A.N. All right! This is the sequel to Strong of Heart and Fang, but if you didn't read that and don't want to, here's the scoop: Roxas is back, separated from Sora because he's a werewolf. He accidentally turned Riku into one too. Their fur color is the same as their hair, which is why silver-haired wolves are such a big deal in this story. There's more, but I don't feel like going into detail right now. And for those who were waiting for this to come, I'm sorry if it's a disappointment, and there'll probably be more mistakes in this one, but it took me a really long time to get started. I didn't know where to go with this one, so the beginning was hard to come up with!
Je suis un trés grande pomme de terre!
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Sharp fangs buried themselves in the slim neck, blood spraying everywhere in a crimson mist. The scream was quickly converted into a gurgle as red overflowed in the open mouth, flying from cold lips. The body crumpled to the floor, limp and broken, like a marionette whose strings have been cut by the cruel hands of Fate himself.
The silver wolf stood over the dead, staring down with blue eyes that held no mercy in their cerulean depths. With a snort of disgust, he turned away from the carnage, a bit disappointed that his prey hadn't put up more of a fight. But his job had been completed, and the wheels had just creaked into motion.
The dogs would die, and wolves, the true lycanthropes, pure of mind and blood, would prevail over the pathetically weak human species. Those who bent to the will of those weaker than they would have to be eradicated as well, of course. He didn't need lapdogs tainting his race. They would all have to be exterminated.
He would make sure of that.
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Sora groaned as the knock at his door continued, unabating. Groggily, he stared at the clock. Two thirty? Who the hell was knocking and bothering him at two thirty in the freakin' morning?
The knock was continuous, persistent, canceling any plans he had of ignoring them and going back to sleep. Slightly irritated, he rose, grumbling to himself, profanities leaking their way out of his mouth, directed at the pestilence. Opening the door, hoping that the noise wouldn't wake his parents, he opened his mouth to say something nasty, to tell whoever it was to piss off.
He never got the chance. Instead, a black-gloved hand covered his mouth, and a voice whispered gruffly, "Shh! Don't say a word. Just come on."
The hand was removed, and Sora watched in disbelief as Cloud backed away, disappearing into the darkness of the night. With only a brief second of hesitation, he followed, unsure of himself and wary of anything that might be lurking in ambush.
What the hell was Cloud doing at destiny Islands? How did he get here in the first place, anyway? The brunette supposed that Cid could have flown here in his airship, but why was the question that kept revolving in Sora's brain.
The airship, Cid's Highwind, was sitting on a large clear patch of beach that Sora rarely visited. No one went there, because the beach faced the northern winds, and it was always dreary and cold. Most of the Traverse Town gang was waiting for them. Leon, Yuffie, Cid, Tifa, Cloud; everyone was there except…
"Hey guys! Where's Aerith?" Sora asked, looking from face to face. Wach held the same expression of grief and anger. Cloud motioned for him to follow. "In the ship."
Sora's mind went into a confused and disbelieving spin as he saw what was waiting for him in the airship. A white coffin lay inside, propped on the ground, and pink roses adorned it. "Aerith…?" Sora breathed, his fingers brushing the ivory stone, cold and unmoving. He turned to the blonde, numb and sad at the same time, trying to register this new tragedy.
"Cloud…what happened? Why is Aerith..?" he trailed off, unable to finish that sentence. The longer he could go without saying it, the longer he had before reality took over.
"She…was attacked," Cloud said, his voice straining to not let his emotions through. Sora knew how hard he must have taken this, and how much he wanted to just break down. But he was too strong for that.
"By who?" the brunette asked, his eyes starting to tear up despite himself. "Was it Sephiroth?"
"I…we don't know," Cloud muttered, his voice becoming angry. "All we know is that it wasn't human. Leon…who was the one who caught it running away, after finding it with her…already dead…he said that it was a wolf."
Sora's breath caught in his throat. "A…a wolf? Are you positive?"
Cloud gave him a weird look at the way he had worded that sentence, but decided to answer the boy. "Yeah, it was a wolf. A silver wolf. And since wolves usually don't show up anywhere near Hollow Bastion, we're sure it's not just a regular wolf. It's a werewolf."
Sora felt like his heart had stopped for a second, skipping a beat inside his chest. "Oh my God…" he whispered, sitting heavily beside Aerith. "It…it can't be. Are you sure that it was…"
Cloud glared at him. Do you know something about this?" he asked coldly, and Sora flinched back, realizing that he had already said way too much. "N-no!" he lied quickly, and immediately regretted it as the tip of a sword pricked his neck.
"You always were a bad liar, Sora," Cloud growled. There was a clatter behind them as the rest of the group entered the ship behind them. Cloud was dragged away from the boy by Tifa and Leon's combined efforts, and Sora stood, shaking slightly.
