When Falcon woke, she was lying in a completely white room in a very comfortable bed. She sighed and tried to remember for a second why she was here, then the battle came rushing back to her, and she sighed and rolled over. She knew all her wounds have probably already healed, and confirmed this when she touched her side and felt nothing but regular skin. Then she remembered: Axel. In a flash, the image of him caught in her mind, bleeding and heavily wounded, she wouldn't have been surprised if he had a severe torn muscle or artery or something. She sat up, feeling a little woozy, but nothing else. Looking to the side, she saw the 12-year-old Zexion, already skilled in healing, bending over Axel's raggedly torn body.

"You're up, finally," he said simply, "you've been asleep for two days."

"Two days!" Falcon exclaimed, "what about Axel? How did I get here?"

"Axel carried you in," Zexion replied, not even turning to look at her. Falcon's eyes widened in astonishment, 'but he was so hurt, how could he have possibly...? It must've been nearly impossible, he was so wounded...' Now that she peered over Zexion's shoulder at Axel's still body, barely even noticing the fact that he had his cloak and undershirt taken off to expose the skin underneath, she saw that he was worse off than she had imagined. There were tears and deep rips along his chest and arms, only his back remained untouched, seeing as he had never turned his back on the enemy. The slash on his cheek was nearly gone, thanks to Zexion, but there was one extremely deep gash that went from his shoulder nearly down to his waist, an inch or two deep in some places.

"How is he...?" Falcon asked shakily, afraid to know the answer.

Zexion sighed, "it'll take him a long time to heal. Not as fast as you I'm afraid. You barely had a scratch on you, except for the slash on your side, but that was almost gone when I saw to you."

"How...how did he manage to carry me back?" Falcon asked, "he's so..."

"To tell you the truth, I don't know. It's amazing to me how he could moved at all with all these injuries, more or less carried someone back," Zexion admitted, "he was all 'Heal her...Zexion, please' when he got to the door, very dramatic."

Falcon shook her head, "he needs to stop doing that."

"What? Being dramatic?"

"No, sacrificing his well-being for mine, he took the blow from the lion too, it was meant for me," Falcon said.

"Yes, I saw that."

"You did?"

"Yes, the Superior rushed us all to the balcony to watch the fight," Zexion replied. It was then that Falcon remembered how Roxas had told them all what had happened, and then...wait, weren't they supposed to help? She voiced her thoughts aloud.

"Yes, we were, or so Roxas said," Zexion agreed, "but the Superior thought it would be a good idea for that to test how powerful out new Namine was. You passed his test with flying colors, he's very happy."

"But Roxas, why didn't he-?"

"He was going to go back down to help you when he saw Axel get knocked out," Zexion continued, "but the Superior held him back, said that you shouldn't get any help." Falcon stood there, contemplating this for several seconds.

"These are some of the most severe wounds I have ever had to heal," Zexion said, "especially this one, the extremely deep one, it's horrible. I don't know how he managed to do anything with these. Well, that's all I can do," Zexion said, standing up, "the only that'll work now is rest and time."

"You said it'll be a long time before he fully heals," Falcon said as Zexion walked out the door.

"It will," he replied, "but I think the scar of that really deep wound is going to be there for a long time." With that, he left, leaving Falcon in the room with an asleep Axel. She looked down at him sadly, praying he would live.

"You really shouldn't have done that, you idiot," she whispered softly, unexpected tears coming to her eyes. She wiped them away, surprised that had happened. She hadn't cried since her parents had died, and now? This one boy who had sacrificed his life for her twice, she was crying over him?

"I'm must be getting soft," she muttered. Suddenly, she remembered something Roxas had said to her before.

He considers you someone so important he would sacrifice his life to protect you. That's something.

Roxas had been right. Axel would sacrifice his life to protect her...unfortunately... Falcon thought. She felt her expression soften as she gazed down at her "older brother."

"Well I guess it is your job as my nii-san to protect me," she said, then her expression hardened again, "but you should know that I am capable of defending myself." She sat there for a while, and then a thought came to her. Demon blood healed fast so...

"I hope this works..." she said softly, and gently removed the bandage covering the giant wound on his chest. She flinched as she saw the shredded skin, bloody and deep, horribly grotesque. She bit back bile at the sight of such a horrendous wound. Then, she raised her arm and pulled back the sleeve of the cloak. Barely hesitating, she sank her sharp demon teeth into her wrist, wincing as a flash of pain shot up her arm. Then she placed her wrist against Axel's wound, making drops of her demon blood mix with his bloodstream. As she pulled away, she saw that the puncture holes in her wrist were already closing.

They really do heal fast... she thought. Gingerly, she replaced the bandages over his injury, hoping her plan would work.

A few hours later, Axel's eyes flickered open, and he attempted to sit up, having forgotten about the injuries on his body. With a yelp of pain, he sank back down, wincing as a stinging fire daggered through him. His cry had woken up Falcon who had dozed off next to him.

"Axel?" she muttered groggily, "you're up?" She blinked, and rubbed her eyes, "how're you feeling?" Axel grinned as only he could, amused that she was so worried about him.

"I'm fine...nee-chan," he said playfully. Falcon's eyes widened.

"You just called me..." she began, amazed at what he just said.

"Little sister, yeah," he finished, "is that so surprising?"

Falcon simply shook her head, "no. Just...did you really carry me in?"

Axel was a bit taken aback by the question, "uh...yeah. Yeah, I did."

Falcon smiled sweetly, "thanks but...you really should stop putting your life in danger for mine." Axel smirked.

"That's probably not gonna happen any time soon," he replied, "I'm very protective of my younger sister."

Falcon sighed, "I guess but..." Axel lightly shook his head, stopping her.

"Don't try and argue with me," he said gently, "I'm never gonna stop protecting you, nee-chan." Falcon sighed again, there WAS no arguing with him. Something told her that he wouldn't listen even is she used her zero authority.

"And I won't listen even if you use your zero authority," Axel added as if he knew what she was thinking. Suddenly Falcon had an irresistible urge to hug him and stay there. Her nii-san was her sense of safety.

"I think you might heal faster than Zexion says you will," Falcon said, changing the subject. There was a three second delay as Axel's brain changed topics.

"How do you know?" he asked. When Falcon told him what she'd done, his eyes grew to the size of ping-pong balls.

"You put...demon blood in me?" he asked incredulously, "YOUR demon blood?" Falcon nodded, "that's...amazing. You're right, I might heal faster, we'll just have to wait and see. That's amazing..." Chuckling softly, Axel shook his head. For the second time in days, he was unable to believe the young girl's sense of loyalty.