It's weird when I think about how far this has come. I would never have continued writing if it hadn't been for all you wonderful people who read, reviewed, favourited and alerted this fic. For this I thank and love you all, including my recent reviewers: .Clan, SisterOfScarletDevil, SettingSunRisingMoon, kate882 and justin4dafun - haha tell me when your account is back. I have an idea for a new KH fanfiction I was going to email you XD

Hope you enjoy, please notify me if there are any plot holes, mistakes etc.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. All I own is the plot which is probably worth about a penny - yay, I'm rich.

Axel's POV

Why am I always so useless? All throughout my life I've been nothing but a troublemaker, someone the world would be better off without – a total waste of space. When in school I was useless, when at home I was useless and anywhere else I went I'm useless.

That included times like right now. I was useless. I couldn't bring myself to ignore the pain and stand up to fight off Roxas' captors. Instead I lay in a pathetic heap on the floor, watching the burly man with dreadlocks shoot a sleeping dart into Roxas' shoulder.

The winged boy swayed and his legs gave out in no time at all. Xigbar let go of the arm he had a grip on, letting him collapse to the floor. He landed awkwardly on one of his wings which crumpled beneath him. I tried to push myself up but my arms couldn't hold the weight.

I looked up despairingly at Xigbar, hoping he would have a change of heart and tell the other men in the room to shove off.

"Don't….don't take him away," I pleaded. Xigbar kept a straight face while he looked at me.

"Are you sure he doesn't need to be silenced?" the blue-haired man asked. Even though he hadn't said the exact words it was pretty clear what he meant by that. Well, Hell, you might have a new arrival soon.

"I'm sure," Xigbar answered firmly. "Just let me talk to him for a sec. You go on ahead, I'll catch up."

The blue-haired guy nodded, spared me one last glance and spun on his heel, exiting the room. The man with platinum blonde hair followed suite.

The man with dreadlocks, the biggest (and most likely strongest) of the group stooped down to pick up the passed out Roxas. He slung him over his shoulder and shifted the boy's wings so they both fell one way, out of dreadlock guy's face.

Roxas looked so tiny and fragile compared to the huge frame of the guy holding him. It looked as if he could be crushed at any moment by the larger man.

My heart nearly broke as I helplessly watched them both go. My hands shook as I thought this could be the last glimpse of Roxas I ever had. What was it I had said to him?

"You're not alone; I'm always here for you, I will always be here for you."

No! I was already breaking my promise! And the other promise…the one to myself…

'I would not let him die.'

Maybe in letting him get kidnapped like this I was breaking that oath to myself as well. I truly was useless…I couldn't even keep a promise….

I had let Roxas down…

When the dreadlocked man and the limp form of Roxas disappeared down the hall Xigbar turned to me. He crouched down so he was closer to my eye level.

I glared at him furiously. This man was a traitor! I had trusted him, I had been completely deceived by him…thinking he was just a regular school student.

I was about to tell him what a dirty scumbag he was but he held up his hand and cut me off.

"Before you start with the insults, I think I should elaborate on what a favour I've done you. If it weren't for me, Saïx, that guy with blue hair, would have killed you on the spot. You would be lying in a mess of your own bloody entrails. Don't worry about little Raxos-"

"Roxas," I snarled.

"Whatever. The point is he's in the care of The Biological Beings Science Department now. He's too valuable a resource to kill so rest assured he will be kept alive….unless we find out he is of more use when dead…." he said thoughtfully.

"Don't lay a finger on him! Just leave him alone! He has feelings! He has a voice! Listen to him!"

"Why listen if there is nothing to hear? He's never said a word to us."

"Maybe if you didn't go kidnapping him and torturing him he-"

"Well, it's too late for us to start being all nicey-nicey. We've got work to do and reputations to keep, as a group and individually."

I couldn't believe him. He cared more about his god damn reputation more than someone else's well-being? That selfish little rat!

He cut me off before I could speak again.

"Listen. Just go back home, pretend this never happened and forget about Roxas. Just make sure you don't go blabbing otherwise I will come back to end your sorry life."

He held my gaze for a few more seconds before leisurely walking out the room. I didn't move from my position on the floor, listening to the receding footsteps and the bang of the front door, signalling Xigbar's leave.

It wasn't like me to cry. I was the sort of person that knew when and why people would cry, what could trigger tears but I never shed them myself. I felt the moisture overflowing in my eyes. I blinked, releasing the tears and letting them flow like miniature rivers down my face and fall onto the old, dusty carpet.

I have no idea how long I stayed like that, just letting the tears flow freely. My mind kept replaying the images of Roxas' terrified face when he was hauled out of the wardrobe, the look of fear and hopelessness when he saw me lying defeated on the floor.

I sniffed and realized how dark it had gotten. It was cold as well and very lonely. The mansion felt empty now I knew that Roxas was gone. I slowly and shakily managed to get myself into a sitting position. My stomach felt like it was bruised and the back of my head kept pulsing with pain, as if someone was steadily beating a hammer against it.

