Title- Chance to Change

Pairings- Akuroku, Zemyx, Cloud/Zack

Rating- T

Warnings: abuse of many kinds, rape, human experimentation… there's so many morbid things here!

Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, Organization XIII would all have animal ears and tails.

Chapter Dedication: My lovely reviewer Guest, as it will always be. In reply: Yeah, I'm like that too. I HAVE NO SOCIAL LIFE! But I have an imaginary one, and that works just fine! Animeloverx175, for being the first to follow my story! Mara for your review! NobodyWriterXIII for the favorite!

Chapter 4 – Life is Unexpected

Axel:

I've never really introduced myself. My name is Axel. Axel Renee Flynn. Girly middle name, I know. I'm now 13 and I've been living here at Happy Hearts for 9 months. Ever since my dad put me in the hospital when he found out that I told Aerith and them what happened.

Anyway… I spent most of my time here with Zack. He helped me learn how to walk again after I got out of the hospital. He also taught me some karate and martial arts, well mostly martial arts. We just started karate.

I spent some time with cloud too. It took 14 sessions with Cloud the stop the nightmares, and the breakdowns.

After the first 5 months I realized how horrible and wrong my life was. Before I just thought that everybody's dad threw them around and treated them like trash.

Aerith helped me realize the truth. She's my mother now. I never knew my real one and I refuse to call her anything else. She took me in, well they all did, but Aerith made dinner, and sang to me till I fell asleep, and cheered me up after nightmares, and she kissed my owies to make them better.

Zack is like my father. Not my mean one, the nice one I always wished for. But I don't call him dad cause then I wouldn't have any idea what to call Cloud.

Cloud is like my cool uncle. He really is awesome! He's skinny and doesn't seem to do much. But one day I walked in on him practicing some really awesome looking fighting stuff! He was flipping through the air and doing kicks and punches! Then he went to the sword wall. I asked Zack about it once.

He said it was where they display him and Cloud's family heirlooms, along with Clouds friend Leon's sword. Er… gun-thingie.

Anyway Cloud grabs Zack's sword, The Buster Sword I think, but that thing probably weighs more than him! IT'S HUGE!

AND CLOUD LIFTED IT ONE HANDED!

It blew my mind.

So anyways, this is my home now. And I like it here. No more coming home to bottles being thrown at me, and no more kicks and punches. And NOBODY YELLS AT ME! Not even when I killed one of Aerith's flowers! It WAS AN ACCADENT! I SWEAR!

But I wonder who else has stayed here, and who else will. This IS a business after all. I wonder if anyone will move in with us. Maybe someone like me. Maybe a little brother or sister!

I wander into the main room/ living room and hop on the couch. I turn around and lean over the back with my head on my arms. I pout at the window. I sigh.

I'm soooooooo boooreed.

Aerith is with Brittany right now.

Who is Brittany you ask? She would be one of the other kids who come here. Britt is kinda a tomboy, and she's here for DID. It stands for something, but I can't remember what. She's my only kinda friend here. But I like that.

I sigh again.

And Zack went to visit someone at the carnival. Cloud just ran off somewhere. I wonder where they went?

Almost as if I magically summoned them Cloud and Zack appear in the driveway. I'm about to jump up and run to them when I see Cloud on the phone, looking slightly panicked. I wonder what's wrong. Then he turns to Zack and calls something out. Zack nods and then I see he has something in his arms. He starts jogging to the door and as he gets closer I see what it is.

It's a boy, who looks like he's 8 or 9 years old. His eyes are closed and he's pale and sweating, which makes his honey blond hair stich to his flushed cheeks. It's the only skin with any color on it. His checkered shirt is ripped open showing me his neck is covered in dark bruises and … are those bite marks? The rest of him is wrapped up in Zack's huge jacket.

Cloud slams the door open and yells for Aerith. He holds the door open so Zack can bring the kid inside. Aerith rushes into the room, Britt follows behind her.

She takes one look at the kid and gasps, eyes widening and growing wet.

"Aerith! What should we do!?" Zack sounds panicked.

She tears her focus away from the boy and looks straight into Zack's eyes.

"Bring him to the infirmary!" Zack nods before he and Cloud rush away.

"What about us?" I say us because Britt is beside me frightened. She's clutching onto me and shacking.

Aerith turns shocked. As if she didn't remember we were here. She probably didn't.

"Axel! And Brittany! Oh, Britt! Your mom should be here soon. Please go wait outside for her, okay?" Britt nods rushing out. Then she bends over to be eye to eye to me, and places a hand on my shoulder. "Axel. I need you to go get some things for me, okay?" I nod once, to show I'm listening. "Okay, I need you to go to my office and grab my phone. It's in the top drawer of my desk." Nod "Then I want you to get the tan folder on the top of the desk and use my phone to dial the number written on the back. Tell the man on the phone that I told you to call and that I need help. Make sure to call me by my name and not 'mommy.' Then when he gets here lead him to the infirmary. Do you get all that?"

