I don't know why I wrote this... but the idea kinda came to me while writing Lead Poisoning. I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Might be a Saix/Axel pairing, I haven't decided yet... but don't hate :( I love the pairing... But it's most llikely just gonna stay a BFFL thing. Rated M for language for now.

Storyline: When Axel fails a VERY important mission, Xemnas sentences him to death. Roxas and Xion can only observe as their best friend is about to be ended right before their eyes... but then Saix intervenes! Now Saix and Axel are on the run, and they need to take down the Organization... with the help of none other than Sora. Can they survive until Sora awakens, or will deadly, stronger inner forces threaten to tear them apart?

If you liked please reveiw ^^

Edit: Removed Lexy from the story. Forgot he's supposed to be dead XD

~Eure

It might have been Roxas who set Saix off that day. Me? I was the idiot who caused the problem. OK... so maybe Saix had been taking everything a little too far with our original "take over the Organization" plot, and to be candid he hadn't really been himself since we lost our hearts. I felt like he was pushing me away, slowly but surely. He would reign and he would laugh as I fell along with the rest of the Nobodies.

Well, that's what I thought until my mission...

"You failed?" Xemnas asked as more of a fact than a question. Roxas and Xion studied me from the corner of the room, a random sector that we were strolling through (it was more like limping for me) when Xemnas confronted us. This time, though, they had nothing to say to defend me. "This mission was important, Axel. Do you know the punishment for failing?" There was anger rising in his tone and I could barely even see straight after my fallout on the mission. Interdiction formed in his hands, "The punishment is death!"

"No, wait Superior!" Roxas cried out, but I held up my hand and silenced him.

"It's alright, Roxas," I uttered assuredly, "Just keep your mouth shut." Xemnas lunged at me with his ethereal blades gleaming, amber eyes glazed over with the closest thing to hate as a Nobody could get. "I'm sorry, you two," I smiled over my shoulder at them, "So... sorry..." My eyes squeezed shut and I prepared for the finishing blow.

To think... it would all end like this...

There was a flash, and I felt no pain. After a moment my eyes fluttered open to the surprising scene before me. "S-Saix?"

Yes, the one and only blue-haired Nobody himself was poised before me, blocking back Xemnas's weapon with his own. The Claymore was expanded and Saix's hair was standing on end. He had gone Berserk just to defend me? Had we misjudged Xemnas's power level?

"You're going to pay for this, Saix!" Xemnas barked. There was a tension in the atmosphere for several seconds. "Explain yourself!"

"You will not touch him!" Saix bellowed back, matching Xemnas's tone, "If you so much as look at him I'm going to break your fucking neck!" Xemnas didn't respond; only stared with an expression caught between blank and unreadable. Well, I never saw this coming.

"Saix..." I muttered under my breath with disbelief.

"Shut up!" He snapped, "It's your idiocy that got you into this mess!"

"Yeah, and you're the one who decided to jump in Xemnas's way, so now we're both in this together-!"

"No thanks to you!" He hissed, "Got it memorized?" I leered as he stole my line perfectly on cue. Suddenly he lunged for Xemnas, snarling ferociously. They clashed their blades together, sparks jumping. Roxas and Xion approached me instantly, frantic but relieved I was still in one piece.

"Are you alright?" Xion asked, biting her lower lip.

"Yeah," I sighed. The floor nearby shattered into a crater where Xemnas had punched Saix into it. Xemnas landed gracefully and watched with amusement as Saix struggled to get to his knees, blood dripping from his mouth and sliding off his chin. He forced himself to his feet and half-ran half-stumbled to the Superior, Berserk screeching as its spike dug into the tile. Saix went for an upward swing-

CLICK. "What's going on here?" Xigbar was suddenly between the two of them with the nozzles of Sharpshooter pressed against their foreheads. The two had been too close so he was forced to cross his arms over his chest and threaten them with opposite arrowguns.

"Xigbar..." Xemnas started, backed away from the Freeshooter; stared awkwardly. "I was going to give Axel his punishment for failing a prior mission when Saix decided to step in."

Xigbar snorted and lowered his weapons, "Figures. You can't tame fire and you certainly can't put the moon in a box. Did you expect them to be loyal to you? You should've noticed by now that they barely listen to me; you moreover."

