This is actually the prologue to a story that's been swimming in my head but it's going to be quite a while before I can actually flesh that out – if it even happens. But this seems to work fine as a story in itself so I'm going to post it as a one-shot until I can really get that story started. You'll have to be relatively familiar with FFVIII to understand this, but hopefully it won't be too constraining on the story.

So here you go. I don't own any of these worlds or characters.

And forgive me for discrepancies. I have played neither FFVIII nor Kingdom Hearts for quite some time.

Summary: The prologue to Leon's time in Traverse Town and Radiant Garden, when he was still among his closest friends.

When Darkness Came

"Ambush… airborne…impossible!"

Galbadia Garden had been the last of the strongholds in communication, the last shred of hope against the rising tides of desolation. Xu had previously attributed the Gardens' great fortune to their ability to fly , noting solemnly that even Trabia had fallen like the now destroyed cities in a day-long struggle whose reports reached the anxiously awaiting Gardens as confused, fizzled fragments detailing an enemy that seemed nothing more than a shadow that covered everything and left nothing in its wake. Another particularly disturbing message had come from Esthar just days before, describing similar accounts of fiends that could become shadow and viciously engulf its victims, leaving nothing behind.

Trabia's transmissions, like Esthar's, and Dollet's and Deiling's before it, had cut off abruptly into static, and by the time Balamb Garden had approached where the stationary Garden once rested, even the forest around it had been swallowed by a darkness that prevented the two floating academies from landing in the dark sea. Even Selphie, wracked with sobs as she searched in vain from the control deck, had not dared suggest landing the safe havens.

And yet safe havens they apparently were not. In a desperate attempt to protect those who were still alive, the two Gardens had met somewhere near the swirling darkness that had once been the Cetra ruins. They had just barely arrived and now Martine's static-hazed voice was ringing in everybody's ears. It was shallow and desperate, clear that Martine himself was fighting a battle even as he made the transmission, before cutting off abruptly in the same fashion as those before him.

Squall Leonhart grimaced and turned to Quistis, the paling blonde regarding him sadly. She then turned back to where the other Garden was resting peacefully in front of them, the image in the window revealing nothing of the turmoil undoubtedly occurring inside. Suddenly Quistis's eyes grew wide and Nida to Squall's left made a noise of disbelief, so the Commander turned to see the very edges of the Garden slowly turn black. The ship grew darker and darker before the engines finally gave out, and Galbadia Garden collapsed to the ground below.

"There's no avoiding it," Quistis whispered in a quiet shock as the three watched the other Garden – the last of the people they had sought so hard to protect – disappear in a swirl of shadow that now loomed dangerously even over themselves. "We cannot escape."

Squall's scowl grew. "Then we will fight," he replied resolutely, and grabbed his gunblade which rested against the main controls. Both Nida and Quistis offered resigned sighs and moved to prepare themselves as well.

"Squall!" The three lingering mercenaries turned to see the elevator arriving, Rinoa and the rest of the orphanage gang cramped into its small space. The brunette in blue approached her boyfriend and moved to take him in her arms before noticing his abnormally grim expression and tight grip on his weapon. "What's happening?" she continued.

Squall willingly accepted her petit hands over his own, relaxing briefly his grip on Lionheart before retensing. "Galbadia Garden has fallen," was his only explanation, but the distressed glance he allowed to the active churning of shadow outside explained everything.

Selphie let out a terrified peep while Zell's shocked, "whoa!" permeated the otherwise silent control deck. The others remained quiet while Rinoa turned back to Squall to give him a questioning stare. He shook his head sadly.

"We're going to have to land," he finally stated, ignoring the horrified gasps of protest, "We're going to have to land so that it doesn't bring us down. Nida, do you think you can find a clear enough lot?"

The pilot scanned the available horizon before nodding and taking control of the steering. Squall returned the nod and turned away from the others, pulling on the microphone that he hated using. He let out a breath before hitting the switch and speaking into it. "Residents of Balamb Garden," he spoke loudly and clearly, making sure he could hear his voice echoing in the halls below, "Galbadia Garden has fallen to the dark fiends and it is clear now that we will be unable to avoid confrontation for much longer. Therefore I am asking everybody to prepare for touchdown and combat immediately. All SeeD will report to Quistis in the Parking Deck. Cadets and civilians able to fight will meet Zell in the main hall, and he will appropriate weapons there. Everybody else is to report to the second floor classrooms and check in with Selphie and Irvine." He flipped the switch to the microphone and turned to his friends. "Is that okay with everybody?"

The small group nodded and dispersed. Squall gave the go ahead to Nida, who nodded glumly and leaned the Garden's controls forward. Squall turned again just as Rinoa caught his arm. "What are we to do?" She tightened the buckles on her pinwheel for emphasis.

Squall returned the gunblade to his hip before gently leading the Sorceress away. "We're going to meet them at the entrance." Rinoa nodded and followed the Commander.

By the time the two had managed to get to the basement levels, Nida had successfully lowered the floating Garden to mere feet off the ground. Already there were shadows hovering in the entrance, and when Squall and Rinoa approached them, the shadows moved forward and suddenly they began to form shapes in the air: tiny creatures, black in body with glowing yellow eyes that locked on the two humans and did not waver. Tiny antennae twitched and clawed hands clenched, and Rinoa gasped in disgust as one of the creatures made a loud hissing sound. Swiftly, Squall moved forward to attack the small creatures approaching them and Rinoa chose a safe distance from which to cast spells. Almost immediately, she cast a protective barrier on the two so that Squall could safely immerse himself in the growing throng in front of him.