I nod again, saying "I gots it memorized!"

She smiles briefly before turning and dashing to the infirmary, calling out stuff to Zack.

I run to her office to complete my missions. I don't wanna let mommy down.

Cloud:

When Aerith walks in she's composed and determined. Unlike Zack who has worked himself into a frenzy by pacing back and forth. Aerith heads over to Zack, who has stopped pacing, ending up next to the kid.

"What happened here Zack? Who is he, where did you find him, do you know what's wrong? I need some answers before I try anything." She sounds so professional using her no-nonsense voice.

Zack fidgets before answering, "I don't know who he is. I found him at the carnival, at the end of the Mirror Maze. He was barely conscious when I got there. I didn't see anyone with him, or the guy who did this to him." Aerith nods and turns to the child. Zack looks close to panicking again.

I calmly walk till I'm right in front of him and I grip his upper arms.

"Zack."

He looks down at me.

"Take a deep breath," I breathe in and hold it. He follows with a shaky inhale. "Now let it all out." We exhale at the same time. "Better now?"

He nods and pulls me to him for a short hug. Just long enough for him to whisper in my ear.

"Thanks Cloud."

I nod. Our moment is interrupted by Aerith's gasp.

We both rush to her, concerned. Aerith isn't one to be rattled easily. What could have upset her so much?

Then I see what she sees.

This boy has dark purple bruises in the shape of hands on his upper arms, wrists, hips and around his knees. I know what this means, and I want to look away, but I can't.

I take in the abused flesh, covered in bite marks, his nipples bitten so hard they're bleeding. I briefly cast my glance downwards toward his privates. The sight of them makes me want to kill someone. His hole is stretched and bleeding, torn and I see semen slowly trickling out. I see the rough scratches and torn flesh caused by his attackers.

That's right. Attackers. Plural. No man, no matter how twisted, can do that to a hole.

I also see some superficial cuts and scratches on his arms, as if he was near shattered glass. There's a cut on his cheek. It's small and shallow, not even bleeding. It cuts straight through his tear tracks.

Seeing the tears still leak from his closed eyes is what pushes me over the edge.

I turn away from the ravaged body and clench my hands into fists. I can feel the blood slide over my skin as my nails cut into my palm. I'm literally shaking with anger.

When I find the ones who did this…

I don't finish that thought. I instead turn to the boy and I look straight at his face, and I swear to him that I will make the men who did this pay.

Vincent:

I woke up today thinking today would be the same as any other day. Maybe I'd get a haircut- my black hair hangs to my waist after all. I had today off and I was looking forward to the rest and relaxation of a lazy day, where I'd just read a book. Being a child surgeon is an extremely draining career.

I was not expecting to receive a phone call from anyone today. So I'm shocked when my phones rings, and end up spilling my coffee a little. I sigh, setting the mug and my book down, and reach for my cell.

I'm even more surprised to see its Aerith calling. After all I knew her to have a session right now. Most would never even think of us as being friends, because I'm cold and overbearing, while she's loving and accepting. We met at a child care convention some years back and she just stuck.

I answer the phone with a simple "Hello."

"Hello?" It's a child's voice, he sounds panicked and a little out of breath.

"Who is this?"

"Axel. Momm- I mean Aerith told me to call you and tell you that she needs help."

Mom? When did she have kids? Maybe the kids that new tenant I'd heard about. The one with the compound skull fracture and other assorted breaks and fractures.

"She said she needs my help?"

"Yeah. She said to take you to the infirmary when you get here."

If she's in the infirmary then that means I should hurry. She probably has an injured kid who knocked down the Buster Sword again. "I'm on my way. Just hang tight."

Then I hand up the phone, grab my jacket and supply case, then I high-tail it over to Happy Hearts.

If it wasn't serious she'd have called me herself. That means the kid could be dying.

I hit the gas pedal.

A/N: YEAH! GO ME! ANOTHER CHAPTER IS UP! I'll try to get one up every week, but I won't be able to next week of the one after that. I'm typing this up at school and any breaks we have I won't be able to type. Except Summer Vacation, I'll type then. CONGRATULATION TO MY MOST AWESOME REVIEWER GUEST FOR GUESSING CORRECTICTLY! Anyway, I like this chappie a lot. SO much Drama! And we all know that blond kid is Roxy! So now the romance can begin soon! HOORAY! I had an interesting conversation with one of my friends over what to do for the next chapter. I tend to ask questions without thinking of the way they sound to other people, example: Last year I had to do a project on abuse and I had to draw pictures to demonstrate the different types of abuse. And as I begin coloring the picture I drew for sexual abuse I ask the girl sitting next to me, "If you just got raped, would you be pale of flushed?" She looked at me horrified and shocked, then moved away from me. This conversation went something like that, except my friend didn't run away.