Xemnas retorted, "Shut up you blubbering old fool!"

Saix hissed about the misplaced bones in his arm and let his weapon fade as he stormed over to me on a slight limp. He smacked me-HARD-and then grabbed my elbow with his good hand, "Let's go, Lea."

I opened a corridor of darkness behind us and we stumbled in without a word of exchange between us.

~*Kingdom Hearts: Take the Fall, the Darkness Will Break*~

Chapter 1: Putting Out the Fire with Gasoline

"What. Happened. On your. Mission?" Saix demanded as he stitched up the gash in my shoulder, "It was simple, wasn't it? Place the fucking device in fucking Neverland, Axel!" We sat bare-chested on his bed, patching up each other's wounds.

"I was ambushed," I admitted, "There were too many of them, Isa." He suddenly tugged on the thread and I cried out with a tinge of pain tingling my spine. "Ow!"

"Done." He cut the string and I turned so I could patch up the slices across his chest and tend to his sprained arm. "Ambushed by what, exactly?"

I held a piece of scrap metal in my fingers, let it heat up from my flames, "Dustfliers. They all came at me at once..." I ran the metal across the first of surprisingly few but deep cuts, "I had no choice but to abort the mission." Saix winced and bared his fangs as the wound was sealed.

"Yeah, I understand then... but what about the device?"

I worked on another wound, "They destroyed it. What was I supposed to do?"

There was silence as I burned two more slashes closed. He frowned. "Why don't I believe you?"

I was hardly surprised. "Why wouldn't you believe me, especially with all the wounds on me?"

"How do I know you didn't destroy the device yourself?" Saix whimpered slightly as I moved to stitch up the single mark that was too deep to be burned. "What have I told you about that doll you call friend?"

"I know, I know!" I tugged on the thread the same way he had done to me and he growled. "I just... Oh, Isa... I don't know what to do." I hit my head into the crook of his neck and sighed, "I just can't decide between them... Why does this have to be so difficult?"

"It wouldn't be if she wasn't killing him," Saix mentioned, "It's one or the other, and Xemnas has his sights set on Xion being Roxas's successor."

"And then Sora won't wake up until she's..." I grit my teeth together and sat back up to finish patching up his wound, "...destroyed. Saix, why did you do this to me? You know I have a nasty habit of being attached to my friends."

"Tell me about it."

"Axel, Saix!" Roxas burst into the room at that moment, practically out of breath, "You need to run! Now!" Xion followed him half a moment later, but she turned and scanned up and down the hall way. "The order's been given!"

"What order?" Saix questioned, his tone flat and unconcerned.

"Xemnas wasn't happy with you defying his judgment," Roxas affirmed, "He gave the order to the rest of the members to track you both down and destroy you."

We were silent. Saix moved first and grabbed our cloaks off of the chair. He passed mine to me and then slid his own on, "Time to go, Axel."

"Where?"

"Anywhere but here!" He opened a corridor of darkness and zipped up his cloak.

"Can we come?" Roxas asked, taking a step forward eagerly.

I opened my mouth but Saix cut me off first, "No. It will be safer if you stay here with Xion." I shot an irritated gaze at him and he replied to my glare, "We just had this conversation, Axel. If they come along Xemnas will destroy BOTH of them." I took his word for it and stood.

"But..." Roxas's voice trailed off.

For once Saix rested his hand on the boy's shoulder, "You can be our eyes on the inside, Roxas, but it will be too dangerous to make contact with us..."

"How will we find you?"

"You won't." Saix pushed me into the corridor suddenly and he followed suit.

Roxas went for the portal but it had already shut. He looked at Xion who only stared back. "What do we do now?" She asked no one in particular.

The Key of Destiny didn't know how to answer.

I believed it was Roxas who set Saix off because Saix, despite being the cold-blooded Nobody that he was, was jealous of my relationship with number XIII. Jealous? Yeah, I know, Nobodies can't feel… but I guess Saix was just remembering his possessive memories. He was never the kind of person to share his toys… or me for that matter.

"Keep running."

"Just tell me where we're going!"

"I… I don't know! We just need to run!"

"Why Twilight Town?"

"I don't fucking know! Just run!"

