Disclaimer: It's the standard; I don't own anything…wish I did.
Author's Note: This is my first Kingdom Hearts piece, not to be confused with my first piece ever; I've been writing for years, this is just my first venture into this fandom. So, since I'm popping my KH cherry here, I ask that you be a tad gentler in reviews and if I flop on a fact or something please, I beg you not to take my head off. I need you to keep in mind that I've only played Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, although I do have a vague idea of what happens in the other games. Other than that, my only other request is that if you like this first chapter, you stick with me through this because it will be you that will inspire me to continue the story.
xxx
A cool, sea-salt filled breeze rustled the tall grass that covered the entire cliff, and the sun beat down on the same grass. It was a fairly nice vantage point on the island, however, as far as people went, there wasn't really anyone there enjoying it. But there was one boy who was sprawled out on his back. His eyes were closed and every now and then his chocolate spikes would blow around his face. The boy's lips were stretched in a lazy half smile and a soft hum was coming from him. He was in a peaceful bliss and nothing was breaking through that. That was until the sunlight that had been pushing at his eyelids to come through was deterred and the gentle feeling of heat pressing against his face disappeared.
An eye peaked open, revealing a bright cerulean eye, and the humming halted mid melody. The eye caught sight of a blob of red so he opened the other eye and blinked both of them rapidly. Once his vision was clear he sat up and placed his hands behind him to rest on. "Hi Axel," he said a large smile instantly crossing his lips.
The spiky red head nodded at the younger boy, "Master Sora," he said promptly, ignoring the small frown that passed over Sora's face quickly, "you really shouldn't be out here."
Again, the frown appeared. "But Axel," he whined slightly, "it's nice out. I don't want to be cooped up inside."
"Master Sora," Axel started, but Sora climbing to his feet quickly cut him off.
"Just Sora, Axel," the brunette stated stubbornly as he brushed grass off of his clothing, "how many times do I have to tell you that?"
Axel chuckled lightly, "my apologies, but you have all ready convinced me to refrain from calling you Prince Sora or Your Highness, I would prefer not to become anymore lax with formalities."
Sora grumbled something inaudible, causing the red headed servant to smirk slightly. "Master Sora," he said, interrupting the grumblings, "your brother's home."
Instantly the brunette snapped his face up with wide eyes. "Leon," he said quietly for a moment as if he didn't believe him before suddenly taking off in a sprint, "you should have told me sooner Axel," Sora called behind him.
He ran through the grass and once he reached the road headed along the cobblestone, weaving in and out of the afternoon crowd, most of who stared in amusement at the youngest prince bounding through town. Sora didn't stop once on his way to the castle and once he was inside he continued his sprint knowing exactly where his brother would be. Leon, however, was just coming out of the room that Sora suspected his presence and the next thing he knew there was a flash of brown spikes clobbering him in a tight hug.
At first the taller brunette stumbled back a bit before realizing that it was his little brother who had greeted him and with a small, quiet laugh, he hugged him back. "Hello to you too."
Sora pulled back and looked at him for a moment before curling his hand in a slight fist and hit his chest. "You shouldn't have stayed away so long," he chided.
Leon's face fell back into its usual stoic set; "you know that I had important business to attend to Sora."
The younger brunette didn't hide his sigh as he looked down, his foot sheepishly twisting from side to side. He muttered something about knowing that, but otherwise kept his mouth shut. His older brother repressed a sigh of his own before he looked at the men that had been in the room with him. "Sora I'll see you later, I need to attend to a few more things."
As he looked up Leon could see the disappointment in Sora's eyes but he ignored it with a thick swallow before reaching over and ruffling his little brother's hair and walking away, motioning for the other men to follow him. Sora turned and stared after his brother with longing eyes knowing that he wouldn't see Leon again until breakfast the next morning.
xxx
Meanwhile, the eldest prince had led his two companions into a large room that held only a few chairs situated around a wooden table and a large world map on the North wall. Stalking over it, Leon cross his wrists behind his back and stared at it for a moment before he turned to face the men that had settled down.
"The seas have been too quiet," he murmured.
"Isn't that what you expected after you captured the Pirate King?"
His stormy eyes looked down for a moment and he shook his head, "no, I expected an uprising; that was why I had him imprisoned rather than executed. I was hoping to draw them out and get rid of the problem for good. But it's been weeks and nothing."
