I know, I know, I made you all wait an outrageously long amount of time and it's not even that long a chapter. And I'm sorry. But try to understand that my life is so so busy right now. Like, I just moved to Spain for Christ's sake. It's so hectic. But I already have half of the next chapter written (omg there's only two and the epilogue left now D8), so expect an update on this soon.

The song for this chapter is "Same Thing We Do Every Day Pinky" by Broadway. Don't be fooled by the title, it's an epic song. Oh, and thank you all for the song suggestions you have sent me over the past year! I really appreciated it, even though I already had the whole playlist lined up .

Kiss and I Will Surrender

Twenty-Four

Same Thing We Do Every Day Pinky

Roxas shifted awkwardly, his boot toes making a carving grind in the dirt. He felt Zack's furtive electric eyes on him and stilled himself despite the ache that was beginning to creep up his calves. He crouched low behind the wreck of the army lorry that lay like a felled elephant in the front yard of the warehouse, waiting for his brother to return and give them the O.K. to move forward.

Zack was being remarkably still. Normally the man could not stop fidgeting. It was as if all the nervous energy he usually kept stored in his joints like rocket fuel has been sapped by the gun he had strapped to his back and the short tanto sword sheathed in his boot. He was a shadow of black in the shade provided by the dead vehicle, his glowing eyes the only revelation to Roxas that he was there.

Those eyes were the only source of energy in Zack's immobile body. They glowed with killing intent.

They had found the warehouse with the help of ShinRa's technology within six hours of realising that their friends had been kidnapped, but rather than descending on it without a plan, they elected to wait a few days to see if Seifer would make a move, and to come up with a strategy.

Roxas had protested so hard to this idea that he had given himself hysterics, but he had to admit he was glad they had done it now. The layout to the building was much more complicated than it looked on first glance, and Seifer's men were crawling all over the grounds.

Approximately one and a half days after Sora's kidnap, Seifer had called Roxas on his cell phone and presented his ransom terms.

"Stay calm," Zack had breathed as Roxas picked up the phone, and Seifer's drawling greeting bled out of the speaker. The blond took a few deep, steadying breaths and relaxed his grip on the mobile phone, though it took a lot of willpower.

"Hey Roxie," Seifer chuckled, sounding as though he was calling Roxas to invite him to the movies like old friends. "I've got something of yours." No preamble then. Thank god, Seifer could be notorious for teasing people until their brains were melting with frustration.

"Yes. I'd like it back please." Roxas wanted to keep his voice completely steady, but it quavered ever so slightly with unexpected tears on the last word. And of course, Seifer noticed this. The man laughed coldly, obviously enjoying how stressed he had made Roxas.

"Come now Roxie, don't cry! I promise I'll release your little boyfriend, and all the girlies too. But it comes at a price, my good man. Can you think what that is?"

Roxas didn't even need to think. He wetted his lips and replied as dryly as possible, "Me?"

"Correctamundo Roxas!"

Roxas kept himself from pointing out that "correctamundo" wasn't a real word.

"So, here's what we're gonna do," Seifer said, his voice less playful and much more businesslike. "We'll call you on Friday, that's two days from now, and give you a location. You, and you alone turn up at this location with transport for the girlies and the fag a mile away from you. We send them running off in the general direction of said transport, and I shoot you in the head. How's that sound?"

Roxas heard the casing of his cell creak as his fingers dug into the seams at the side. "Sounds like a blast," he muttered.

Apparently this was amusing, because Seifer laughed loudly at this. "Oh it will be, Roxie. For you anyway. A real blast." He dragged out 'real' in a fake mafia accent that made Roxas wish he could send a well-aimed punch to Seifer's nose down the phone.

The day after they had received this phone call, Roxas's team had made their move.

Now, Roxas, Zack and Cloud had gone directly into the grounds and were about to attempt to sneak into the warehouse. Axel and Xion had been positioned on top of a similar building a mile or so away, with some very illegal sniper guns that Squall had shown them how to use in under six hours. Xion had turned out to be a cracking shot, and Axel wasn't half bad either.

Reno and Rude were waiting in a chopper three klicks away, ready to come in with heavy artillery if it came to that. Squall and Rinoa had stayed at Roxas's apartment in case it was invaded by an ambush team.

Cloud suddenly dropped down between Zack and Roxas, though neither jumped. The older blond had climbed on top of the army truck to scout out the area.

"All clear, head for the entrance," Cloud whispered, and without so much as an acknowledging nod Roxas ran forwards across the dusty courtyard, keeping low and clutching at the pistol Squall had strapped to his side. Cloud and Zack backed him up, not even stirring the dust with their boots.

