Chapter One
"There is a natural order to things...Light and darkness existed in the worlds long before those of us with thought. So who defended the worlds back in that time? There were no keyblades, for there were no masters to wield them. I have pondered this and come to one conclusion: the worlds fashioned weapons for themselves to hold back the darkness..."
-Unknown Report 8 (A)
Ropes creaked with strain, swaying gently as a strong wind howled around the cliffs. Holding onto the rope tied to the metal rungs of the platform, Leon merely narrowed his eyes and turned his head away. The wind blew against him, not strong enough to push him from the crates that were being hoisted up, but with enough force for him to tighten his grip on the rope. Yuffie would undoubtedly be berating him if she were present. Something about choosing to take the lift rather than the stairs as being theatrical, which was nonsense of course. It was the fastest and most direct way to reach the castle.
The young man peered down, still able to make out Cid arguing with a worker over something or other next to a large pile of stones. Piles of building materials were scattered all over the chasm floor, harvested from the rocky faces of the canyons running throughout this part of the world, as well as the few forests they could find nearby which hadn't been destroyed during the Heartless occupation. The latest delivery of materials was even now making it's way towards the castle. Leon couldn't help but smile slightly as he caught sight of Cid's airship, the Shera. The young man couldn't quite understand why, but seeing airships had always filled him with a feeling of...nostalgia? That was probably the best word for it. As if he had a pleasant memory attached to one, a memory he could never quite grasp.
Leon looked away from the incoming airship, looking up as the platform finally reached the lip of the cliff on which the castle, the symbol of their home, rested. Hollow Bastion was an imposing sight, even in it's current state of disrepair. The Heartless attack had caused a large amount of damage. Of course, the town had been almost entirely annihilated, but there were precious few injured – the defense mechanisms built into the settles areas had managed to keep the monsters at bay long enough to evacuate everyone to the fortress. There the militia had managed to deal with the few Heartless that made it past the perimeter the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee had managed to set up beyond the walls of the town.
There was a clunk as the crates were swung sharply around to hang next to the sheer wall of the castle, before being lowered gently to it's base. Leon let go of the rope and hopped down to the ground. He landed roughly, dropping to a crouch to avoid losing his balance and landing face down in the dirt. To any onlookers, it merely appeared as if he had dropped into a combat stance, more out of habit than the possibility of any attack. The young man stood up and dusted his trousers off, before heading off to one of the many entrances to the inner castle littering the exterior walls.
He was not looking forward to the task ahead, one the Restoration Committee members took turns to perform. Not that it was difficult or dangerous, but because it involved knowledge beyond his understanding. Cid was much better at dealing with machines, but currently he was busy aiding rebuilding efforts. So it fell to Leon to work on Ansem's computer terminal. Hopefully that Tron program would be around to make things easier. Leon was no computer expert – the most he ever did with one was check the schedules for his classes back when he was still being schooled. He had always preferred being in the training center, battling the resident beasts.
A sigh was the only sign of his feelings on the matter as he continued walking into the darkness of the castle. He briefly wondered how the others were doing as he took a moment to orient himself in the corridor before heading for the chamber with the computer.
The tower was silent. It had been abandoned a long time ago by that witch everyone seemed so afraid of. However, there were still many Heartless prowling about. Nothing she couldn't handle! Another of the small black critters exploded into motes of light, a heart barely visible before fading away along with the remains of the creature. Another monster, human yet not, launched itself at her. It reached out with it's claws, ready to tear into her body, only for a boot to smash against it's face, sending it flying back the way it came.
Tifa's clothing spun around her as she completed her spin, bracing herself in place as she unleashed a flurry of punches at yet another neoshadow. The creature seemed to look almost sad as she crushed it beneath her blows, it's body also falling apart into light. She felt nothing but elation at another victory. The feeling kept her alert, kept her eager for combat, made sure she did not fall into a pattern or lose her focus. Her head swiveled in nearly all directions as she scanned the corridor for anymore enemies. But nope, there were no more. That was surprising. This place had been that witch's stronghold for a fair number of years – it practically reeked of darkness. Yet there were half the Heartless she had expected. And the numbers she had to face steadily decreased the higher she climbed the tower. It was almost as if she was chasing someone up to the top, only having to fight the Heartless that had managed to spawn in the wake of the other intruder, rather than the horde that was undoubtedly still here after the battle.
So someone else was in this tower. The key question, was who? Nothing that could have aided her in identifying the person who had traveled this way before her presented itself. A part of her hoped it was him, but that would have been too ideal. No, more likely it was another spiky-haired member of the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. But then again...she was over-thinking things. She'd find out once she caught up!
Which would be pretty much about now. She had finally reached the top of the tower, and she was pretty sure that the large, double-doors at the end of this corridor led to some inner sanctum or sorts.
Tifa approached them and reached out, gently pushing one of the doors. It refused to move. She frowned slightly. Had her quarry (as that was the label she had applied to whoever was moving through the tower before her) sealed it behind themselves? Or had they merely not made it this far? Or maybe she should pull the door instead of pushing it?
Her last guess was the correct one of course, and the trained fighter easily hauled the heavy wooden door open, peering cautiously into the darkness beyond. She could make out a window far ahead of her, but it was covered by a heavy and dusty curtain, the light weakly shining through it in small patches, pooling on the stone floor of the chamber. Tifa blinked several times and waited for her eyes to adjust. Then a frown marred her features as she saw what was inside.
Nothing, and no one.
Oh sure there were shelves and bookcases, but they were all empty. The chair and table were knocked over, and the doors of a cabinet were hanging open, the interior just as bare as the room. Nothing here at all. She sighed as she entered the room properly to look around. She could still report this to the Restoration committee, though she didn't know if this, an empty room, was really worth reporting. The decline in Heartless certainly was though. That kinda made this whole trip worth it, even if she couldn't find him!