I chucked my chakrams and obliterated the two Shadows in our path. Saix sprang up and slammed his claymore down onto the Guardian, destroying that, too. We kept running up towards Station Tower and into the plaza. Saix stopped suddenly and glanced around, "We're not alone, Lea, be on guard."

A lance spiraled in my direction. Saix jumped in its way and deflected it with his claymore. I impulsively got between him and two lances, knocking them out of the air with Eternal Flames.

The lances whirled away and into the hands of—"Well, well, why am I not surprised?" Xaldin levitated above the ground, his other lances dancing around him in funnels of air. There were multiple shadows that dropped from above and encircled us. Demyx, Luxord, Xion, and even Roxas had their weapons at the ready. Xion and Roxas seemed a bit reluctant with their stances. A swarm of arrows rained down at us, but I was faster and I threw up my chakrams. They spun in rapid circles, blocking and destroying the arrows like our own personal umbrella.

When the hailstorm finally stopped I allowed my weapons to return to my hands, and Xigbar landed on one knee beside Luxord. He rose up to his feet and reloaded his arrowguns, "You two are causing problems for us!"

"You started!" I snapped, my chakrams flaring up. Saix's claymore expanded and his facial scar started to stretch.

"Get them," Xigbar ordered.

Demyx moved first, strumming dangerous notes on his sitar which, in turn, summoned up a monstrous water serpent that lifted him high into the air on its head. That's new, I thought. Luxord's cards swirled around the serpent like a twister, and suddenly it lunged for us. Saix and I rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the attack, but Luxord's cards broke away from the serpent and drilled Saix into the floor.

A boulder was launched in my direction, catching me off guard, but I reflexively dodged and sprang into the air. Demyx's serpent went for me, but Saix—who had recovered after being barely damaged by Luxord's attack—got to me first. He slammed the Melodious Nocturne into the tower with Berserk, and the serpent shattered into water droplets before it could reach me.

Saix and I pressed up against each other, back-to-back. "They're not so tough," Saix mused, "It would've been worse if the other half from Castle Oblivion were still alive. It seems our plan wasn't a total failure."

"You did what in Castle Oblivion?" Xigbar snapped vehemently, "I was wondering who was messing around!"

"Oops, did that slip?" I asked sarcastically and smirked gamely, "It seems that backfired." Saix snorted from behind me. Suddenly we were enveloped in a circle of large cards that were reeling too quickly for us to escape without being sliced vertically in half. Xaldin's lances appeared above us, but they turned sharply and swirled in our direction. "I've got this," I remarked and let my chakrams venture in the opposite direction of Luxord's cards. They gained speed so quickly sparks jumped and an instant typhoon of fire raged upwards and out, destroying the cards and knocking aside the lances. The flames died out as quickly as they had come, leaving behind nothing but smog and ash.

I brushed off my sleeve to rid myself of the debris, "Who's next?"

There was a familiar whizzing sound "LOOK OUT LEA!" and multiple gut-wrenching noises of flesh being pierced. "Dammit…!"

I blinked momentarily. Xigbar hadn't spared the moment and fired at us, but Saix had jumped in the way—as usual—and received the bullets to his back. "Saix!" I exclaimed, but Xion moved in then. She knocked him to the floor with a stronger-than-I-thought-she-was-capable-of kick and I was forced back when Roxas slashed at me with his Keyblade. His first parry was a solid strike to my chest, but I managed to roll out of the way of his next swing. "Roxas!" I hissed, "What the hell? I thought we were friends!"

"Sorry, Axel," Roxas said solemnly and his Keyblade was changed into Oathkeeper, "Orders are orders." He stared at me, but then he winked. "Nothing personal." He lunged at me and slashed, and that was when I realized his moves were off beat. They were slower and his swings were unnoticeably sloppy, leaving him wide open to an attack. He wanted me to strike him down, just so it would give me a chance to escape.

Xion stomped on Saix's back, but I noticed it was only hard enough to look like she was serious. It was just one. Big. Fucked up. Plan.

