Disclaimer: Never have and never will own any of the characters mentioned in this.

AN: *bows apologetically* I know its been forever since I've posted anything to this fanfic, but family/personal life got to be one Hell of a nightmare and still is, College courses took over my time not to mention my Mother breathing down my neck on whether or not I should've been studying or if I had homework I could've been doing instead of dedicating my time to fanfics. If you've noticed on my Profile that I've taken a leave of abscence, still on it, dudes. But, I managed to get these 2 chapters, epilogue is being scrapped, I was running of energy and love for this towards the end and just felt I needed to just cut it off at the knes and just stitch up the ends.

I've got a slight new CloudLeon that's recently hit me because of some odd dream I had the last few nights, but I'm not gonna go into detail what it is, but I can say this, its mostly angst with some slightly suicidal Lion tendencies and one angry Wolf ready to whack his Lion a good one. But you don't get to see it till its finished and I won't post anything new, like New Story wise till I find work. That's still something I'm holding to. But if I manage to work on a chapter here and there, that's it. But no New Stories are getting posted. The occasional new chapter of a WIP fanfic, but nothing New, New.

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Saix rushed to the Boss' side as he helped the man to his feet, but soon found himself being brushed off by the man's hands, "Sir, are you alright?"

"Yes, but, once Axel and that kid return back here; it'll be not only Roxas last moments here on this Earth, they'll also be Axel's," Xemnas wiped away at a small bit of blood on his lip as he fought back the spiteful bile boiling into his throat from his hate for the redhead and now the little blond teen.

Xemnas' mind began to make plans for the two mentioned members and the in the days that followed, Xemnas had taken to hiding himself away from all and anyway contact with the Group. He was planning the demise for the runaway members; it was leaving unending tension within the Group of Members, leaving little room for anyone to relax. One false move around the man could set him off. No one was that stupid to push the man's buttons. Yet, the members were remaining alert for any changes, changes in the wind as to whether or not Axel and Roxas would come to their senses and return or changes in their Bosses mood for him to have them move out and look for them.

Axel wasn't stupid, he wasn't going to return to the House anytime soon especially with Roxas out cold in the Church pew. The two men had taken up sanctuary in the local church with Roxas as he waited for the blond to open his eyes or at least make some motion as to let the man known he wasn't looking at a half dead corpse. There was no denying that all that there was, was time and time was always an annoying topic to Axel as he shifted about in the pew, looking down on the quiet form of Roxas.

"You know something kid, you've had it better then I ever had; let's just say, when life hands you tragedy after tragedy. You start to question the big man upstairs," Axel's eyes coasted over Roxas' body and towards the statue of the crucified statue at the front of the Church, "I lost the first girl ever in my life…my sister, Namine; she was taken from too soon. When I look at you, your gentle nature; it reminds me too much of her and it makes this cold heart of mine ache."

He paused midway as he started to feel the one thing he was unsure he was able to ever do after the loss of his sister and having to witness death after death at the orders of his Boss. Tears. The one thing he had all but blocked out after watching the first death at the hands of orders by Xemnas; his body shook with the shaking of his tears as they racked his body. He seemed to throw himself onto the cold cobble stones of the sanctuary of the chapel, throwing himself on the mercy of just seeking peace of mind; in a muffled voice, he seemed to muttering the words of a soft prayer of deliverance from what he had done in the past. All to familiar were the words that seemed to pour from his lips; an old, but familiar rhyme that was a bedtime prayer for Axel and his sister before they went to bed. Their Mother would get down on her knees beside them and help them recite the prayer.

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

If I should die before I wake

In your name I ask these things

Amen…

"It's been a long time since I've heard those hallowed words," Father Yen Sid spoke up as he stood behind the lost man.

Axel sat back on his haunches as he wiped away at the tears that had streamed down his face in the moments he had taken to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness for all that he had done time and time again, "And it's been a long time since I've been in a church," he looked back to the resting figure of Roxas on the pew.

"I heard you talking to him and while I was watching you, the Lord was speaking to me and you know what he said?" Father Yen Sid moved to take a seat next to the man as they sat in the pew just ahead of Roxas.

Axel shrugged his shoulders, "Probably something along the lines of, 'Throw these bums out of here, they aren't worth my forgiveness', right?"

Father Yen Sid simply shook his head; it truly had been a long time since Axel had set foot in a chapel, Axel had all but stopped attending a Church shortly after Namine's death and just as quickly after joining the Family, "No, He said, 'It is not your duty or job to help this spiritually wounded man, but it is your calling as a man of God to help him'; that is what He told me," the man shifted about in his seat as he looked towards Axel, "When we experience grief or pain we feel or believe it is a way that the Lord was meant to help ease the blow."

"My life of pain didn't end with my sister's death," Axel began as he wrung his hands in his lap.

Father Yen Sid could sense the tension in the air as he calmly placed his hands on Axel's, "Talking about it may help ease the suffering in your heart."