The creatures, they discovered, were simple to eliminate. A single swipe of the gunblade or an easy fire spell sent one sprawling to the ground, dissolving into the air. With this knowledge, Squall tightened his stance and began hacking away, taking out whole groups around him while other small groups burst into balls of fire or ice. But the numbers were growing, and in place of every tiny black fiend that fell, four more seemed to emerge from the perpetually black ground. If aid didn't come soon, Squall knew he and the Sorceress would be in trouble.

But help came maybe fifteen minutes later in the form of the SeeD troops led by Quistis. There was only about twenty of them, but it was enough to block out the entranceway and provide the slowly tiring commander a moment of repose. As soon as he had regained his strength, Squall rejoined the fighting mercenaries and barked out an order for the mages to stand by the Sorceress. One or two of the uniformed SeeD moved to stand next to Rinoa, and the mages and Sorceress renewed their spell casting. The line of dark fiends around them began to wane, and the fighters redoubled their efforts in hope, but like Squall had already suspected, the retreat was only temporary. Soon the creatures were back full force, near tripled in number and visibly disheartening the standing fighters.

One of the younger Seed, a sword-wielding teenager Squall didn't know by name, suddenly let out a cry and was taken to the ground. All battle seemed to halt as the others watched in horror as he was overwhelmed by the darkness. Only one last agonizing cry was heard before the pile cleared and the boy's body reappeared, pale and lifeless. Slowly, he faded into the air above him.

Feeling his fear rise, Squall looked to the group to see their now desolate faces. It was as if their only defense had been broken and they were laid out before the enemy.

He needed to reaffirm their strength, fast. With a roar, the Commander of Balamb Garden charged forward and re-engaged battle with the creatures around him. Quistis called an order to resume fighting and then joined her friend and comrade, slashing her whip hard against the oncoming throngs.

Reluctantly, the others joined, but their fighting was clearly dimmed by their newfound alarm. Rinoa cast a new round of protective spells in encouragement just as the Garden's entrance burst open to reveal Zell, equipped citizens in tow. They rushed forward to meet the SeeD, whose trepidation again receded.

"Sorry, man," the blond called as he took his side next to Squall and Quistis. "Had to separate the mages–" he pointed to the now larger group around Rinoa—"and get weapons, and then we ran into some fiends in the foyer." Knowing that the creatures had still slipped past them and were in Garden filled Squall with a heavy disappointment, but he tried not to let it show. He hoped Selphie and Irvine hadn't run into any difficulties.

A cry ripped him from his thoughts and his vision flew to where Rinoa was supporting one of the civilian mages. A large gash was ripped into the woman's arm, and a panic Squall couldn't even fathom danced across her face. She accepted her fate with a shrill wail as the wave of fiends ripped her from the brunette Sorceress and consumed her. Squall forced his attention away from this horror to lock eyes with his girlfriend, who was watching him sorrowfully. He nodded and tried to relay his comforts as best as possible.

What comforted Rinoa, however, failed to reach the masses as the wail's echoes spread through the fighters like fire and panic rose. Those who had been fighting became desperate and began to slash in a berserk fashion, doing little to fend off the hungry attackers. Rinoa did her best to support them magically just as Squall and the two blonds flanking him did their best to physically defend, but there were too many panicked bodies and soon many were falling.

"No!" Squall cried, slashing his gunblade in as efficient a manner as her possibly could, but by now the fiends' numbers were so great that the numbers he was taking out were almost intangible. He looked up to meet Rinoa's eyes again, but to his horror the panic had seized her, too. He only held her gaze for a moment before she was torn from his view by an attempted swipe to his face.

In his distraction, he had let the creatures get too close, and now they were tugging at his lower body. His legs gave out as the force hit him and he fell to the ground, knees bashing the ground hard. He let out a pained cry, but there was nobody around who was able to help him. To his horror, almost everybody had fallen in a manner not so dissimilar to him.

In a matter of seconds they were pulling him farther down, grasping at his arms and chest, and his upper body lurched forward, now caught in the heavy blackness on the ground before him. He ripped one hand upwards, freeing it from the almost liquid substance, to reach for his lover, but she was no longer looking at him. She was still facing him but her eyes were looking straight over his body, focusing on some inner world. Heartless clawed at her feet too, but she was actually floating above them, arms slowly rising towards the sky. Squall realized, almost humorously in his delirious mind, that she was preparing herself for the casting of a spell. Her lips began moving, though he could not hear the words, and the air around her began to swirl almost violently.

It was when two very familiar looking words passed through her moving lips that Squall realized exactly what she intended to do, and he began his struggling anew.

Time Compression. She couldn't.

But the Last Sorceress apparently thought she could, because her aura was now faintly glowing and her words appeared to be coming out more forcefully. Squall's struggles caught her attention and she looked down to him, but did not cease her chanting. It was only her eyes which spoke of anything other than the spell.

I love you. I'm sorry.

It was then that everything in Squall Leonhart's world went dark.

*…*

This is like, not even a Kingdom Hearts story. My deepest apologies.

P.S. This is totally unbeta'd because I was eager to get it posted. I'll do a bit of editing later.