The other man in the room shifted slightly, "and this unnerves you Prince?"
Leon sighed, his forehead furrowing just the slightest, "more than I would like it do," he answered, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "I fear that they might be taking a more drastic and organized act than I anticipated."
"Then we must prepare for anything," declared the first man that had spoken aside from Leon.
A heavy frown came across Leon's face as he turned back towards the map, staring hard at the large body of water surrounding the island that he called home. He knew that there was nothing to do other than be prepared for the worst as his companion had suggested but he still couldn't help but feel like no matter what they did to prevent an attack it wasn't going to be an attack that would end well for them.
xxx
"Do you really think they're just going to leave me to rot in here," a cold voice asked from the back of the cell.
The man sitting outside of the iron bars was absentmindedly picking at the dirt beneath his fingers. He had been slightly startled by the first sound the prisoner had made, but he did nothing to show that he had heard.
"They will come for me, and when they do, we will slit every man, woman, and child's throat in this town."
Seifer finally turned his attention towards the cell and smirked slightly, "that's funny. You've been in here for three weeks and there hasn't been hide nor hair of any of those scoundrels you called subjects Your Highness," he sneered.
"My brother's smarter than that; he wouldn't do something reckless."
"Why are you so sure? Your lot, you're outcasts, you are a blight on society, the scum of the earth; why do you have such faith in your kind?"
He heard the shuffling of feet coming closer and he watched as thin, pale fingers wrapped around the bars of the cage. Dead eyes stared at him and an evil smirk spread across the man's face. "Because we are loyal to each other, we defend each other, because no one else will, and because we will you for everything you have done to us."
xxx
Soft waves slapped against the sides of the boat that was smoothly cutting through the blue water at a brisk pace for a predetermined destination. The air surrounding the wooden planks seemed eerily still and the few men that littered the deck weren't making a sound; they merely went about their business occasionally peering out into the dark sky in search of the twinkling lights of a town.
In fact, the only light that broke through the dark was on the ship itself and it was a flickering candle light inside of the Captain's quarters. Occasionally, the light would disappear for a split second when one of the four bodies would shift and block the glow. But what came more frequently from the room were the muffled sounds of raised voices that had many of the crew outside raising their eyebrows in growing curiosity.
"You have completely and utterly lost it," one of the three blondes in the room declared for the fourth time that night.
The only man there with a different hair color, one that was even lighter than his companions, rolled his startling aqua colored eyes. "Thank you for that once more Hayner, but unless you have something a bit more useful to add I suggest you keep your mouth shut or must I remind you of your place on my ship."
Dark eyes narrowed, and the addressed shipmate promptly shut his mouth and folded his arms over his chest and settled back in his chair. The captain smirked smugly for a moment before turning to the man seated beside Hayner who was staring intently at the floor. "Roxas, I know you have something to say…"
There was a sigh and a pause before the blond teen spoke, "this is insane Captain," Roxas started, "you are suggesting an all out war over every single land in the Gardahlia."
"No, I'm not. I'm suggesting a hostile negotiation with every single land in the Gardahlia," he responded, his silver locks shaking from side to side.
"Captain, the repercussions of this rash action you have in mind may not be the ones that you desire. Or do you forget that we are the most hated enemy of this world? If we do this and fail, our actions will not be forgiven or looked over this time."
"Then we don't fail," the captain stated, interrupting Roxas sharply.
Roxas stared hard at him for a moment before shutting his mouth, realizing that no matter how logical any argument he proposed sounded there was no way of convincing his captain of reasoning to such logic.
Noting his new found silence, the captain dragged his eyes to the last man and the one that had not opened his mouth at any point in this conversation. He took a few steps towards the towering figure and paused as he stood in front of him, crossing his arms over his chest in what almost appeared to be a self conscious move.
"Cloud," he whispered almost inaudibly, "I need you on this. I can't do it without you; please have my back."
Cloud's mouth was set in a hard line as his eyes peered at the boy; he shifted his weight from his right foot to his left before answering. "I think you are completely insane," he stated, noticing the dimness that instantly appeared in his captain's eyes, "but I also think you're insanely brilliant Riku."
"Land ho," shouted one of the men out on the deck.
Hayner peered at him curiously and shook his head, "you were going to do this whether we agreed or not," he stated.
A smirk came from the generally silent blonde, "he is related to the King after all; he would have done the same thing."