I took my quickest chance to punch Roxas in the gut and knock the wind out of him, but when Xigbar pushed Xion aside and pressed the nozzle of Sharpshooter against the back of Saix's head, I thought quickly and picked up the Key of Destiny… and then threw him across the plaza, right into the Freeshooter. Xigbar crashed into Xion and the three toppled to the ground fruitlessly. Xaldin went for me and Luxord went for Saix, but I summoned out my chakrams and chucked one right at Xaldin.

He went to block but it spiraled around him and struck Luxord. Xaldin had been distracted by the oddness of my throw for a moment, and I used the opportunity to slug one of my special fireballs into his face.

There was an explosion only large enough to send him sailing to the ground and keep him down.

I scrambled over to Saix and grabbed him by his arm, "Let's go, Saix." I threw that arm around my shoulders and dragged him off into the tower, struggling to get him up to the top floor and out to the ledge where I usually sat and watched the sunset with Roxas and Xion. I dropped him to the floor and gently shook him, "S-Saix? Dude, get up." He whispered something incoherent. I leaned down to his lips, "What?"

Suddenly he raised his voice, "You're a fucking idiot!" My jaw dropped in sheer disbelief. "You're head is swelled! Here, let me pop it for you!" He grabbed a handful of my hair and dug my forehead into the corner of the ledge, "You never let your guard down! And can you explain why you brought us up here of all places?"

"They won't come looking for us up here unless you keep yelling!" I shot back.

He cringed and released his iron grip on me. "You're lucky I can't move or I'd kick your ass into next month!" He struggled to his knees and I helped him sit up against the wall. "Dammit, Axel, why am I always saving you, anyway?"

"You call me a numbskull? You're the one who's always jumping in the way," I made a face at him, "You're head is just as big as mine is! Got it memorized?"

He pushed me over and grunted. "Yeah."

I shifted so I could sit beside him, "Saix… what do we do now? The Organization is strong… I don't think we'll be able to withstand another attack from them…" My senses tingled and I glanced over to see Xion and Roxas exit out of a Corridor of Darkness. "Oh, hey you two! I was wondering when you would get here."

Roxas rubbed at his side, "You really hit me hard, Ax!"

"Sorry," I shrugged, "Adrenaline of the moment."

"And you nearly broke Demyx in half, Saix," Xion mentioned, "He couldn't move from several busted ribs. Xemnas is going to kill you both for this."

Saix chuckled and we looked at him awkwardly. "I figured you two weren't going to carry out Xemnas's orders… but Xion you sure can—" He choked on something in his throat, and I slapped his back. He spit blood to the floor and swallowed dryly, "You sure can kick."

"My apologizes," She said briskly.

Saix waved her off and coughed again. Xion frowned for a moment, and then reached into her cloak. She pulled out an elixir and offered it to him. He studied her for several seconds, his golden-fire eyes flickering intensely. Without his consent she kneeled down and pressed the bottle against his lips. Roxas said nothing; only looked at me. I didn't return the glance.

Xion tilted the bottle a little and Saix parted his lips to allow the liquid passage down his throat.

"Awkward," Roxas uttered to me. I nodded in obvious agreement.

Xion finally spoke up and moved the bottle away from Saix's mouth, "There. See how easy life is when you cooperate?"

"Shut up," He snarled and pierced me with an icy glare, "Happy, Lea? Now we're screwed, and you won't be able to stop Xemnas from continuing with the doll and destroying Sora."

"Seriously, who the hell is Sora?" Roxas folded his arms back against his chest, "I'm getting annoyed now! No one can give me a straight answer!"

Saix glared at him, "That's on a don't-need-to-know basis, boy. Consider keeping your nose out of other people's business for once." I jabbed his side with my elbow and he advanced on me, holding me down effortlessly with my arms pinned over my head. "That hurt!"

"No one said it wasn't going to," I scoffed.

The bell over head started to ring with that loud and obnoxious gong! gong! gong! sound that signaled the next hour. Saix covered his ears, and knowing how sensitive they were to noises I instinctively brought his head to my chest to block off one ear and covered the other with the crook of my arm. A corridor of darkness opened beneath us and we slowly sunk into it, but not before I called over the sound to Roxas and Xion, "Don't follow us, you two. It's best if you don't."

Roxas nodded briskly, and his sad blue eyes were the last thing that I saw before the darkness swallowed us whole…

…the same sadness Isa had held that dreadful night so few years ago.