I stood up and carefully guided myself back to where my rucksack still sat on the floor. It was hard to believe that just hours ago Roxas had been sitting next to it, in pain from an illness. It was also hard to believe I could be so pathetic but yet, here I was, still a waste of space.

With the rucksack now hanging off my shoulders I checked the time on my phone.

19:09

Reno would be wondering where I was. I didn't want to have to go home and come up with another lie as to where I had been. I didn't want to do anything.

I mentally slapped myself.

You fool! Stop being so useless and find out where those creeps took Roxas! Help him! You're acting like Bella from Twilight!

Oh my God the voice in my head was right! I was acting like that girl in that film I had been dragged along to see by Demyx – New Moon or whatever it was. I couldn't just curl up in a ball and be all depressed. I had to find a way to save Roxas!

With renewed strength, I set off to go back home where my laptop was – where information was.

"I know you weren't out with Demyx because he called asking to speak to you!"

"Um, yeah, he thought it would be funny to do that while I went to the bathroom. I am telling you we went to the cinema."

This wasn't going well. Reno was on to me. The pounding my head wasn't making it any easier for me to think up a decent lie either.

"What did you see?"

Oh fu- I mean...fiddlesticks. What was on at the cinema that would seem like something I would see?

Hell, what was even on at the cinema?

"Uh, Glee: The Movie?"

"Axel, you hate Glee. Everyone hates it. Even the people who say they like it really hate it."

"Not Demyx. He wanted me to see it with him."

"You paid money to see that crap?" Reno nearly yelled. Yup, now he was suspicious and mad.

"No, no, of course not!" I said quickly, waving my hands in front of me. "I snuck in so I didn't waste my money."

He nodded approvingly and seemed to drop it.

Phew.

Then he noticed the almost full rucksack I had taken off and decided to prop against my legs. I knew I should have left it by the door. This was taking up too much time as well! I had to find Roxas as fast as possible before those guys did anything too bad to him.

"Jesus, Ax, what's in your rucksack? Your wardrobe?"

"Actually, no."

"Then what is?"

"The things…I need…when….going out?"

"Like?" he prompted.

"Exactly those things aforementioned." I was really losing this. I wouldn't even make sense in nonsense land.

"What 'aforementioned' things?"

"Exactly those things."

"When did you mention them? You didn't. What?" Reno spluttered, trying to work out what was going on. Good, he was confused; he should be easier to get around now.

"Let me see," Reno said, reaching for my rucksack.

I picked it up before he could, whacked him over the head with it and bolted up the stairs to my room. I tossed it onto the floor and manoeuvred my chest of drawers so they stood in front of the door, stopping anyone else from entering.

I did this before Reno had recovered from the blow and raced up the stairs to my room. I ignored him banging his fists on my door and quickly unpacked my rucksack and hid any items that generally didn't belong in my room under the bed with the rest of the clutter.

I did that while waiting for the laptop to get started and running at a good speed. I plonked myself in my computer chair and closed my eyes, trying to think back to what Xigbar had said. I know he mentioned something about a science facility….what had he said?

"I will come back to end your sorry life."

Nope, not that part.

"…lying in a mess of your own bloody entrails."

Not that bit….although that was quite disturbing.

"…too valuable a resource to kill…Biological Beings Science Department."

That was it! The Biological Beings Science Department!

I tapped that into Google but nothing came up that looked right. I clicked on a few websites but most of them had nothing to do with what I wanted. I shouldn't have been too surprised; it was obvious they were keeping their work a secret so they wouldn't go posting stuff about it on the internet.

But there had to be something on there….

They would need permission from someone high up in the ranks to do what they were doing and to get all the equipment a science department would have, not to mention a work space. What I needed was some official, classified documents that stated the approval of their work and more importantly, where they were based.

And for that, I would need a miracle.

Or a computer hacker….

I grinned as the image of the chirpy, blonde girl who was rumoured to have cheated on her exams by hacking into the exam's database and seeing the script, who hacked into websites just to create chaos and who replaced a picture of the Prime minister with one of Mr Bean [1]. Rikku Albed.

Who knew searching for one girl could be so hard? It was tiring having to run around school on a Monday. I had checked the canteen, the library, the playing field and every computer lab in the school.

Well, except for the one I was currently standing outside. I looked in through the small, chicken wire filled window to try and get a glimpse of how many people were in there. And of course if there were any teachers. I didn't want to go asking Rikku for hacking favours with loads of eavesdroppers. I was pretty sure a person could be convicted for hacking crimes and I didn't want to be responsible for Rikku being sent to prison.

I couldn't see anyone in the room but then again I could only see half of it. I was a little worried about whether Rikku would actually do me this favour. I think we both knew of each other but we weren't really friends.

I opened the door and stepped into the computer lab, looking to my left; the side of the room I couldn't see from outside. Over in the farthest corner, sitting at a computer with the screen in a position so it could not be seen by anyone who walked in, was Rikku. She was typing at a furious speed, not even looking at the keyboard. Her gaze flicked up to me for a second but then went back to the computer screen, her face expressionless the entire time.