The other two blondes hesitated a moment before accepting this with a slight nod. Roxas looked over at his captain, "what do you want us to do?"
Riku was silent a few seconds, thoughts racing through his head before answering. "Hayner I want you to go to the prison, see if my brother is there, and if he is, kill anyone guarding him and get him out; if he's not, kill anyone there and raid the armory. Roxas and Cloud, I want you two to cover me –."
The captain was unable to finish his orders before one of his companions interrupted him. "No," Cloud said firmly, "you're not going in Riku."
"Excuse me? Do you realize who you're giving orders to?"
"I know perfectly well who I'm speaking to Riku, and while you may have authority over me you still need to remember your place. If something goes wrong this ship still needs you as its captain until we can get your brother back. Just because you're a pirate doesn't mean you don't hold any value. Your brother has kept all of the ships on this under his command for nearly a decade now; if he is dead, they will follow you. We can't risk the complete catastrophe of our kind; without a Valentine commanding the ocean then we have no place to go."
Riku was glaring daggers at the elder man. He hated that he had interrupted him and hated that he had given him orders, but what he hated the most was that Cloud was right. Sephiroth could do reckless things, going in head first, or sending Riku into the chaos, as long as one of them remained out of immediate danger. He folded his arms over his chest and let out an aggravated sigh, but gave in. "Fine; Cloud, Roxas, the two of you will go after the prince. Kill anyone that gets in your way. Tell the other men that they are the distraction; attack the townspeople and try to keep the casualties to a minimum." With that he retreated to one of the chairs in the room and sat down staring pointedly at the men before each of them nodded and headed out the door, the last one blowing out the candle before stepping out.
xxx
Sora looked up as he heard footsteps pass his doorway just in time to see the disappearing swish of his brother's hair. A loud sigh came from his mouth in the hopes of drawing the older man back to the room but Leon was well out of hearing, having hurried down the stairs to meet the men in the foyer.
Getting up off of his bed, Sora padded over to the window and pushed it open breathing the fresh air in deeply. Looking out towards the water it was completely black with only the smallest sliver of light coming from the waning moon. It was such a pleasant night that anybody basking it in should have been a relatively happy person, but Sora, despite his general bright disposition found it rather hard to be truly happy.
He was virtually alone and this was his prison. His father was still over in Twilight Town doing the same thing he had been doing for the past eighteen months he had been there. Leon was only here on and off, having taken an interest in the protection of Destiny Island that generally took him to the other kingdoms, and when he was home, he was busy running around making certain that everything was in its proper place. And one of those things was Sora. Both his father and his brother frowned upon him doing anything outside of the castle walls, and even more so upon doing things that didn't aide in his possible future as king. It was boring, soul sucking to be honest, and his only real friend could be found in his personal servant, Axel, and even then that was a fabricated friendship, only there because the red head had taken pity on the young boy.
When Sora looked out at the ocean on a night such as this, all he saw was a freedom that was unattainable, a freedom that he wanted more than anything.
xxx
In other places on the island, Leon descended the steps to the cells quickly and kicked the leg of the chair Seifer was leaning back in, clearly bored. He went slamming back down to the ground and stood, spinning around to swear at whoever dared bother him, but when he saw the familiar scarred face of the eldest prince he held his tongue.
"I want you to keep a careful eye on him tonight," he said moving over to the bars of the cage, peering in at its captive who was smirking back at him knowingly.
Seifer came over and stood beside him, looking at Sephiroth and then looking at Leon. "Your Highness?"
Leon was about to respond about having a bad feeling when something smacked the guard in the back of the head forcing him to fall towards the bars. Spinning quickly, the brunette managed to catch the flat side of the blade as it came towards him in an effort to do the same thing that it had done to Seifer.
His gaze fell on a boy, probably a year younger than the guard that was currently trying to regain himself on the floor, and he cocked his head to the side. That moment, however, gave the attacker the opening to twist the blade to the side and pull it away, slicing the prince's palm open as he did so. Hissing at the laceration his eyes narrowed at the boy as he lunged forward, sword poised to break stab through Leon's throat, he caught it between both hands once again and forced it backwards, knocking the hilt into the dirty blonde's nose which instantly began to gush blood as he dropped his weapon to clutch at the injured appendage.
Seifer had finally managed to right himself and without a second thought he moved to the doubled over attacker and strategically placed a hit to the back of his neck sending him sprawling to the floor unconscious. The guard stared down at him for a moment before looking over at Leon.
