A/N: I have done this as part of the Kingdom Hearts Big Bang Challenge. Huge thanks go to my artist Rubberflippers for the accompanying artwork (found on my profile) and to minntaka/Lily for the FST. There is a lot of death in this, just a warning.

Anyway please read and let me know what you thought!

I. Purpose

It doesn't take long to break a man. It takes years to build his trust, get to know him, but it's incredibly easy to find his faults and flaws. That is human nature. We naturally seek out the bad aspects of others so we can say we are better than them. We watch a man do a job and know we could have done it better. We see their partner and know she could have done better.

Such a superiority complex, no matter how well hidden, exists in us all. The need to undermine peers and enemies alike, however brief, is the one thing that makes our existence worthwhile. There is little sense in living life without something to compare ourselves to – how else can we possibly live in such a pitiful state if we don't? How else can we live with ourselves day after day? By grinning and bearing, tormenting ourselves with overbearing arrogance or lack of, it is only then we realise we are worth so much more.

And for those few who fail to see that, there is no hope for them to truly see themselves as they are until someone else steers them in the right direction. Although each man looks out for himself, fighting to become better than everyone else, it is only through one another that we can evolve.

My name is Liam Salvato and I will cut the shackles that bind your soul.

-x-

The wonderful thing about Traverse Town was that it was dark. It wasn't only in the physical sense, where only the neon signs and lamplight tore through the deep blue; the citizens, too, as they watched strangers pile out an equally strange spaceship, were clustered together in defence yet didn't say a word to one another. They simply looked.

I ducked my head as I exited the small doorway of the Gummi Ship. There was an audible gasp from the crowd, one that I had anticipated beforehand. Although it was standard in Radiant Garden to have unusual hair colours, this was not the case in Traverse Town. I pushed back a few clumps of pink hair, which was a mess even before the three hour journey to this world.

"Mummy, is that hair real?"

I didn't care much for children, but they could certainly project what the adults were thinking without coming off as insulting. Innocent in their words, they longed to understand anything and everything around them. The boy was curious, and curiosity was something I encouraged by principle.

The boy was unfazed as I, a stranger amongst many, stooped to his level. The boy was no older than seven, but the way he stood tall and kept his arms folded was more than enough to say, "I'm older than I look".

"It's not fake. You can pull on it if you want to make sure."

And, like all children, his eyes lit up and he was keen to take up the offer. And, like all mothers, she swatted his hand and steered the boy's shoulders away from me. Adults were vile creatures, especially the parents. What could they possibly know about their child's best interests and when to draw the line of overprotection?

The boy was unhappy at first, but he didn't fight as his mother forced him to fall back.

I narrowed my eyes at her and she did the same to me. Although no words were exchanged between us, the friction was evident enough to follow me for the duration of my stay at Traverse Town. She was miserable and bitter; there was little point in me trying to get on her good side.

More residents from Radiant Garden piled out of the Gummi Ship. I didn't care for much as Yuffie, a child with questionable morals, hid behind Tifa's legs. I wondered with mild interest why Cloud, the pre-decided team leader, had chosen not to leave the ship, and was instead helping shut down the aircraft when the pilot was more than capable of doing it alone.

Of the handful of us that had escaped the black hands that pulled our world into a suffocating embrace, who was to say that we had truly deserved to be saved? Cid, the inventor of the Gummi Ship, had tirelessly worked on its development and through those efforts, he had only deemed one safe to fly. By extension, what made us any better than everyone else who had now passed on, other than the fact we had connections? If there had been no prior knowledge that the end was to come, and from a magician off his rocker no less, we too would have been engulfed. In the philosophy known as survival of the fittest, what made us better than everyone else?

"Liam, is something wrong?"

A gentle hand on my elbow was enough to pull me out of such reflective thoughts. I had known Aerith Gainsborough for longer than everyone on the ship combined, and it was because of her I was here in the first place. Of all things, she had invited me to help her with the garden before our home world fell. In the midst of us trimming hedges and weeding, the countdown had already started.

As much as I wanted to ask why she had chosen to save me, I couldn't bring it up. I gave a small smile. I tried to sound offhand as I replied with, "it's nothing," but there was a glimmer in Aerith's eyes that suggested she wasn't easily convinced.

She laughed as she withdrew her hand into the folds of her hair. "When people say it's nothing, it's usually because they don't feel they're able to say what's bothering them. But…if you do change your mind, let me know. You'll feel better."

Aerith and I weren't exactly friends – more trusted acquaintances. We had met on several occasions, although in her case, she was mostly there to discuss business with my father. When she was stuck with me, she often talked of the renovation project for the town fountain and the flowerbeds that lined the plaza. She led the conversation most of the time; I was only there to listen as apparently everyone else back home had exhausted the topic.

However, as one meeting led to another, it wasn't the project or my father's plans that slipped into conversation. She began to talk more about herself and her life to me, and I couldn't return the gesture. She would talk of her best friend Tifa and their fruitless attempts to make Cloud and Leon get along. But by having no friends or nothing much to speak of relatives, it was simply easier for me to take an interest in hers.

Perhaps that was why, as I nodded to Aerith's suggestion of talking later, I found it hard to believe I would do so in the future.

The crowd started to thin as one of the townsfolk insisted their hospitality on the foreigners – a drink, a place to rest, I had missed out what he had said. Looks of curiosity were seeping away, some faster than others as questions were thrown left, right and centre. In the midst of the new form of confusion, it was certain that we had to mingle one way or another.

As part of adaptation, we had to conform to this new world and make do with its resources. In the next week or so, we would definitely lose some of who we were to adapt to the new surroundings. Accept new customs and take on board new culture. Don a new mask to bury our original selves.

Even if I did so, nothing could alter the fact my soul was damaged, and each move I made was that of a toy already broken.

-x-

The day Dahlia drew her first drop of blood, I knew instantly what my mission was. Many people wandered aimlessly in life, as I had to start with, often never finding their purpose of existence, but mine dawned with a burst of realisation.

The beast lay before me, atop a bed of red and dark slate. All his blood, not mine. In his sacrifice, he had left behind a better place; one that could grow from his mistakes and create a stronger foundation in his wake, as retribution for the untimely loss. His death meant more than anything he had amounted to in life, or ever hoped to achieve. That was the mentality of Liam, and as I felt the first shred of remorse brush past, I realised that he had it all wrong.

It wasn't through killing that the world became kinder. The world strived from self-sacrifice.