"This is hopeless."

Roxas sighed as he threw another rock into the ocean, watching it skip across the water. After the blonde woke up from being punched brutally in the face, he wandered aimlessly around the city searching for his brother. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found; Sora was really gone.

Looking out at the sunrise, he wondered what his brother might be doing at this very moment. There was no doubt in his mind that Sora was probably scared to death, beaten and bloodied, and desperately crying out for help. Roxas couldn't help but feel guilty; guilty for not being able to get to him sooner and for being so weak. The blonde felt ashamed that he couldn't even defend himself against a stupid pirate.

"Sora, I hope you're okay."

-page break-

"Sir, this is just obnoxious."

All the pirates laughed at the brunette who lay sprawled out on the deck, snoring like an old man. After the boy threw up, he fell comatose on the floor and not a soul on the ship could wake him from his slumber. Riku tried everything in his power to wake him up or to stop the snoring, but much to the silver haired man's frustration, all his attempts were in vain.

"Seifer, if you don't make him stop, I'm jumping ship." The blonde captain laughed at his first mate and rolled his eyes.

"Take him down stairs. I need to talk to you in my cabin anyhow," Seifer replied with a chuckle.

Riku threw the boy over his shoulder none too gently and stormed down the stairs, purposely crashing the brunet's limp body into the walls to disrupt the boy's slumber. Once he arrived at his destination, he wasted no time in dropping the brunet onto one of the cots that sat in the corner of the dimly lit room. The boy's snores were grating on his nerves, and while it would be so much simpler to just drive his sword through the pipsqueak's chest, not angering the captain was a much more appealing option.

Quickly he left the room, intent on not going back until the boy awakened or, if the deities willed it, until he stopped snoring. He knew what Seifer wanted to talk to him about, but he had been hoping they would leave the talking for another day. After all, there was not much to talk about; they had what they needed, what else could be on Seifer's mind?

He let out a sigh. Seifer always had a reason for everything; the blonde had not become captain on a whim. He had brains, and even though his attitude irritated Riku at times, the teal-eyed man never doubted him. Arriving at the captain's quarters, he made sure to knock on the old oak door before letting himself in.

Not a second later, the old gruff voice resonated from the other side of the door, giving Riku the okay. It did not surprise him to find the blonde man seated at his small dinner table, helping himself to his own little banquet.

"Captain," addressed the man.

The captain gave him a curt nod, and pointedly looked at the chair across from him. Realization instantly dawned on the silver haired man, and without any sort of hesitation, obeyed Seifer's silent command. With long strides he led himself towards the table, carefully pulled back the chair while making sure it did not scratch the floor, and seated himself across from the captain.

"Fighting tops says the sky's still clear," he automatically informed.

The blonde man grunted in response. "How's the lad?" he asked, sounding mildly interested.

"Still out sir," answered Riku, "seems that puking his guts out wasn't exactly his cup of tea."

"Aye," said the captain. "Still breathing?"

Riku internally winced. 'More like snoring,' he thought annoyed. "Yes."

"Good," said the captain, nodding approvingly. "Can't let him die on us, at least until we get him to the freaky bastard. So in the meantime, make sure he eats enough, sleeps enough, and gets enough fresh air."

Curiosity piqued, Riku raised an eyebrow at the blonde captain. True, keeping the boy alive was in their best interests considering the fact that it would be worth it in the end no matter how much of a drag it seemed right now. However, Seifer of all people being concerned about the kid's health was something of an abstract concept. They had done this a few times before, but seeing the blonde man look to a civilian's well being was something totally new. Just how much was the kid worth?

"Aye captain, I'll make sure he gets everything he needs."

The blue-eyed blonde man smirked at him. "Just don't spoil him," he said mockingly.

Riku didn't bother with a comeback, but silently excused himself and rolled his eyes as he led himself out of the captain's cabin. Spoil the twerp? Ha! As if.

-page break-

Roxas did not know what to think when he saw another pirate ship out at sea. However, he knew how to react; he needed a weapon, and he needed one fast. The ship was a few miles away, which if he calculated correctly, gave him enough time to run back home and come back with a weapon to fight off the newly arriving pirates.

But as he stood up, back facing the ocean, the state of his small hometown had finally dawned on him. Those wretched mongrels from earlier, the ones who had taken his brother away, had pillaged the whole town. Nothing was left unscathed, everything was left in ruins. Few things had been salvaged, but the amount of it made no impressive difference. As he saw a number of his fellow inhabitants come out of their homes with various types of weapons, he knew they were all on the same page. They were going to fight to their last breath if they wanted to protect what was left of their town.

"Boy!" A middle aged man with wised up features tossed, much to Roxas's chagrin, a pitchfork at him. The blonde caught it with ease, and while it personally wasn't the best weapon of choice, he guessed it'd had to do. After all, with the pirates' earlier looting and him getting knocked out while said looting occurred he was sure he had not been left with much, despite his earlier resolve of finding a weapon.

As he readied himself, he could not help but entertain the thought that maybe, just maybe these pirates would be easier to handle. The others were ruthless savages; nothing had stopped them.

Roxas noticed the pirate ship was getting closer to the dock, and found it odd how it seemed like the new arrivals were not going to blind side them like the other pirates had. The boy was momentarily stricken with fear. What if there were even more pirates then before? What if these pirates were so strong and ruthless and planned to take the whole city head on? Roxas did not like that idea one bit.

The ship had set anchor and three men, or pirates, were lowered from the ship onto a rowboat. They paddled up to the docks and climbed up the latter, only to come face-to-face with swords, knives, pitchforks, and a very angry mob the second their feet hit land.

"Hey, watch it!" growled one of the pirates, a dark skinned and bald –even if the bandanna around his head made Roxas have some doubts, the blonde teen was sure that the man was bald- man whose leg had the privilege of getting jabbed at by a pitchfork.

The other two, if their flaming red hair and piercing green eyes gave any indication, were obviously related. The tallest of the three stood the furthest away with his hands in his pockets, red hair spiked up and shot backwards, with teardrop tattoos that made his eyes look all the more… appealing?

"Look, we're not here to cause you any…" the shortest of them all stopped mid sentence and looked at the scene around him. The entire city was in shambles. "Any more trouble."

The bald man stepped up and held out his hand to a man that stood next to Roxas.

"We're not here to harm anyone. We've been out at sea for days and our crew is dead tired. All we want is a drink and a night's rest, and then we'll leave in the morning. We have money to pay for our stay."

"You think money is gonna help us now?" snapped the man. He ignored the bald pirate's offer at a greeting and chuckled darkly. "Just for the night, and then I want you pirate scum out of here by morning. We've had enough of the likes of you."

The bald man nodded and turned to the shortest red head. "Tell the crew we'll be staying here for the night, and Axel?" he looked up at the other and taller red head, "let's go get a drink."