"Okay, if you think it could help," Axel took a simple deep breath as he shakily blew it out before beginning, "It all started after my sister's death…"

~XXX~

In the months to almost years that followed his sister's early death that no one could have seen coming, but could have prevented at the time; his Mother's attempts to control her grief had become too much and it was becoming clear when she was found, dead. The grief had overcome his Mother and she had looked for a way to escape from the pain of her guilt and losing her daughter; she had managed to escape from it all and the responsibility to guide the only child she had left. She escaped by a simple act of suicide by drinking countless cups of tea that she, herself, had filled with large amounts of arsenic. The townsfolk were not surprised by her escape from reality and her life; they knew all to well that it was going to come sooner or later. Even before Axel's mother's passing; his Father had started to lose himself heavily into the bottom of a bottle of liquor. Drinking heavily as to lose him self from it all. His downward spiral didn't stop there; his Father had fallen into the world of gambling and was losing their family fortune faster then water lost during a drought in the midst of summer. The man had developed a heavy and extensive gambling debt with the local Mob family, the same one that Axel had been running with as long as he could remember. As far as in debt as the man was, he was facing trouble with the Mob and he was willing to do anything to pay them off; unfortunate as it seemed, the pay off was going to be deadly game that would end in someone's life lost. And another ending at that moment, an ending to a life of youth that had years still left to be a child; Axel mistakenly followed his Father to the Mob's hideout the day of the pay off.

What he heard and saw that day; he wished that there was some spell in the world to wash it from his memory.

"We're going to play a little game, a game called Russian roulette, want to play, kid?" Axel stared frighteningly at the man that was holding the pistol in line of his field of vision; his eyes turned to his Father who was being held back by the other two in the room, "Well kid?"

Axel's father tried to make a deal with the men, but Axel was willing to do whatever to save his Father as he grabbed the pistol, holding it the temple of his head, "Sure, I'll play."

With that the game began…

The game got underway without incident; the gun was passed about, the chamber of the gun clicking as it showed that the singular bullet in the chamber was still somewhere in the chamber. Someone was still going to die tonight if the game didn't go the way it should've gone; the gun was aimed, shot, nothing, but it was passed back and forth between Father and son as it started to dwindle down to the Final Round of the chamber.

"Axel, please, just back out of this game now, I'll take the fall," his father managed to shakily get out to his son as he took the gun from his son's hands, aiming it at his head, yet again, another blank chamber.

Axel took the gun from his father's shaking hands as he did the same, "No, I can't do that…"

Time was getting heavy as the Father took the gun once again, but this time, the pistol felt heavier, "Do or die time, Reno," the voice of the Boss spoke out from the shadows.

"There was sickening sound as the bullet hit its speed as it speed through the heated barrel of the pistol," Axel's voice caught in his throat as he fought back the bile burning at his throat, "I just sat there as the bullet ripped through my Dad's head, but after the game was done…I was given the option to join up with the Family and then that sound of splitting flesh and screams became second nature and nothing to me…"

Father Yen Sid leaned forward, "What made you take pity and save this boy even if you're supposed to be a cold hearted man?"

Sounds of Roxas stirring turned the men's attention to the pew behind them, Axel could see it too, "I guess I felt sorry for him; I guess since he was working at the Club, I figured, no family, no one to have to worry about him if something happened to him," Axel softly chuckled to himself, "Or I guess it could've been that he reminded me of my sister, who knows."

"Or it could be that you aren't as tough as you make yourself out to be," Roxas managed to speak up with half opened eyes.

"Roxas!" Axel shouted in a whisper because after all; he was still in a Church.

A soft smirk came on the boy's face, "I'm still alive if that's what you're inquiring…it'll take more then that big gorilla to take me out of the game," a soft wince came against his face as he tried to move, "But it'll take a while for me to get over that big gorilla's punches."

"Well, at least you aren't dead, that's all that matters," Axel chuckled, shaking his head side to side as he sat down beside Roxas on the pew.

"I'm going to go take my leave now, good night, gentlemen," Father Yen Sid stood up to take his leave as he saw Roxas resting his head into Axel's lap as Axel draped his jacket over the boy as the two men fell asleep; it was and had been a long night.

~XXX~

In the days that followed Roxas' harrowing escape, the two companions returned to manor; it was the only place they could go to and it was the one place they had to go to make their plan fall into a working order. The plan was to try and catch Xemnas in the act of confessing to the murder of Mr. Ansem at the Jazz Club the night that everything had occurred. Roxas' brother as well as the others of the Police Force would be waiting for the moment jump in and arrest the man before he ran. If Roxas wasn't planning to go into the Police Force now, he had a pretty good chance at doing that as a future career now. Father Yen Sid could only watch the two walk away as he whispered a humble prayer of protection for the two. They were, as it may have metaphorically seemed, walking into the lion's den and they were going to need all the help they could get, outside and spiritually.

As the two made up to the front steps of the Manor; their nerves were shot and they were shaking, but it was hidden the moment the front doors of the Manor opened to them and they were welcomed home. Internally, Roxas and Axel's inner conscious were screaming at them with warning bells and alarms that something was off, something was wrong; it was too easy for them to walk in. Everyone seemed different as they walked in, it seemed that Xemnas had ordered them to keep their distance from the boy; he wasn't done with him yet, especially Axel since he had saved the boy.

"Roxas, I wish to speak to you, in private," Xemnas seemed to purr as he motioned for the boy as he saw him walking past his room.

"Yes sir," Roxas sauntered into the man's room, skeptical about the reason for the sudden need to see him after the last time he had been in the man's room.

Xemnas shut the door, but left it unlocked, "First off, I wish to apologize for my behavior during our last encounter and secondly, I hope that you will take my apology and accept the position as the 13th Member of our Family."

Things were too calm, and the only time such a demeanor had ever been seen on the man was before someone ended up dead, "I will and thank you for the position, sir," Roxas seemed to play off the man's demeanor, but keeping an eye one whether or not the man was going to move on him in a way that was disturbing.

"Good," a small, evil smirk crossed Xemnas' lips as he made a motion behind his back to no one particular, but the one in the shadows, Saix.