It was like pressing pause in the middle of an action movie's climatic final battle.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

He was waiting for pain and for blood, maybe a sound or a scream. There was a stillness in the air and a silence pressing down on them, and none of it should have been that way. Axel had heard the gun. He knew it had been fired…

"You idiot," came the furious hiss, just before a resounding thud made the floor tremble beneath Axel's feet. And then the pattering of liquid dripping onto wood.

Slowly, he raised his head, still making sure to cover Roxas as he did. Axel looked over his shoulder, searching the room.

Riku. On his knees. His back was facing Axel, but the redhead could see the spray of red that now stained the floor. His lips parted instinctively, eyes widening. Riku had…

"Not useful for a damn thing, are you? Pathetic."

Axel turned his gaze to the soulless yellow snake eyes, the sharp and angular face, the long cerulean hair that fell past broad shoulders, the silver smoking pistol still pointed in Axel's direction. Except, of course, the bullet hadn't hit Axel. No, it hadn't hit Axel at all.

"Saix," Axel hissed, releasing Roxas so he could turn to face the tall man, the scar etched into his face darker and meaner than it had ever seemed. Topaz-hued eyes glowered at him. "What the hell is this all about?"

"You naïve little child," Saix muttered, letting the pistol fall to his side. As he did, Riku's weight finally gave in to gravity and his body toppled forward. Axel hesitated - he wanted to help Riku, but he couldn't leave Roxas' side. Saix shook his head. "It's for the better, I suppose. He would have wanted me to keep you alive after all of this was resolved anyway. And there's no way that could have happened."

"What the fuck, Saix?" Axel yelled, fisting his hands. "Why are you doing this? What do you want?"

"Why?" Saix scoffed, shaking his head. "You've never been smart, Axel. Then again, your entire family has been nothing but one dolt after another, so I can't really blame you, I suppose."

"But you… Saix, I don't understand," Axel sighed, groaning. "You've always been so loyal to my father."

"Of course I have," he retorted. "How else could I possible gain every fraction of his trust, hm? It's not like he was simply going to hand me his business on a silver platter. That is, not without leverage. Which would be you."

Axel couldn't speak. His mouth worked, but no sound came out. The walls were starting to spin and his head was aching like a bad hangover. What the hell was going on?

"You think anybody would ever enjoy working for one of you incompetent, pretentious Heart men?" Saix sneered, and with a roll of his eyes, kicked Riku's shoulder. The younger man didn't move. "Except him, of course. You think I would seriously be happy wasting my life away in your father's shadow? Doing all his work, making him money, earning him his status? Nobody wants to live like that, Axel. We used to be close, when we were younger. We used to be friends. But things change. You grow up and realize you're life is dwindling away. If I let him, your father would suck every bit of me dry. Unaccomplished. Unsatisfied. Withered to nothing but dust."

"Wait, you aren't happy?" Axel stuttered, gritting his teeth when Saix let out a harsh, forced laugh.

"Would you be?" he accused, waving the gun in Axel's general direction. "You spoiled brat. You have no idea what it's like to be ordered around like a dog. All because you were born into one family and not the other."

"If you weren't happy, Saix, you could have just left," Axel argued. That was when Saix's expression really changed. From angry to…devious.

"I suppose you're right, Axel, but that would be too wasteful," he scoffed. "Why throw away all the work I've done over the years? Why give it all to Xemnas, as if he had created his dynasty. It made more sense to simply work behind his name and create industries nobody ever knew about. Black markets within black markets. It was easy."

"New industries…" Axel repeated slowly, frowning. "You… you created…"

"And finally, you put the pieces together," Saix sighed, rolling his eyes in that condescending way of his. "Of course, if I hadn't put it right in front of you, I doubt you'd ever figure it out."

"Destiny Orphanage…" he murmured, trailing off. His mind was still taking forever to catch up. It was like he understood, but he couldn't.

"More like a house for my little whores-in-training," Saix corrected, lips curling, head cocking. His gaze shifted slightly. He was no longer looking at Axel. "I established it without your father's knowledge about a decade ago. House young boys until they turn of age, and then the real business begins. Teach them the arts of seduction your father refuses to dwell in. Masochism, sadism… You have no idea how much money he was missing out on that."

There was a moment of silence.