They reached the door of the warehouse and quickly flanked either side of it, pressing themselves to the wall and sinking into the shadows. They could hear the breathing of someone just inside the door. With a nod, Zack slipped his tanto from his boot, slid into the doorway, and there was a soft thud as he took out the guard and dropped him gently on the ground.

Roxas's ears were ringing with the deathly silence that accompanied them as they climbed the stairwell immediately inside the doorway. Not once did they make a sound on the metal steps, their feet were wisps of smoke and their respiration was slow and silent. The only noise he could really hear was the insane thud of blood in his ears to accompany the red curtain of rage slowly descending over his vision.

They reached the first floor where another guard was picking his nose and playing Sudoku on his phone. Cloud was behind him like a Reaper, getting him quickly in a choke hold that silenced the man before he'd even had a chance to register the attack. Roxas kept his eyes averted from the inhuman bombardier's eyes inhabiting his brother's face. They were the eyes of a cold killer in that instant.

What terrified Roxas the most was that he could feel that same coldness trickling into his system as though the stuff could be bottled up, and he'd just had a booster vaccination of it right at the base of his skull.

Cloud lay the guard down to the side, in the shadows. There wasn't much attempt at concealment, for soon enough the inhabitants of the warehouse would know fully well of their intruders, but at least it would buy them some time if another guard turned up unexpectedly. It wouldn't do for the alarm to be raised before they were ready.

The small three-man team, who usually considered each other brothers (or close to it) but now were only thinking of each other as comrades, moved into the main area of the first floor in single file. As expected, the room was empty. They had predicted that the hostages were being kept in a safe room, probably on the top floor, but their plan necessitated that they visit other floors along the way.

At this point, Zack crouched on one knee and slipped his backpack to the floor. With a wry twisted smile that no longer affected Roxas as much as it should have, Zack pulled out eight small boxes of C4 explosive.

They covered the weak points of the room quickly, placing the C4 in places that would feel the force of the explosions more. If they were going to blow the place up, it had to be done properly to prevent any of Seifer's men escaping. It was ruthless, and though Roxas had often thought throughout the course of their plannings that two wrongs don't make a right, it seemed the only option to keep everyone safe from that sicko once the rescue mission was carried out.

Roxas didn't like it. He was setting up the death of someone who had once been a very close friend. But he had no choice.

Seifer took Sora. And for that, Roxas would never forgive him.

"God, I've missed so many episodes of Friends this week! I'm going to be SO behind when I finally get out of this dump!"

Aerith looked at Kairi witheringly. "Kairi, you have every season of Friends on DVD. How could you possibly be behind when you've seen every episode at least a thousand times?"

"I second that," Sora mumbled from where his head was lolling on to his chest.

Kairi shook her hands as best she could when they were restrained to her sides. "You don't understand! I need to watch them as they are aired! It's my compulsion!"

"More like obsession," Tifa muttered. Sora laughed hoarsely.

Seifer threw a full water bottle across the room and Sora flinched when it landed dangerously close to his head.

"Shaddup," Seifer growled.

They lapsed into silence, none of the girls willing to risk Sora taking yet another beating for them. It really was turning out to be one of his more stupid ideas. Not an inch of Sora's skin was left unblemished, and it was particularly harrowing that they could clearly make out the imprints of boot soles in the bruised plethora of patterns on his arms.

Sora, being the ever optimistic one, was taking it without much complaint. Which made it all the worse for the girls to bear. Even Aerith was having trouble holding back tears every time she looked at him now, and she had always been the strongest person any of them had ever known. Even with potentially terminal threat to the kindling of life inside her, Aerith didn't back down. But the toll it was taking on one of her most loved persons was killing the fight in her too.

Sora had never been in so much pain in his life. It was taking every fibre of his mind power not to break down and ask Seifer to just blow his brains out. In fact, the only thing that was stopping him was the fact that Roxas would follow him into the afterlife and kick his ass for it. Probably Kairi as well for that matter.

He was fairly positive that most of his ribs were broken. The same went for his fingers, kneecaps and toes. Judging from the way he couldn't breathe properly through his nose, that was probably broken too. Great. If he had thought he had taken a beating the last time he had encountered Seifer in that snow covered alleyway, he had been high on pixie dust or something.

He watched the feet of Seifer and the few lackeys he had in the room with him as they moved around, puffing up dust as they went. Seifer didn't seem to have done much for the past few days except sit by the window, staring out into the bleak wastelands that framed Midgar. But now there was more movement, more energy, as if he was gearing up to something.

It didn't bode well, whatever it was.

Cloud had just finished fixating the last of his C4 to the wall of the third floor when Riku climbed through the window, taking Roxas by surprise. Luckily, Zack was close enough to the short blond to clamp his hand down over Roxas' mouth before he yelled.