"What are you doing, Cloud?" Tifa said impatiently. "We're trying to figure out what happened, and we just—"
"He knows something."
Immediately, everyone's heads swiveled around to face him. He scrambled back from their penetrating gazes. "B-but…but wait!" he said suddenly, quickly, as Leon and Yuffie advanced on him. "Why do you think I know anything? She was killed in Hollow Bastion, wasn't she?"
"Funny thing," Cloud growled. "I said that Leon had found her with a wolf. I didn't say that it was in Hollow Bastion."
Sora tried to grasp what Cloud was saying. "Wait…she was killed here?"
Tifa sighed, sitting down in one of the available seats scattered around. "We got here yesterday…we wanted to see you again. That, and there's nothing to do in town now that the Heartless are pretty much gone. Aerith was killed last night. We were going to come to you first, of course…"
"But we wanted to take care of her…Aerith…before we did anything else," Cloud finished, still sullen. "So, what do you know about this, Sora?"
Sora swallowed hard, not sure how much to tell them. "Well…I know that we've got a pair of wolves here…they're werewolves, and I don't exactly know when they got here and stuff…but I don't think they'd hurt anyone."
Cid snorted. "An' what makes ye think that?"
"I've met them."
Again, he immediately regretted his words as he felt Cloud's sword rematerialize against his throat. "W-wait, no! They didn't do anything, I swear!"
"Who are they?" Cloud growled. Sora put up his hands in defense. "I don't know! I met them when they were still…ah, furry, and they disappeared before I would see them when they, uh…weren't." He felt bad about lying to his friends, of course, but he would probably feel a lot worse if the whole group went out on a wolf massacre.
But the wolf had been silver…
Doubt assailed Sora, and he wondered if he should tell them everything. But it couldn't have been Riku. He had already regained his mind. He couldn't go crazy as a wolf anymore…right?
But what if he hadn't lost his mind at all?
Caught up in his worried thoughts, he didn't even notice that Cloud's sword had withdrawn. The brunette looked around at the faces of his friends, sad to see them all so miserable. The only one who wasn't, understandably, was Cloud, who was instead furious.
"Where are they?" he snapped, making Sora jump slightly. "U-um…In the forest," he answered reflexively, then immediately felt like hitting himself. Why not tall them that one of the wolves was silver, too? That was sure to help things along. But somewhere in the back of his mind, he decided that he was going to answer any more of their questions as truthfully as he could without endangering any of his friends. It would be worse off for all of them if the blonde found out that he was lying about anything.
"It's a full moon tonight, right?" Leon asked, looking out the open door of the ship, and Sora nodded. "Um…yeah. Tonight and tomorrow night. Yesterday was the first night of the three."
"Good," Cloud growled, stalking outside, looking more pissed off than Sora had ever seen him before. Leon followed, the same expression on his face as well. Sora stared after them, worried, looking questioningly at Yuffie, Tifa and Cid. "Where are they going?" he asked, afraid of the answer he already knew.
Cid cracked a grin at the Keyblade Master. "Looks to me," he said, scratching his chin, "like they're going huntin.'"
Sora stared at the black-clad woman in abject horror. "Will…will they kill any they find?"
Tifa just stared at him blankly. "It's Cloud," she replied by way of answer. "What else do you think he'd do? Aerith was precious to him."
"I have to stop them!" Sora said, scrambling outside hurriedly, sprinting towards the forest. "Those things wouldn't hurt anybody! I've been around them before, more than once!"
Yuffie yelled out at him as he streaked away, "Heeey! Be careful! If Cloud sees you, he might think you're one of them! He strikes first and doesn't ask questions until you're dead!"
"All right!" came Sora's answer, already far away and gaining distance rapidly. The ninja sighed, turning back to those who were left.
"What's his game?" she asked, jabbing her thumb at the brunette's receding back. "You'd think that he knew exactly who those wolves were or something, with how quickly he went to defend them."
Her words sunk in, and they all stared at each other. It was Cid who finally put what they were all thinking into words.
"Shit."
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A.N. I know, I know, not as good as the first one, but give it a chance, kk? Or at least yell at me. Tell me it's a crappy story ('cuz it is. At least, I think so). And for my beautiful reviewers of the first story, ie princessOFdarkness, phaz, ChibiFrubaGirl, Haninozuka Mitsukuni (I hope I spelled that right), PP. Bunny, Sera, and everyone else who reviewed anonymously, I sure hope that you're still with me! I love you all! Give me ideas! I'm running out!
I lubs ya'll. And for those who didn't review, whether they liked it or nit, I just want to say this : Pardonnez-moi, mais avez-vous un porc-épic coincé entre les fesses?
Love you.