"Of course, you're little toy there somehow found a way out," Saix muttered, pinching his lips together. Axel felt Roxas tense against him from behind. "Don't know how he did it. Customers would come in, see him, and immediately want him. He was going to be my secret weapon. I had him untrained entirely. Pure, innocent, ignorant. The customers like that, especially since he's so pretty. I should have just given him to them, not waited until he turned eighteen. A bad habit, I suppose, from working under your father's backward ethics. But he escaped…the morning of his eighteenth birthday."

"Sora…" Roxas suddenly gasped, just loud enough for Axel to hear.

"Oh my God…" Axel whispered, taking a step back. Sora had known… He had known what would happen… He had done the only thing he could do to keep Roxas safe.

"Somehow, he ended up in the batch of boys I send to be sold in your father's clubs," he growled, brow knitting. "How coincidental that I was shipping those boys the exact day of his birthday. How coincidental that that particular group happened to be going to the exact club you would be attending that night. How fucking coincidental that you turned out to like little boys, Axel. Do you always intend to ruin my plans?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Axel yelled, brain whirling. He needed a way out of this. He knew what he was up against now.

Saix. A man who had been in Axel's life as long as his father and as long as Luxord, but Saix was nothing like either of them. He hadn't been affectionate or kind or encouraging. Saix had been cool, cynical man who insisted on remaining utterly detached from the family. He had an off-the-charts IQ and had handled half the business with Xemnas for as long as they had known each other. They were supposed to be close. Saix knew the family inside and out. But he had revealed none of his secrets. It would take a genius to break through such a man's intellect. Axel was screwed. He needed time to think.

"Disappointed things aren't going exactly the way you want?" Saix mocked. Axel reached behind him, just so he could touch Roxas, make sure he was still there, comfort him - comfort himself, maybe. "You figured that now that you have what you want, you're just going to live happily ever after. No problems. No interruptions."

"Disappointed?" Axel echoed. The bizarreness of the situation was stalling his thinking process. "Are you fucking insane, Saix? You've sworn loyalty to my father for as long as I can remember, and now you're waving a gun in my face. You think I'm disappointed?"

"Disappointed, furious, same difference," Saix sighed, looking some mixture between bored and annoyed. "Do you really think I care?"

"You think you're going to get away with this," Axel growled, disbelieving. He took a single step forward. Saix raised the gun without missing a beat. "You've told me about all of your schemes thus far. I'm curious. How the hell are you going to get out of this, huh?"

"Well, like I said, Axel, you're my leverage," Saix explained, tilting his head and the gun at the same time. He moved slowly, strategically, stepping around Riku's limp form. "If I have you…well, then, you're father is like putty in my hands. And if I have him…"

As he spoke, as he circled Axel and Roxas, his gun switched targets. Axel's heart dropped.

"You'll do whatever I say, won't you?" he finished, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't do this," Axel whispered, shifting his weight so that he could shield Roxas again.

"Ah, ah, ah, stay put, Axel," Saix demanded, smirking. His eyes, full of something evil and awful, turned to Roxas. "You. Come over here."

"Roxas," Axel warned, instinctively stepping in front of him again. Saix clicked back the safety - Axel froze. "Saix…"

"Axel," Roxas whined, tugging on his sleeve. Axel turned to look at him, trembling, as the blonde began to step around him. Toward Saix.

"Please, no," Axel whispered, reaching out to cup Roxas' face. Blue eyes fluttered shut as he leaned into the touch, whimpering desperately. "Don't…"

"I won't hesitate to shoot either one of you," Saix warned, sounding exasperated. "Get your ass over here."

That's when it hit Axel. He froze, frowning as Roxas slipped from his fingers slowly, hesitantly, fearfully. No… No, no, no - Saix would hesitate. He was hesitating right then, stalling for time. If Axel was his leverage for Xemnas, then Axel was safe. If Axel was murdered, there was no damn way Xemnas would do anything Saix said. Which meant that the power Roxas' life had over Axel…

"No," Axel blurted, grabbing Roxas' arm and pulling him back to him. The blonde squeaked, but immediately let himself be hidden behind Axel again. As expected, Saix tensed, but he didn't pull the trigger. He wouldn't. He couldn't afford to. "I'll do whatever you want. But you can't have him."

"Don't make this difficult, idiot," Saix snarled, baring his teeth almost as viciously as a dog.

"Likewise, Saix," Axel shot back, pushing Roxas behind him entirely. He lifted his chin at him. "If you want my help, you're not going to lay a finger on Roxas, got it?"