"Lock him up," the brunette said with a nod to the other prison cell, and the guard gave a curt nod before dragging the body inside the aforementioned cell.
Just as he was snapping the padlock shut, there was a loud pitched screaming followed by glass breaking and raucous laughter. A soft chuckling came from the conscious prisoner and the two free men looked towards him. "They're here," he said simply.
The native blonde motioned to the stairs and gave Leon a look that told him he had things under control here, and no sooner had he given the look than the brunette had bounded back up the stairs drawing his sword as he did so.
xxx
Back at the castle the terror going on in the town could hardly be heard, in fact, it was only audible by an open window, which was what notably started Sora from the doze he had drifted off into. Wide eyes looked around wildly for a moment, confused, but then as his blue orbs glanced out the window a flash of silver glinted in the little amount of moonlight and he focused his eyes on it. The flash came again, although it seemed to go by more slowly this time and he recognized it as a sail from a boat on the water. This caused Sora to stiffen; there were no silver sails belonging to his land, and certainly none belonging to any of Destiny Island's allies, and from the sounds of the ruckus in the town, it could only mean one thing: pirates.
Quickly moving for the open door to his room, he stepped out just as a loud knock echoed on the door. He braced himself against the banister that looked over the foyer as a red headed girl bounced to the door. "Kairi no," Sora said quickly, but as she turned to look over her shoulder, she pulled the front door open and the first thing to happen was a sword spearing through her chest.
Sora gasped as he looked at the boy holding the weapon and noted that there was an older man behind him with equally spiky blonde hair as the first. Both of them looked up and towards them and for a moment he stood frozen before he bolted down the hall for his brother's room.
The two pirates stepped away from the girl's corpse and followed him up the stairs, neither of them noticing the flaming red head that stepped out of the side hallway and over to the dead body.
Cloud and Roxas reached the room that Sora had disappeared into just as the doors slammed shut and the brunette slid something between the handles to further bar their entrance. As they began to beat on the door he looked around the room for a weapon and only managed to rifle a dagger out of the drawer of his brother's desk.
The pounding on the door continued and Sora held a shaky stance in the middle of the room. He took in a breath, hoping, praying that at any moment the pounding would stop and Leon would save him, because something that he had not been exposed to was defending himself. And as he stood there wishing that he had been more demanding on knowing how to fight, the banging stopped and things fell silent. He swallowed staring at the door waiting for something, anything that would tell him he was safe.
But Sora had no such luck as there was suddenly a creak behind him as Roxas landed behind Cloud from slipping in off the window ledge they had crept onto and before he could react there was a sword pressing against his throat and a tight grip on one wrist, twisting his arm behind his back as the dagger was ripped from his hand and tossed aside. The brunette let out a small yelp of surprise which got the blade pressed harder against his neck. "I beg for your silence Prince," sounded a deadly whisper in his ear.
Sora took in a small, unsteady breath before speaking. "What do you want," he asked, his voice cracking slightly.
"As I said," Cloud repeated, "your silence."
Roxas moved for the door and pulled the barricade away from it and opened it and Cloud pushed him, urging him forward. Reluctantly, Sora began to walk in the ushered direction.
Downstairs, Axel once more crept into the shadows of the hallway that had kept him hidden at the entrance of the pirates. He watched, from the darkness, as the two blonde men pushed Sora out with their swords. He glared after the smallest one and wiped at the dampness on his cheeks before glancing at his sister's body. No way in hell was he going to let these fowl scoundrels get away with this.
Slipping out the door after them, he slowly followed them as they made their way down the back alleys of town that seemed free of any of the townsfolk and the pirates attacking them. As they swiftly darted through the shadows, unaware of anyone following him, Axel quickly came up with a plan for his revenge and how to save Master Sora.
Passing a window with a drying black table sheet hanging out the window, he grabbed onto it and quietly ripped a large portion of it off and tied it around his hair, hiding the extreme color and pulling it away from his face, and as he continued to follow the pirates he started to ruffle his clothing and rubbed against every dirty wall he could. Axel needed to look like one of them if he was going to get on that ship.
Thankfully, by the time they reached the docking plank he looked like one of them and was able to board without a problem with the other pirates who were coming back from their excursions in the town. He slipped to the back of the small crowd so as not to draw any more attention to him than needed.
