubbing his backside. Axel ran into the room.

"What happened?"

"The bed just BIT me!" Demyx pointed to the bed, the redhead raised his eye brows.

"Huh? A bed can't bit." Axel chuckled as he walked over to were the blond was pointing, and started feeling the top of the matrices curiously. "Hey Dem?"

"Yes?" Demyx said, standing next to him said.

"Where would someone sleep?"

"Um…on a bed, dah!"

"Exactly."

"Huh? What are you getting at Axel?"

"Go to the place where sadness once lived, and in the darkness find the beginning to eternal slumber."

"Oh, so eternal slumber means the bed, and the darkness refers a windowless room?"

"Possibly," Axel grabbed a pocket knife out of his pants, and began to cut away at the matrice. When he pulled away the material he discovered a small, handmade journal. The redhead opened it, flipped threw the pages, and found it to be empty, like the rest of the apartment. "Hey Dem, do me a favor."

"What?"

"Turn off the lights."