"Foundations and outer walls are all done," Riku said, wiping at some dirt on his face and only succeeding in smudging it. "Reno and Rude have been bitching at me on the radio about how they wanna kick some ass, it's really starting piss me off."

"You'll just have to put up with it for ten more minutes. They'll get their chance," Zack said darkly, releasing Roxas' mouth.

"C'mon, we've still got two floors to rig," Cloud murmured. They moved towards the stairwell in a practised diamond formation, Zack forming the point, the Strife brothers at the sides, and Riku bringing up the rear.

"This is all so... gangster," Riku said, and Roxas stared over his shoulder incredulously when the older man began to giggle.

"Shut up," Cloud muttered, rolling his eyes. He pushed Roxas up the stairs after Zack and then backhanded Riku over the head.

They covered the last two floors swiftly enough, running into a few more guards who were taken care of without much issue, although Roxas was starting to feel sick to his stomach every time he watched his best friends taking out Seifer's minions.

It's because of me that this is happening.

He didn't consciously think it, but the thought remained there all the same. And the guilt was there, weighing his shoes down and making his eyelids heavy with thought. It seeped into his every movement, like mustard gas.

If he hadn't run away from home... If he hadn't been so stupid as to make friends with Seifer... If he had settled it with Seifer in that alleyway that night rather than letting himself be beaten like a bitch... So many possibilities, so many different outcomes that could never happen.

But he only had the present to work with. And that was why the only things running through his veins right now aside from blood and oxygen, were guilt and cold killing intent.

The boy that ascended the final set of stairs that day was not the sad, lonely, beautiful singer that had enchanted Sora Leonhart all those months ago, on that cold winter night. Gone was the vacant, wistful emptiness in his bright blue eyes. The boy who stepped onto the top landing, unholstering his gun with a silent snarl, was a completely different person. Filled with purpose, and filled with love, even if it had been suppressed for the sake of the situation.

He was a boy in love, and by Christ was he going to get his lover back.

Roxas nodded at Zack, who was stood in front of the unguarded door. As Zack turned in preparation for the kick he was about to administer to the final barrier between them and their precious persons, Roxas thumbed back the hammer of his gun.

"It was the Brad Pitt episode this week as well," Kairi sniffed when she was sure Seifer wasn't listening.

Tifa groaned and smacked her head against the wall behind her. "For god's sake Kairi, it's only a TV show!"

Kairi looked positively mortified. "Only a TV show? Tifa Lockhart, what kind of girl-"

CRASH!

Seifer and his men were on their feet before any of the hostages had had a chance to even jump at the almighty smashing noise that reached their ears. Sora's normally lolling head shot up just in time to see dust and dirt clouds puffing up in the general area that the door had once been, and then four figures emerged, throwing themselves at Seifer and his gang in flying tackles that took them all to the floor.

"Zack!" Aerith gasped, her jade eyes wide with amazement as her fiancée bodily threw himself at the biggest guy –Rai- and the two men crashed to the ground. The hostages stared in amazement as their rescuers began to lay into their captors with everything they had and – were those weapons they were all holding?

Sora could only watch, caught between joy and horror as Roxas immediately zeroed in on Seifer, raising a large pistol he held and bringing it crashing down into Seifer's forehead. Seifer was floored instantly, but he was back on his feet quickly. As Riku, Cloud and Zack took care of the bigger lackeys, Roxas and Seifer began a fight that looked more like two lions fighting for alpha male than two brawling human beings. The look on Roxas' face was positively feral, and Seifer was snarling with a mixture of anger and sadistic anticipation.

There was a howl resembling that of a wounded buffalo as Zack drew out his knife and drove it into Rai's meaty side before throwing a well-aimed punch to the man's face. Cloud had backed his opponent up against a wall and had a hold on the guy's hair as he slammed the man's head mercilessly into the brick over and over again. Riku was pinned but holding his own – his opponent was sporting a broken nose and seemed to be having issues seeing beyond all the blood spurting out of his face.

Roxas and Seifer collided and Roxas' pistol scattered away across the floor. Sora's heart was in his mouth as Seifer slammed Roxas to the ground, making to punch Roxas in the face. Roxas rolled at the last second and Seifer's fist met the floor with a crack, and then Roxas performed a sweeping kick that knocked Seifer off balance.

Everyone jumped, regardless of what they were doing, when the report of a gunshot shook through the room. Cloud's opponent had managed to get a finger around the trigger of his handgun, and the bullet had caught Cloud in the thigh. He wrestled the gun out of the man's grasp, his face a picture of willpower as he fought the pain. He threw the gun behind him, and then Tifa gasped in horrified shock as Cloud's elbow met with the other man's face, knocking him out cold.