Axel's height became a good thing at the moment as he was able to watch as the boarding plank was pulled up once it was believed all of the pirates were back on board. They all seemed to be gathered around a door and one of the blonde's from earlier stepped forward and knocked on it only to have it swiftly opened and a young boy, probably not much older than Sora, stepped out. For a moment there was silence before he nodded and the crowd of men went into motion.
Many of them disappeared below deck while one climbed up the bird's nest, and the few that remained set about on setting sail. As one of the pirates went to the anchor to pull it up, Leon turned his head to the side, hoping that his hair hid his face enough that the man wouldn't notice, and surely enough, he went unnoticed.
After the incident in the jail, he had made his way through town, defending those that he could as he made his way for the ship that was docked, completely intent on finding out who dared be the single ship to attack his port. However, the pirates had returned a lot sooner than expected so he hadn't managed to creep on board when he had the chance and now he had to wait, latched to the side of the boat, gripping tightly onto the worn wooden planks of a ladder.
Once he was certain that it was safe for him to move again, Leon crept up the last few planks so that he could peer onto the deck, but what he saw nearly made him let go.
A tall, spiky headed blonde was shoving his little brother forward who was struggling against their hold on him. Sora was knocked in front of the silver haired man, who vaguely reminded him Leon of Sephiroth, who stared down at him.
Cloud and Roxas stepped away from the fighting boy allowing their captain to inspect the royalty lying at his feet. Riku crouched down in front up the brunette and grabbed a hold of his chin, jerking his face up to look at him, but any words that he had planned on speaking were caught in his throat as he came face to face with the most beautiful pair of blue eyes that he had ever seen, even if they were filled with fear.
Sora stared back at him, unnerved under the other boy's stare, keeping him silent.
"Captain," Roxas finally questioned confused at the lack of action.
Riku snapped back to attention and roughly pulled Sora up by the hold he had on his jaw, eliciting a whimper from the boy, enraging the brunette clinging to the side of the ship to the point of action. It was rash, stupid, but he wasn't going to sit by and watch the abuse of his little brother.
With a wild yell he leaped over the side of the ship and drew his sword and started for the silver haired boy but his path was quickly blocked by the blonde that had brought his brother to the captain. Cloud had quickly drawn his own sword and the two blades instantly clashed. Nobody else had Cloud's reactions so the invasion of the brunette had been a slight surprise, which accounted for the inaction from the other pirates.
For a bit, the two men continued to swing their weapons about and for each blow, the other was able to block, until Cloud got the upper hand, catching Leon off guard, knocking his sword off to the side and forcing him to stumble backwards. The blonde pointed the sword at him with a slight sneer, proud that he had managed to best his opponent, but before he could making the killing blow that called for any rat caught on the ship there was a small outcry and Sora had suddenly forced himself from the lax grip Riku had on his face and in two large strides, had bounded over to his brother and was huddling into his chest interfering with the blow.
"Please," Sora begged, tears having instantly sprung to his eyes as his fist twisted tightly onto Leon's shirt, "please don't. He's my brother."
Hesitating, Cloud looked over towards Riku who seemed torn. He had only intended on capturing the younger prince, not both of them, but watching the spiky haired brunette clutch against the older man, sobbing so freely, he felt nearly heartbroken. Wasn't that part of the reason he was doing this; to save his own brother? How could he take Sora's brother away when he hadn't personally done anything to Riku? He knew that Sephiroth would have torn the boy away or ordered for both of their deaths but Riku was not as cold as him, at least not yet.
"Spare him," he grumbled loudly enough for everyone to hear.
Sora's eyes shot open and he looked over at the boy and his misty eyes, instead of being coated over with fear, were grateful. "Thank you," he murmured softly as he hugged Leon to him tighter.
Riku heard the words of gratitude and he bit his lip. "Put him in the brig," he ordered with a thick swallow as Sora looked at him once more, confusion on his face for a moment. Riku looked back at him and for a moment, there was a twinge of regret as he uttered the next words, "the boy stays in my cabin."
Roxas grabbed Sora and pulled him away from Leon who was instantly grabbed up by Cloud. The shorter blonde started to lead Sora towards the Captain's cabin, having a rather difficult time with it as the boy struggled against him once more calling out for his brother. Leon remained silent and allowed Cloud to take him below deck. All the while, the pirate with the black bandana watched with growing worry, unsure of how to approach the new situation before him.