"You're not in any position to be making demands," Saix hissed. Axel bit the inside of his mouth, studying Saix carefully. The way he held himself, how his eyes twitched, how his jaw worked steadily… Saix wasn't too far from loosing it, either. And he was beginning to realize Axel had the upper hand. "You've always been too ballsy, Axel… You always make the risky investment."

"And you're always too damn predictable," Axel said back, dangerously low.

They stared each other down, observing the other, strategizing and planning. They were both intelligent men. They knew how to read their opponent and how to play the field to their advantage. Now was the time to see who was better at what they did.

"Whatever you were planning…" Axel began, shaking his head pitifully at Saix. "You know, you could have gotten away with it. I really think you would have. And if making some extra cash behind my father's back made you happy, then hell, you could have been happy, because I don't think he stopped trusting you for a second. But you fucked up. As soon as your emotions got a hold of you. You lost one investment - one boy - and you just had to try to get him back. And now you have nothing."

"You think you can antagonize me?" Saix snarled, and suddenly, the deafening blast of the gun splintered the silence.

The pain wasn't immediate. At first, it was just like being punched in the gut. He hadn't expected it, but it blew him back, made his eyes pop open and his lips part without giving any of them permission. It was shocking, surprising… He lifted his hands, slowly and unsurely, to the numbness centered in his stomach. Blinking hard, he lowered his chin to stare… The white of his shirt…it wasn't white anymore.

"Fuck…"

"You were wrong, Axel," Saix said, sighing, regaining his composure with a slight smirk, gun at his side. "You think I'd enter a business deal with only one way out? I haven't told you all my plans, after all. Cocky brat."

Axel stared at Saix, squinting as his vision blurred, as a dull ache began to spread its fingers from the hole in his stomach. He gasped, clutching at the dampness, watching his skin stain with a crimson too dark and too real. With a stuttered gasp, he dropped to his knees.

"Axel!"

Roxas was at his side, suddenly in front of him. Axel tried to focus his gaze on those panicking blue eyes, but he was quickly becoming dizzy. He wavered slightly, back and forth - sucking in breath, he reached out for balance. Roxas immediately steadied him, whispering, murmuring something Axel wanted so badly to be able to understand. Nothing was making sense anymore.

Did that mean he was dying?

And then, suddenly, Roxas was being ripped from his arms, and if Axel could hear anything, he could hear his screams. The pain was nothing, overcome by a gush of adrenaline forced into his system. Grunting, he watched the world become clear. Saix, lifting Roxas up easily with a single arm until not even his feet touched the floor, dragging him out of the room. No. No, no, no, no. Roxas was shrieking, clawing at Saix, fighting like Axel had never known he could. Roxas…fighting for Axel.

How could Axel let Roxas fall into those hands.

Biting his tongue until it, too, was bleeding, Axel fell onto his hands and pulled himself forward to where Riku still lay limp. Please. As the blood began to dribble from his lips, his hands searched Riku hastily. Looking, looking…searching…

"Axel!"

His fingers folded around freezing solid metal.

"Saix!"

It had just enough time to lift the gun and aim as Saix whirled around, yellow eyes locking on him. He had no time to hesitate.

He squeezed the trigger.

The jolt of the firing gun shook his arm nearly to pieces. It felt like his arm was being consumed with fire and being crushed at the same time. He yelled out, his scream echoed by another, but the pain blinded him. Who had yelled? As he blacked out, fell to the floor at Riku's side, shaking with spasms - it was the only question that came over him.

Who had he shot?

Like I said, I'm really trying to finish this up... Haha, I must say, I loved the last few reviews I received. I'm so glad so many of you are really getting into the story - most of you are trying to figure out what's going on and trying to skip ahead to find out. Anyway, I hope this doesn't disappoint you, because I actually like it. You know, a lot of times, when I write something, I have no idea how I'm going to end it and it turns out completely unlike how I thought it would. But this probably turned out about 90%, if not more the way I planned for it to...

And I hope everything makes sense to everybody. This chapter was weird for me because it was almost entirely dialogue. I usually don't do that with chapters - or at least try not to. But yeah. I hope it made sense, above all. I'll work on the last chapter at work today, so I should post it within the next week at least! Thank you for all the support. This story has really been one of my favorites to work on. I still adore this pairing. It's so adorable and so much fun to work with.

Remember to review and tell me how I did. :)

AnimeCountDown