Shaking her head as she considered where to search next, Tifa left.
Cid sighed as he leaned back in his chair, gazing at the ceiling. He had managed to make it back to Merlin's house, and had been looking over Radiant Garden's new defenses. The claymore system had overloaded at the height of the battle, and now he spent every free moment he could get trying to design a replacement. Without it, Heartless would be able to prowl the streets, attacking whoever they came across. It would be like Traverse Town all over again, with people living in fear.
Luckily, the minions of darkness seemed content to mill about beyond the broken walls of the town, the odd invader here and there swiftly eliminated by either Cloud, Squall, or Yuffie. None of the Heartless had managed to make it into the town, but no one was taking any chances. The entire population was still being accommodated in Hollow Bastion itself, until the walls of Radiant Garden could be repaired and a new claymore system installed. Both of which were his responsibilities.
Cid sighed again. It was going to be a really long week. Thankfully he had managed to find the Shera again, and that was making the repair work proceed much faster than he could have hoped for. A smile came to the pilot's face as he remembered the day the Committee had discovered the chamber where he had hidden his precious airship before they had been forced to evacuate the world. They had taken the Highwind in that occasion of course – a tried and tested airship was much easier to pilot in stressful situations that an untested prototype. It's loss still stung at Cid's heart.
Still, as soon as Radiant Garden was rebuilt, he was going to have the engineers work on a new ship, one to protect their world like never before. The blond man nodded to himself as he sat back up and resumed his work. Oh yes, it would unleash their judgment upon the Heartless and their ilk. Should the Darkness ever make it's way back to their world, it would no longer find it as helpless as it had been before.
Leon groaned as he rested his head on his hands. This computer work was boring in the extreme. Tron was busy with something or other, so he was left on his own to trawl through all the figures and symbols, trying to decipher them into useful information. Most of it seemed to be mathematical formulas, or written with terminology that made no sense to him. He wished he could do something else, but he had already trawled through the accessible text documents and images. Some of them were quite...disturbing. The research Ansem's apprentices had undertaken regarding the power of hearts was...scary in its clinical detachment.
He suppressed a shudder. Though he was a soldier, a fighter, and had seen his fair share of carnage, there was something innately wrong about seeing something like what the apprentices had done. The strange letters, numbers and symbols continued to scroll over the screen in front of him. Leon looked over the computer, to the giant hall stretching out before him. The Committee had never managed to puzzle out exactly what the place was for. Merlin had suggested it was some sort of place to run tests, possibly on the Darksides. Cid argued it was for the assembly of artificial Heartless of some size, such as the Guard Armor Sora had destroyed in Traverse Town.
Of course, there was a chance that both possibilities were true. Leon had heard of giant Heartless terrorizing many worlds, all bearing the emblem that marked them as artificially created. But if that was true, then where was all the machinery that would have been required to fashion them? Or to study any Darkside? The possibility that it had been moved before they had managed to retake Radiant Garden was an unpleasant one, but also the most likely. Though there was a possibility that this hall had been used for something else entirely, it was safer to assume the worst and be pleasantly surprised than the other way around.
Then again, if any heavy machinery had been moved, then it was bound to leave a trace, a trail to follow to wherever the artificial Heartless spawned. He would have to talk to Yuffie about the idea of following whatever had been removed from the Bastion, if indeed there had been anything originally to remove.
Five figures walked along the ancient path that pilgrims trod aeons before. Their footfalls were heavy, and echoed off the chasm's walls. The clink of metal on metal, and the occasional swish of clothing were the only other sounds. Not one of the figures spoke. One marched with it's head hung low, staring at the ground as if in a trance. Another was merely bored, it's eyes glazed over as it retreated into the entertainment that were it's memories. The third conveyed no emotion as it marched forward, inexorable in its movements. The fourth was idly noting down some thoughts in a journal it carried. The leader of this little band was at the forefront, leading the way with a staff, it's eyes fixated on some point in the distance, beyond the walls of the chasm they were in.
They had been walking like this, over and slowly into, the surface of the world for a long time now. Not one of them had spoken the entire journey, each of them content with the silence of the others. Only the leader of this little expedition knew why they were out here, but none of the others cared. This was just another journey for them, another boring and silent journey. The fourth idly snapped it's journal shut and stowed it away in it's coat, as the leader turned it's head and altered it's course, heading for a large crack in the chasm wall.
The group followed it as they entered a tunnel filled only with darkness. None of them shirked away, and they strode in unopposed. They did not need light to see in any case. The tunnel itself ran for about three hundred feet, leading steadily downwards, before giving way to a colossal chamber, deep beneath the surface of Radiant Garden, illuminated by the pale crystals sprouting from the walls. The lead figure raised a fist and the group stopped, allowing their current leader to step into the chamber alone. It's head moved slowly from left to right as it surveyed the surroundings. The cavern was huge, but covered in oddly shaped growths of crystal, blossoming from everywhere like explosions.
It walked up to one of the blossoms, one that sprang from the cavern wall. Reaching out, the figure placed a hand on the clouded crystal, wiping away the moisture to reveal the clear surface beneath. And the dull, creamy white of what was inside. The figure smiled as its eyes traced the hazy white shape upwards, into the core of the crystal. A link to the heart of the world. One of it's fabled WEAPONs.
A/N: Oh yeah. I'm back! Been a long time since I was here, so let's see if I still got the touch, eh?
Yes, my other work will be getting updates as well. OTT and IS:LT.
As for this...well, let's face it - we all want to do at least one massive multiplayer crossover right?