I took a deep breath and walked round to where she was sitting. Before I got to an angle where I could see her monitor, her right hand had shot to the mouse and clicked several times. When I looked at the screen there was just the background, one of The Matrix I noted, but I could see icons all squashed together at the bottom of the screen.

So she had minimized every program she was on? I had to admit I was curious about what she was up to. She was now watching me like a hawk as I carefully sat down in the seat next to hers. Her arms were folded and her green eyes narrowed into slits.

I spoke, "Um, hey, I was wondering if you could do me a favour-"

"Okay, let's get this straight: I do NOT hack so you can pass your exams or so you can log in to a teacher's Facebook account to pick up some blackmail. I DON'T DO FAVOURS LIKE THAT! I DON'T WASTE MY TIME TO DO YOUR SHIT! So leave me alone and figure out how to do it yourself. Good BYE!"

I sat in shock for a few seconds after her explosion. I had no idea she was this scary. I had only ever seen her acting all bubbly and happy-go-lucky. This was like multiple personality or something.

When I didn't move she yelled, "Why are you still here?"

"I don't want exam answers or teacher's passwords. There's something else I need."

"What?" she asked, seeming to calm down a bit.

Okay, Ax, don't screw this up. If you say this just right she might help you. The only way of getting such classified documents is through hacking and this is the only person you can ask.

"I need someone to see if there are any Government or super official, classified files or whatever that says anything about a science facility called...um…" I thought for a second. "The Biological Beings Science Department. It's most likely this secret organization."

Rikku looked interested but still a little dubious.

"Is this for some project or something? 'Cause I don't help out with those either."

"No, nothing like that. I'm going to expose the group because I'm pretty sure what they're doing is illegal and immoral."

She chuckled. "You sound like a detective. This is very different from my usual requests."

My shoulders slumped. Did that mean she didn't want to take the job?

"And I like it. It sounds like it could be challenge. I'm in. Okay, give the name to me again, or write it down or something."

Yes! This put me a step closer to finding Roxas.

I told her the name again and rooted around in my rucksack for a piece of paper and a pen. I pulled out a worksheet and scribbled the name on the back using a pen I had 'borrowed' from Marly. He wouldn't notice.

I slid the worksheet over to Rikku and saw her already doing things. I honestly couldn't explain exactly what she was doing any better; I was pretty good with computers but at hacking I was clueless.

She chatted happily as she worked.

"It's so fun to have a new project like this! Getting into school websites is easy and there's no fun doing phishing for passwords. You know I normally charge people for things like this but if I do dig up something and you do manage to unveil whatever crimes are going on I'm willing to do this free of charge. Oh, I can't really get started until I'm home where my computer is; I can't do a lot with these school computers. Right now I'm just turning off the filters and doing a standard search to see what I can find. Oh yeah, you will need to tell me about any other information you have to make this easier."

It was odd how she went from ultra-scary-demon-like to out-of-control-hyper. She was practically jumping in her seat.

I wasn't sure about sharing information with her; for one I didn't know her that well and she probably wouldn't believe me if I told her about Roxas. Like I said before: Demyx would keep his mouth shut and no one would believe him if he said anything about seeing Roxas at the mansion. Rikku, on the other hand, was a more respected person and could abandon this whole thing if she thought I was taking the piss. Not to mention she would probably spread my mad ravings to other people and I couldn't let that happen.

"Um, I really don't think I should tell you everything but this science group, they're most likely conducting experiments on humans or animals or um, alien matter."

Wow, it felt weird to say that. Rikku stopped typing for a second and looked at me oddly. Crap, had I blown it?

"That sounds pretty heavy. How did you discover something like this? Or are you making it all up to make a fool out of me?"

"What? No, of course not! Listen, it's real complicated-"

I broke off when she gave me a look that said 'I hack computers. I'm pretty sure I can understand anything that a dumb ass like you finds complicated.'

"No, I mean, I kind of need to keep t a secret for now but if you do find the files, you'll probably be able to find out all about it from that. That way I keep the secret and you just find it." I laughed nervously.

I didn't want to expose what Roxas was - or could be - to her just yet. I wanted to see if she could do the job with out the information first. And I felt like by doing this I was, in a silly little way, somehow protecting Roxas.

She thought for a moment and nodded.

"Sounds fair. I hope you realize this makes it a tad more difficult for me but at least I now have something to look forward to. I love secrets!"

This secret might be a little different from the ones you're thinking of.

I really wish I had actually planned out this story a little more….if it all seems a bit up in the air, let that be an example of how things can go badly without planning. Please review to tell me how it was and any comments/suggestions/complaints you have – I'd love to hear them!

[1] Does everyone know who Mr Bean is? If you don't, just look him up, it's brilliant. Oh yeah, I think the incident I described about someone replacing a picture of the Prime Minister with one of Mr Bean actually happened once, or something similar did, which was done by hackers.

Oh yeah, I'm not much of a computer whiz so I can't really go into any explanations about what exactly Rikku's doing or how she's doing it. And phishing is just a method of hacking that gets people to send you their passwords or something like that. Yep, I think that's everything.

Thanks for reading,

Cipher.