The gunshot had startled the other brawlers but they hadn't stopped by any means. Zack still had the upper hand against Rai, but Riku was taking a beating from the beefy opponent he had picked, who was sat on him and punching him repeatedly in the face.

Seifer and Roxas noticed none of this as they covered the entire room in their fight, like a dancer uses the whole stage. Sora couldn't bring himself to look at Roxas' face as he watched the fight unfold – he had never seen Roxas so cold and angry before, and it was terrifying.

Riku suddenly gave an inhuman snarl and headbutted his attacker, throwing the man off him and immediately hauling himself into another tackle. In a quick turn of events, he had the man in a headlock and unconscious within thirty seconds.

Rai and Zack were still fighting, and though Rai was heavily wounded he had a lot of stamina. It was clear that Zack was able to hold his own, but he was having issues overpowering the big brute.

Roxas suddenly barrelled into Seifer, both blonds slamming into the floor a couple of metres away from Sora who was still watching with horror. Roxas pinned Seifer's arms with his knees and with an almost inhuman laugh, pulled a knife from his belt and pressed it to Seifer's throat just as Zack delivered an elbow to the back of Rai's neck, knocking him out cold.

It suddenly became eerily silent as Roxas and Seifer stared at each other, panting harshly. Cloud, Zack and Riku had either collapsed or were leaning against things for support, watching to see what Roxas' next move would be.

Sora could see every change in expression on the two men's faces before him as Roxas kept the knife flush against the tender skin of Seifer's throat. The way they glared at each other, you would never have thought that they had once been best friends, inseparable.

"What are you waiting for?" Seifer spat, his fists clenching uselessly either side of Roxas' knees. "Do it, you fucking coward."

Roxas bared his teeth, but the coldness was draining out of his eyes now. "I'm not a coward," he snarled, regardless, "I'm just not a heartless killer like you."

Seifer laughed as if this was the funniest thing he had ever heard. "Takes one to know one."

"I'm warning you!" Roxas yelled, his blond spikes falling into his face as he pressed the knife hard enough for blood to bead around the blade. Seifer's laugh cut off in a choke and his eyes screwed up, half in pain and half expecting Roxas to actually go through with it and kill with him.

Sora truly believed that Roxas could have done it as well. However, at that moment, Axel and Xion chose to barge their way into the room, Axel carrying a bazooka of all things.

Things just keep getting weirder in my life...

"WHERE THE FUCK IS HE?" Xion screamed, looking every inch the bloodthirsty Amazon warrior. All she needed now was to give herself a mastectomy and she's have the look down. "WHERE IS THE BASTARD WHO TOOK MY FAGGOT?"

It took Sora a moment to realise that she was referring to him, and by that point Xion had glomped him.

"Xion! Hurts!" he managed to grunt out before she got too attached. Seifer was staring at the scene from his position on the floor with a mixture of incredulity and bemusement.

"Oh my god, Sora, you're covered in bruises!" Xion screamed, and that was when the bloodlust lifted itself from Roxas' vision and he saw his love properly for the first time. The sight made him want to crumble in guilt-fuelled ashes. The boy tied to the wall was barely recognisable as Sora beyond the bruises, cuts and swellings adorning every visible inch of skin.

"S-Sora?" he gasped, forgetting Seifer for the moment but remaining sat on the man. Sora looked up with frightened eyes, but the fear cleared as soon as he saw that Roxas was back to his normal self. Sora's eyes swam with tears and a small smile quirked his lips.

"Took you long enough."

"I wanted to come earlier, but we had to wait," Roxas replied, his shoulders heaving as he struggled to regulate his breathing. Xion had disentangled herself from Sora and was helping the other boys untie Aerith, Tifa and Kairi.

"The baby?" Zack murmured as he threw his arms around Aerith.

"Fine," she whispered, letting him drown her in kisses.

Kairi burst into tears as Riku embraced her, and she buried her head in his shoulder, sobbing hysterically. "Shh, it's fine," he soothed, stroking her dirty hair, "We're here now."

Even Tifa and Cloud had overcome their embarrassment enough to hug each other as hard as they could. Cloud's fingers were in her hair as he nuzzled the side of her face, all traces of the ice-cold killer he had been minutes ago now gone as he let his love for Tifa wash over him.

Roxas turned back to Sora with a smile. "I missed you."

Sora's eyes widened in horror, and that was the only warning Roxas had before he was wrestling the barrel of a gun away from his temple. Seifer had taken the opportunity whilst everyone was distracted to worm an arm free from Roxas' weight and to pull his own pistol from its holster in his belt.

"See you in hell, Roxie," he spat, and pulled the trigger.